CC Adi 17.17 – Sri Nityananda-trayodasi—Lord Nityananda’s Mercy

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna my dear devotees. I will a leading a short kirtan, and then I will speak about Sri Nityananda Prabhu and our beloved Srila Prabhupada.

[The host gives a brief introduction of Maharaja]

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna, my dear devotees.

[READING from Sri Nityananda-trayodasi]

So my dear devotees, thank you for listening so patiently and attentively. Now if you have any questions or any comments, any reflections you would like to share, you can raise your hand. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Thank you, Maharaja, for such a wonderful explanation and your realization actually. Just want to understand Maharaja, Prabhupada is so merciful. As stated about Tamal Krishna Maharaja’s incident about that one devotee was smoking ganja and Prabhupada later on said, I still accept him. So how to realize this mercy, understand this mercy, and how to become loyal to Srila Prabhupada and his mission. Can you please?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Srila Prabhupada was extremely merciful, just like Lord Nityananda. In fact, there was another incident similar to the one about the disciple in Calcutta who was smoking ganja. So Srila Prabhupada had a disciple who somehow started to stay on Juhu Beach. And he also fell into bad association. And he was doing different tricks to get money. Something like he would put a coin in one ear and make it come out the other. So, Tamal Krishna Goswami said to Srila Prabhupada that, “He is known as a member of ISKCON, he is known as your disciple, he is doing all these strange things, so you should reject him.” And Srila Prabhupada replied in the same way, ‘No, I cannot reject anyone.’ And again, Tamal Krishna questioned, ‘But don’t you have to draw the line somewhere?’ And again, Srila Prabhupada said, ‘The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limit.’ So, Srila Prabhupada really exemplified that mood of Lord Nityananda’s mercy. And we should develop the same mood. Of course, Lord Chaitanya was also very merciful and Rupa Gosvami prayed to him,

namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

And Srila Prabhupada said that the temple presidents in ISKCON and the other officers are representatives of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and so they should demonstrate that same merciful mood. So yes, we are meant to receive mercy and also give mercy. And that will please Srila Prabhupada and by His blessings we will become more attached to Him.

Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Maharaja, I heard that Srila Prabhupada, he gave you the first initiation to some candidates. After that, he with his own hands, he wrote something and put up on the notice board and said that you have to follow these four regulative principles. So then the devotees saw that they were shocked there. Oh, we are supposed to follow these four regulative principles: no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxicants, all that. So, they came to know soon after initiation and subsequently for all initiations in future, Prabhupada made that as one of the criteria. So is it not drawing a line? Why not give initiation to even those who smoke ganja also?

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Prabhupada’s point was that he wouldn’t reject anyone, but that doesn’t mean that he would just initiate anyone also. There were certain standards that the candidates for initiation had to meet. So that is a different thing. To be initiated, they had to come up to a certain standard. But then Prabhupada wouldn’t reject anyone because of being in the mood of Lord Nityananda’s mercy.

Devotee: Maharaja, in that aspect also there are two types of people. One has a sensual weakness. Another one has philosophical deviation. So I heard that the philosophical deviation is more serious than somebody who has a weakness for the senses, because a person who is weak, having weakness, is slipping and falling down and Prabhupada would be sympathetic and hope and see that they will again rise to the higher standard over a period of time. But those who are philosophically deviated, they misrepresent Prabhupada and having them within the fold of ISKCON and not drawing a line, will it not misrepresent ISKCON to the world?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that is a good point. There were rare occasions when Srila Prabhupada did reject someone. I don’t need to discuss the details, but not only had they deviated philosophically but, in a way, they had not exactly rejected Prabhupada, but they considered that there were other people who could give them higher knowledge than Prabhupada. So they went to the other people. And I think one of them asked Prabhupada for his blessings, and Prabhupada replied, “How can I give you my blessings to do something that I don’t want you to do?” So yes, there were some rare cases like that; very unfortunate. And yes, this devotee in particular was a Sanskrit scholar. That is also a danger that when someone knows some Sanskrit, they think they can understand the shastra better. Then I think Prabhupada said, “I give you my blessings to go to hell.”

Devotee: What about some devotees want to learn Sanskrit to study the shastras more deeply? What was Prabhupada’s advice regarding the same, regarding learning Sanskrit?

Giriraj Swami: Well, he said that to really learn Sanskrit takes twelve years, and it is a big investment of time and energy, which he didn’t really recommend. But yes, there are some devotees who have that interest and they can learn Sanskrit and they can use that in the service of Srila Prabhupada and the mission.

Devotee: Maharaja, in the end you were sharing how you quoted from Prabhupada that to attain Radha and Krishna one has to approach Lord Chaitanya and Lord Chaitanya we can attain through Nityananda Prabhu and if we want to attain Nityananda Prabhu then we have to approach Jagai and Madhai also and if we think we are very holy and they are very not, they are lowly, so then that is not the proper consciousness. So Maharaja, sometimes we see that devotees when they want to get into Vrindavan rasa, so sometimes they get cut off from preaching rasa. While what you are sharing, like Prabhupada is one of the deepest of the Vrindavan-vāsīs and he had such preaching mood also. And we see in his success, all of you great souls also. So how a devotee, if he is wanting to approach Radha-Krishna, the rasas also, at the same time, he should not get into any distraction, he should also have proper understanding, connection with the mission of Srila Prabhupada. Can you please share something on this?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Just to repeat what Srila Prabhupada said that to approach Radha and Krishna, you need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. To get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, you need the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, you have to approach people like Jagai and Madhai. When I first joined, I heard that Srila Prabhupada said that if you want to develop the love of the gopīs for Krishna, you should spread Krishna consciousness all over the world. And the mood of the gopīs is that they would do anything to please Krishna. And Krishna is pleased most when we preach, as he says at the end of the Bhagavad-gītā. So preaching will, in a way, it is in the mood of the gopīs. And as Srila Prabhupada said that the way to develop the love of the gopīs for Krishna is to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world. So we definitely should not neglect preaching in the attempt to develop some vraja-rasa.

Devotee: Maharaja, just in the same connection, in our preaching mission, Srila Prabhupada has organized as an institution. Sometimes devotees, when they are trying to approach the Radha-kunda thing, there are Vrindavan bābājīs and all, who just talk kathā, versus when we deal with the mission, there is management. There is a lot of tension around, any preaching activity involves management, taking care of people who may be having anarthas. So sometimes a person feels, let me just first work on myself. So what is the balancing between how we deal with the management and the institution, what is the right perspective towards it?

Giriraj Swami: I think of what Srila Prabhupada said, “Work now, samadhi later.” But balance, as you said, is very important. We have to balance our sadhana and our service. Yes, also health. I am mentioning health because Srila Prabhupada said, “First health, then sadhana, then service.” And another time he said, “First health, then chanting, then service, then reading.” So it is also part of Krishna consciousness to keep the body fit for serving Krishna.

Devotee: But it is related to the institution, when they think that these Vrindavan bābājīs are not having any institutions. So it looks very simplistic bhakti, direct bhakti. It looks like direct bhakti. But we have an institution and there is that perspective people develop that this institutional thing is a little extra, which we don’t want. So what we should share with such communities?

Giriraj Swami: Are you saying what should you tell a devotee who just wants to go to Vrindavan and become like bābājīs or associate with bābājīs?

Devotee: Not be bābājīs, but they want simple kathā, rasa and all that, but they don’t feel comfortable with the institutional aspects of ISKCON movement.

Giriraj Swami: They can do that. It is not wrong. There were disciples who wanted to go to Radha-kunda. It is not really the best that we can offer to Srila Prabhupada, but it is not terrible also if they want to cultivate bhakti in that way. It is not the best.

Devotee: Maharaja, somewhere Prabhupada said condensing the milk about devotees having the sincerity, boiling the milk and condensing the devotees. So guru accept devotees as disciples even though there are some misgiving or misbehavior actually. But what is the responsibility and role of a devotee who is sending them towards guru for initiation? Should they distinguish or they should also not distinguish and just send, because guru is giving mercy, so we can just send people like that only or they should also distinguish first and then send to guru for initiation. What should we see this?

Giriraj Swami: Well, they should only suggest people for initiation who meet the requirements. Chanting sixteen rounds, I would say for at least a year, following the four regulative principles for at least a year. And now there is another requirement to take the ISKCON disciple course (IDC), so they should also fulfill that requirement. And then they could be recommended. It shouldn’t be a cheap thing.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. So, we had a very beautiful provision by Maharaja. Maharaja told us about how Krishna-Balaram are non-different from Sri Sri Gaura- Nitai. They are one and the same with Sachi Mata’s pastime and then Maharaja told us about the pastime of Lord Nityananda and Haridasa Thakura going on a preaching mission, delivering Jagai and Madhai. It was such an enlivening pastime to hear from Maharaja with all the explanation. Very beautiful. And also, especially Maharaja was highlighting compassion of Lord Nityananda and how even Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was touched by that. Thank you very much Maharaja.

[Announcement about Dancing white elephant: Traveling with Srila Prabhupada India. August 1970 to March 1972]

[Maharaja is awarding certificates to candidates who graduated the “Managers and Leaders Training [MATL]” training program—Eighteen devotees.]