Esoteric stories

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> Dear Harikesa Swami,

>

> Please accept my humble obeisances.

> All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

>

> A very advanced devotee is on the topmost platform of Krsna

> consciousness and his mind is always dwelling in Krsna's pastimes.

> He naturally wants to tell this to others because he relishes such

> topics very much. But isn't it so that neophites can't understand

> these topics properly?

>

> I am afraid of depriciating or critisizing advanced devotees who are

> on such a platform but since I heard that some Vaisnavas from

> outside of ISKCON and seen some elevated devotees in ISKCON tell

> these stories, I have a doubt -- isn't this irresponsible from them

> that they present these pastimes to us, even though we are not

> qualified to factually understand them? Prabhupada very rarely told

> such stories and in fact never went in such great detail as they do,

> and in his books he backed them up with philosophical explanations.

> Isn't it so that when we are qualified, these subject matters will

> automatically be revealed to us within the heart?

>

> Even though such narrations might be very sweat and nice, I always

> feel some strange bitterness in the heart when I happen to hear such

> exotic stories from the literatures of the Gosvamis. Why do I feel

> like that? Is this wrong that I feel some bitterness when listening

> to certain stories about Krsna, which I fear I am not qualified to

> understand?

>

> Your servant,

> Narakara dasa

 

Yes, you are correct. It is actually irresponsible. We can

understand that Prabhupada was very careful and knew what we can

digest. If you feed a person who is sick some sweets, although they

may taste very nice, they will increase his problems due to not being

able to digest properly due to the disease.

 

Now someone may say that there is a verse in the 10th canto

(vikriditam vraja-vadhubhi idam ca visnu etc) where it is said that

one can cure the disease of lust in the heart by hearing about the

pastimes of Krsna and the gopis from the lips of a realized soul like

Sukadeva Gosvami, and thus we should hear such topics for that will

cure us. However, we should also understand that out of the 12 cantos

of Bhagavatam, only a few chapters are devoted to such pastimes, and

the Bhagavatam is for the most advanced devotees who are freed from

all enviousness within their hearts (paramah nirmatsaranam satam). So

we can just understand our own position in comparison. When the

subject of Krsna's internal pastimes are delivered in the proper dose

by a proper person at the proper time (such as Maharaj Pariksit heard

after going through the first nine cantos!) then they will act.

 

Therefore Prabhupada gave us everything in the proper doses and also

he instructed us how to hear. He therefore saved us from making more

offenses or creating a cheating process. Others are not as qualified

as Srila Prabhupada, and some even lack common sense when they speak

about such affairs, and therefore we do not accept them in ISKCON.

 

Certainly when you develop the actual taste for such topics due to

your service and surrender, and a good dose of the mercy of the

spiritual master and Krsna, then you will factually appreciate the

pastimes of the Lord and relish them within, as Srila Prabhupada did.

This will arise within your heart like the sun arising in the morning

when one is ready.

 

When one is not ready for such topics, the disease in the heart will

not allow one to taste them spiritually and thus the material mind and

senses will reject them for they are simply not material.