SB 7.5.12 – Festival of Appreciation

Giriraj Swami: It is my honor and pleasure to be with all of you on this auspicious occasion. His Grace Sarvabhauma Prabhu spoke about, not talking about others and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura makes that point very strongly, that we should not speak about others. And once in Alachua, I spoke on that topic, and one of the devotees in the audience quoted a saying that, “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it hardly behooves any of us to speak about the rest of us.” So yes, the principle of unity in variety is very important. Srila Prabhupada said that the GBC should discuss every year in Mayapur how to achieve the goal of unity in diversity. And I will read a verse in part of the purport.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Five, “Prahlāda Mahārāja, the Saintly Son of Hiraṇyakaśipu,” Text Twelve.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

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.”

COMMENT

Now, there is a wonderful long purport but I will just come to the part that seems most correct and relevant to us.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada (in part)

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?

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

So, Srila Prabhupada would encourages the competition in book distribution and other areas of devotional service but he explained the difference between spiritual competition and mundane competition. In spiritual competition, one recognizes the good qualities or the good service of the other person, but still one wants to accelerate to give more pleasure to guru and Krishna. Whereas in mundane competition, one does not recognize the qualities or the good service of the other person. So, here in purport, Srila Prabhupada glorifies transcendental competition.

PURPORT (continued)

There is no question of enmity between servants. 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. 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

So we are all servants of Krishna in the context of this concept of Srila Prabhupada and we should be friendly with one another and we should serve the Lord together in a cooperative spirit. Srila Prabhupada said before he left, “You show your love to me by how you cooperate with one another.” So cooperation is of utmost importance.

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

And this is unity in diversity. We are all individual. We have different ways of serving the Lord. And the Lord also dictates for us, according to our propensities or desires to serve Him. But the unity is that we are all working for the pleasure of Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada gives an example of different political parties, although they may have different platforms, ultimately, their principle is that they are working for the welfare of the country. So we should cooperate for the service of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And we can be happy. That is our motto.

Thank so much. It is nice to be here.