Fortunately this week we are able to report that things went a little better than last week for Satsvarupa Maharaja. By using his writing as a barometer it was good, with Dictaphone recordings coming out daily to be typed for the latest book series. The two weeks before had been dry and dismal. Although he got more headaches (both regular and migraine) he was more upbeat and interactive with the devotees. His physical strength and walking ability improved under the care of Coach Jagannatha Suta, but that is a special relationship. Let’s see if he continues his exercises after Jagannatha leaves today.
The nights were mostly disturbed by the “sundown syndrome” . . . getting up at 8:00 or 9:00 PM (or on a good night, he’ll get up at 11:00), then a series of random activities punctuated by breaks. At any time he can be reading, writing, chanting, snacking, or acting out some Parkinson’s drama. Obviously there is no time for deep-healing sleep, so it is hard on Satsvarupa Maharaja and his servant. This is a picture of an up-and-down week.
Hari Hari,
Baladeva
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.
You could write japa with pen—Hare Krsna mantras all over the page. No one would criticize that or make you stop chanting. Do you think you owe a debt to the Beat poets?
No, I owe a debt only to Govinda. That is truth.
******
Intense temple president of Boston temple, intensely afraid of thugs and teenage ruffians, intense in mouthing japa: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna,
ah, you were intense but
don’t fade, do not go gentle into that good night. If to be intense I have to get angry, then no.
And intensity in pain provokes stress.
But what about the gopis? Yes, they were intense. I fall short. I say, “Take it easy.”
Nice ‘n’ easy
does it
every time.
******
I have no poetic heights to scale. I have only ten minutes to spare for this, then I must get back to chanting hari-nama on my beads. Holding up so I’ll be able to go out and sit in the chair my disciples have decorated for me.
******
Pink and white sky will lighten at any moment unless the clouds, already massive and blue-gray, mount a heavier campaign to darken this day…. O Hare Krsna, O Hare Krsna, I’m happy to begin that first round by candlelight. Joy, you could say, that I am able to perform this most direct yajna to contact God. Surrender to Him by saying His names quickly, as Srila Prabhupada also says them on the japa tape.
******
My unconscious often floats into my conscious. Of course, that happens when I get sleepy sitting in a chair, trying to chant a few more rounds. I wonder if I have abused transference of states from unconscious to conscious through the free-writing. Does that account for my inability to control the mind in japa even when I’m awake? I don’t usually blame it on the free-writing because it’s already been going on. Free-writing looks into what is going on already and then tries wholeheartedly to bring one to a Krsna conscious state. I hope for Krsna conscious states flowing from the uncontrolled to the controlled. Prabhupada says we are all innately Krsna conscious.
******
It seems I’ll never forget the body as long as I’m living in it. And all the literary allusions and confessions, what I thought about during japa (and even in the bathroom), chewing on the same thought again and again. I let it come and told myself that we need safety valves sometimes to let off the pressure.
******
Rsabhadeva sat in one place like a python; to keep inimical persons away, He smeared his body with His own stool. Srila Prabhupada said that if people disturb us too much we can sit down in one place, but even then yare dekha, tare kaha `krsna’-upadesa. People will come and we should preach to them. If I stay for some weeks at Inis Rath, the mail will find me and I will preach through my responses. Oh, and set an example—I won’t fall down, I’ll remain attracted to my japa, I’ll read Prabhupada’s books. Many are counting on me to lead them, so I can’t fall down. That’s even more important than how many miles I travel and how many lectures I give, or how much I huff and puff.
******
I’m so easily swayed in my resolution. I thought earlier about stopping Every Day, Just Write and starting a book about japa. I even glanced for a few moments at Begging For the Nectar and Japa Reform Notebook, and then I saw the good in Every Day, just Write. The very fact that it has no focus is truthful. Is that a strange thing to say? It’s saying the truth rather than what should be said in a book on chanting or anything else. The writing’s as pure as I can get it. I mean, free from pretension.
pp. 217-22
There are different definitions of compassion in this world, but all of them require self-sacrifice. When the twin World Trade Center towers were hit by airplanes, we had the opportunity to see self-sacrifice played out on that stage. New York firemen and police rescue workers rushed into the burning buildings to save any who had been trapped in them. These persons certainly did not consider their own safety in making the decision to help others, and many of them were killed as the buildings collapsed.
Was this mundane compassion? Devotees usually equate compassion with the act of saving others not from burning buildings but from the burning fire of samsara—repeated birth and death.
Certainly, this is Srila Prabhupada’s definition of compassion. Srila Prabhupada wanted to teach Krsna consciousness to others so that they could become free from the burning heat of material existence, and he wanted us to save ourselves through helping others.
This is why ISKCON devotees have spent years trying to preach to the nondevotees. Often however, we draw a blank as to how to express compassion toward the already converted. When an institution focuses on preaching, it naturally attracts members. Those members are human beings with minds and hearts and bodies to be cared for, and our relationships with them are not simple as the chance encounters we have with people when we distribute books on the street or go about our other services in this world. Therefore, if we are to care for these people throughout their lives, we must find very human ways in which to respond to their very human needs, and we cannot consider those human ways mundane. Rather, we want to find the balance of sharing Krsna conscious support and education with physical and mental support.
Compassion toward the nondevotees is an important part of a Vaisnava’s life. Even more important is compassion shown toward the devotees. Compassion is not an incidental quality in a Krsna conscious life but a foundational willingness to sacrifice oneself to help others.
The price to attain this quality is high. We must be prepared to give up selfishness. We must renounce pride. When we hear about another’s suffering, we actually have to put our own desires on hold and want to help spiritually, because we understand that material aid has a limited effect, but we should also help materially if we are able.
We shouldn’t feel that helping a devotee who has fallen ill in physical ways is mundane compassion or a sign that we have lost sight of the spiritual mission. Rather, if we should learn to marry the spiritual mission with the care for the devotee’s body and mind, others will learn to marry those two ideas too and become whole in their own expressions of Krsna consciousness.
ISKCON has been in the West now for thirty-five years. Although we still have many young people, many devotees are beginning to age. Our institution must face this next challenge: how to help the devotees who have given their lives to Srila Prabhupada’s mission but who have fallen ill.
Our institution is maintaining its preaching front, but ultimately, our real preaching will be how we care for those who join us. That’s what will separate lofty ideal from practical lifestyle in people’s minds. How can we actually learn to care about one another?
To answer that, we must look at the corollaries of Vaisnava compassion: humility and kindness. If we lack humility, we will tend to be presumptuous about our application of compassion. That is, we will presume we are helping more than we actually are.
We will also tend to presume that we have achieved a depth of spiritual compassion we have not attained and that we have somehow become above reaching out to help in apparently ordinary ways. Our sympathy rarely runs as deeply as we wish it would, and our motivation to be kind is often somewhat superficial.
If we lack humility, we often help with an air superiority: “At least this isn’t happening to me!” That reduces our ability to care. Therefore, the cultivation of humility is essential to the ability to practice true compassion.
If we lack humility, we usually also lack the ability to be consistently kind. As we strive to reach the ideal without the benefit of humility, we often bypass the very human expressions of kindness and consideration that are the qualities of the compassionate heart.
Devotees have even been afraid that too many acts of kindness and consideration are signs of mundane compassion and prove that we don’t know that the body and soul are different. Caring for the body—ours or someone else’s—we think, forces us to focus on the body as if it were important; but we’re not the body! Why give it any energy or care? This lack of balance is a mistake in spiritual life.
Aside from the mistake of living in an imbalanced way, we commit the mistake of pride. That is, we act beyond our actual realization. We so carefully examine our motives and try to come out acting on the spiritual plane that we act beyond our understanding and give up common courtesy.
How many of us have felt that our needs or desires are more important than the needs or desires of others simply because we are devotees? How many of us have even felt that in relation to other devotees?
If we are to find both balance and humility, we must act on behalf of the great compassionate worker, Srila Prabhupada, and care for his followers as well as preach to the nondevotees. Caring for others and ourselves can take us a long way toward breaking through any hardness of heart.
In a sense, caring for the nondevotees is easy and non-entangling; caring for those who have joined us with all their physical and mental aches and pains is more taxing. If we care for them despite the difficulties, sacrificing ourselves to give them both spiritual and material support, our sense of spiritual compassion will not remain theoretical but move into the realm of practical realization.
As we cultivate humility and self-awareness, we will see our own flaws and difficulties, and this will help us to understand what others are feeling. We will feel our own vulnerability and then feel kind toward it when we see it in others.
pp. 342-44
Sri Krsna is “handsomeness and waves of nectar of handsomeness” (Brhad-Bhagavatamrta). But Swamiji was seventy or eighty years old. We were all young men, so why were we attracted to this “old man”? (Swamiji used to say, “I’m an old man, I may die at any moment.” And, “I am a poor foreigner. Why are they after me?”)
He had the attractive features of a sage. The way he sat, the shape of his head, the gestures of his hands. He was from the East, like Gautama Buddha. He sat on the floor or on the ground, and whatever furniture he had was at a low center of gravity, no chairs. The aura and look in his eyes was from another world. You can’t describe it, his shining eyes. His eyes signaled, “You can look in my eyes but you will not be able to understand my love of Krsna, but that’s what’s there.” He was childlike also, very sweet but very strong. You couldn’t come before him like a rogue and a rascal and still approach him. You had to accept that he was an elderly person, a guru, and you must be respectful to him, and then things could happen. Then you could begin to perceive his actual beauty; he would relax and allow himself to be taken care of by you and to exchange with you.
We were certainly not turned off by the fact that he was an elderly person. We weren’t looking for youth. We knew where our youthful smart-aleck-ness had gotten us—into trouble and suffering. There was no question of sexual attraction, or as men sometimes do, squaring off with aggressiveness: “Can you beat me up? Can I beat him up?” With the Swami, it was freedom from all that because he was the guru, he was old, and he knew so many things that you didn’t know.
Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental beauty transcended his old age. The way he smiled is not a worldly thing. So young men and young women liked to come to hear the wisdom. It wasn’t just the wisdom, it was his way of moving, his graceful movements, his clothes, the things on his desk. It was a treat to be there in his presence and to watch everything, with respect and friendliness and wanting to serve.
Swamiji kept spelling everything out: He was a representative of Krsna, and Krsna is there in His name, Krsna is there in so many ways, and we can serve Krsna and go to Krsna. Aside from Swamiji, nobody was going to tell you about Krsna—that Krsna is God and that Krsna is a cowherd boy. Krsna was so “far out” we couldn’t believe it, but every time we went in front of Swamiji you had to believe it. He kept up the reality of Krsna. And in the books that he gave out—there was Krsna. He made such a powerful presentation that you said, “Let’s go up and hear the Swami talk about Krsna.” You would come to him with your concoctions, “What about this? And what about that?” But Swamiji would bring it right back to Krsna and you would accept it.
And so gradually in his presence, hearing about Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and devotional service to Krsna, you started becoming Krsna-ized, and you realized that Swamiji had knowledge and influence to do this to people—to create faith in them, for Krsna. But you had to go back regularly to him and get it charged up.
He had unshakeable faith in Krsna, and he could see Krsna. We sometimes imagined how he saw Krsna. We couldn’t quite understand it. When did he talk with Him, in sleep? Partly we imagined this, how it actually took place. Swamiji would say, “Yes, you can talk with Krsna, but He only talks with intimate persons.” We may not have known exactly how it took place but we did know that we were attracted to him because he had such a conviction about Krsna.
I remember once in that room he said, “People can talk philosophy about Krsna, but what is their realization?” Then I realized—that’s what he’s got. Swami has realization. Exactly how he realized, we didn’t know, but we had faith that he was experiencing a huge amount that we were not.
Those who were not his disciples thought he was pretty much like everybody else: He’s an old man with Hindu knowledge, but probably has the same motives and drives as everybody else. But we disciples believed in him and sensed that his perception of everything was very different from ours. He was in touch with Krsna, and he was fascinating and attractive and lovable. We could sense his mystic potency.
Even Allen Ginsberg saw it. He said, “I would disagree with him and even suspect ego exchanges, but no matter how much I disagreed, I was always glad to see him and be with him because of the aura of sweetness due to his complete dedication.” It was nicely put. Even he, although not a disciple, when coming into the Swami’s presence, was able to see, “Here is a man who is totally dedicated and in love with Krsna.” That made Swamiji beautiful; although he appeared to be an old man, he was beautiful because of his love for Krsna.
pp. 41-42
In Hawaii, one woman disciple went in to see Srila Prabhupada and brought her one-year-old daughter with her. The temple president introduced her, telling how they were trying to arrange that this woman could earn money for her needs without unduly straining the temple’s finances.
The woman said that she heard there was a job picking guavas available on the island. Prabhupada said no, a woman with a child should not take such strenuous labor. When she said that as an alternative she could distribute his books, Prabhupada smiled and approved, “Yes, do that.”
While this talk was going on, the woman’s young child began to play with papers on Prabhupada’s desk.
“No,” said Prabhupada, shaking his finger at the child.
The woman picked up her child and placed her beside her, but the little girl crawled forward and started to touch Prabhupada’s feet.
“No!” the mother called out, and she began to drag her child away, but Prabhupada said, “My papers she should not touch, but my feet, that is all right. You must learn how to instruct the child properly.”
Knowing that her time in the darsana was soon up, the mother tried to introduce a philosophical question to get some spiritual benefit from the rare opportunity of talking to Srila Prabhupada. She asked, “How do you become free from fear?”
Prabhupada replied by giving the example of Prahlada Maharaja. For him, Prabhupada said, he saw everything as coming from Krsna, whether it was good or bad, whereas for the demon, there was only fear.
Prabhupada then drank water and held the cup out to the small child. By now, however, the child was getting tired and cranky. She refused the water and threw herself on the ground, hitting her head in a temper tantrum. Before she actually began to cry, Prabhupada interrupted her and said, “Look!” pointing to the floor. “You have broken the floor!” The child immediately got up, stopped crying, and looked at the floor. Then Prabhupada gestured that they should leave.
pp. 168-73
Many people have a negative attitude toward preachers and preaching. Consider, for example, the following dictionary definition of “preaching”: “to give religious or moral instruction, especially in a drawn-out, tiresome manner.” Bearing this in mind, future generations in the Krsna consciousness movement may want to de-emphasize the words “preacher” and “preaching.” But those who follow in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada regard preaching in a positive way. To them, a preacher in ISKCON has a divine spark given him by his spiritual master, a spark of desire and power to spread the teachings of Krsna consciousness.
For the devotees, the word “preaching” denotes glorious, selfless adventures on behalf of the Supreme Lord. Preaching is the compassionate work of giving Krsna to others. The devotees will never, therefore, give up their understanding of the word in favor of the more commonly held view.
On a level deeper than that of word usage, many people in the world today abhor the very idea of propagating spiritual knowledge. They think that if spiritual lessons must be taught at all, they should be restricted to the temple or church, to those who voluntarily submit themselves to such sermonizing sessions. They say spiritual instructors should not intrude on the hallowed ground of art, philosophy, or entertainment.
A friend recently recommended I read The Art of Fiction by John Gardner for new perspectives on the craft of writing. In his book, Gardner makes the point that all writers have a serious responsibility toward their readers:
To write so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write, as Shakespeare wrote, so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on.
Good advice. Gardner goes on to say, however, “It does not mean . . . that writers should write moralistically, like preachers.”
There are preachers, and there are preachers. Krsna was a preacher; Buddha was a preacher; Christ was a preacher. Their discourses, meditations, and sermons are worthy of the best in art and philosophy, despite the fact that those discourses are infused with compassionate messages meant to direct peoples’ lives. So just as there are good writers and artists as well as bad ones, so too are there varieties of preachers. And if a writer’s moral instructions can deliver others from suffering and death, why regard such lessons as if they were a cardinal defect?
Granted, Gardner was specifically giving advice for writers of fiction, and if we consider the elements and methods of fiction writing, his advice is essentially sound. But in the process of advising us on the writer’s craft, he has insensitively stereotyped the preacher as one who makes up slow arguments, who uses words artlessly, and who is excessively moralistic. This is a common misconception about preachers and preaching.
Perhaps at the root of much of this kind of criticism is a distrust of anyone who claims his message is absolutely true. I asked Srila Prabhupada some questions on this subject one morning in January of 1977 in Bhubaneswar, India. His answers were conclusive.
“We have to give life its meaning,” I said, trying to paraphrase the existentialist’s position. “That’s the glory of man. They say he finds no meaning in life but gives his own meaning to what is actually meaningless. They say that man should face up to that uncertainty and just live his life without taking meaning from the scriptures or from anybody.”
“Why then are they distributing meaning?” said Srila Prabhupada. “Let people live in their own way. Why are you anxious to give some meaning? If by taking your instruction I stop following others, that means I’ll have to follow you. So what is the benefit? I stop following others, but I have to follow you.”
Srila Prabhupada continued to point out the inherent hypocrisy and contradiction of one person advising others to reject prima facie all claims to authority. When I told him that many people thought it dangerous to accept the authority of the spiritual master, he said, “But you ask me to surrender to you. So why shall I not surrender to a spiritual master instead?” He pointed out that in either case one must accept the opinions and viewpoints of another. Srila Prabhupada concluded, “Too much authority may be wrong if the authority is wrong. But if the authority is right, then it is better to accept.”
Another devotee told Srila Prabhupada that many people seem to prefer the eclectic method of learning, consulting many authorities without surrendering fully to any one. But Srila Prabhupada replied that if you could get everything in one place, just like a shopper who fulfills all his needs at a supermarket, then why object to only one authority?
So the Krsna conscious preacher speaks only on behalf of the Supreme Lord, and His bona fide representative, and he speaks only what he has received from them. In this way the sanctity and integrity of his message is preserved. And far from delivering a dry lesson in morality, the Krsna conscious preacher invites everyone to approach Krsna, who is all-attractive, and to enjoy transcendental exchanges with Him in a consciousness far beyond the anomalies and disturbances of material life. Through the words of His preachers, Krsna Himself is appealing to those who have forgotten Him. He is reviving their memories of who they are and who He is and inviting them to return to their original position in spiritual life and pure consciousness. Delivering this wisdom to all is the compassionate work of all Lord Krsna’s preachers.
pp. 43-47
I’m back. Out walking in the rain. Don’t try to be too careful. Just tell things valuable, the gift of speech.
There’s one man, not so hoary that you call him ancient, but old as I am old, and he’s sick. Daruka said the doctors told him he must walk, so he walks with a cane and a long coat down the long road, which is bordered on each side close with pine trees. When a car approaches, carrying devotees, he turns away from them so that you see his profiling standing and shunning us as if we were devils. I asked if he does that with people other than Hare Krsnas. I didn’t get a clear answer. Then Daruka said he thinks it’s a special behavior he’s adopted for devotees. Also, D. said he heard that someone once did get through to him. Mostly, however, if you meet him on foot or in a passing car, you get The Treatment. It’s a turning away from you, giving you half of his back. (Maybe he feels if he turned completely, you would attack him.) He remains stationary until you pass, and then he moves on. The whole thing is odd, eerie. No one talks about it. It’s a local embarrassment, as in some neighborhoods they have smelly sewers.
I walked in the rain; my ankle hurt after a while. I am getting ready to open up for a lot of June writing, I tell myself. It can (give a merry smile, old-timer) be the worst junk, it can be the best, it can be the trees moving in the wind, although you have said it many times. The skylight in Uddhava’s room, smallness of the house. I have to be open and speak because one thing will lead to another. For example, I didn’t want to mention that X said it was a crime to hide the bag of crisps under the desk when someone suddenly entered that person’s room, but I said it and it allows me to say something else. It wasn’t important for me to write about the hiding of the crisp bag, but what it led to was important.
Rain on the window. Whirring of the washing machine. Come around to Krsna consciousness now. It’s part of your life. Manu is steering a swami who is visiting Ireland so that his visit to Inis Rath won’t coincide with mine. If it does, that won’t stop me from writing. We’ll go over the border and get the residency first. Don’t even remember the name of the street in Dublin where I’m supposed to live. It’s on a second floor, just a preaching center.
Whirr, whirr.
You can’t make your life more exciting just to write about it. But that’s possible too. One householder finds life too dull at home with his wife and kids. He wants to get away from it. He wants to preach in the city. Get a restaurant or some opportunity to lecture or talk informally to newcomers. Someone wants to manage on a GBC level. Someone else wants to advertise the presence of Hare Krsna devotees at one of those rock festivals that go on for several days in the Irish countryside, go there and chant for many hours in a tent in the midst of wild and drunken kids. Someone wants to write and edit a children’s magazine. Someone loves to garden. Someone writes.
Man Shunning Us
Hey Rover, turn over! This
Yank wants to transfer
residency. Can you beat
that, boy?
Old members are replaced by new until they too are disillusioned. Maybe. Speaks open in this, and he’ll be punishable …
Now you speak. Yeah, while I realized the Hare Krsna movement is an aid to surrender, but it’s not the pinnacle. Anywhere you are, be …
Hear the beating of the rooks’ wings in my room. They might come into my room.
Open eyes.
Open Eyes
Better call it quits if you can’t do better than this. Everybody’s reputation subject to revision.
There’s no use not telling the truth. Please be Krsna conscious. Get up early and chant, and if you question, why should you do it all. We ought to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s got six out of ten votes.
List:
Read how … they give a speech on accepting the Nobel prize. Faulkner said, “Man will endure.” Mother Theresa said, “Stop abortions.” And I say the same, the barefoot man in the wet winter sod. Good-bye. The years will be here. Summer ahead, and we have a month.
Sounds to me like Uddhava and his wife are working in the garden. That’s alright. My peripheral vision imagines toads and stuff. I will have to stay awake and write.
pp. 24-27
Text 28
ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ
kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam
indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ
mṛḍayanti yuge yugeTranslation
All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.
This verse is the mahavakya, the most conclusive statement, of the entire Srimad-Bhagavatam. While Srila Prabhupada has said that each and every word of the Bhagavatam is important, the mahavakya is the emperor verse that rules all kings. In this verse, Krsna is distinguished from the other incarnations; He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead.
At the same time that He is different from other incarnations, Krsna is one of the avataras because like the others He appears on schedule. Thus we have found Him listed as number twenty on this particular list of principal incarnations, and He is said to be scheduled to appear at the end of Dvapara-yuga. As with all incarnations, Krsna comes to fulfill a mission. It’s not that to prove His position as the origin of all other incarnations He has to appear first on the list at the beginning of Satya-yuga. Rather, He is eternally the original, and by His arrangement, the avataras appear and disappear over time.
When the Supreme Lord appears as an avatara, He displays whatever Sakti is required for the particular mission at hand. Prabhupada compares this to the electric powerhouse, which can simultaneously manifest small amounts of power in order to fuel light bulbs, or large amounts of power to keep a whole factory running. Whatever power is required is manifest, and the full power remains in the powerhouse itself. Great power was needed in order to subdue the demon Hiranyakakpu. Therefore, Krsna descended as Lord Nrsimhadeva in order to cut that demon to pieces.
Krsna’s identity as the original Godhead and the source of all incarnations is a matter of fact. In His original form as Krsna, He displays a hundred percent of His powers as the all-attractive Supreme Person. When He comes as Lord Rama, He chooses to act perfectly within the confines of the dharma set for a human king; when He appears as Narada or Buddha, He displays the quality of being able to create faith in others; but when He appears as Lord Krsna, He does not confine Himself to human morality. Rather, He does everything according to His own enjoyment.
In his purport, Prabhupada emphasizes that Krsna’s pastimes with the gopis are the highest display of His independence and opulence: ” . . . He is the source of all other incarnations. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Sri Krsna was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd girls.” How wrongly people misjudge Krsna when they mistake His pastimes with the gopis for mundane sexual affairs! People who make this mistake often prefer Krsna’s manifestation of the universal form to His most supreme madhurya aspect.
Krsna makes various statements in Bhagavad-gita which con-firm His supremacy. Mattah parataram nanyat, “There is no truth superior to Me.” Aham sarvasya prabhavo, “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds.” In the very first verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is declared that Krsna, the son of Vasudeva, is svarat, supremely independent. That is the definition of God: one who needs no other existence but is eternally, supremely the source of all existence.
Prabhupada mentions that Krsna’s sixty-four qualities (as they are listed in The Nectar of Devotion) are qualities that other incarnations, and even ordinary living beings, can display to some small degree. A most perfected jiva like Lord Brahma can show seventy-eight percent of Krsna’s qualities, although those can be manifested only in part. Even fully empowered incarnations do not possess four of the qualities which are present in Vraja Krsna alone.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja also discusses this mahavakya verse in the second chapter of the Caitanya-caritamrta. There, Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami proves that Krsna is the Supreme form of Bhagavan. Then he establishes that Sri Krsna is nondifferent from Lord Caitanya.
“Keeping the mind concentrated on hearing the holy names and not straying to other thoughts requires a careful balancing act. It is like balancing yourself on a railroad track. You can’t over-concentrate on your walk, but you have to go ahead, just keeping your mind on balancing and walking confidently ahead. It is like writing this japa essay. I can’t think that I have run out of worthwhile things to say. I have to go ahead and keep moving. This means depending on Krsna. It is beyond your own power. You keep a lighthearted attitude, always thinking that Krsna will keep you balanced, Krsna will supply you more words. Sometimes if you are riding on a bicycle and see some object ahead of you, and you’re afraid you will hit it, you may become over-concerned and get drawn like a magnet to hit the object you want to avoid. So in chanting, you have to keep hearing the holy names and not get over-worried that you’re going to start thinking of some other things, or else they’ll start filtering into your mind and you’ll get stuck on them. Today I did not get stuck into deep, lengthy subjects other than the chanting of the holy names. Light thoughts came up that were distractions, and I had to put them aside again and again. You have to go ahead with daring, like a locomotive, planning that the tracks will be intact and that you will not go off them. This is why chanting requires a relaxed, easy-going mood, not an uptight attitude. Sail along through the minutes and through the rounds and accumulate your quota.
“But there is something else you can do besides keeping balance. While keeping balance, you can go deeper into your mind and think of Rādhā and Krsna in Vṛndavana. It should come naturally and not be an awkward juggling act, like doing too many things at once. Rumble carefree along the tracks, and use your extra concentration to pray. (Japa Transformations, p. 93)
Consideration of keeping
on the concentrated track
in japa or writing, keep
yourself balanced like a
worker on the railroad
tracks. Keep moving
ahead and depending
on Krsna. Don’t become
over-selfconscious
or worried that you’re
going to think of
other things. Not
an uptight attitude
but an easygoing mood.
Be serious and control
the light distractions.
“Rumble carefree along
the tracks and
use your mind to concentrate to pray.
Maybe today you can
break through and look upon
Radha-Krsna who are standing
before you. Concentrate on Krsna consciousness
and know that Krishna Himself is all-powerful
in a balanced, transcendental way.
Radha-Govinda reciprocate with me.
I come to the Deity puja waving the
incense stick near the climax of
my morning bhajana.
I have chanted most of my rounds
and written most of the website.
I am a little tired.
The darsana of the arca-vigraha
revives my spirits. Anyone who
thinks the Deity is made of brass
or the spiritual master is an ordinary man
dwells in hell. I do not dwell in hell, but I believe
Radha-Govinda are spiritual forms
nondifferent than the aprakata
Divine Couple in the spiritual world.
They play in Vrndavana’s forests.
They ride the swing together in Jhulan-yatra.
They bathe and splash each
other in Radha’s lake.
They engage in amorous sports in the caves of
Govardhana Hill. They dance with
many gopis in the
rasa-yatra. Sometimes They
experience the spiritual bliss of separation
from one another. This causes intense grief
and apparent lamentation. It is relieved
by sambhanda when They enjoy reunion again.
The mellows of Their relationship
has millions of varieties
and the pure devotees taste them in devotional service.
I am grateful to reside with Them in Viraha Bhavan.
pp. 16-22
I wrote a rather small book called Life with the Perfect Master, in which I chronicled my life with Prabhupāda during the time I served him. There was a lot of traveling during this time, as Prabhupāda went to places in India, and then accepted an invitation to tour Europe. Although it was frantic keeping up with him, doing his cooking, typewriting letters and keeping up with my worldwide tasks from a distance as GBC by telephone for the Midwest U.S. zone, and keeping track of my duties as editor-in chief of Back to Godhead magazine, there were good chances to hear his lectures in foreign countries, and there were times to be intimate with him.
Was Prabhupāda the same as time went by? Yes and no. He was always the same spiritual master, friendly and loving to all. But as the movement’s popularity grew by leaps and bounds, it became an institution, and Prabhupāda wasn’t so much available to everyone. I was fortunate that I was with him from the beginning, and he always remembered me that way. But the “dynamics” were different. There wasn’t as much vapuḥ, or personal association, to go around to each and every devotee in the movement. He urged us to know him by his books and by our service to his mission, and not count on him as we did in the beginning. I am so grateful for my personal “window” to the spiritual master, before there were books or opulent temples or austerities of the preaching mission.
* * * * *
I have not watched Daivi-śakti’s show
on Prabhupāda in SPL for over a month now.
I have been sick with Parkinson’s disease.
She must have forgotten me.
But I am recovering
and will catch up with the show eventually.
She must be up to Prabhupāda in America now.
I’ve missed a lot, and I’m sorry.
I can catch up on the Daivi-śakti shows
I missed by picking them up on YouTube.
It will take some while for me to find time in my schedule to do this.
But I very much want to watch the shows on Prabhupāda
and how Daivi-śakti has expanded on the basics of SPL.
She has done a wonderful job.
We pray that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books
be placed in every town and village
and that they be translated into all
the world’s languages
and that they be read by the devotees.
I chanted thirty rounds today: that’s not shabby.
Yes, but it’s the quality that counts.
Even if a guilty man
was not allowed to enter
Prabhupāda’s temple
he could chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra
and read Prabhupāda’s books.
For “two paise,” you can buy
the books of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura,
memorize them,
and you’ll be the best writer of pieces.
Using Mother Rambhoru’s recipe, make an apple pie and add vanilla ice cream. Be sure to offer it sincerely to Rādhā-Govinda and serve it to the devotees at Viraha Bhavān.
Rebellious Raymond defied the guru: “If you didn’t have a light bulb, you couldn’t worship your statue.” The Swami snapped back, “We can see Kṛṣṇa in the dark.”
After a lifetime in preparation and twelve years of active world preaching, Prabhupāda, although very old and infirm, told a few disciples that his mission was only half-completed. One of the disciples asked him, “Is that other half further development of book distribution?” Prabhupāda said, “No. It is further development of varṇāśrama.”
Although he was old and ill, he wanted to go to his Pennsylvania farm (Gītā-nāgarī) and develop varṇāśrama there. Despite his infirmity, he wanted to oversee the growth of farms, cow protection, and rural living. He served and worked tirelessly, with no other motivation except to please his spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa. Development of farms goes on in ISKCON, per Prabhupāda’s instruction.
Try making another list, expanding off the last item on the list. Or speed writing.
For him, the best Ratha-yātrā was 1976, going with three carts down Fifth Avenue.
Some of the “pieces” are as small as translated “haikus.” But they too are related to Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. Sometimes I expand a piece to several paragraphs and keep the focus on Gaurāṅga and the pāriṣadas. Always remember Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa; never forget Them. Love Them with all your heart, and never, never be indifferent to Them.
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.