Prabhupada began writing and publishing BTG before he was a sannyasi and before he came to America. It was a modest several-page newsletter, but it had vital, interesting essays by Abhay Charan De. Abhay wrote on topical issues: politics, current events, etc. These were written in the 1940s, but even today they read as talented transcendentalist journalism. Around 1960, some well-wishers advised him to write books instead of his newspaper because books were permanent, whereas the newspaper would be thrown away after a while. Prabhupada took this advice and embarked on the “herculean” task of translating and writing commentary on the entire Srimad-Bhagavatam. When Prabhupada came to America and initiated disciples, he asked them to start up an American edition of Back to Godhead. They printed issues on a mimeograph machine, sold them in the head shops on the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village and went out into the streets to distribute them. Hayagriva and Raya-Rama were the first co-editors. They would write their own articles. Hayagriva, as an instructor in English at Ohio State University, wrote articles comparing the American transcendentalists to Krsna consciousness. He wrote on Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson, H.D. Thoreau, etc. Swamiji approved.
I also wrote a couple of articles on karma-yoga, describing my experience of serving the Swami in the welfare office. Eventually BTG became a slick magazine printed in Japan, with colored photos. The writing was still done all by young devotees and featured photo articles of public harinamas. Gradually BTG evolved into a very insular magazine, accessible mostly only to Krsna conscious devotees. The editors realized this and recently published a second magazine catering to seekers and people who are not acquainted with Krsna consciousness. I don’t know how much success they will get in distributing this second magazine, but I think it would be better if BTG were not so insular.
In the history of BTG there was also a period in which new editors took over, and they began introducing new ideas which they thought would be more accessible to the general public. But they did this by not printing pictures of Krsna and by writing articles that were on general spiritualism and psychology. Senior devotees objected to this new editorial policy and expressed their dissatisfaction to Prabhupada. He also didn’t like the omission of direct Krsna conscious pictures and articles. At the annual GBC meeting in Mayapur, he removed the editors and placed me back as editor-in-chief, with orders to make the magazine “straight.” The first article I published under new editorship was that the astronauts hadn’t actually gone to the moon. When I printed this article, I cited a Gallup poll which stated that a high percentage of Americans did not believe that man had gone to the moon.
In the early years of ISKCON, BTG was our main publication for wide distribution. When the devotees discovered that they could distribute Prabhupada’s books in public places like the airports, BTG sales diminished. We had a meeting in Detroit about BTG to which a professional expert was invited, along with the BTG editors and the BBT trustees. I heard that when Bhagavan and Ramesvara were preparing to attend this meeting, they confided to one another confidentially that they were now going to “kill Back to Godhead.” At that meeting it was decided that BTG should be a bi-monthly publication. The BTG editors were disappointed at this reduction in publication. This was done years after Prabhupada’s disappearance. He had always said that BTG was the backbone of ISKCON, and he wanted it widely distributed.
When I first read this booklet, which Prabhupada had published in India before he came to America, I underwent a deep transformation. Swamiji had brought to America some copies of its Indian publication. It was a small booklet, colored pale blue and bound by staples. Prabhupada took advantage of a discovery he read about by material scientists who had found “anti-matter.” They had their own specific meaning for this atomic particle, but Prabhupada took the word “anti-matter” to mean spiritual particle. He used scientific language to describe the anti-matter particle, identifying it as being what was known as the atma in the Vedic literature. The booklet went on to describe the principles of bhakti yoga and told about the spiritual world, where liberated persons associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead for eternity, bliss and knowledge. I was not initiated when I first read Easy Journey. I read it while traveling to my sister’s home in Westchester, New York. It was a several-hour journey, and I read the whole book. I read it with complete submission and acceptance. I became “high” while reading the pages; I entered into the transcendental world, believed every word of it, and felt myself transformed. I was now a believer in Krsna consciousness and accepted the transcendental wisdom. Easy Journey to Other Planets continues to be a favorite small book by Prabhupada, to me and to many devotees. It is easy reading and can be given to an interested nondevotee, who may find it less daunting and more accessible than the entire Bhagavad-gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam. Our ashram inmate, Bala, said Easy Journey clinched it for him when he first read it as an uncommitted newcomer. Bala had read a little in other Krsna conscious books, but when a friend gave him Easy Journey, he became completely convinced and determined to be a serious devotee (though it cost him all his nondevotee friends).
I now have too many books to read. Aside from our out-loud readings of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Kirtan Rasa gave me a book by Jimmy Carter called Faith: A Journey for All. I started reading it, but then, after a long delay, Syamasundara’s Volume 2 of Chasing Rhinos with the Swami arrived. I began reading that book too. In addition, I am preparing for a talk on Nrsimha Caturdasi, so I can’t pay attention to all these books. Kirtan Rasa wants me to give him back the Jimmy Carter book after I finish it, so there is some pressure on me to read that. Syamasundara’s book is a big one, but it’s a good read. Prabhupada said in 1966 that there was enough Krsna conscious literature that we couldn’t finish it if we read twenty-four hours a day. Haryasva from Philadelphia told me he is reading a new book from Sacinandana Maharaja, The Living Name. He is sending it in the mail to me and recommends it. So I am embarrassed by riches in reading, and will have to be patient and decisive in which books I read.
In June of 2018 I entered the hospital after a month of declining health. I was diagnosed with pneumonia, which I had had three or four times before. They say each time you get pneumonia, you don’t fully recover. Your lungs become weaker. In 2018, I was in the hospital for eight days, and when I came out, I spent two months recovering with very little exercise or strength. I only came back to 50%of my strength; they call this “deconditioning.” Formerly, I used to be able to spend twenty minutes pedaling my stationary bicycle. Now I can only do eight minutes. My main symptom of COPD is that I have shortness of breath. When I do my exercises, or when I walk by pushing my four-wheeled walker, I can only move forward for about four minutes before I have to take a break and catch my breath. My strength is slowly returning, but I am limited because of my shortness of breath. They say that a person who is struck with a serious disease goes through several stages. The first is realization; I have realized my physical issues. The second step is denial. I don’t think I am in denial about my condition. I have to lead a sedentary life, and I accept it. One doctor told me I was lucky that I liked to do the things I am still able to, such as reading, writing, taking darsana of Radha-Govinda, reading out loud with the devotees at mealtime and listening to Prabhupada’s lectures and bhajanas. So I am not in a state of psychological depression. The next step in a person’s living with disease is anger. One becomes angry—either with Krsna or with the doctors or oneself—or frustrated from not being able to do the things I used to do. I am not so angry. I try to take shelter at Prabhupada’s lotus feet and absorb myself in the Krsna conscious activities I am able to do. The final stage is called acceptance. I pretty much see that I have a permanent health issue which very much limits my movements: I am not able to travel. But I accept that I have to live at Viraha Bhavan with my few assistants. I am very grateful for their help.
Recently, tests have proven that my diabetes condition is again out of control. I have to closely manage my diet in order to avoid taking insulin or other medications.
Dear Jaya d.d.,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for your sincere letter, in which you pray to Krsna that I could endure my physical ailments. I know you have physical ailments too, and I pray that you can get relief. We have to be tolerant and chant Hare Krsna japa. We’re not these bodies, we are spirit-souls. We are aspiring to become detached from matter and to stay on the spiritual path, aspiring to go back home, back to Godhead.
You are a sincere devotee and have many spiritual assets. I hope you are associating with devotees in Houston. The association of devotees is very important. Approach them humbly and in a non-faultfinding way. Thank you for your faithful discipleship; may Krsna bless you.
Yours in the service of Prabhupada,
SDG
I very much like going to sleep around 7:00 P.M. and rising at 2:00 A.M. by Baladeva’s alarm clock. The first thing I do on rising is sit up in bed, supported by pillows. Lights are turned on around the large blown-up photograph of Radha-Kalachandji (circa 1972). I look at Radharani’s hand of benediction as Prabhupada recommended, and then gaze down at Kalachandji’s massive feet for some time. I then go through my medical regimen, taking pills, potions and fizzy drinks. In between the operations of the health regimen, I am chanting on my beads and taking darsana. I continue chanting while I receive a leg massage, which lasts 30 minutes. Then Baladeva goes out to wake up Radha-Govinda and leaves me in the bedroom. After that I come out and watch the waking up of the other Deities. I am especially thrilled to watch Prabhupada’s night wool chadar being taken off and his bead bag and pavitra garland and light chadar being put around his shoulders. After the Deities are dressed, there’s an incense-arati. I finish my sixteen rounds, alternating between looking at Prabhupada and Radha-Govinda.
In the opening pages of Japa Reform Notebook, I describe that I was so enthusiastic when I first began chanting, that Prabhupada even looked up at me while we were chanting japa together. I wrote,
“One time, absorbed in this chanting and fingering, I looked up at Srila Prabhupada and was surprised to find him looking right at me with great concern. It seemed that he saw me, although a most fallen wretch, struggling intently to chant, and this caused him great compassion and concern. It seemed as if even he was awed at the mercy of the holy name.”
But I go on to say,
“Over the years, however, my japa became less distinct. More and more my attention would wander. . . . But then I received anew the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Krsna in the form of a Godbrother’s instructions on japa. I became determined to reform, to chant my japa pronouncing each word and syllable. My japa improved immediately.”
This was a reference to a conversation I had with my Godbrother Harinama dasa. He pointed out to me that while listening to me chant, he noticed that I was leaving out words of the mantra towards the end of each mantra. I took him seriously and strived to correct myself, to chant all thirty-two syllables attentively. It was this helpful, candid criticism that actually helped me to chant better.
Krishna Kshetra Swami wrote a foreword to my book Japa Transformations. He wrote that it has been over twenty-five years since I published my first book on the subject, Japa Reform Notebook. He wrote,
“Those who are familiar with that work may know that in those days, for some members of ISKCON, the book was seen as quite radical, or even inappropriate. How could a senior devotee, revered as a renunciate (sannyasi) and as an adept spiritual teacher (guru), so openly communicate his own personal challenges in the practices of chanting Hare Krsna?”
Krishna Kshetra Swami goes on to write that
“Japa Reform Notebook was seen by others as enlivening. They appreciated that a frank discussion of the challenges to pure chanting was being aired, offering practical advice to avoid the ten ‘offenses’ listed by earlier teachers of the tradition.”
From Japa Reform Notebook:
“Chanting Hare Krsna in this age of Kali will save you. But if you think, “No, I don’t believe it; how can these names, singing and reciting these names, save me? Yes, I want to get out of this material world, but how can this chanting help me?” – this is offensive. Don’t make up your own understanding of what the chanting does or refuse to believe the benedictions ascribed to the chanting of Hare Krsna. Haridasa Thakura explained that the shadow of the holy name, chanted even with offense, would give one liberation. One doubter heard and said, “Haridasa Thakura, you are exaggerating. How can it be that just by chanting the shadow of the Name one gets liberated?” Haridasa Thakura replied, “Don’t doubt it; this is the statement of sastra.” The holy name is so great that Ajamila chanted the word ‘Narayana’ and he was
saved. Do not be doubtful.”“You may say that,” the man said, “but if the shadow of the holy name does not give liberation, then I shall cut off your nose.” Everyone was very much offended by this man, who later lost his own nose because Krsna took the insult to His devotee so seriously. If it’s in the sastra,
don’t take it differently—imagination, interpretation or exaggeration . . . Krsna is Krsna, and Krsna is His Name. As you cannot speculate on inconceivable Krsna by argument and logic, so also the Name is inconceivable. You can only understand it in parampara. Don’t try to interpret the Holy Name.
“There is no way to atone for any of these offenses. It is therefore recommended that an offender at the feet of the holy name continue to chant the holy name twenty-four hours a day. Chanting of the holy name will make one free of offenses, and then he will gradually be elevated to the transcendental platform by which you can chant the pure holy name and thus become a lover of the Supreme Personality of Godhead . . . . If one is an offender in chanting the Holy Name, he should submit to the Holy Name and thus be freed from his offenses.
(Bhag. 7.5.23-24, purport)“Plod on. Sit on the cold floor. Back to the wall. Sit near that trunk, no wall to lean against. Get up and walk. Keep going with your not-so-good japa. Keep this purport—continue chanting and ask forgiveness for the poor quality. Srila Prabhupada’s purport is my guide: “Constant chanting of the holy name will make one free of offenses.”
Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name is a book that is appreciated by my readers, but I find that I am somewhat too harsh on myself in my attempt to chant nicely. One of my disciples even told me that while reading it she had to stop because she found it too negative and concentrated on faults. I like to think the book resolves my confessed weaknesses and comes to the clearing stage.
Both in the foreword and in the introduction (by Suresvara dasa) the writers declare that Japa Transformations goes deeper than my first two books on japa. By the time I wrote Japa Transformations I was better able to control my mind and chant with attention. I still appealed to the Holy Name to help me improve and chant with love. And I mentioned my remaining difficulties. But Japa Transformations is a more positive book, more mature. Here is an excerpt from Japa Transformations:
“It’s a beautiful conception that He packed all His potencies in these thirty-two syllables and places Himself there too in the most merciful form. The conception is beautiful, what to speak of the actual execution. We should always be grateful to Krsna for giving us the Hare Krsna mantra, and we should show our gratitude by chanting it as much as possible. That way, we will bond with Him, which is our heart’s greatest desire. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
“Chanting japa is my solemn duty. Even if you get up late, you have to chant your japa, gradually catching up with the quota. Don’t be sloppy because it’s late. Slow down and be patient, and execute the yajna with the same mind. Repeat the syllables patiently. Try to think of Radha and Krsna. Don’t worry, they will get done. They will get done. It’s a simple thing; anyone can do it. Do not push it to a corner of the mind and dwell on other things because of its simplicity. Give the mind’s full attention to this simplicity. It’s a prayer to which you can give your whole heart. Call out to Krsna, the Supreme Lord, by saying His name. Call out to Radha, our eternal benefactor, by calling Her name.”
“ . . . When you get attached to performance, then it’s not good. What is it I want? Worship . . . I want to chant better. I’m not ashamed to ask it again and again. You see, that’s performance-worry, when I think, “I have already written here that I want to improve my chanting. If I keep on repeating it, it will be tiresome to the reader.” That’s nonsense. It’s important for me to keep saying it: I want to improve. I want to improve. I want to chant better, and I think I can do it. I can improve. I just have to take the mind from where it is and bring it back to the hearing.
“ . . . . I’m going to do better. Right after I finish this page, I’ll do round number nine, and then seven more on the beach. Don’t despair or expect the heavens to open and Lord Visnu to come down, as He did in the yajnas where they chanted the hymns and with devotion, longed to see Him. I want to do better.” (J. T., p. 155)
In former days, sixty-four rounds used to be the standard quota from Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura ordered his disciples to chant sixty-four rounds daily. Prabhupada saw that his Western devotees could not handle such a high quota. He asked them if they could do thirty-two rounds, and they said that was too much also. So he fixed the minimum quota at sixteen rounds, to be chanted without fail. Nowadays, many ISKCON devotees chant sixty-four rounds on Ekadasi and minimize their other activities. One reason the devotees don’t chant such a high quota is that Prabhupada has given us so many other services to do in prosecuting the Krsna Consciousness Movement. We can’t sit around all day and chant japa. A devotee asked Tamala Krsna Gosvami how he could improve his japa. TKG said that he should observe Ekadasi strictly. He should chant sixty-four rounds and stay up all night singing bhajanas. This would rejuvenate one’s spiritual life. Even that recommendation is hard to do for most of us. The sixteen rounds, chanted attentively and without offense, is sufficient.
I have received a message from my disciple Ramila d.d. that her husband, Yasoda Dulal, is in critical condition as the result of a car crash in Christchurch, New Zealand. She asks, “Prayers, please.” I recently heard Prabhupada in a lecture say that Krsna knows our distress because he is in our heart, and so we shouldn’t pray to Him to get relief from distress. We should pray to glorify Him and thank Him that we are receiving only a token distress for our previous misdeeds. We should not pray for relief from our material distress. But we can make an intercessionary prayer for devotees like Yasoda Dulal, asking Krsna, “My dear Lord Krsna, if You desire, please cure Yasoda Dulal. He has not finished his work.” Yasoda Dulal is a very valuable devotee. He is an enthusiastic devotee, passionate for preaching. He likes to engage nondevotees in festivals, including kirtana, Jagannatha processions, and ox-cart parikramas. He has recently put on a four-day festival with devotees, participating by playing Krsna conscious folk music. He is also an excellent artist. He has sold many of his paintings to MOSA (Museum of Sacred Art) for use in one-man exhibits. He also makes paintings to advertise his preaching events, and he has designed a big mural for a Govinda’s restaurant. He created two wildly original, colorful murals of Vyasadeva and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in my basement artist’s studio here in Viraha Bhavan that visitors continue to marvel at. It would be a great loss to ISKCON if Yasoda Dulal couldn’t stay with us and continue his vigorous preaching.
As I write down these “free writes,” it is 5:15 A.M. in the morning. The first birds are chirping outside. They are the robins, who come early and peck in the ground for worms. In the spiritual world there are many birds. The peacock is one of the first birds to talk in the morning. With the male’s beautifully expanded feathery tail and dancing, it is very dear to Krsna. Sometimes pure devotees faint at the sight of a peacock. The parrots are prominent in Vraja. They carry messages from Vrnda-devi, setting up a schedule of activities for meetings of Radha and Krsna. Visnu rides on a gigantic bird, Garuda, who is a great fighter (although he is not a vegetarian). Lord Brahma’s carrier is a graceful swan. Prabhupada compares two birds, the crow and the swan. He writes that the crow is interested in places where refuse is. They pick at filthy things in the garbage. The karmis or fruitive workers are compared to the crow. The karmis do not like to hear about Krsna. They prefer the crow-like literature available in the market. In contrast to the crow is the swan. The swan likes to swim in clear waters, and it separates milk from a mixture of milk and water. Highly advanced devotees are called paramahamsas, or swan-like persons. The Bhagavatam states that it is for the swan-like persons and not for the crows, or cheaters.
In Kali-yuga, the longevity of the human being is reduced. In Satya-yuga, people used to live 100,000 years. In Dvarpa-yuga they used to live 10,000 years. Now in Kali-yuga, people live at most 100 years—but most people don’t attain that age. Longevity, however, is not the highest attainment. Some trees live thousands of years but they are in a very low consciousness, so their lives do not have much spiritual advancement. It is said that it is better to live a moment in enlightened consciousness than to live 1000 years like a tree. When one understands Krsna, surrenders to Him and renders devotional service, then he is rightly situated, and he may die or not die, but he has already attained the goal. In King Kulasekhara’s prayer, he asks the Lord that he may die immediately. He is healthy, and he is absorbed in Krsna consciousness. He compares himself to a swan whose proclivity is to entangle his neck into the stems of the lotus. He says that at the hour of death, his body will be choked up, and it will be very difficult to think of Krsna. So better right now die while he is possessed of full faculties and engaged wholeheartedly in devotional service to Krsna. King Khatvanga was asked for a benediction in return for his valiant fighting on behalf of the demigods. He asked as a benediction to know how much longer he would live. He was told that he had only a moment left. Hearing this, Khatvanga gave up all other engagements and surrendered to Krsna. Thus he did not enjoy material longevity, but he attained Krsna’s lotus feet. Bhismadeva had a benediction that he would die only as he willed it. On the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, he was shot through with so many arrows that he was lying on a “bed” of arrows. The Pandavas and Sri Krsna Himself came to be with Bhisma in his last hours. He spoke some instructional words of solace to Yudhisthira and then meditated on Krsna and Krsna’s pastimes, and then he passed away. Maharaja Pariksit received notice that he had been cursed and would live for only seven more days. He took this information with equilibrium, gave up all his royal possessions and went to the bank of the Ganges, where many famous personalities gathered to be with the illustrious King in his last days. So Pariksit Maharaja’s longevity was cut short. He was only a young man, but at least he had the assurance that he would live for seven more days. Most of us don’t think of when we will pass away, but it may be within seven minutes. Pariksit at least knew he had a full seven days. Sukadeva Gosvami, the foremost sage of that time, came before Pariksit and spoke for him the entire Srimad-Bhagavatam. Thus Maharaja Pariksit was liberated before his death.
How do I feel about my own longevity? I am 79½ years old. I don’t know how much more time I have to live, but I am trying to be aware that I could go at any moment, and I am preparing myself to purify my mind by chanting, hearing and remembering Krsna. The scriptures say ante narayana smrti—everything will be tested at the time of death. I hope to get some prior notice like Pariksit Maharaja was given so that I may constantly chant and render devotional service right up until the end, in the association of devotees.
In Bhagavad-gita Krsna says one who knows that He is the supreme proprietor, the controller of all the planets, and the best friend of all living entities will attain peace from the pangs of material miseries. There is no peace in the material world, especially in Kali-yuga. But if Krsna’s “peace formula” is adopted, humankind can attain peace and prosperity. In the spiritual world, Krsna and His innumerable associates are all at peace. There’s no birth, disease or old age there. The word Vaikuntha means “no anxiety.” There are no wars in Krsnaloka. The many demons who come to kill Krsna are delivered by Him, and He is never endangered. He destroys their bodies, like a child breaking a toy. And so the demons provide sport but no disruption of peace. Krsna’s dealings with Radharani and the sakhis in conjugal love are so intense and crooked that Krsna or Radha sometimes appears to be in anxiety. But this is all part of Their lila, or pastimes. They are always happy and undisturbed. There are no material modes or limitations to obstruct Them. In Sanskrit the word for “peace” is shanti. Krsna is sac-cid-ananda, full of eternity, knowledge and bliss.
I am also at peace. I am confined with bodily limitations of old age and disease. But I am at peace, practicing Krsna consciousness by chanting, hearing, remembering Krsna, reading Prabhupada’s books, receiving darsana of Radha-Govinda and writing. I am relieved from worldly pressures and practicing peaceful Krsna consciousness.
Krsna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita, “Never was there a time when you and I did not exist. We always existed in the past, we exist now, and there will never be a time in the future when we will cease to exist.” The material body is perishable, but the atma, or spiritual soul, lives eternally. As long as one is imperfect, one has to transmigrate at death, and the spirit-soul takes another material body, another term of misery in the cycle of birth and death. The self is naturally eternal, and so he is not satisfied transmigrating through different material bodies and species of life. He remains eternal, but he suffers perpetually. Only by practicing devotional service under the guidance of a qualified spiritual master can one become free of repeated birth and death and go back to Godhead, where life is eternal.
Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu is divided into four oceans: north, east, south and west, each with waves. The incarnations of the Lord are said to be as numerous as the waves in a river. In military formations, the armies send in waves of warriors. There will be a wave of infantrymen, followed by a wave of elephants with riders, followed by a wave of archers on chariots, followed by a wave of cavalry (men on horses with swords).
In the life of devotional ecstasies, the physical symptoms pass through the body in waves, such as tears from the eyes, standing of hairs on end on the body, being stunned, shivering, etc., etc.
Parikrama is a meditative walk alone or with a group circumambulating a holy spot such as Govardhana Hill, Radha-kunda, and the town of Vrndavana. When I lived in Wicklow, North Ireland, the devotees constructed a wooden-planked path around the house, and I walked around it chanting on my beads; this was my parikrama. When Sanatana Gosvami became too old and invalid, Krsna inspired him to stop his long walks. He told him that just by walking around his Deity of Krsna one time, that was sufficient for parikrama. In the Radha-Damodara temple in Vrndavana, they have a large govardhana-sila. The devotees circumambulate this sila along with samadhis of celebrated Vaisnavas, and all the temple Deities, and they consider this a full parikrama (if they do it at least seven times). In Mayapura-candrodaya Mandir, the building is spacious, and many people can circumambulate the Deities again and again. Prabhupada used to do it, and when he completed one circle he would pull on a brass bell attached to a rope. His disciples joined with him and danced in ecstasy. Some devotees do parikrama without walking. They sit down and meditate on going around a holy place, thinking of each of the sacred features of the circumambulation. This mental parikrama, when done with concentration and devotion, is as good as physically walking. Mental concentration is proven as a valid practice by examples in Caitanya-caritamrta. Nrsimhananda Brahmacari meditated on creating a gorgeous natural pathway for Lord Caitanya to traverse from Kuliya to Vrndavana. Nrsimhananda could only construct his mental road part of the way; he broke his meditation and told devotees that Lord Caitanya wasn’t going further than Kanai Natasala, and that they could meet Him there. Another example is the poor brahmana in South India who heard a Vaisnava lecturing about mental worship. He took up the practice himself and mentally gathered costly items for worship. He cooked a preparation of sweet rice for the Lord. Sweet rice is best when it is cooled off, so the brahmana tested the sweet rice by putting his finger into it. The sweet rice was so hot that it burnt his finger. When this happened, Lord Visnu in Vaikuntha smiled. When asked by the goddess of fortune what He was smiling about, He called for the poor brahmana and congratulated him on his mental worship. The Lord was very satisfied with him. During Karttika thousands of devotees come from New Delhi to Vrndavana and perform parikrama. ISKCON’s Radhanatha Swami takes a group of 5,000 devotees on parikrama around Vrndavana.
There are two kinds of bhagavatas: the person bhagavata and the book bhagavata. Srila Prabhupada manifested both. By his personal example, he was a living bhagavata, always speaking the messages of the Bhagavatam and living the life of a pure devotee of Krsna. He also translated and wrote commentaries on the cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam and left a legacy of ten cantos of the book Bhagavatam, which continues to be read as Prabhupada’s vani long after his disappearance in vapuh form.
In our out-loud readings at mealtime, we are hearing from the First Canto. The sages at Naimisaranya ask Suta Gosvami a number of questions. They ask him, “Now that Krsna has disappeared from the world, where can we find religious principles?” The sage answers,
“This Bhagavata Purana [Srimad-Bhagavatam] is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krsna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, and so on. Persons who have lost their vision because of the dense darkness of ignorance in the Age of Kali will get light from this Purana.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.43).
Another noteworthy verse, SB 1.2.18, reads as follows:
“By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.”
This explains our practice of daily extended reading from the Bhagavatam. We pass the book around to different devotees, and each one reads aloud for about fifteen minutes and then passes it on to another devotee. As described in the verse just quoted, by regularly attending to the hearings, “all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead . . . . is established as as irrevocable fact.” We feel very happy and safe in reading Prabhupada’s book, hearing from Sukadeva Gosvami and Sutadeva Goswami, hearing the Bhagavatam as originally spoken by Dvaipayana Vyasadeva.
Inis Rath is an island situated in North Ireland and owned by ISKCON. It was purchased by Prthu Prabhu and his collectors. Varuna and Manu were the main collectors, selling paintings. The island has a suitable building for a temple. Two beautiful, full-size Deities, Sri-Sri Radha-Govinda, were installed with all Vedic rituals. The former owners of the island cultivated it by planting many large and beautiful trees. It is a little inconvenient to reach the island. It has to be done by rowing a boat from the peninsula connected to Inis Rath. Maha-mantra devi dasi is the longtime pujari of Radha-Govinda. She is very dedicated to Them, and makes outfits with an electric sewing machine. She also shops for outfits in Vrndavana. Inis Rath is short-handed in resident devotees, but they manage to struggle on. During major Vaisnava holidays, devotees gather in numbers from all over Ireland and attend Inis Rath for a festival. A famous ISKCON brahmana was brought to Inis Rath to supervise the installation of Radha-Govinda. He conducted the rituals with many details. He had the Deities’ eyes covered with cloth until a certain time when myself and others took off Their blinders and They were considered to be spiritually aware. The brahmana/pujari made a straw image of a demon, tied him on a rope to the back of a motorcycle, and drove him off. We weren’t all aware of the meanings of the different rituals but went along with it, happy that we were getting the full treatment. Some devotees from America attended, members of the Back to Godhead staff, and they covered the event with the intention of making it a featured cover article in a future issue of BTG.
Another spectacular item in the event was Prthu’s hiring a helicopter which showered flowers down on the devotees and the Deities while They were being installed.
Prabhupada’s name given to him by his parents was Abhay Charan De. It was a very fitting name, because abhaya means “fearless.” Prabhupada was always fearless. He once told the devotees how as a young boy he climbed up the scaffolding around the unfinished Victoria memorial. One of his disciples remarked, “You were very brave, Prabhupada.” Prabhupada chuckled and said, “I am still brave, or else how could I have crossed the ocean on the Jaladuta at seventy years of age?” He entered America alone with no finances and no real support. But he was not afraid. On arriving at his first stop, the port of Boston, he wrote a poem addressed to Krsna. He wrote, “I don’t know why You have brought me here to this terrible place, but if You want to make me dance, please make me dance, make me dance, make me dance.” He expressed some hesitancy and then gained confidence by writing that if he spoke the message of the Bhagavatam, it would break up the knots of material attachment in those who heard him. For a year in America, Prabhupada couldn’t do much preaching because he was being supported by the impersonalist yogi, Dr. Mishra, who wouldn’t let Prabhupada give his Vaisnava lectures to his students. But gradually Prabhupada attracted young people, and they brought him down to a bowery loft and then to 26 Second Avenue, his first actual storefront temple. He used to say he was a “Calcutta man,” and so he had seen the danger and violence of big city living. It was all new to him. He was not afraid during the long ideal (and fight) to secure land in Juhu Beach,
Bombay. When his disciples became afraid of the landlord Mr. Nair and canceled the sales agreement, Prabhupada said, “I will be the last man to give up this land to Mr. Nair.” He fought on against a demolition of his temporary temple, which housed the Deities, was not afraid of the threats made by his opponents, and gradually swung public opinion to his side, and he won possession of the land. After Mrs. Nair surrendered to him, he held a feast and sat back, saying, “It was a good fight.” He was not afraid of death. In his very last days, when he was frail and starved from voluntarily not eating, a few of his disciples suggested that he go on parikrama around Govardhana Hill by riding in a bullock cart. Prabhupada liked the idea, but the night before he was supposed to leave, two of his confidential servants approached him in a tear-filled condition and begged him please not to go on the bullock cart because the doctor said it was too rough and he wouldn’t survive riding in the bumpy cart. He decided not to go, yielding to the prayers of his devotees, yet he was initially willing to go, although it was a “sure death” proposal.
Tamasi ma jyotir gama. Get out of darkness, rise to the light (from tamo-guna to suddha-sattva).
Brahma-samhita: “The rays from Krsna’s body form the brahmajyoti (the impersonal effulgence).”
“I was standing in darkness with my eyes shut, but my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torchlight of knowledge.”
“Where there is Godhead there is light, where there is darkness there is nescience.”
“Krsna surya-sama maya haya andhakara.”
“Krsna varnum tvisa krsnam sango pangastra parsadam: Persons in Kali-yuga with sufficient intelligence will worship the incarnation who is always chanting the names of Krsna. He is Krsna Himself, but He is not blackish. ‘Not blackish’ means He is yellow, “Gauranga”, golden, in the complexion of Radha.”
“This Bhagavat Purana is as brilliant as the Sun.”
Chanting Hare Krsna in the clearing stage is like the first light at dawn; it removes sinful reactions, and the sun’s first rays banishes the fear of thieves and ghosts.”
Krsna consciousness lightens the load of material existence. One throws off attachments to family, home, children, etc.—“society friendship and love, divinely bestowed upon man.” One has to detach oneself from these beloved items in order to be liberated. The residents of Siddha-loka have attained the yogic perfection of laghima-siddhi. By this perfection, they become as light as air, and in their selfsame bodies, they can travel to other planets. They are so light they defy the law of gravity. Krsna descends to the earth whenever there is a rise in irreligious principles and a decrease in religious behavior. He lightens the burden of the earth by annihilating the asuras, and He leaves the “light of the Bhagavat” (Srimad-Bhagavatam) just to enlighten all people about the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who take shelter in this spotless Purana are relieved from all modes of darkness.
There are partial and permanent devastations that occur in the universe. At the end of Brahma’s day there is a devastation. Then when Brahma wakes there is a renewal of life. In the final annihilation, Lord Siva performs a dance of devastation and destroys the whole universe, under the order of Krsna. The sage Markandeya Rsi had a wish to see the devastation of the Lord. His wish was fulfilled, and he had to endure the long periods of time in which the universe was devastated by rain, fire, etc. He became very distressed. Finally he saw baby Krsna floating on a leaf in the waters of devastation and sucking His toe. Markandeya was astounded at this darsana.
Draupadi was devastated by the murder of her five baby sons, who were sleeping when Asvatthama mercilessly killed them. Krsna came to give her solace, and Arjuna told her he would kill Asvatthama. Similarly, Dhrtarastra was devastated by the death of his one hundred sons, headed by Duryodhana. As a relative, Krsna came to Dhrtarastra and gave him immediate solace. Dhrtarastra hung on in the palace of the Pandavas, and was rescued from Vidura, who preached to him about the imminence of Dhrtarastra’s death and how he should quit the palace, where he was eating remnants of food from his enemies, and go apart where no one would know him and practice austerities unto death. Dhrtarastra submitted to Vidura and became a dhira, an undisturbed person. The gopis headed by Radharani, Mother Yasoda, Maharaja Nanda, and all the residents of Vrndavana, became devastated when Akrura arrived in Vrndavana and took Krsna and Balarama away to Mathura. The gopis gave up all inhibitions and threw themselves in front of Akrura’s horses, and some of them fainted. Krsna said, “I will return.” But this did not give them any solace. They stood like immovable statues while they watched the speeding chariot disappear in the distance. When Krsna killed the demon Paundraka, He also killed his ally, Kasiraja. He beheaded Kasiraja and threw his head into the city of Kasi. The residents there were horrified when they noticed the identity of the head. Kasiraja’s son Sudaksina performed black arts and created a giant demon who he sent off to Dvaraka to cause its destruction. But Krsna subdued the demon and defeated him. According to the science of black arts, when the created demon is defeated, it returns to its creator and killed him. So the giant demon went back to the city of Kasi and killed Sudaksina. Then Krsna sent His Sudarsana cakra into Kasi, and he completely devastated the entire city.
We pray to glorify the Lord or the spiritual master. We don’t pray to God as the order-supplier: “Give me this, give me that.” The Hare Krsna mantra is a prayer: “O energy of the Lord, O Lord, please engage me in Your service.” When will my voice be choked up by uttering Your holy names? When will tears flow from my eyes? And when will my hairs stand on end? I do not know anyone but Krsna as my Lord . . .
We don’t pray to the Supreme Lord as the order-supplier, but we do pray for strength, devotion, mercy, ability to do our service and to understand what our service should be. We also pray for others in intercessionary prayer. This is done individually and for the whole world. The chanting of Hare Krsna is not done just for oneself; we can hardly imagine the potency of the holy names. They spread out across the whole world to create auspiciousness in this ocean of vices. Hare Krsna mantra also replaces all the yajnas that were formerly performed for the demigods. The ill effects of Kali-yuga, in corruption, violence, and in natural disasters, is increasing, but by chanting the holy names it is being minimized.
This is indulged in by persons who do not know the eternal soul as the self but who identify with the body. They are covered by the illusory external energy, maya. The senses should be engaged in devotional service for the Lord, for His pleasure. As eternal servants of the Lord, we are only happy when we engage in dovetailing our senses, mind and whatever we may possess in the service of the Lord. When we engage in sense gratification, we cut ourselves off from our constitutional nature with Krsna; we remain unhappy and useless, like a part of the machine that is detached from the machine.
Most of my disciples are in their 40s, 50s or older. If they have planned well, they should be winding down their attachments to the world and their sense gratification. They should try to avoid becoming entangled in giving their time to television, computers, social media, and ordinary family affairs. I advise against 50-year-olds getting married again; for social life, they should mix intimately with likeminded devotees. Remarrying at an advanced age is not conducive to the renunciation that should be occurring at that stage of life. I say we should renounce— but we have to do something. There are many alternatives. Instead of lamenting that we are lonely and not cared for, we should depend on Krsna in a practical way. We should find out likeminded devotees and engage with them in devotional activities like kirtana, reading Prabhupada’s books, and listen to live lectures from around the world. If one is not living near a temple, one can pick up by computer with live presentations all day long from ISKCON centers around the world. This can be very fulfilling and interesting, even for one who is invalid or who lives alone.
A devotee is equipoised and is not disturbed when there are upheavals due to the modes of material nature. He is steady because he is fixed in Krsna’s service and is assured of Krsna’s protection. Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati: “Tell it boldly, O son of Kunti, that My devotee will never be vanquished.” (Bg. 9.31) Outstanding examples of this are seen in great personalities in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Prahlada Maharaja remained fixed in remembering Krsna, even when he was tortured by his father and the demons. Haridasa Thakura remained undisturbed even when he was being beaten by the Muslims in 22 marketplaces. He (the self) is not disturbed even when he dies and has to transmigrate to another body. The pure devotee is stable because he has gone back to Godhead and is eternally protected at the lotus feet of Krsna, offering Him personal service.
We already know that the material world is not a place for enjoyment. Everyone is subject to suffering from the three-fold miseries (miseries caused by our own mind and body, miseries caused by other living entities, and miseries caused by natural disturbances). Therefore, to remain stable in the face of material reality, we have to tolerate the disturbances, and this can only be done in Krsna consciousness.
A devotee’s stability is expressed in Bhagavad-gita: A pandita sees a brahmana, a dog and a dog-eater with equal vision because he sees the soul within the varied bodies. He is a person with equal vision. (Bg. 5.18) A bhakti-yogi is compared to a lamp (flame) in a windless place. He is steady and does not flicker or blow out.