marry for those who don't read my books

[Guest guest]

Camp: Iskcon Vrndavana

 

Dandavats Dear Chandrashekhar, Mahaprabhu dasa(s), and the readers of this

conference. Jaya Krishna-Balarama!

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

> Prabhupada would have said that

> marriage is for those who don't read my books.

 

I heard a quite similar statement attributed to Prabhupada during my days in

RDTSKP. so out of curiousity I asked HH Tamal Krsna Gosvami about it many

years later here in Vrndavana, in 1993-4.

 

what the quote was is this: that 80-90% of his disciples would get married

and many of them would not be able to finish giving up their material

desires in this birth and would have to take birth in the heavenly planets.

 

HH TKG personally confirmed to me that he had indeed heard Srila Prabhupada

state this.

 

> Prabhupada said that 90 or 95 or 99 percent of his devotees would get

> married.

 

as I mentioned above, (If you accept TKG's verbal testimony to me as

authoritative) that holds true, and this is mostly obvious not only for

Prabhupada's disciples, but the grad disciples as well. That is a natural

trend in society.

 

On the one hand Mahaprabhu's caution has *some limited sense*. Note this

most famous sloka and purport where Prabhupada warns Iskcon devotees about

not neglecting reading His books:

 

ye l…l€-amta vine, kh€ya yadi anna-p€ne,

tabe bhaktera durbala j…vana

y€ra eka-bindu-p€ne, utphullita tanu-mane,

h€se, g€ya, karaye nartana

SYNONYMS

ye—he who; l…l€—of the pastimes of Lord KŠa and Caitanya Mah€prabhu; amta

vine—without nectar; kh€ya yadi anna-p€ne—if one eats only ordinary food

grains; tabe—then; bhaktera—of the devotees; durbala j…vana—life becomes

weakened; y€ra—of which; eka-bindu-p€ne—if one drinks one drop; utphullita

tanu-mane—the body and mind become jubilant; h€se—laughs; g€ya—chants;

karaye nartana—dances.

TRANSLATION

Men become strong and stout by eating sufficient grains, but the devotee who

simply eats ordinary grains but does not taste the transcendental pastimes

of Lord Caitanya Mah€prabhu and KŠa gradually becomes weak and falls down

from the transcendental position. However, if one drinks but a drop of the

nectar of KŠa’s pastimes, his body and mind begin to bloom, and he begins

to laugh, sing and dance.

 

PURPORT

All the devotees connected with the KŠa consciousness movement must read

all the books that have been translated (the Caitanya-carit€mta,

®r…mad-Bh€gavatam, Bhagavad-g…t€ and others); otherwise, after some time,

they will simply eat, sleep and fall down from their position. Thus they

will miss the opportunity to attain an eternal, blissful life of

transcendental pleasure.

 

Madhya 25.278

 

============ REF. Madhya 25.278

 

although it does not mention specifically mention of marriage as a result of

eating, sleeping and falling down, it does warn devotees of all ashramas not

to neglect reading his books, or neglect to take advantege of hearing and

chanting.

 

Many God-brothers, and grand disciples I spoke to about this, told me in

retrospect that they choose to get married at a time of spiritual weakness

in their lives, and that for most of them, they were struggling with all

aspects of their sadhana (chanting, reading, associating with devotees) at

that time..

 

while some of them, while struggling in their household life, caused their

sadhana (including reading Prabhupada's books) to fall to the wayside..other

devotees Have received strength and a renewed interest in spiritual life due

the purification arising out of their suffering aspect of household life.

 

These devotees experiences both during household days and at vanaprastha

life, become very valuable to educate the youth so as to prepare them in a

better way..

 

Personally, I always remember that a householder god-brother protected me in

1980 from getting married. I'm ever gratefull to that god-brothers

kindness...Householders that suffer can protect the brahmacaries too..

 

> If the above mentionned statement by Prabhupada is actually true,

> it implies that practically ALL of Prabhupada's disciples do not read his

> books. It is true that Prabhupada complained that his disciples did not

> read his books enough, but to go as far as to say that marriage is for

> those who do not read his books sounds, in my humble opinion, completely

> ludicrous and insane.

 

Vidvamsam api karshati even intelligent souls (anyone's disciple or no one's

disciple) fall prey to the senses..take the example of Brihaspati going

after Mamata His brothers wife in 9th canto..we should all be humble in

personal dealings and maintain care to maintain our personal sravanam and

Kirtanam so we may remain protected by the mercy of the previous acharyas

instructions.

 

...and sometimes vaisnava's get married to protect themselves from falling

down with an unqualified combination with a non devotee later on..so we must

be respectful of an individual candidates right to choose in this matter..

 

>If you take this statement to its' logical end, then

> ALL grihasthas, including His Grace Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, His Grace

> Prithu Prabhu and many other great learned scholars who are married in

> ISKCON do not read Prabhupada's books. With all due respect, does that

> even sound anywhere near to logical?

 

I applaud Chandrashekar Prabhu for this nice analysis..All Vaisnava's who

are genuinely attached to hearing and chanting in any ashram are glorious.

 

Umapati swami recently wrote me wonderfully:

 

"Let us also watch out for becoming hard-hearted because of austerities and

criticizing other devotees. And this also applies to the preachers. Now

we are seeing a battle. The preachers are attacking the tapasvis, and the

tapasvis are attacking the preachers.

 

We need all kinds of people in our society. We need preachers in the field

and tapasvis in the holy places. We need cooks in the temples and teachers

in the schools and businessmen in the offices and so on. No one should

think that he is the only one doing something valid and that the others

are weak-minded sense gratifiers.

 

Every service requires some kind of austerity, but when we think our own

particular austerity makes us better than the others, then the benefits of

our austerity are lost.

 

>I do remember one brahmacari in 1976 in LA who did chaturmasya, but at

the

>end of it got married, so one devotee said sarcastically," Oh I

understand,

>the fruit of his austerities was to get a good wife." Naturally when

>someone sees adverse things happening at the end of the vrata....

 

If he waited till Caturmasya was over before he married, where is the

fault? Is there some regulation that one must wait a certain amount of

time before marrying? And since when is marriage something adverse? It may

not be for everyone, but it is still a Vaisnava asrama, and we have many

wonderful householder devotees in our society."

 

Your most humble servant,

 

Umapati Swami"

 

I hope your enthusiasm in shravanam and kirtanam is flourishing!

 

Yours in the service of Krishna-Balarama,

Vaishnavadaasaanundaasaha,

 

Tridandi Bhikshu, Bhakti Visrambha Madhava