Not to be of a bramana nature is not Maya

[Guest guest]

> Now you are turning, "Oh, I was just in Maya, and I am still in

> Maya". Yeah, maybe and maybe not, God and your Guru know it for

> certain. But that is not the right answer here, my dear prabhu.

 

I was thinking overnight about this one. See again I think we are

misunderstanding over semantics or the meaning of words. I told you that I

hated every moment of Sankirtan. What a foolish thing for me to say. I love

sankirtan, the congregational chanting of the Lords holy names, I spent 3

years on Padayatra doing just that. Walking barefoot, with all your

possesions in a small steel trunk, a few pieces of cloth, taking bath at 4am

in a field, at the well. A bramachary doing madhukari in India. That is what

I joined ISKCON for. That for me was my bramachary training, although it

happened 10 years after I joined. It was then that Lokanath swami being

pleased by my voluntary austerities, and enthusiam, reccomended me for

brahmin initiation. THAT kind of austerity, physical austerity, simple life,

that I can handle.

 

Before I joined I was completely enraptured by a tv program called Kung Foo.

In that program a young boy is living in what looks like a budhist

monastery, and is performing austerities, that culminte in his

enlightenment. The whole renunciation thing, the shaven head, the learning

humbly at the feet of the master, it enthralled me, I wanted THAT.

 

Back in 1977. I was in karmi clothes, on the street, lying to people about

the contents of a record I was supposed to very forcefully sell them. Why?

because the temple needed funds badly, because Jayatirtha was more

interested in constructing palaces (he had a beautiful mansion near the

Manor) than giving transcendental knowledge. Actualy he was completely

unqualified as a guru, and later his false ego was completely revealed.

 

That was NOT sankirtan. So for me, the individual, with certain needs, with

a particular character. No one cared about my unique characteristics (we all

have them). I was just another impersonal volunteer who could be sent out to

collect and 'do big'. No one cared about ME, and I knew it. That is not

going to inspire anyone mahanidhiji. Simply making a 'standard program'

where everyone HAS to go out on the street, as you suggest we should do,

will not work if we really dont care about them individualy, if we dont

*consider* that they might not be suited for it.

 

For me the austerity of trying to understand that going in disguise, lying

to people to trick them into buying a record, I couldnt handle it. I hated

every moment of it. I wasnt prepared or ready. But I was forced.

 

> So what if you are in Maya. Big deal. You want VAD, there

> is no such excuse. There you do happily your sudra occupation. Or

> vaisya's. Whatever your varna is. But not the one of a brahmana, if you

> are not that by your nature nor you can qualify yourself

> for it.

 

So here you are so ready to judge me, yet you dont know my heart at all.

Earlier you mentioned that we should not have sudras in our temples. Well

again I disagree. Sudras are not by nature disruptive. Actualy there are

examples of many sudras being great devotees. What about the story of the

illiterate man who was reading the gita and crying? He was looking at the

pictures, and understood intrinsicaly what was happening.

 

Then their was the brahmin and the cobbler whom Narada asked regarding the

Lord threading an elephant throught the eye of a needle.

 

Sudras also NEED Krsna consciousness.

 

You say we shouldnt waste our time training people to make a living. There

are places outside where they can do that. But these places have always been

there, people dont become Krsna conscious in those places. That is why

varnasrama training has to be done NEAR a temple, so that at the end of the

day, we can understand who we are supposed to be working for. So we can

offer the fruits of our labour to the lord to be purified.

 

Labour is usless unless dovetailed. If you learn a trade, taught by a simple

austere brahmin, who by his example, oozes renunciation, and aspires for

love of god, yet he is teaching you the varnic arts, what better example is

there? As opposed to some other karmi teaching you.

 

YS