Vyasa Puja Birthday Celebration of H.H. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 845 Hudson Avenue, Stuyvesant Falls, New York 12173
There is plenty of parking near the Hall. The facility is just a few minutes’ walk from SDG’s home at 909 Albany Ave.
10:00 – 10:30 A.M. Kirtana
10:30 – 11:15 A.M. Presentation by Satsvarupa Maharaja
11:15 – 12:30 P.M. Book Table
12:30 – 1:15 P.M. Arati and kirtana
1:15 — 2:15 P.M. Prasadam Feast
Baladeva Vidyabhusana at [email protected] or (518) 754-1108
Krsna dasi at [email protected] or (518) 822-7636
Madana Gopal at [email protected](973) 876-4508
“I request as many devotees as possible to attend so we can feel the family spirit strongly. I become very satisfied when we are all gathered together.”
******
“In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin.”
“The process of advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service is described here. The first point is that one must seek the association of persons who are Kṛṣṇa conscious and who engage in devotional service. Without such association one cannot make advancement. Simply by theoretical knowledge or study one cannot make any appreciable advancement. One must give up the association of materialistic persons and seek the association of devotees because without the association of devotees one cannot understand the activities of the Lord….. One who has firm faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes fixed, and his attraction for association with the Lord and the devotees increases. Association with devotees means association with the Lord. The devotee who makes this association develops the consciousness for rendering service to the Lord, and then, being situated in the transcendental position of devotional service, he gradually becomes perfect.”
— Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.25, verse and purport
We need to expand our team of proofreaders as we aim to increase the rate of republication of Satsvarūpa Mahārāja’s books as well as new books that he writes.
This includes a need for fluent bilingual Spanish and English speakers to proofread Spanish translations (we currently have around 20 Spanish translations waiting to be proofread).
Anyone interested in this particular service should contact Manohara dāsa at [email protected]
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.
Madhu said he prayed to Panca-tattva for help and apparently recited the trnad api verse over and over interspersed or as a theme prayer—think yourself unimportant. I was impressed to hear him speak of praying like that, something I can’t seem to do. Bhakti-rasa read some more about Haridasa Thakura. Haridasa and Raghunatha Gosvami kept high quantities of holy names chanting and Raghunatha bowed down to a thousand Vaisnavas daily.
******
So here we are on the third day of proposed seven. Schedule it. It’s the most auspicious activity in the universe, said Sukadeva Gosvami. When Lord Caitanya heard a student blaspheming the glories of the holy name as exaggerations to induce us to chant, the Lord was very unhappy and He said no one should even see that student’s face.
******
Sixty-four rounds a day, the most auspicious activity in the universe. Why should we do less? As long as we are able, as long as we know this is best—and don’t worry, we will not become full-time babajis. What if we developed taste for the holy name and kept up some extra quota even after this week? Would that be so bad?
******
O holy name. I will begin it and do it and ask my body to be calm and get me through the day. I hope to go outdoors and walk a half hour to reach the lake and then a half hour to return, chanting and chanting.
******
Chanting and chanting. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. Are there some lessons you can learn? Are you writing this down to keep a record? One doesn’t go deep, doesn’t penetrate. But you can’t berate yourself. You are doing well to make the increase in quantity. Don’t want to provoke a headache by self-berating.
******
O my Lord, somehow I continue to commit offenses and therefore I don’t feel a taste for chanting. Anything I can do about that? Aside from just going on chanting the quota? I think about it. I try to be more attentive. Hear the syllables. Treat it respectfully. Discharge the vrata. These seem to be the main points that are within my control. Don’t neglect the quota. It takes all my efforts just to do it, all day, and I don’t have more energy to write about it or even to pray. Does it take extra energy to pray or just a different attitude?
******
I do seem to be ignorant
fool number one
chants all day but
can’t pray.
Ignoramus cannot
utter God’s name with
feeling. Can’t find where
his heart is.
In the chest?
Don’t bother, he says, just
go on chanting Hare Krsna
Hare Krsna and don’t get
a headache
up your quota, your count.
Count, count and spend the
number upwards. Climb
the ladder and hold on . . .
Hare Krqta, eight minutes, nine rounds,
whatever it takes—as long
as you keep doing one after another
and don’t waste time
on anything else.
You’ll reach sixty-four by 6 P.M.
That’s your sole duty this week
and “Don’t ask me for more.”
******
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, he looks like a fireman on
duty. What’s he doing? You can’t see, but he’s
chanting the holy names.
It’s an inward art and outwardly he
sounds off, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna,” chases away
maya and demons—it’s not idle or “doing nothing.”
Sure, it’s a simple act, and that’s
Lord Caitanya’s mercy.
******
You say, “I can’t do more than utter them. In addition, I can’t feel humble, feel like a blade of grass. I can think about that, I guess, but so far it’s just counting.” Maybe today I could add something. Cue yourself, “Hey, smarty, now that you are chanting, why don’t you add something? Why don’t you feel remorse, or how about love, ecstasy, or desire to serve your guru’s mission?”
******
Yeah, chant, chant
while you walk or sit.
Hare Hare, catch the syllables
and make sure they are all
coming out.
That’s enough work for a day and
better than being a worker on
a crew laying tarmac or
driving to town to
fetch supplies and deliver a
FedEx in a truck
what?
Better than all that.
******
He removes himself from scandals of sin. Devotees may say this is a scandal in itself, to just chant. But it’s only a week, mates, and Sukadeva Gosvami says it’s the most auspicious act in the universe.
We’re having a rather large gathering at Thanksgiving, and some of the members won’t be Kṛṣṇa conscious, so Sastra asked me if I could give a “secular” talk. I don’t think I can. We have to thank God. I believe the first Thanksgiving was observed in the sixteen hundreds by the Pilgrims who sailed to America from England. They endured a bitter winter trying to make a settlement and dealing with the native Indians but somehow managed to survive. They shot some turkeys and had a feast and thanked God. They were a religious sect, the Puritans, who escaped England because of religious persecution.
So when we give thanks on this day, it must be to our Provider, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We can think of all the ways in which we are grateful. We should express our gratitude that we’re able to eat so amply and not take it for granted, since many people in the world are starving. We should be thankful that we have a family of warm friends and relatives who can gather in harmony on this day and not in bitterness or split up. Children should be thankful to their parents, and parents thankful to their children for their obedience and growing up as good persons who want to make a contribution to the world.
In the religious field, a spiritual master should be thankful to his disciples for their service and assistance, which he offers to God, or Kṛṣṇa, and disciples should be thankful for the guidance of the spiritual master. We should be thankful we live in a civilized country where religious freedom is guaranteed.
Aside from the things I put into a speech at a family gathering on Thanksgiving, I may consider privately the things I’m grateful for. I’m grateful that Śrīla Prabhupāda came to me and saved my life. And especially that I met him in 1966. I’m grateful that I didn’t join him by joining an institution or through his disciples but that he personally handled me in the early days, when it was like a family. I’m grateful that he gave me positions to serve in ISKCON, such as temple president, and that he put me on the GBC when he formed it and that he picked my name to initiate on his behalf. I’m grateful that he called me to be his personal servant in 1974, put me in charge of the library party and that he always seemed to appreciate my service. I’m grateful that he and the GBC asked me to write the Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta. I’m sorry that I failed him with my falldown, but grateful that I was able to work with Brahmatīrtha Prabhu and the GBC committee to retain my position as sannyāsī in ISKCON and keep my faithful disciples. I am grateful that I’ve been able to spend my later years in relative peace and quiet and take up renewed interest in chanting and hearing.
….. I also obtained historical documentation of the first Thanksgiving. There was one in 1621 at Plymouth, where the colonists shared an autumn harvest feast with the Wanpanoag Indians. There was another ceremony of thanks among British settlers at the Berkeley plantation in Virginia in 1619. This was the first official Thanksgiving. At this site near the Charles River in December 1619, a group of British settlers, led by Captain John Woodlief, “knelt in prayer and pledged ‘Thanksgiving’ to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic.” Native American groups throughout the Americas organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
….. We had a nice Thanksgiving gathering at Śāstra’s house. Two families with all their children were present. The house was filled, and the table was filled with a full feast, mostly cooked by Baladeva. The menu was seitan, stuffing, acorn squash, mashed potatoes, gravy, steamed broccoli, three bean salad, and as part of Śāstra’s family tradition, cauliflower parmesan and spaghetti. And for dessert, a cream cheese pumpkin roll, an apple pie, and Sara’s peppermint bark candy. I gave a talk which was family oriented and included an introduction about the first Thanksgiving in America. (Delaware Diaries, pp. 337-39, 348, 370)
p. 64
Father in white fire-captain’s uniform
is going door-to-door
in an R.V. camper,
Thanksgiving morning.
He tells me that at one door he heard
a bird peep inside, and he told
the people, “Thanksgiving is for growth.”
Father seemed eager
to please devotees, and he was going
door-to-door, like a preacher.
p. 162
I’m praying to You another thanksgiving. I thank You for the just-published Under Dark Stars. It’s wild but good, I think. I hope You like it. I thank You for my evening snack and for Dattatreya reading to me while I honor the prasadam. I thank You for the medication that quells my headaches.
I thank You for the training I’ve received, mainly from Prabhupada’s books and lectures, training in Krsna consciousness. This knowledge of bhakti is the most important thing in the world, but it is rare that people come in contact with it and accept it. You have brought me in contact with my spiritual master and given me the faith to accept him as my guru and accept his orders as my vocation. I’m very grateful for this. I’m thankful that I’ve imbibed the basic instructions of the bhakti-sastras, coming as guru, sadhu and sastra.
I thank You for being who You are, Govinda, the cowherd boy, the lover of the gopis, especially Srimati Radharani. You are lovable and beautiful in Your all-attractive spiritual form. You are also the most powerful person and can subdue any army of enemies. You possess the six qualifications of Bhagavan—fame, beauty, wisdom, strength, riches, and renunciation—and You possess them to an unlimited degree. I am proud to have such a supreme, all-attractive person as my Lord.
I thank You for accepting the services I have rendered in ISKCON and for forgiving me for my wrongs. You have been very kind to me in protecting my relationship with Srila Prabhupada.
I thank You for generating, maintaining and destroying the universes according to Your divine plan. You are the supreme controller, and everything that happens is willed by You as providence. I am thankful that all things are working under Your control and that not a blade of grass moves but that You make it happen. I feel secure that You are at the helm.
I am thankful for the little and big things You do in this world. I do not understand Your workings, but I have faith in them. Your works are not to be understood but accepted; You are the supreme great, the supreme mystic, and my position is to worship You and serve You.
Please accept my gratitude and make it strong and sincere. I never want to second guess You or doubt Your behavior. Please let me be a steady servant of Your servant and always be grateful to You for what You do for all of us, Your parts and parcels, and especially Your devotees.
pp. 71-74
Here I will attempt to write down some of the encounters our party has had with college professors as we try to distribute Prabhupada’s books to the university libraries and college courses.
We do not meet any saintly persons among the professors. Although they are serious about their studies, there is nothing of importance they can pass on to us. Just by meeting a pure devotee, we can be enlightened. Although we have traveled to many universities, no professor has given any enlightenment.
They almost all believe Bhagavad-gita is a myth. They do not know if it took place. We are writing firsthand accounts here just to expose their method of research and to expose their lack of realization —so that devotees of Krsna consciousness and innocent persons need not be awed or influenced by the nondevotional, academic scholar. He is not authentic.
At a community college in St. Louis, I was allowed to teach a World Religions class. Afterwards the professor asked, “Do you take Bhagavad-gita to be a mystical book?” “Yes,” I answered. Then he objected and said, “Why do you insist on one way of understanding it so that you even put ‘As It Is’ in the title?” He went on to say that from the mystical writings of China and other places that he had read, “mystic” meant beyond any one perception, not known as just one way, but encompassing all ways. “That is impersonal,” I told him and explained, “The ultimate mystic of mystical objects is God, Krsna. The devotee prays before God, taking Him as the Supreme Mystic: ‘Lord, You are the unlimited and always beyond my comprehension because You have unlimited potencies. I surrender myself to You and wish to be engaged in Your service.”‘
That particular professor had nothing more to say, but the very next day I was fortunate enough to be speaking about this very discussion of what is “mystical” to a professor at Southern Illinois University and he immediately objected in the same way. “I am suspicious of your confidence in thinking you have the key to understanding the truth,” he said. He had been raised as a Christian by persons who also thought they knew the truth, and he was very suspicious of it now. He frankly said that “mystic” to him meant the ultimate void. It reminded me of a third professor, a liberal-minded Jewish psychology professor who let me teach a class in San Francisco University—he sounded the same theme. After my presentation, he said he felt Krsna consciousness was too rigid in its insistence that the Bhagavad-gita be understood in only one way. He said the Kabbala is so mystical that it is said the letters of the text mysteriously change themselves over time to adjust to the new truths of new times. I explained to him that Krsna’s message in the Gita is clear. He is the Supreme Person and He asks that everyone surrender to Him. There is no scope for taking it in different ways. For example, if I say “Give me a glass of water,” you may say, “This can be taken in many different ways.” But isn’t it clear, even grammatically, that I am asking for a glass of water? If you say, “You don’t want a glass of water really. Actually you are saying that you don’t exist and therefore don’t need any water,” can’t I say you are crazy and speculative? This professor was surprised. He said, “You mean you take Bhagavad-gita literally?”
Why do they all have this similar disease, taking “mystical” to mean vague, infinitely never-known? It is because they have no information about real spiritual life, and whatever training they have is from impersonalist speculators. One of their students asked me innocently, “I thought Bhagavad-gita could be taken in many ways.” They think Srila Prabhupada is presenting something against the standard by insisting on literally believing Krsna when He claims He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They have no faith at all. They think the history of Kuruksetra and Krsna and Arjuna is mythical, allegorical and open to their interpretation. Therefore, they can never understand the Gita as it is.
Another time, a professor who was listening to me addressing his colleague about how the Gita could definitely be known, interrupted to say, “Gita can be understood in different ways. On the one hand, you have Krsna saying to Arjuna, who did not want to fight, that the soul is immortal, and therefore you can’t kill anyway. Then on the other hand, He is telling Arjuna that as a warrior he must fight because it is his duty. The Gita teaches that one’s duty is the highest truth.”
That is also a typical professorial gem. While it is true that Krsna told Arjuna to fight, as it was his ksatriya duty, the real sense of the duty is that it is his obedience to God. “Do it for Me,” says Krsna, and there will be no bad reaction. They often put the highest meaning of Gita as this “duty,” or speak abstractly of “devotion to the God” a million miles away from themselves—”for objectivity’s sake.” No, Krsna doesn’t teach abstract duty for its own sake as the highest principle, or a wishy-washy indication of “devotion to God” (whatever God may be), but, “Surrender to Me. I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead standing before you.” This message is for all humanity. That is the real meaning of Bhagavad-gita. Just see how they twist it and screw out mistaken meanings to suit their own likings. If they did not do that, they would have to consider themselves in the bright light of self-realization and would have to give up sense gratification, the sense of being the lord, and their insatiable lust for mental speculation.
It was a kind of hand-to-hand combat with a professor of behavioral psychology at Washburn University of Topeka. He was young and dressed like a hippy with a big bunch of curly hair on his head. He told me how in his study, they conduct many, many experiments with rats, and by giving them certain rewards, they observe how they act. I said the data from the rats’ behavior couldn’t be applied to humans. He said that in a certain controlled environment, human behavior is also predictable—people can be motivated by praise and attention. I informed him that the Vedic literature gives us information of the living entity as spirit soul, and his satisfaction cannot be gauged by tests with rats or controlling material conditions. He admitted a human being was different than a rat, but said as to why one becomes a human being, that is a matter of genetics. (I think his idea was that everything can be ultimately controlled for the satisfaction of the living being as a soulless entity possessed with material desires and fears, which are dealt with in the view of temporary life being the all-in-all.)
He denied that the soul could be proved. I said it can be perceived by consciousness. He said consciousness wasn’t a symptom of the soul. I said it was and the soul proper can be perceived when the senses are purified, that it’s a science. He said no, it is philosophy. Yes, I said, it is also philosophy, but do not take it as a sentimental faith. He was eating french-fried potatoes while we spoke, and I pointed out to him that he was acting in faith that he was not being a victim of food poisoning. He said no, this is a proven thing by repeated data, a habitual practice. Still, it is faith. We have faith in Krsna. We are able to experience by scientific bhakti methods that there is a soul and this is taught in the Gita. Many psychologists are interested in the higher consciousness beyond sense perception—knowing the self as taught in the Gita.
pp. 239-47
Every month
a different GBC disciple
would come
to live with Prabhupada
to learn firsthand
how to serve guru.
One such visitor came,
a naive incompetent,
but made into a swami
by His Divine Grace.
Flying from Dallas,
the visitor arrived—
his first visit to India.
Carrying his danda
on the ferry from Navadwip,
he finally arrived
in the presence of Prabhupada,
who was pleased to receive him:
“Now we have five sannyasis.
So stay here
and chant Hare Krsna.
I will give you letters
to type and reply.”
The visitor stayed
in the next room,
running in when Prabhupada
rang the bell.
Delighting in bananas and yogurt
and answering Prabhupada’s mail,
the visitor was otherwise bewildered
in the sweltering heat,
learning slowly
the secret of the dham.
Approaching the master
in awe and reverence,
he watched how Prabhupada preached—
always, always, always
speaking on behalf of Krsna
the ever-fresh instructions
of the Bhagavad Gita.
Slowly, from Prabhupada’s
perfect activities,
the visitor learned.
Writing down
a few lines
from the ocean of Prabhupada’s
philosophic talks,
the visitor stayed
a few weeks,
seeing with opened eyes
the reality
of the sincere workers for Prabhupada,
those who stayed on in Mayapur,
the sold-out servants.
The visitor noticed
from his sweltering room
the file of rickshas
like a desert mirage
and people walking
in the brilliant sunshine
with black umbrellas.
He was only a bellring
from Prabhupada in the next room,
but intimacy of consciousness
had to be earned.
Prabhupada began
commenting on Upadesamrta,
and the visiting sannyasi
took the dictation in shorthand.
It was Prabhupada’s mercy
to engage a fallen soul
in secretarial work
during the quiet, hot days
of a Mayapur summer.
Without sastra
how could we understand
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu?
Not by merely visiting
Navadvipa’s holy places,
ruins, rivers, murtis,
can one receive
the realized meaning
of Sri Pancha-tattva.
Nor by casually talking
with local sadhus
can we grasp
the dynamic nature
of the sankirtana movement.
Authorized books are needed,
and the best is
Caitanya-caritamrta,
by Krsnadasa Kaviraja.
Even if at first
understanding is theoretical,
without this book of knowledge
there would be nothing at all.
Gradually, by reading and serving,
the truths become known:
“To those who worship Me
with love, I give
the understanding
by which they can come to Me.”
Accepting parampara,
the method of hearing
with certainty and logic,
we accept the version
of Krsnadasa Kaviraja,
as given by Srila Prabhupada.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja’s book would be otherwise hidden. read only by a few Bengalis. Or worse—it would be rendered into English by atheist scholars who would twist its meaning into a mundane perversion.
But now we have the nectar of Caitanya-caritamrta given by Prabhupada—the entire Adi-lila.
Madhya and Antya-lilas.
Now Krsnadasa Kaviraja
becomes the well-wishing
friend of all the world.
Only Prabhupada could comment
with knowledge and living proof
that the predictions of Caitanya-caritamrta
had come true.
Now, the distribution of the fruits
of love of Godhead
was being tasted.
Now proven, the premise
that the Pancha-tattva made
no discrimination as to who should receive
the Holy Name.
Now proven, the axiom
that Gaura-Nitai should be worshiped everywhere.
Now it was reality—
the worship of the bona-fide
spiritual master.
Now the widespread glorification
of the land of Lord Caitanya
and the constant remembrance
and relish of Gauranga’s lila.
Now on all the continents
in the twentieth century
continue the practices of Lord Caitanya
and His associates—
honoring prasadam together,
going out together
with mrdanga and karatalas,
chanting harinama,
being stopped by the Kazi’s police
and protesting that interruption—
going on with the sankirtana, whatever the costs.
Now transcultural, bold preaching
on behalf of Lord Caitanya,
in His shelter,
millions of families
recalling the pastimes
of Lord Krsna in Vrndavana
in the authorized way,
through the teachings of the Goswamis.
Now all these goals and more
were going forth,
and the very verses
of Krsnadasa Kaviraja
were preserved
as worshipable books,
placed in universities
throughout the world.
From My Search Through Books
pp. 98-101
Professor Grebanier reminded me of pictures you see of Dr. Samuel Johnson from the 18th Century. Grebanier was always saying “brilliant,” witty things or being insulting. He presented himself as thoroughly realized in all literature and he pontificated on everything. I took two courses from him, one on poetry and one on Shakespeare. The Shakespeare course was very popular and was held in a large hall that slanted downwards. There were over a hundred students in that class. We used Grebanier’s own book called The Heart of Hamlet. In this book, he blasted all critics of Hamlet. Every scholar had some interpretation of Hamlet, but he said that they had all completely confused the play. Grebanier’s interpretation was like a perverted reflection of what Prabhupada actually did in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Grebanier was saying that only he knew Hamlet as it is. The trouble with everyone else is that they put their own speculations in and tried to teach their philosophies. They thought that Shakespeare did not even know what he was doing. But actually, the play is very clear. All you have to do is study the texts and you can understand the motivations of Hamlet, why he hesitated to kill his father’s murderer, and what he really meant when he said, “To be or not to be.” On each and every point there is no need for speculation.
Grebanier’s book was like he himself, filled with witty footnotes and digressions. He caricatured and made fun of all the other scholars. He was convinced of all his own eccentricities and excesses. He was right. What he was saying made the play understandable. So he taught from that book, and it took a long time, going carefully over each line.
When I studied Hamlet with Grebanier, the big question—which he said puzzled all the inferior scholars—is why did Hamlet hesitate to kill his father’s murderer? Everyone had their own opinion about this. Some said that Hamlet was wishy-washy, some said that he did not have sufficient criminal evidence, or that he was too philosophical, and so on. Well, it no longer seems to me to be a deep issue. Even if we get the answer right, whose life will be improved? The questions in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, by comparison, are crucial and relevant for everyone’s welfare. Maharaja Pariksit’s dilemma was, “What is the duty of one who is about to die?” And the question asked by Maharaja Yudhisthira (and at another time by Maharaja Prthu) was, “How can we, who are householders and involved in worldly duties, come out of the entanglement of birth and death and achieve spiritual perfection?”
Hamlet asked the question, “To be or not to be?” But he never asked, “Who am I?” He saw the ghost of his father, but he never consulted with a bona fide saintly person who could have raised the issues to the transcendental platform, for everyone’s benefit, including those who watch the play. Hamlet is tragic, as is all material life. And certainly, Shakespeare spoke like an empowered demigod with abilities for poetic-philosophical expressions that have rarely been equalled. When all is said and done in Act Five, we get a heavy load of dead, but what wisdom? Where is that Hamlet where the hero—like Arjuna—is told that he is considering everything on the bodily platform, and that there is a higher truth? Where is that Shakespearean masterpiece where the spirit soul inquires from the guru, “What is my duty?” We want to see that play. That is our demand. Hamlet is not transcendental.
When we look at Hamlet from the spiritual perspective, he appears to be a very likely candidate for spiritual knowledge. Consider his famous speech in which he agonized about the temporality of human life:
“…. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—no, not woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
—Hamlet, Act 2, Scene II
Prabhupada says that anyone who comes to the point of seeing that material life is full of perplexities and that it has no real happiness, is advanced in consciousness and is eligible for liberation. Like a god, Shakespeare was able to create characters from all walks of life: kings, soldiers, poets, priests, submissive ladies, ladies of high spirit, buffoons like Falstaff, etc., but where is the knowledgeable guru figure? Where is his Narada, his Agastya Muni? How wonderful it would be if into the crisis of Shakespeare’s tragedies, a guru figure could have walked on stage and resolved things, not from a material point of view, but by showing the real resolution—transcendental knowledge of devotional service to the Supreme.
It may appear that I have said both Grebanier and Srila Prabhupada brought out the truth of the text they studied, while criticizing previous speculations of scholars. But there is a great difference between the two commentators. For one thing, Srila Prabhupada criticized upstart impersonalist speculation of all sorts, but he faithfully represented the disciplic succession of Vaisnava commentators. Prabhupada never claimed that he was the first one to ever understand the Bhagavad-gita. Furthermore, even if we say that Grebanier removed confusing speculation about Hamlet and proved that the play is clear by itself—even then, it is not that “Hamlet-as-it-is” gives us the revealed word of God. When Hamlet’s apparently enigmatic motives are actually made clear, then we see him as a conditioned soul who was perhaps not such a big vacillator after all, but who was ignorant of the goal of life and how to achieve it. Thus there is a great difference between allowing Hamlet to speak for himself, and allowing Krsna to speak for Himself. When the Bhagavad-gita is cleared from the misconceptions of devious commentators, then the Supreme Lord speaks His loving intentions to all living entities: “Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend” (Bg.18.65). Srila Prabhupada writes, “Bhagavad-gita is not an ordinary book written by a poet or fiction writer; it is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Any person fortunate enough to hear these teachings from Krsna or from His bona fide spiritual representative is sure to become a liberated person and get out of the darkness of ignorance” (Bg. 18.73, purport).
The difference between the Elizabethan playwright and Bhagavan Sri Krsna is the difference between the finite fallible soul and the infinite Supreme Soul. The benefit that one may derive from reading Krsna’s words with attention and worship, is also infinitely greater than the benefit of studying Shakespeare’s plays.
pp. 301-304
I’m going to wrap this book up soon.
I think I know what dying is, in my own way. It’s countdown. Prabhupada used to say when a baby is born, the parents are so happy, but he’s actually one day dead, and when she’s one year old, a blooming tot, and they’re celebrating her first birthday, she’s actually one year dead. You may say that’s a grotesquely reversed way to look at time, but it’s the factual way. Each moment is taken off from a total, and the countdown begins at birth. The yogis say our time is measured in breaths.
They are given a certain number of breaths for a lifetime, and when life begins, they start ticking off, and our time starts running out. It’s really not so frightful. It’s the marching of time, and it’s natural. One day after another is how we live. Looking it straight in the eye, the round of twenty-four hours, the routine of life is life itself. Keep a steady mind, and the fact that the hourglass is pouring sand down shouldn’t frighten us. As the poet e.e. cummings wrote,
dying is fine)but Death
?o
baby
i
wouldn’t like
Death if Death
were
good
He says that because death is unknown. Because death is the end of all possible joys to a man with no knowledge of the next life.
Bhakti-tirtha Maharaja knows more about death than most of us because he’s so close to it. He has picked out the place where he will die, he has picked out the means of disposal, cremation, he has picked out the urn where his ashes will go into and the place, Mayapur Dhama, where the ashes will be buried. But even he doesn’t know what death is. Not until it happens is it revealed.
So this little book has been somewhat playful. It is really meant to say only that I will write up until I die. It’s been my pledge as a writer, my dedication, and the suggestion that others should become dedicated to do something for Krishna until the end of their life. I ventured into speculations about death and dying, but I cannot claim to know what death is. I know the philosophy about what happens after death, that you take another body according to the dogma of transmigration, which is according to your karma or quality of actions in this life. But what it feels like, what “tunnel” you actually go through, that I don’t know and won’t know until it actually happens. I’ve always wondered about that, even since entering Krishna conscious school. I’ve asked the question and never could get an answer. Do you lose your consciousness upon death? Does it just happen in an unconscious way? Do you get thrown into a state where you feel yourself beyond your control? Do you immediately see the personages who take control of you with great fear and trembling or with relief? How personal is it, how tiny? How does the mortal stuff get rearranged? How long does it take? What’s it like exactly? I remember Ingmar Bergman’s film The Magician. A man died, and with his dying breath he said, “Death is . . . ” but said no more. We’ll have to wait until we get there. Some believers are so sure they know just what it’s like, how they’ll step into the spiritual world.
They’ll close their eyes and wait for the ride in a spiritual chariot, or they’ll wait to fall into Krishna’s arms. Or they wait for whatever it will be, just holding on with determined faith. “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven, for Thine is the power and the glory forever and ever, amen.” It’s not up to us to demand to know now. Isvara parama krsna — the Supreme Controller will take care of all that, and you need not inquire into it. Just spend your energies acting rightly now, and that’s your best bet of meeting a good death.
It hasn’t been my purpose so much to talk about death but to talk about living and writing and dying. I’m sorry if the book has been too writerly for some readers who don’t like “artistic” books and want straight Krsna conscious textbook lessons. But these books are inevitably personal, and you can gain from them that way. Take what you can use and leave the rest. Live your way, and die. Live fully, determinately, passionately, and die. Live patiently. Live peacefully with faith. With prayer of a sort. With gratitude and love for your friends. Receive it from them and give it back to them. When it comes to the end of the day, all we have is our friends, and we are all they have. Or we are alone with God, our Supreme Friend, ready to make the solo flight. Alone with our prayers. “Our father, who art in heaven.”
Isvara parama krsna
sat cid ananda vigraha
anadi ‘adi govinda
sarva karana karanam.“Krsna is the supreme controller. He has a form of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. He is the supreme God of all gods, and He is the cause of all causes.”
Krsna has nothing to do. He has no worries. He plays in Goloka-Vrindavan with His dearmost residents, especially Radharani. You can go there if you have laulyam, greed, intense desire, and detachment from all other things. Start by hearing about Krishna’s pastimes in this world. Chant his holy names.
“We must love one another or die.” Boo! Auden’s first version, which he later hated and revised. And yet . . .
“We must write to one another or die.” Boo! Sat’s first version, which he never even set down. And yet . . .
But master, prabhu, don’t forget, the flaw is in the “or” instead of “and.” Your love for letters cannot stop dying.
Yes they can. They can’t stop death but they can improve dying, they can improve the quality of life immensely. Why do we, even the Buddhists, hail ahimsa, nonviolence, as a highest religious principle? Haven’t we heard this before?
Thematic strain worth hearing again at the end. And besides, respected reader, I just said it in a new way. Stop dying, stop reading, start flying pick up shells and driftwood on the beach. Weep no more except for your soul and don’t do that in self-pity, overflow for Walter Mitty. Imagine you are someone great, a doughty sadhu.
And then fulfill the nine prophecies you have made, sravanam kirtanam vishnu-smaranam, any of the nine, eight, or even one will bring you to the Lord’s abode.
pp. 7-9
Write your life. Nothing short of that. The whole day (I can’t write in my sleep) and hours throughout the day, and every day of the year. You worried about the volume you are creating, and the problem this presents for the reader, but you can’t stop. Your life into writing. I need it for myself. Each piece I do is in the art of the journal, prose poem, informal essay, joke, satire, direct communication, prayer . . . . And as I do it, I discover myself. I uncover some block of maya. Who will read it? I will. And I can’t even worry whether someone will read it all. I must do my offering for Krishna and keep the hand moving.
Who knows what’s going to happen? A scribe tries to write it down and save it. Make a portrait of a good man who helped. There are many people like that. It’s inspiring to meet them. If the world could know more about them . . . so the scribe tells. Sometimes novelists invent a person they think worth remembering—another way he can live and be passed through future generations.
But I don’t know any persons like that, or I am not so generous to see them that way. I can’t tell of them in an unreal, idealistic way. Therefore, I write of myself, not about one of those self-sacrificing good persons worth remembering. But I am a scribe. The scribe writes the daily life of the scribe.
I’ll tell ya again, this ain’t an ordinary diary. It’s a dirty diry and Lu-lu’s Diry, it’s Artlines, Baltinglass. It’s something you don’t know coming at you like a friendly missile, a constant pounding.
She asked at least twice, “Why do you say this isn’t just a diary?”
Oh Miss, I said you missed the point. In the near diary, the important thing is the facts, the events of place and person and what conspired. It may also be inward. But it’s main effort is not to sing but to “make diary.”
What I am doing uses the form of daily writing to express poems and shouts
wiggling his hands
the sworn-to-silence monk
made a clear speech
that he was not pleased
with me. I hand-
signaled back—“go
fly a kite.”
A Godbrother said Giriraja Swami has attained the highest achievement—he’s “a Prabhupada man.” I dry-weep with envy, admitting it’s true. He walked beside Srila Prabhupada on Juhu Beach, like Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Another Godbrother, a friend, said of me that I was a “clay-footed zonal-acarya.” How true. I’ve learned lessons, and from pain too. The main lesson is how to avoid writing in a self-serving way. How to be truly self-deprecating and humble.
O Krishna, the mind is still filled with so many things. The words moving and changing, but I’m committed to free writing, which takes the first ones as best. They are the unaltered raw. If they are too wrong and embarrassing, we can change them later. Here they come like bats out of the cave, flying down to Mexico. Whatever I see, someone has seen before me, and said it too. But it’s also unique, the combinations. Our Lord comes with His varieties of lilas and devotees.
The hand moves like a manual typewriter to the right-hand margin and then quickly back to the left, making its American script, its Hare Krishna teachings from a personal life. They want to know, or they already know and put out some questions to me just so that we can keep a friendly correspondence.
Friends, equals, some juniors—those are the ones I mostly write to. My seniority is barely maintained as the years go by. I forget my small stock of Sanskrit slokas as they increase theirs. They get bhakti-sastri diplomas and attend Vaishnava colleges where they receive systematized education. And I wrangle over my disappointments and try to open these things for others.
You are not a God man. You are a med taker, excuse maker. I see you shuffling from room to room with your shoulders bent forward. You’re no winner. But who knows. Maybe those books will reach out to people who haven’t yet come along.
I am one of you. I know what it’s like. I’m on the same road.
I am and you are too. Let’s be Krishna conscious and believe it’s what the world needs and find a way to distribute. I nourish those already here and those coming in with a brand of rum for the likeminded who likes honest poems and mad joy admitting self is free.
Somehow he is reading Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. He is raising his children. Sitting in the cane field writing a letter to his spiritual master. Selling something to pay his mortgage. Behind in rent. Solvency is only a dream. Please help us. They said it is too difficult to keep up. Ugly face. Strict doctrine—you obey or we reject you. You reject our authority, and you are not one of us. It’s as simple as that. But what if you guys in authority are sometimes wrong? Follow us anyway; Krishna has put us in charge. Do you believe it or not? Shall we exclude you?
No, I’d like to be included, I just wish you’d make it a little more loving and liberal, a little easier.
Work to do, get it through
my way. You belong, you
know, to me,
said the KC movement
said the BTG
said the GBC
said Vrndavana dhama.
I said yes, I know, and
I’m just now coming. And
I never left.
“Where have you been?”
Same question his mother asked.
I’ve been right here, my address is not
hidden although you’d have a time
getting here, knowing the road signs
to follow.
I belong to you I have not forgotten
just today I told a man
don’t tempt me with your
emotional blackmail.
I honor the inspiration that led
you away, and you please
honor us, give us our space
who stay.
“What did he say to that?”
I don’t know. I’m not
listening so
closely.
I’m out here chanting
this one day at a time
in the bowl-shaped
hills one after another.
pp. 12-15
Nimai had twinges of conscience about the fact that no one knew what he was doing. It made him wonder whether his preaching was bona fide. Of course, he knew it was. His relationship with the mouse Chota dasa was an unmotivated spiritual friendship. But because it was so unusual, it sometimes led Nimai to speculate. Was he specially empowered? Should he tell others to try it?
The scriptures clearly state that if one has any doubt, he should approach his spiritual master. Even Lord Caitanya, when He felt ecstatic symptoms of love of God, thought that maybe He was going mad, and so He placed the matter before His spiritual master, Isvara Puri. Nimai therefore decided that he should confer with his initiating spiritual master, Gurudeva.
Gurudeva lived in his own little house on the temple grounds. He was a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada, and he had initiated hundreds of his own disciples in different places of the world. He often traveled, but he was now observing caturmasya at the farm, and so it was a good chance for Nimai to go see him.
It took a few days for Nimai to get an interview through his guru’s secretary. The last time he had spoken with his Gurudeva was concerning a fight between Nimai and some of the devotees. Nimai knew that the temple president sometimes complained to Gurudeva about Nimai, and that was why it took a long time for Nimai to get initiated—why he hadn’t yet received second initiation, even though he had been a devotee for five years. And so their relationship wasn’t perfectly harmonious, although Nimai had an abiding faith that his spiritual master was a genuine link to Prabhupada and the Gaudiya sampradaya.
The spiritual master sat on a cushion behind a low desk, and his disciple Nimai dasa sat on the floor, facing him. Gurudev a was almost fifty years old; Nimai was half that age, and, of course, Nimai was a much less experienced devotee.
“What did you want to see me about?” asked Gurudeva.
Nimai opened his.mouth but then looked down at the floor. He realized this wasn’t going to be easy. He began to bring it out gradually, so as not to cause a shock of disbelief.
“I have been having some unusual experiences lately,” said Nimai. “I mean, spiritual experiences.”
“I see,” said Gurudeva. “Do you want to describe them?” Gurudeva had already begun to categorize what Nimai was saying. As spiritual master to over six hundred disciples, Gurudeva had had many dealings with his devotees—in person, by letter, and in hearing reports from their authorities. Gurudeva had already encountered many cases of “unusual spiritual behavior.”
“Let me just tell you straight, Gurudeva,” said Nimai, “and you can judge for yourself. I don’t want to do anything that’s not authorized. A few weeks ago, I said some things about Krsna to a little mouse that stays in the attic above the brahmacari asrama. And he actually spoke to me.”
Gurudeva suddenly felt thirsty. He reached for his silver drinking chalice and began drinking water the way Prabhupada did, holding the chalice above his lips and letting the water pour into his mouth.
Nimai stared fervently at his spiritual master, waiting for a response.
Gurudeva said, “Go ahead.”
“So, since then I’ve been preaching to this creature, and he actually responds. I know it must sound incredible—and I probably would find it hard to believe if somebody told me—but it’s actually true.
Gurudeva decided to encourage him. He was also aware that in recent weeks his disciple Nimai had much improved in his behavior.
“I’ll tell you what I think, Nimai,” said Gurudeva. “I think you should keep this to yourself. I can’t say for sure exactly what you are experiencing. Sometimes devotees have special experiences, and I think there is even a letter where a devotee said he thought he was having some special reciprocation with the Deity in the temple, and Prabhupada advised him to keep it to himself. So the main thing I would advise you is to just be very humble and go on with your duties. Don’t become too distracted by this special talking. Your main business is to chant Hare Krsna and to hear Vedic knowledge and to serve with the devotees.” Gurudeva thought of adding, “And if it’s some craziness, it may just pass with time.” But he didn’t say that. He began instead to advise Nimai in a general way not to be puffed up about having special experiences. “If we think we are better than other devotees, we’ll be guilty of false pride.”
Nimai dasa nodded respectfully, taking in the instructions of his spiritual master. In one sense he felt that Gurudeva was avoiding the issue, but then he tried not to question the guru’s authority. His Gurudeva no doubt had reasons for speaking in this way, and Nimai tried to hear what he was saying. “Actually,” Nimai thought, “my spiritual master is hitting on the heart of the situation by advising me to be humble.”
When his meeting with Gurudeva was over and Nimai was walking alone back to the temple, he began to feel even better about what his spiritual master had said. Gurudeva had not said that he believed and approved of his preaching to Chota dasa, and in fact he hadn’t even let him tell much more about it. But the important thing was he didn’t forbid it. “So indirectly,” Nimai thought, “he has authorized what I am doing. And he put me in my place by telling me to be humble. He even spotted my mentality of trying to act as a guru towards Chota dasa. I can’t be a guru, except maybe something like a vartma-pradarsaka guru.” As Nimai walked on, his thoughts turned to his next meeting with Chota dasa. He would try to be more humble, but at the same time, now that he had consulted with his spiritual master, he would try to be more responsible to take on this work. No one else took it seriously, and perhaps no one else could really understand. “It is somehow Krsna’s arrangement,” Nimai thought, “that I should do this humble work. Who knows, sometime in the future, if I can develop this preaching more, I might convince Gurudeva to take it seriously, and I can even introduce him to Chota dasa.” By the time he reached the attic room, Nimai dasa was infused with the missionary spirit and eager to talk about Krsna. He shut the door, sat down, and called softly toward the crack in the floor, “Chota dasa! Chota dasa!”
TO BE CONTINUED
Viraha Bhavan Journal (2017–2018) was written by Satsvarūpa Mahārāja following a brief hiatus in writing activity, and was originally intended to be volume 1 in a series of published journals. However, following its completion and publication, Mahārāja again stopped writing books, subsequently focusing only on what became his current online journal, which began in August of 2018.
At first, I took it hard that I would have to live surrounded by the firemen, and without my own solitude. After all, for decades I had lived in my own house with my own books and my own friends. I was also now a crippled person who couldn’t walk, living among men who did active duties. But when Baladeva explained it to me, how it was not so bad living continually with other firemen and living in the firehouse with its limited facilities, I came to partially accept it and to accept the other men. I came to accept my new situation. I would live continually in the firehouse and mostly not go outside. I would not lead such a solitary life but associate with the other firemen.
Let me write sweet prose.
Let me write not for my own benefit
but for the pleasure of Their Lordships.
Let me please Kṛṣṇa,
that’s my only wish.
May Kṛṣṇa be pleased with me,
that’s my only hope and desire.
May Kṛṣṇa give me His blessings:
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa he
Rāma Rāghava Rāma Rāghava
Rāma Rāghava rakṣa mām.
You mentioned that your pathway has become filled with stumbling blocks, but there are no stumbling blocks. I can kick out all those stumbling blocks immediately, provided you accept my guidance. With one stroke of my kick, I can kick out all stumbling blocks. —Letter by Śrīla Prabhupāda, December 9, 1972.
The Writing Sessions are my heart and soul. I’m trying my best to keep up with them. I am working with a few devotees, and they are far ahead of me. I wander in the wilderness of old age. I make my Writing Sessions as best I can. Every day I try to come up with a new subject. Today I am thinking of my parents. But I don’t think of them deeply. They are long gone from my life. Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote a poem when he was a sannyāsī, and he said now all my friends and relatives are gone. They are just a list of names now. I am like that too. I am a sannyāsī with a few friends. I love the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda. I try to keep up with them. I read as much as I can and then listen to his bhajanas.
The metaphor is song. Explain it. Yes, particulars may not seem interesting or profound to readers who want structured books.
Wait a minute. Don’t pander to readers or concepts of Art. But Kṛṣṇa conscious criteria are important and must be followed. So, if your little splayed-out life-thoughts are all Kṛṣṇa conscious, then it’s no problem.
I am near the end of my days. But I do like the company of like-minded souls, especially those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious. Yes! I am prone to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I have been a disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda for maybe almost sixty years. Sometimes I fail him. But I always bounce back and fall at his feet. It is a terrible thing that I sometimes do not have the highest love for him. It is a terrible thing. Actually, however, I never fall away from him. He always comes and catches me and brings me back to his loving arms.
This edition of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s 1996 timed book, Upstate: Room to Write, 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.
A factual record of the reform and change in ISKCON guru system of mid ’80s.
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.