SB 3.2.23 – Srila Prabhupada’s Merciful Nature

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Today’s topic is “Srila Prabhupada’s Merciful Nature.” And I am going to begin by reading a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that to me exemplifies or describes Srila Prabhupada’s merciful nature. The verse is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Two, Text Twenty-three. It is very significant. Not only is the verse beautiful, but it also has historical significance, because when after sixteen years, Śukadeva Gosvami came out of the womb, he left home immediately, and his father, Srila Vyasadeva, followed him into the forest. And when Srila Vyasadeva came close enough to his son for Śukadeva for to hear, he recited two verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, one describing Krishna’s beauty from the Tenth Canto, and one, this verse, describing Krishna’s mercy. When Śukadeva Gosvami heard these two verses—the one describing Krishna’s mercy and the one describing Krishna’s beauty—he became attracted. Although liberated, he became attracted by the Krishna’s transcendental qualities, and he came back to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from his father.

I quote this verse because it reminds me of Srila Prabhupada—How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he?

TEXT 23

aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ
jighāṁsayāpāyayad apy asādhvī
lebhe gatiṁ dhātry-ucitāṁ tato ‘nyaṁ
kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema

TRANSLATION

Alas, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He who granted the position of mother to a she-demon [Pūtanā] although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast?

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Here is an example of the extreme mercy of the Lord, even to His enemy. It is said that a noble man accepts the good qualities of a person of doubtful character, just as one accepts nectar from a stock of poison.

COMMENT

The Lord is absolute. He is all good for everyone, and He is neutral toward everyone. He is always thinking of how to do good for others. So even if one approaches Him as an enemy, He will try to do good for the person, as was the case with Putana. Although she came to kill Krishna by administering poison from her breast, Krishna elevated her to the position of a nurse, like a mother, in the spiritual world. As merciful Krishna is, I believe that Srila Prabhupada is ever mote merciful. Srila Prabhupada said it is a mark of a good man that he takes the good side, not the bad side, of others. He gave the example of his guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had a disciple named Kunjabihari dasa—people used to call him Kunja Babu—who, Srila Prabhupada said, came to do business with their guru Maharaja, to profit personally from his relationship with him and from his service in the Gaudiya Math. But Srila Prabhupada said their guru Maharaja didn’t take Kunja’s dark side, that he was coming to make business, but took the bright side, that he was coming to offer service.

In conversation with Bob Cohen, now Brahma Tirth Prabhu on February 28, 1972, in Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada said,

“Putana Raksasi—she offered Krishna poison. But Krishna is so nice that He thought, ‘She took Me as My mother,’ so He took the poison and delivered her. Krishna does not take the bad side. A good man does not take the bad side—he takes only the good side. Just like one of my big godbrothers—he wanted to make business with my guru Maharaja, but my guru Maharaja did not take the bad side. He took the good side. He thought, He has come forward to give me some service.” (Talk with Bob Cohen, February 28, 1972, Mayapur)

PURPORT (continued)

In His babyhood, He was administered deadly poison by Pūtanā, a she-demon who tried to kill the wonderful baby. And because she was a demon, it was impossible for her to know that the Supreme Lord, even though playing the part of a baby, was no one less than the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. His value as the Supreme Lord did not diminish upon His becoming a baby to please His devotee Yaśodā. The Lord may assume the form of a baby or a shape other than that of a human being, but it doesn’t make the slightest difference; He is always the same Supreme. A living creature, however powerful he may become by dint of severe penance, can never become equal to the Supreme Lord.

Lord Kṛṣṇa accepted the motherhood of Pūtanā because she pretended to be an affectionate mother, allowing Kṛṣṇa to suck her breast. The Lord accepts the least qualification of the living entity and awards him the highest reward. That is the standard of His character. Therefore, who but the Lord can be the ultimate shelter?

COMMENT

This verse reminds me of Srila Prabhupada: How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he? There was no one more merciful than Srila Prabhupada. Lord Nityananda is most merciful, and Srila Prabhupada manifested the same quality of mercy as Nityananda Prabhu. In Bombay, Srila Prabhupada received a phone call from the temple president in Calcutta, who reported that one of Prabhupada’s earliest disciples from America had come to Calcutta and was smoking ganja, marijuana, and asked what to do. Prabhupada told his secretary to relay his response: “Tell him that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja, I will reject him.” Afterwards, Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “Is it true that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja, you will reject him?” And Prabhupada said, “No—I cannot reject anyone. The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limit.”

Then maybe two years later, we were in Juhu, and Srila Prabhupada had a disciple who fell into bad association and was living on Juhu Beach with so-called bogus yogi, doing yogic tricks. He was putting a coin in his ear and then making it come out other—different strange things to collect money—and he was known as a disciple of Prabhupada and a member of ISKCON. So, Tamal Krishna Goswami approached Srila Prabhupada and said, “This is happening, and he is giving you a bad name and giving ISKCON a bad name. You should reject him.” And again, Srila Prabhupada replied, “I cannot reject anyone.” Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “But don’t you have to draw the line somewhere?” And again, Srila Prabhupada said, “The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limits.” Srila Prabhupada is representative of Lord Nityananda Prabhu, and his forgiveness is like Lord Nityananda’s. How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he—Srila Prabhupada?

Another related quality of Srila Prabhupada’s is that he was always willing to give someone a chance. Around 1976, a strange person with a PhD came to the Juhu temple and said he wanted to join, and Srila Prabhupada invited him to stay upstairs with his personal staff in the flat adjoining of his. And Prabhupada was spending quite a bit of time with him. Hansadutta Prabhu was visiting at the time, and he told Srila Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, you are just wasting your time with this man. He is never going to amount to anything.” But Prabhupada kept spending time with him. And in the end, the man left; he never did amount to anything. But when Hansadutta mentioned that to Srila Prabhupada—“I could see that he never was going to amount to anything”—Prabhupada replied, “I wanted to give him a chance.”

Another person whom Srila Prabhupada encouraged was Dr. C. P. Patel, who would almost always accompany him on his morning walks on Juhu Beach. They had a friendly relationship, but Dr. Patel would sometimes speak like a Mayavadi. Prabhupada would accuse him, “You are a Mayavadi!” and Dr. Patel would reply, “No sir, I am a Vaishnava, a pure Vaishnava.” One morning Dr. Patel and Srila Prabhupada had a huge argument. Dr. Patel would bring up different so-called holy men of India, and if they were not up to the standard, Srila Prabhupada would criticize them. So, one morning Srila Prabhupada was criticizing one of Dr. Patel’s favorite revered so-called saints of India and Dr. Patel and he had a huge argument. Dr. Patel raised his voice to Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada raised his voice to Dr. Patel—they were literally shouting at each other. And Dr. Patel’s friends (his cronies) were trying to pull him away, saying, “Don’t upset Swamiji; he has a heart condition.” And eventually they pulled him away.

Back at Hare Krishna Land, Tamal Krishna Goswami approached Srila Prabhupada in his room and asked him, “What is Dr. Patel’s position? Is he a Vaishnava or a Mayavadi, an impersonalist?” In response, Srila Prabhupada told a story about a man who could speak many languages. In whatever language people addressed him, he could respond fluently. No one could figure out where the man was actually from. After much discussion, a neighbor said, “I will find out.” So, one day, when the man was preoccupied, the neighbor came up behind him and gave him a big whack. And when the man started to curse in his native tongue, his origin was disclosed. “Dr. Patel is like that,” Srila Prabhupada said. “He can speak very expertly. He can sound like a devotee, sound like a Vaishnava, sound like a Mayavadi, sound like anything. But when I gave a slap where it really hurt—this so-called saintly person that he revered—his real language came out.” Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “So, why do you put up with him? He is so offensive.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “It is our duty to engage everyone.”

He wanted to give Dr. Patel a chance. And as the years passed, Dr. Patel developed great affection for Srila Prabhupada and after Prabhupada left this world wrote a beautiful article for Back to Godhead about his relationship with him. The article was titled “My Life’s Most Precious Moments,” with the subtitle “A Bombay doctor wins the title ‘big fool’ and loves it”—because Prabhupada would always call Dr. Patel a mûdhā. He would say, “I am not saying—Krishna is saying: na mā duktino mûdhā.” Anyone who doesn’t surrender to Krishna is a mûdhā, fool. So, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than Srila Prabhupada? His Divine Grace had so many wonderful qualities, but his most important quality, for us especially, was his extreme mercifulness.

Srila Prabhupada had a good friend in Bombay named Bhogilal Patel. Bhogilal was elder to Srila Prabhupada by about three years, and he was extremely pious. The first devotee to meet him was Gargamuni, and when Gargamuni was explaining Srila Prabhupada’s work, Bhogilal Patel wept profuse tears of appreciation. One day some years later, Bhogilal Patel came to meet Srila Prabhupada at Prabhupada’s flat at the back of Hare Krishna Land. I had a close relationship with Seth Bhogilal, so I brought him up to meet Prabhupada. They were talking and, as is natural in a conversation, when Prabhupada was speaking, I would look at him, and when Bhogilal was speaking, I would look at him. But at one stage, while Bhogilal was speaking, I looked at Srila Prabhupada, which Prabhupada wasn’t expecting, and he was looking at me with such love and affection, like a father or a grandfather. By age, Srila Prabhupada was more like a grandfather. I was surprised that he was looking at me with so much love. But as soon as Srila Prabhupada saw me look at him, he changed his expression and became very grave and serious. I think it was some special mercy that I got a glimpse of how much love he had for us, which he didn’t usually show very openly. His love for us was manifest in his care for us and his giving us the knowledge of Krishna consciousness and engaging us in Krishna’s service.

Srila Prabhupada was very reserved about touching people, including even disciples. In 1971 in Gorakhpur, as guests of Hanuman Prasad Poddar of Gita Press, we were staying in his large estate, Sri Krishna Niketan, which had previously been his personal residence. Srila Prabhupada was traveling with his small Radha-Krishna Deities, and he wanted to establish an altar for Them in Sri Krishna Niketan. He wanted some foliage for the altar, so he sent a couple of devotees, including me, to collect some. I went out to a thicket and was collecting branches with leaves. I wasn’t tearing them live; I was looking for branches and leaves that had fallen. I just kept going deeper into the woods and collecting more and more foliage, and eventually I had a huge bundle, as much as I could possibly carry. So, I was lugging the bundle back to Sri Krishna Niketan and up the stairs, and when I reached the temple room, Srila Prabhupada was there and the altar was being set up. I just dropped the bundle on the floor and offered my obeisances. And while I was on the floor, Prabhupada patted me on the back. It was one of the only times—maybe the only time—that he physically touched me. I looked up, and he was smiling broadly. I didn’t know if he even needed any more foliage, but he was pleased by my effort. Now I ask you: How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he?

So, my dear Nagapatni Mataji, thank you for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to speak about our beloved Srila Prabhupada and his merciful nature. And now, yes, if any devotees want, they can ask questions or share reflections.

Host: Thank you so much, Maharaja. That was very beautiful. It was like an offering at a guru-puja. It was very, very thoughtful and thank you so much. If you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand; your virtual hand.

 So, everyone is being shy. We have no questions.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, there is a hand up. Abhishek Tudawal.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I have a question. For a devotee or for a beginner, it is very difficult to judge how to be merciful that even in terms of preaching or in terms of involving with the non-devotees. So there has to be certainly some boundary, because for a pure Vaishnava, for Prabhupada, that is his nature and he won’t be affected. So what is your advice for others?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the answer to your question. Of course, Srila Prabhupada was a Uttama-Bhagavat, mahā-bhāgavata. And a mahā-bhāgavata sees that everyone is serving Krishna except for himself. But when the mahā-bhāgavata preaches, he has to act on the intermediate platform of madhyam-bhakta. And the madhyam-bhakta makes distinctions as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ. Prema, he gives his love to the Supreme Personality of Godhead; maitrī, he makes friendship with devotees; kṛpā, he gives mercy to the innocent; and upekṣāḥ, he neglects the envious. So when we preach, we have to distinguish between the innocent and the envious. And we can give mercy to the innocent by preaching to them. But those who are envious, upekṣāḥ, we should neglect. And the reason is that, if they are envious and we preach to them, they will become more offensive. So it is better to neglect them. But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that even though we neglect them in this sense that we don’t go to preach to them, but still we can pray for them. We can still be merciful in the sense that we can pray for them. And we do need to make these distinctions when we preach.

Devotee: Maharaja, you have been a devotee for many years, and you have seen a lot of challenges, a lot of disturbances. How is it you stayed so dedicated to Srila Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Prabhupada is my life and soul. But he did give me a very important instruction. Fairly early on when we were in Calcutta. I said, “Srila Prabhupada, now you are here, so everything is going nicely in ISKCON. But what if, in the course of time, when you are not here, ISKCON falls from the standard. What should I do?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You are also one of the important members of the society,” which at the time I didn’t really think I was. I was still pretty new, but anyway, he said, “You are also one of the important members of the society, so you should work for the correction but don’t leave.” And I think that is an essential instruction. I would say it applies not only to me but to any follower of Srila Prabhupada, any member of ISKCON. Now, you work for the correction but don’t leave.

Jaya, Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Devotee: Thank you. So, how do you suggest that devotees deepen their devotion in Krishna consciousness?

Giriraj Swami: Well, chanting attentive rounds is very important. In fact, on a couple of occasions when the devotees asked Srila Prabhupada, he gave a similar answer. I will quote one incident in particular. Satsvarupa Maharaja asked Srila Prabhupada, “Now you are with us, so we can bring our questions to you, but later when you are not with us, how will we get answers to our questions?” and Srila Prabhupada replied, “The holy name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are the same. Do you realize that?” And on other occasions also, he suggested that we could get answers to our questions by offenseless chanting of the holy names. So, that is really important, most important.

Devotee: Yes. And sometimes, we find that good devotees have very different opinions on things and this concussion dissension and some trouble. How do you recommend devotees deal with these issues?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I think of something that Srila Prabhupada said once. I don’t know if I would recommend it in every case, but there were three very strong, headstrong individualistic leaders in the Hyderabad Farm. And they often disagreed about how best to serve Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada told them, “You meet together, you fight like cats and dogs and then when you all agree, you go ahead.” [Laughter]

Devotee: All the times you had with Srila Prabhupada, maybe share some very sweet moments that you have had with him, that particularly touched your heart.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I did relate a number of those in the talk. He was very humble. He was compassionate. That was the quality that I emphasized in the talk. He was also very humble and there was one incident, well, there is so many incidents in which he manifested his humbleness. But there is one incident, I am not remembering the exact details, but I think someone made an announcement that all the devotees should leave now, meaning us. And Srila Prabhupada also, he thought it was meant for him that he also had to leave. He was so humble, he just thought he was one of the devotees. So he was extremely humble. And another quality is that he could be discouraged, but in another way, he couldn’t be discouraged. But after we after we finally got the Juhu land, Srila Prabhupada wanted to take up a collection for the construction. So Dr. Patel was in the room with him and Dr. Patel said to Srila Prabhupada, “You will have to bring the funds from abroad.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Bombay is such a city that they could give the whole amount in one day if they want.” And Dr. Patel said, “True, but they don’t want.” And then Dr. Patel said, “I don’t want to discourage you but…” And Srila Prabhupada said, “But you are discouraging me.” So, I could go on speaking about Srila Prabhupada for hours.

There was another time we were, it was in 1976, we were in Wardha for the Gītā conference. When he was with some disciples, he mentioned that when he got news about how his books were being distributed, he felt very encouraged. And that really struck me because he was always encouraged internally by his Krishna consciousness but he became more encouraged when he received the reports about his book being distributed. And I thought of the saying from Vedanta Sutra that Brahman is unlimited but always expanding. So, Srila Prabhupada’s enthusiasm was unlimited but it was also increasing in response to our service to him.

Devotee: Would you elaborate on that?

Giriraj Swami: I would say that Srila Prabhupada was human. He was superhuman but he was also human and he had all the sentiments that any human being has. But the central point was always Krishna, and therefore all the sentiments were related to Krishna. They were Krishna conscious but he could be encouraged, he could be discouraged, but again he was always so resilient. I remember when we were struggling for a long time to get the permission to build in Juhu, at one stage he said, “All right, never mind, we will convert Hare Krishna Land into a bus stop. We will, send buses out to distribute books. And when they run out of books, they can come back and replenish their supply and we will turn Hare Krishna Land into a bus stop.”

But one incident that showed his compassion in a different kind of context is, we were in Madras and we were riding in the car together and there was literally a bus stop. But there was not enough room for everyone to take shelter under the covering of the bus stop and some of them were in the in the hot sun. And Srila Prabhupada, he was so compassionate, his voice has choked up, he had tears in his eyes and he said, “Oh, they have to suffer so much waiting to get a bus.” So, he was really extremely compassionate but he manifested his compassion in giving people Krishna consciousness, not that he said we should approach the city and have them make the bus stop, bigger. But he did feel that compassion. And he said, in Mayapur said it, “No one within ten miles of the temple should go hungry. We should invite them all in and feed them all.” So, he was so compassionate and he had such big plans to help people in their Krishna consciousness. I see some hands up.

Host: Oh, good. All right. I don’t know how you see so well. Go ahead, unmute and ask you a question.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to you and Srila Prabhupada. I was listening from YouTube and then hopped on back to Zoom Maharaja. And one of the things that struck me when you were talking about the devotee who was taking the illicit substances that Prabhupada’s merciful nature also perhaps came from a place of not finding faults and always seeing the good in people. How do we remember that, particularly when we may see something in our communities and we are not in a position of authority to bring up or address that with concerned individuals? How do we cultivate that mindset to let go and not perseverate on it or not be disturbed by it?

Giriraj Swami: Well, there are two categories. I am thinking of what is known as the Tranquility prayer. God give me the grace to accept the things that cannot be changed and the courage to work to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two. So, Srila Prabhupada told me, work for the corrections. So if something needs to be corrected and if you are in a position not necessarily directly. Of course if you have that relationship with the devotee, you can do it directly and if you don’t then maybe you could approach some authority or some friend of the devotee who is in a position to correct the devotee. And if something is really beyond anyone’s ability to correct then just try to see the good, try to see the good.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. So we have Kalyani’s has end up.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you and Srila Prabhupada. Maharaja, I belongs to Hyderabad so I would like to hear some Prabhupada līlās in Hyderabad from you.

Giriraj Swami: I think it would be too long but something very important took place in Hyderabad related to the Juhu struggle. And that is that Srila Prabhupada, he went to Hyderabad and he was staying at the residence of Sri Pannalal Shetty, who was the wealthiest man in Hyderabad. And Srila Prabhupada was accompanied by his secretary Shyamasundara Prabhu and other devotees. And Mr. Nair, the infamous owner of the Juhu land which was originally called Nair Wadi and then renamed Hare Krishna land. So, he came down to Hyderabad, and Srila Prabhupada wanted to convince him to reinstate the sales agreement for the land. And Mr. Nair was afraid that Srila Prabhupada had some mystic power that he would use to convince Mr. Nair to sign something that he didn’t want to sign. So Mr. Nair brought a guru with him thinking that, the guru he brought would counteract Srila Prabhupada’s mystic powers. So, they had a nice meal together. And then afterwards, Srila Prabhupada yawned, he gave a big yawn. And Mr. Nair said, “Srila Prabhupada, you seemed very tired, you should take rest.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, I should take rest.” So then Mr. Nair and the guru went into the next room. And Srila Prabhupada told Tamal Krishna Goswami that, “Mr. Nair is tired and that is why he told me that I should take rest because actually he wanted to take rest. So, go in the next room and you will see that Mr. Nair and the guru are both sleeping. So don’t wake up the guru but just wake up Mr. Nair, and bring him into my room.” So he did it, he brought Mr. Nair into Prabhupada’s room. Prabhupada spoke to him, Mr. Nair agreed to revive the sale agreement, and Srila Prabhupada’s mission was successful. So, that is a little story from Hyderabad. And of course, Srila Prabhupada had very good friend, G. Pulla Reddy, he donated the land for the Hyderabad temple. Hare Krishna.

Host: There is also in the Leland region, Prabhupada is always so clever. He knew exactly what to say and what to do in every situation. Maharaja, we are so grateful. Are there any other hands up that you see, I don’t want to cut anyone off.

Giriraj Swami: A minute ago there was another hand but I don’t know if it is still up. There was another hand a minute ago but I don’t see it now.

Host: Okay. So, we want to thank you very very very much Maharaja from the deepest part of our hearts for your kind attention and speaking so beautifully about Srila Prabhupada. Thank you so much.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you for arranging the program and inviting me.

 Host: It is like the good old days when you used to [Unintelligible 01:05:20]. He even joined in a play. Remember, we had the play about Lord Ramachandra and you were one of the sages in the forest.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Host: Thank you so much. So, everyone wants to offer obeisances to Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: That is good. Let us offer a respectful obeisance unto all the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord, who are just like desired trees who can fulfill the desires of everyone and are full compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca 

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ