If you would like to help, please contact Kṛṣṇa-bhajana dāsa at [email protected] or [email protected] and we will find you a service that utilizes your talents.
Dear Srila Prabhupada, please accept this japa vrata attempt as service to you. Then it will be valid and no “babaji” (in the wrong sense) effort or pose.
It’s not extravagant to chant extra for a week. Rather, it is required to improve, to fix. It’s remedial work. I have neglected my japa, made it always subordinate to other services, chanted with inattention, to get it out of the way. The sixty-four rounds quota will help me show my sincere desire to the Lord in His form of the name.
******
Get the idea? I’m with you, spirit soul please do, please do please really do
You wear pants, you take a walk, you talk and pray to enable you to chant better the way he wants you to and asking him (the Lord and my guru) “Please engage me in your service.”
He’ll let you know if
you’re sincere, how you
may approach Him better,
what He tells you may not
be always what you want
or expect, but it’s for
surrender,
how to
turn to Him
and give up all else—
the theme is, “Your will not mine.”
You can drink the bitter chalice of death and before that today this chalice of sweet water japa to prepare yourself for death, to remind yourself you go to Him and He comes to you in His names.
******
Last night, M. glanced at his red, bound journal and told us—that after the first day of chanting, he wanted to do it always, just earn enough money to keep traveling and chanting japa all day. (Reminded me of a rash response to reading The Way of the Pilgrim.
What about his wife and children and the house?) But the second day of chanting was heavy, mechanical for him. He asked himself, “What am I trying to achieve?”
Did he expect Krsna to appear before him and congratulate him? I sat back and heard him with amusement. As if I knew better. I seem to be experienced in that I know my offenses form a mountain and I can’t crack it. I don’t even hope? But in the back of my mind, I know I wouldn’t mind getting symptoms of ecstasy.
******
I am experienced with the sastra’s statement that lack of taste is caused by offenses. And so I must be counting them, and even sixty-four rounds a day, if one’s chanting is infested with the ten offenses, then despite one’s endeavor to chant for many lifetimes, he will not get the result . . . krsna-prema.
pp. 115-17
Krsna the Supreme is the cause of both big and small souls. We know Him through His energies, both in this world and through His spiritual energies (pure devotees) in the spiritual world. “Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution.” (Bg. 7.6)
It’s unseasonably warm and sunny after three or more days of rain and constant overcast. My head is finally clear after three days too. Pain is temporary, always. Devotees come and go to the island. Bhaktin Alexandra says she is inspired by many Vaisnava gurus. Prahlada penned up one of his goats in a small ring that was once used for training young bulls. Today I claimed to have discovered how to edit my improvisation poems. Who discovers anything on their own? Actually, Krsna is the origin of everything. He is everything directly and indirectly—the goats, the literary ideas, the music, the sunlight, the water, and yes, also the pain and wrongs.
You know, now that I understand that, I haven’t tried to become a better or sharper Bhagavad-gita scholar. I have gained a certain mellowness perhaps, some kind of self-satisfaction, as I tend my own project and grow older.
The Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. Knowledge of the Supreme Person is the only way to attain liberation. He is the smallest and the greatest. Srila Pra-bhupada so confidently quoted this verse, “Mattah parataram nanyat . . . There is no truth superior to Me.” (Bg. 7.7) I quote it here on a mild day. That’s what I use my right hand for. My tiny brain cannot comprehend the full extent of what that means. There are so many things we cannot know about Krsna and about this world. We really have very little power. We don’t even have control over our own deaths. We come and go like flies, like seasons. We live a little longer than insects, but that’s no great achievement. Still we defy Krsna’s existence.
“I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable am in the Vedic mantras; the sound in ether and ability in man.” (Bg. 7.8)
Simultaneously one and different. All these midges cling to the inside of the windowpane. The windows are open and it’s a nice day, but they don’t realize they can leave. They prefer to die indoors. Maybe they think it’s warmer in here, drier, safer.
“What can you give to the people of South Africa?” the reporter asked Srila Prabhupada. He replied that he was teaching from the Bhagavad-gita the knowledge of the self within the body. If you don’t have this knowledge you can’t act for your self-interest. People who take the body as the self are like people mistaking a shirt and coat for the person inside. I appreciated what Srila Prabhupada said, although the materialists think he’s speaking only “philosophy” (not practicality). Why doesn’t he address real, urgent issues? But he does. It takes intelligence to understand the implications of spiritual philosophy.
The reporter then said the masses could not grasp Krsna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada agreed, but said the masses would follow the leaders. You become Krsna conscious and help others—it is the duty of the press reporters to propagate it. “Krsna consciousness is active in every sphere.”
pp. 139-242
Isikatavi is a forest where the forest fire occurred. The cows wandered off in search of grass, and when the boys noticed, they ran off in search of them without telling Krsna where they were going. They became lost in the thick forest. Vyomasura took the opportunity to start a fire in the dry forest. The flames blew wildly around them as the demon blew upon them. Soon the fire surrounded all the boys and calves. They called out to Krsna, “Please save us!” Kona came and saved them by swallowing up the forest fire.
The acaryas have commented that this pastime has a symbolic meaning which is especially applicable to conditioned souls, including those striving to perfect themselves in Krsna consciousness. The jivas are like the cows. The grasses are the sense objects. We are enticed from our constitutional nature of serving Krsna and lured by our tendency to enjoy the senses without Him. Thus birth after birth, we go through samsara davanala, the blazing fire of material existence. But Krsna is in our hearts and does not forget us. After wandering throughout the universe for many lives and in many species, a fortunate soul contacts a Vaisnava guru and receives Krsna’s mercy (guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija).
In the case of nondevotees, this symbolism is obvious. They are hopelessly trapped in the fire. Rarely do they take advantage of approaching a pure devotee preaching on behalf of Lord Caitanya. Thus the ignorant and suffering jivas have to perish in the forest fire of karma, only to be reborn again.
The case of practicing devotees is different, but we may also continue to wander away from Krsna, enticed by the grasses of prestige and other anarthas. To such a devotee, Krsna gives His mercy in the form of reverses or distress. The devotee suffers in the flames of the forest fire, but that suffering reminds him of Krsna. By the blessings and instructions of his spiritual master, he turns to Krsna again. When he sincerely calls out to guru and Krsna, Krsna rescues him, just as He rescued the boys in the forest fire of Vrndavana.
We should take this pastime seriously. Are we still wandering whimsically between Krsna consciousness and material life? It is not enough to think that our activities are all right because they are more or less within the bounds of the regulative principles. Prabhupada said that even on the royal road, there are accidents. Don’t be caught in the conflagration. The demons of sense gratification (the serpent-like senses) will take advantage and blow on the fire. Before we know it, we can be surrounded by hot flames. Why be scorched and driven to panic? But if that happens, at least call out, “Krsna! Please save me! It’s not right that I die like this! I’m Your devotee! Remember me and save me!”
Better yet, learn to call to Krsna in happiness, in service. But if we are in trouble—and many of us are because we are not yet pure—then call out to Him now. Japa is a good time to cry to Krsna. We are surrounded by distractions, sense objects. Our minds wander off on other tracks, lured by the grass. The grass suddenly turns dry and catches fire. That fire separates us from our desired service to Prabhupada and Krsna. How did I get here without consulting him? Why didn’t I notice what I was doing? I thought this was within the realm of my service, but now I see it wasn’t. I am in danger of perishing from my accumulated bad habits. All right, it’s not too late. Let me call out for all I’m worth, and let me not be embarrassed if others see that I’m afraid.
“‘Our dear Krsna! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! Our dear Balarama the reservoir of all strength! Please try to save us from this all-devouring and devastating fire. We have no other shelter than You. This devastating fire will swallow us all!’ Thus they prayed to Krsna, saying that they could not take any shelter other than His lotus feet. Lord Krsna, being compassionate upon His own townspeople, immediately swallowed up the whole forest fire and saved them.” (KRSNA, Chapter 17, pp. 167-8)
pp. 16-19
Raghunatha began begging alms from
the priest at the Simha-dvara Gate.
When He heard this, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
very pleased with Raghunatha’s renunciation.
But then Raghunatha began
to think that this method of obtaining food
was like a prostitute. He would think, “This person
gave me food yesterday, maybe he will
give me again. I shall approach this other person and
beg from him.” So he stopped begging at
the Simha-dvara gate and went to the free
food distribution booths. This pleased Sri Caitanya
more and He gave Raghunatha
His personal Govardhana-sila and conchshells
to worship. Then Raghunatha started eating the rejected
food that even the cows
would not eat. When Lord Caitanya heard
this He went to Raghunatha and forcibly ate
some of that rejected food. Raghunatha tried
to stop the Lord but He said, “This food
is nectar. Why don‘t you invite Me
to come and share it?” In this way the
Lord showed His great pleasure with Raghunatha
who spent all his time chanting the holy
names and worshiping the Govardhana-sila.
Hearing of the Lord‘s affection for
Raghunatha, I am amazed,
and I know that I can‘t imitate
his practices. I chant my sixteen
rounds with attention and relish
hearing the Lord‘s dealings with His
intimate devotees.
I rise at midnight each
day and try to write
throwing off pretension.
Sometimes I bash myself
and sometimes I express trust
that I am doing the right thing.
I‘ve only chanted eight rounds,
but I paused to write the poem. Raghunatha‘s
relationship with the Lord is very
dear to me. I am glad
I could write
a little summary and then
tell you of my progress
with the autobiography.
The poem is a song for
Lord Caitanya and His circle of
devotees. They worshiped the
holy names with tumultuous kirtanas
at the Ratha-yatras and in the temple. It was
His method for delivering love of Godhead in the
age of Kali. I hear music which I dovetail
as kirtana for the Lord.
It is my way of celebrating
melody in service to Krsna.
He is lenient and accepts
it in the realm of
harinama sankirtana
knowing it is my desire.
Radha and Krishna are the objects
of my love, and I sing for Their
pleasure. I beg Them to accept
the humble offering
in the right motivation
as praise of Their union and gratefulness for Their Darsana
to this unworthy soul.
Vallabha Bhatta, a learned scholar
came to see Lord Caitanya at Jagannatha Puri.
He addressed Him as the Supreme Personality
of Godhead who is empowered to spread the
holy names, but inwardly Vallabha Bhatta
was falsely proud. Vallabha asked Sri
Caitanya to teach him, but the Lord said He was
a sannyasi of the Mayavadi school. What He knew
of Krishna He learned from great devotees like Advaita
Acarya, Lord Nityananda, Ramananda Raya, etc.
Vallabha asked to meet these devotees, and the
Lord said they were gathered in Jagannatha Puri.
When Vallabha met them he felt like a glowworm.
He then asked the Lord to hear his commentary
on Srimad-Bhagavatam, but the Lord refused
to hear it. He went to Gadadhara Pandita and forced
him to hear it. Then Vallabha Bhatta told
Lord Caitanya that his commentary surpassed that
of Sridhara Swami‘s. When the Lord heard that He said,
“Anyone who is not faithful to his “swami”
is a prostitute.” Hearing this, Vallabha lost his
faith in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and became very morose. Considering what he had done, Vallabha
Bhatta admitted that he had been guilty
of false pride. He went to Lord Caitanya and
begged forgiveness. He invited the Lord and His
devotees to feast at his house, and
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu mercifully accepted.
Hearing these pastimes I am grateful
to be in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
and desire never to think
I am better than the previous acaryas.
I chanted my mantras
in sober mood and placed myself
in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu‘s followers
as exemplified by our swami,
Srila Prabhupada.
My song is dedicated to Radha and Krishna.
I would like to obtain the models made
by Jagattarini Ma. I heard she made one of
Radharani sitting sullenly at the top of
a staircase. Krishna is contritely trying
to climb up the staircase, but
Lalita is angrily blocking his way. I would like
to gather pastimes like this
and put them on my round table to
enhance the Viraha Bhavan. Baladeva has suggested
other ways to make the atmosphere
conducive to Radha in separation and pastimes of Lord
Caitanya. We were even discussing getting tattoos
of Radha-Krishna on our arms.
pp. 1-4
Conceive the world. Hold on before you write (you were going to write the words: “as a doughnut”). Consider the gravity of the situation. You are a soul in a body. Do you not accept that? Everyone has some religion. This is yours. Religion is not entirely based on experience. It is the other world, power beyond you – divine. Okay, many religions exist and some have none of the features of the standard religion – no God, no soul, no scripture. But SP says that’s no religion, bogus. I follow the sanatana dharma, and for us we don’t depend merely on the experience of our senses and mind.
Live with that. Know that you don’t know, you don’t experience it readily. But you can open the doors of your perception by reading, hearing sastra. (Yes, Huxley, the doors are opened not by mescaline – as your experience will tell us!)
My stomach is in an indigestive state from the 5 P.M. snack of sandesa and just-picked raspberries and a half of a banana. Something didn’t go right. Still struggling with it. Poor intestine and stomach.
This is the nonperformance school if I can attain it, where you don’t worry how it comes out. You have confidence that writing is good for you. Confidence that a byproduct is natural, but you are not primarily concerned with it. “Books are the obvious fruit of your writing, but the heartbeat is generated by the moving pen.”
Some friends are with me, wish me well. A box of typewriter cartridges left at the door by a delivery person. This one is by pen.
I want to tell you where I am and what I am doing. I could have a “too private” or “forbidden” notebook if it should come to that. Or put it right here and not record it later. Pages get put into the fire. The whole question of what gets edited, gets published, which I often talk of with Kdd and M. He says he has his opinion, wants me to be the final one to decide and to feel strongly, “This is what I want to say” before I actually publish.
This is my message for the world, I should feel strongly. Otherwise, just because I wrote it isn’t enough reason to share it, he says. But I say anything you write has some right to live.
Who likes to kill off his sentences because, “It’s not my message?” Message is sastra. The guru is one.
As you grow old try to give up finding fault. And pride. The weeds are always growing. I am tending my garden.
I lower the shade before 7 P.M. so I can rest and rise by midnight.
Hare Krishna mantras.
I left the pada-yatra so I could come here to write. I thought I could – write better? I left the PY and came to write what comes, hope to drift to some important concerns. Invite yourself to do so.
Your body concerns of the moment, that indigestion. One doesn’t want to take strong medicines to remove symptoms (Tums) yet one has a strong desire to be free from discomfort.
I started to say something but lost track. That’s proof of what I seek to do in writing sessions. Pursue tracks of concern. If they slip away, return to them when they open again. We used to say, when forgetting something, “If it’s important it will come back to me.” Then a few moments later, “Oh! Now I remember what I wanted to say.”
Faulty memory
limited self
mistaken senses
proud false mental speculation
repeated sabda
but need conviction of heart, a way to express oneself.
Feeling that you are doing something to help yourself improve in KC.
I left the PY to come and write. PY occupies us with chanting and walking and this is a group, with socializing, exchanging, with other people, realities of preaching, the world we walk through, etc. And literary PY means performance concerns. So, I left the PY to spend time in writing. It’s not that I’m unemployed or “just practicing” in the sense of doing something unimportant.
Oh, it’s important
because I’m a big man?
An author of a secret way?
No, no
you tease me, okay but
you know what I mean
Don’t work against me to destroy
this purpose and intention.
I left PY (or I’m still on it in a different way)
to enhance the writing. PY was writing certainly. And I left
for writing.
pp. 96-98
dharmasya hy apavargyasya
nartho ’rthayopakalpate
narthasya dharmaikantasya
kamo labhaya hi smrtah“All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.” (Bhag. 1.2.9)
Did Srila Prabhupada actually have a favorite sastric verse? Was there a verse he considered most important? That’s what Professor Thomas Hopkins wanted to find out when he met with Srila Prabhupada in June 1975, at the ISKCON temple in Philadelphia.
Professor Hopkins had always been favorable to the Krsna consciousness movement, and so his meeting with Srila Prabhupada was mellow and learned. As a scholar of Hinduism, Professor Hopkins asked Prabhupada interesting questions, drawing out Srila Prabhupada’s realized knowledge of the Vedic conclusions.
“I am collecting material for a of sourcebook, readings in Hinduism,” said Professor Hopkins, “contemporary as well as classical, and would like to include in these readings some of the things which you have written. Of that which you have written, what do you consider most important?”
“Prema pumartho mahan,” Srila Prabhupada replied. “The most important thing is how to love God.” Professor Hopkins asked where in Prabhupada’s writings did that message of love of God come out most clearly. At first Prabhupada replied, “Vedanta philosophy.” But the Professor, looking for a favorite section which he could publish, asked Prabhupada exactly in what published book that most important message could be found.
“Srimad-Bhagavatam,” Prabhupada replied.
Now that he had narrowed it down to twelve cantos of the Bhagavatam, Professor Hopkins asked, “Which of those books do you consider to be the most important?”
“Well, beginning with the First Canto,” said Srila Prabhupada. “Janmady asya yatah. Go step by step. First of all read the Bhagavad-gita nicely, then when we get the idea of the Absolute Truth, then we can study Srimad-Bhagavatam, more and more.”
“But is there any one of the translations or one of the purports or of a series of purports that you have published that you think is more clear, more …”
“Every sloka we are describing word to word,” said Srila Prabhupada. “So in every sloka you will find new ideas. There are eighteen thousand verses.”
Professor Hopkins laughed. “I would react the same way,” he said, “if anyone asked me a question like that.” But keeping his proposed book of readings in mind and wanting a special selection from Srila Prabhupada, Professor Hopkins asked his question again.
“If you were speaking to someone who was going to collect one small section of your work, what would you want them to collect?”
“That is stated in two verses,” said Srila Prabhupada, and he signaled to his secretary: “Can you find out that book? Dharmasya hy apavargyasya nartho ’rthayopakalpate. The first thing is that people become religious.” Srila Prabhupada then launched into an explanation of the Bhagavata philosophy regarding dharma, artha, kama, and moksa. According to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, human civilization begins only when there is dharma, or religion, and religion should be pursued not for material benefit but for becoming liberated from the material condition.
When his secretary had found the verse and purport, Prabhupada asked that he read the purport. The disciple read aloud, and the written purport closely resembled what Srila Prabhupada had just spoken extemporaneously: “One should not engage himself in any sort of occupational service for material gain only. Nor should material gain be utilized for sense gratification. How material gain should be utilized is described as follows.”
After the purport had been read, Srila Prabhupada continued speaking. “People are after material gain,” he said. “They have no spiritual information as to what is the need of spiritual realization. They do not know. Therefore they have been described as mudhas, fools and rascals, those who are after material gain.”
“Do you think then,” asked Professor Hopkins, “that that message is the most important message that you have to convey?”
“This is the most important message,” said Srila Prabhupada, “because you are not this material body.”
Srila Prabhupada was preaching. And specifically, he was speaking to a professor in America. At another time and place, perhaps he would have picked another verse as “the most important message.” As he had mentioned earlier, every word of the eighteen thousand verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam is absolute and perfect. But as a preacher, according to person, time, and place, he had picked out an important verse.
pp. 45-48
COMPASSION BY DEFINITION IS AN EMOTION felt when one perceives another in a suffering condition. In a sense, that puts the sufferer in a lower position. That is proper, because mercy always flows downward, not upward. But the scriptures define a maha-bhagavata as someone situated in the fullest expression of Krsna conscious humility; he sees no one in need of mercy but everyone as perfectly situated under Krsna’s control.
Does this mean that a maha-bhagavata feels no compassion? If so, why do we accept the maha-bhagavata’s mood as the highest expression of Krsna consciousness? Why do we accept Srila Prabhupada as a maha-bhagavata, yet consider preaching (compassion) the most important service?
Nowadays, with the influx into ISKCON of teachings from Gaudiya Math gurus, Srila Prabhupada’s commitment to preaching is often brought into question, as if it were something lower than bhajana. If he himself is not questioned, then devotees are told that preaching was something Prabhupada insisted upon so that his unpurified, unqualified disciples would have something to do while they were waiting to become cleansed. When they became purified, they would no longer be focused on preaching but on relishing devotional mellows through an intense practice of personal sadhana.
How can we answer this challenge? Is it just a question of difference in emphasis between Srila Prabhupada and other Gaudiya spiritual masters, or is there an absolute answer by which we can justify our acceptance of Prabhupada’s mood as topmost?
First, we should understand that the maha-bhagavata does feel the suffering of others. The advanced devotee is para-duhkha-duhkhi, “in other words, he has no personal troubles, but he is very unhappy to see others in trouble.” (Bhag. 6.1.6, purport)
Although preaching is not meant for a maha-bhagavata, a maha-bhagavata can descend to the platform of madhyama-bhagavata just to convert others to Vaisnavism. Actually a maha-bhagavata is fit to spread Krsna consciousness, but he does not distinguish where Krsna consciousness should be spread from where it should not. He thinks that everyone is competent to accept Krsna consciousness if the chance is provided. . . .
“One who is expert in Vedic literature and has full faith in the Supreme Lord, is an uttama-adhikari, a first-class Vaisnava, a topmost Vaisnava who can deliver the whole world and turn everyone to Krsna consciousness.” (Cc. Madhya 22.65) With great love and affection, the mana-bhagavata observes the Supreme Personality of Godhead, devotional service and the devotee. He observes nothing beyond Krsna, Krsna consciousness and Krsna’s devotees. The maha-bhagavata knows that everyone is engaged in the Lord’s service in different ways. He therefore descends to the middle platform to elevate everyone to the Krsna conscious position.
—Cc. Madhya 16.74, purport
What does it mean that the maha-bhagavata “descends” to the madhyama platform? This does not mean that the maha-bhagavata relinquishes his advanced devotional status, but that he agrees to see distinctions between the demonic and the innocent, and to work to give the innocent an opportunity to take to Krsna consciousness. This is how a maha-bhagavata preaches. Srila Prabhupada refers to the maha-bhagavata preacher in his purport to Bhag. 4.22.16:
The karmis, who have a bodily concept of life, try to enjoy sense gratification to the utmost. The jnanis’ idea of the highest position is merging into the effulgence of the Lord. But a devotee’s highest position is in preaching all over the world the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the devotees are actually the representatives of the Supreme Lord, and as such they travel all over the world directly as Narayana because they carry Narayana within their hearts and preach His glories.
Srila Prabhupada once told a priest in England that although the boys and girls in ISKCON seemed to have a variety of engagements, this did not mean they did not practice inner life. Srila Prabhupada pointed out that inner and outer activities are all ‘inner’ in Krsna consciousness because they are within the realm of daivi-prakrti. If an iron rod is kept in the fire, it eventually becomes fire. Similarly, constant engagement in Krsna consciousness constitutes inner life. That said, I would still like to draw a distinction between inner life and more outgoing preaching and management. Specifically, I would like to discuss the importance of sadhana.
In the purport to Srimad-bhagavatam 5.16.3, Srila Prabhupada presents the difference between the ‘external’ duties in Krsna consciousness and strength-giving, ‘internal’ duties:’
In our preaching work, we deal with so much property and money, so many books bought and sold, but because these dealings all pertain to the Krsna consciousness movement, they should never be considered material. That one is absorbed in thoughts of such management does not mean that he is outside of Krsna consciousness. If one rigidly observes the regulative principles of chanting sixteen rounds of the maha-mantra every day, his dealings with the material world, for the sake of spreading the Krsna consciousness movement, are non-different from the spiritual cultivation of Krsna consciousness.
There are many ways to talk about inner life, both in terms of sadhana and in terms of self-development. But it is true that everything rests on sadhana. Properly performing our sadhana leads us to self-improvement, better relationships with other devotees, more understanding of our relationship with Krsna, and so on. Sadhana is a devotee’s personal spiritual practice—chanting and hearing.
Sanatana Gosvami praises Haridasa Thakura because he is exemplary both in his behaviour (sadhana) and his preaching:
My dear sir, you are chanting the holy name three hundred thousand times daily and informing everyone of the importance of such chanting. Some behave very well but do not preach Krsna consciousness, whereas others preach but do not behave properly. You simultaneously perform both duties in relation to the holy name, by your personal behaviour and by your preaching. Therefore, you are the spiritual master of the entire world for you are the most advanced devotee in the world.
And Srila Prabhupada comments: ‘Similarly, members of the Krsna consciousness movement chant a minimum of sixteen rounds a day, at the same time they must preach the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. One who does so is quite fit to become a spiritual master for the entire world. (CC Antya 4.101-3).
In the Caitanya-caritamrta (“Teachings to Sanatana Gosvami”), there is a very clear description of inner and outer life as it develops from the spontaneous stage of devotional service. This implies that in the beginning, inner life is not so developed. According to Bhaktivinoda Thakura, vaidhi-bhakti means going through the motions of spiritual life because sadhana is performed out of duty devoid of spontaneous love. Inner life, therefore, develops according to the spontaneous stage. At that point, outer and inner life continue symbiotically. Lord Caitanya said to Sanatana Gosvami:
There are two processes by which one may execute this raganuga-bhakti, external and internal. When self-realized, the advanced devotee externally remains like a neophyte and executes all the sastric injunctions, especially hearing and chanting. However, in his mind, in his original, purified, self-realized position, he serves Krsna in Vrindavan in his particular way. He serves Krsna twenty-four hours a day, day and night. (Cc. Madhya 22.156-7).
It is therefore important for devotees to take time to perform sadhana.
Most devotees feel the need to practise good sadhana, but often, practicing good sadhana seems to conflict with other duties. How should a devotee respond? How can a devotee find the balance? Just to realise that there is such a thing as an individual’s way is to face responsibility. ISKCON cannot define or legislate what each of us should become or how to fulfill our deepest spiritual needs.
There is an individual level of spiritual life, just as there is an institutional one for members of ISKCON. I remember reading St. Francis of Assisi’s last words as they were recorded in his biography. He was surrounded by followers and disciples and had developed a movement of thousands. He said, ‘I have done what I had to do in serving Christ. Now you find your way.’ It is not possible for everyone to imitate a charismatic leader. We have to follow him. By seeing his enthusiasm, we can become more enthusiastic in our services. It is not that we think we have to take up the details of the leader’s service; we have to develop the inner meaning of that service within ourselves. Although everyone in ISKCON practises sadhana, we all have to find our own ways to develop it and make advancement.
(To Be Continued)
pp. 29-34
When I was a boy living at 125 Katan Avenue in our little Cape Cod house, we sometimes went blackberry picking at a place you could reach by walking down Katan Avenue and up a hill that had no housing development on it. There was a small wood there, although it was more like an overgrown field of brush and weeds and plenty of blackberry bushes. I would bring my mother’s aluminum pots and pick and pick and pick. My fingers would be stained from the juice and pricked by the thorns until the whole bucket was filled and brought home to my mother. Those were happy days.
Someone once said that Thoreau had such good intelligence that he should be managing the nation, not managing a group to pick blackberries. Thoreau preferred to stay out of politics, though, and I can attest that blackberry picking is good fun.
I also read a poem once describing the suffering conditions the writer experienced on his rounds as a male nurse in a hospital ward. In the midst of his poem, he suddenly tells of a character in a Chekhov story who says he has achieved happiness because he was finally able to grow gooseberries on his own land. Another character in the story laments that people who think like this are suffocating the world. How can they possibly be happy amid so much suffering? Shouldn’t we all be doing something to alleviate world suffering?
In Krsna consciousness we pick blackberries and offer them to Krsna. Just to see the devotees honoring them as the Lord’s prasadam is wonderful. That’s Krsna conscious community life and it can alleviate the world’s misery because Krsna is in the center and His mercy is available to anyone who will take it. We can’t all be militant peacemakers as this poet suggests we become. We can’t just go out and spread the teachings, give out books, and call our duty complete. To be effective and to attract people, we need recreation, agriculture, and cow protection—culture. As long as we live in this world, we should take the opportunity to pick blackberries, and we shouldn’t be ashamed of our juice-stained fingers as if they prove we should be doing more.
I remember stepping outside Matsya-avatara Prabhu’s house with him and his saying that May is the best month because it’s neither too hot nor too cool. Trees bloomed in his yard over the neoclassical statues he has placed here and there, and I found I agreed with him. It was nice to think that I could do something with that feeling: I could come back another May.
Then he and I and his son sat together while his wife and mother and daughter served prasadam from the kitchen. He has a nice painting of Srila Prabhupada on the wall, an original, rather small; it has a triptych effect because on either side are two doors that can be closed over the picture.
The different places we visit have a kind of finality to them, especially ones we won’t visit again. Even places like Matsya-avatara’s house where we will go again won’t be the same forever. I won’t always be able to sit at his table with him and enjoy the prasadam his mother has prepared and go out the door together to decide that May is the best season. Things will change despite our attempts to remain stable and fixed. “Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds.”
During another spring we arrived at the German farm and a small group of devotees came forward to meet us. Their kirtana was soft. I didn’t recognize Astaratha Prabhu among them, or Krsna-ksetra Prabhu either, because I didn’t know them well and they were such unassuming brahmacaris. How I have come to like their company.
Of course, I remember our late spring visit to Cozzile. We drove the winding roads up out of the city one year and arrived on an Ekadasi. Sridama and his wife were waiting for us at the house, the front door open. It was dusk and they served us Ekadasi biscuits and milk. I ate with pleasure in a room upstairs. It was a strange room with a high bed and pictures of Christ’s crucifixion and one of Mary. The room was dark, but I could feel my readiness to write there. Nine days later, I had completed From Imperfection, Purity Will Come About. What I didn’t write of it in that room, I wrote while sitting outside at a shaky white patio table under the cherry trees.
After that, I really struggled with free-writing and came out with a book called What Shall I Write? It’s half sunk in the sand now—it was never published—but I like the fact that I struggled so much and tested the writing process. At the end of it, I discovered the numbered writing session, something just my own.
I also took walks with Sridama in Cozzile. It was a happy time, although it has now become tinged with sadness because Sridama has left me.
Readers will find, in the Appendix of this book, scans of a cover letter written by Satsvarūpa Mahārāja to the GN Press typist at the time, along with some of the original handwritten pages of June Bug. Together, these help to illustrate the process used by Mahārāja when writing his books during this period. These were timed books, in the sense that a distinct time period was allotted for the writing, during SDG’s travels as a visiting sannyāsī
Don’t take my pieces away from me. I need them dearly. My pieces are my prayers to Kṛṣṇa. He wants me to have them, this is my way to love Him. Never take my pieces away.
Many planks and sticks, unable to stay together, are carried away by the force of a river’s waves. Similarly, although we are intimately related with friends and family members, we are unable to stay together because of our varied past deeds and the waves of time.
To Śrīla Prabhupāda, who encouraged his devotees (including me) To write articles and books about Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.
I wrote him personally and asked if it was alright for his disciples to write books, Since he, our spiritual master, was already doing that. He wrote back and said that it was certainly alright For us to produce books.
I have a personal story to tell. It is a about a time (January–July 1974) I spent as a personal servant and secretary of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, founder-äcärya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Although I have written extensively about Çréla Prabhupäda, I’ve hesitated to give this account, for fear it would expose me as a poor disciple. But now I’m going ahead, confident that the truth will purify both my readers and myself.
First published by The Gītā-nāgarī Press/GN Press in serialized form in the magazine Among Friends between 1996 and 2001, Best Use of a Bad Bargain is collected here for the first time in this new edition. This volume also contains essays written by Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami for the occasional periodical, Hope This Meets You in Good Health, between 1994 and 2002, published by the ISKCON Health and Welfare Ministry.
This book has two purposes: to arouse our transcendental feelings of separation from a great personality, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and to encourage all sincere seekers of the Absolute Truth to go forward like an army under the banner of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
A single volume collection of the Nimai novels.
Śrīla Prabhupāda was in the disciplic succession from the Brahmā-Mādhva-Gauḍīya sampradāya, the Vaiṣṇavas who advocate pure devotion to God and who understand Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He always described himself as simply a messenger who carried the paramparā teachings of his spiritual master and Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept this or it’s worse than useless.
You have given me spiritual life
and so my time is yours.
You want me to be happy in Krishna consciousness
You want me to spread Krishna consciousness,
This collection of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s writings is comprised of essays that were originally published in Back to Godhead magazine between 1966 and 1978, and compiled in 1979 by Gita Nagari Press as the volume A Handbook for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.
This second volume of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s Back to Godhead essays encompasses the last 11 years of his 20-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Back to Godhead magazine. The essays in this book consist mostly of SDG’s ‘Notes from the Editor’ column, which was typically featured towards the end of each issue starting in 1978 and running until Mahārāja retired from his duties as editor in 1989.
This collection of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s writings is comprised of essays that were originally published in Back to Godhead magazine between 1991 and 2002, picking up where Volume 2 leaves off. The volume is supplemented by essays about devotional service from issues of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s magazine, Among Friends, published in the 1990s.
“This is a different kind of book, written in my old age, observing Kṛṣṇa consciousness and assessing myself. I believe it fits under the category of ‘Literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.’ It is autobiography, from a Western-raised man, who has been transformed into a devotee of Kṛṣṇa by Śrīla Prabhupāda.”
The Best I Could DoI want to study this evolution of my art, my writing. I want to see what changed from the book In Search of the Grand Metaphor to the next book, The Last Days of the Year.
a Hare Krishna ManIt’s world enlightenment day
And devotees are giving out books
By milk of kindness, read one page
And your life can become perfect.
Calling Out to Srila Prabhupada: Poems and PrayersO Prabhupāda, whose purports are wonderfully clear, having been gathered from what was taught by the previous ācāryas and made all new; O Prabhupāda, who is always sober to expose the material illusion and blissful in knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, may we carefully read your Bhaktivedanta purports.
I use free-writing in my devotional service as part of my sādhana. It is a way for me to enter those realms of myself where only honesty matters; free-writing enables me to reach deeper levels of realization by my repeated attempt to “tell the truth quickly.” Free-writing takes me past polished prose. It takes me past literary effect. It takes me past the need to present something and allows me to just get down and say it. From the viewpoint of a writer, this dropping of all pretense is desirable.
Geaglum Free WriteThis edition of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s 1996 timed book, Geaglum Free Write Diary, is published as part of a legacy project to restore Satsvarūpa Mahārāja’s writings to ‘in print’ status and make them globally available for current and future readers.