Lecture given by His Divi ne Grace Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Goswami Maharaja

[Indradyumna das]

Vrindavan, India, 19 November 2001 - Krisna Balaram Mandir

 

 

Lecture given by His Divi ne Grace Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Goswami Maharaja

 

on Bhaktivedanta Swami Tirubhava

 

 

 

 

Vande ham sri guru sri yuta adakamalam sri gurum vaisnavam ca

 

Sri rupam sahagrajatam saha gana raghunatamvitams tam sa jivam

 

Sadvaita savadutam parijana sahitam Caitanya deam

 

Sri radha Krishna padam saha gana lalita sri vishakamvitams ca

 

 

I offer my satastang-dandavat to Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, the founder of this mission, Iskcon, then I offer my satastang-dandavat to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami who is the founder of this Gaudiya Mission.

 

Acaryas come to this world only to carry the message of their predecessor. In the slow process they will attract the public and make them Krishna conscious. Now the process of approaching a Vaisnava is that, there are different grades of Vaisnavas: kanishta, madhyama e uttama. We have to serve the uttama bhagavata. What for? For their mercy. What for their mercy? Only for devotion. What is that devotion? Devotion is eternal service. A person who is under the influence of maya, he serve only ordinary materially advanced people.

 

Suddha bhakata carana renu bajana anukula

 

Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that we must accept the dust of the Suddha Vaisnava, a pure Vaisnava. And how to get a pure Vaisnava? We must surrender to the Lord, then He will show the path as vartma pradarsaka, and again He will lead to perfection. Now, to know the subject, what is the subject we want? We want to know what? We want to know dadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te. If you will surrender to the supreme Lord, He will dictate us that buddhi yoga, that perfect buddhi will lead us always to perfection, and gradually to the process to reach the supreme Lord, through the blessings of a mahatma, or a suddha bhakta. Then we will follow suddha bhakata carana renu bajana anukula, bhakata seva parama siddhi prema latikara mula. To get prema we must do bhakta seva. We may say: "How can we know a bhakta to whom we can dedicate ourselves? If I am sincere, if I am honest, if I want to be pure, the Lord will show us the path. If I am mischievous, if I don’t follow the path of devotion, because our Bhagavatam says "dharma projito kaitava’tra paramo nirmat saranam satam vedyam". Who can understand the Absolute truth, the service to the Absolute truth? "Nirmat saranam". The sadhu must be "nirmat saranam", without malice. If he has got malice in him, he can not lead others, nor he can proceed in the proper way; he is cheated, he is deceived and he will deceive others. Dharma projito, what is our dharma? Dharma must be pure, and that purity will lead to devotion. That devotion can be had through the blessing of a mahatma. Dharma projito… a sadhu who is without malice, he can lead others. This is the beginning of the bhagavata, nirmat Saranam satam. Vaisnavas, they don’t have malice, no matsarya; only those who are karmis and jnani, those who depend upon sction, those who depend upon knowledge, they are of that category. That category will never give you purity. Devotion is pure and that pure devotion is that one does not want anything in return from the Lord, the Guru and the Vaisnavas. This is the devotion of our Bhagavatam. We read Bhagavatam, we understand Bhagavatam, we practice bhakti, but without purita, we can not practice bhakti. Dharma projito kaitava’tra, What is Kaitava? It is cheating (kapatasaha); everybody want dharma, artha, kama, moksa. Kapatasaha, he will be deceived; if he stays in the wrong process, he can not have a glimpse of bhakti. Though he has the fortune of serving a great Vaisnava, a pure Vaisnava but his heart is not pure, he has malice and with that malice he can not understand the teaching of Bhagavatam or the teaching of the Guru and the Vaisnavas. If the Guru speak with malice, his teaching has no value. It may have some value for jnani or karmi, not for the bhaktas. The bhakta does not want anything from the beginning to the end. Nothing he wants, though the Lord wants to give him some boon, he says: "I’m not going to accept your boon" Who says this? Praladha, he was a pure bhakta. Though the Lord wanted to give some boon, he says: "No, I don’t want". He never accepted. There are so many bhaktas in the Bhagavatam like Vrtasura. He says:

 

"Na naka prstham na ca paramestyam

 

Na sarva bhaumam na rasadhi patyam

 

Na yoga siddhir apunar bhavam va

 

Saman yasya tva virahayya kankse".

 

I want You, Sir, I don’t want anything except devotion. I want your service. Once Hanuman was presented with a necklace of pearls. Now Hanuman starts to check and crush every pearl and then threw it. Our Sitadevi thought: "It is a monkey, it is doing monkeyt action". Then he could understand: "Mother this is not a monkey action. I must test all the pearls whether in each pearl there is a view of Rama, Laksmana and Sita. If there is no Sita-Rama in that pearl, I give no value.. I don’t want this necklace, I don’t want, I don’t want pearl, I want devotion. You can test me. Then he opened his chest and showed Sita Rama Laksmana. Then everybody could understand "he’s not a monkey, but a great devotee of the Lord". What a devotee wants, he wants only devotion. Unless one wants devotion, he will fight, because he does not want devotion. This institution, Iskcon, Sri Krishna-Caitanya philosophy is pure devotion. Nothing mixed, not even one per cent mixed. Pure. Pure devotion should be taught to others, pure devotion should be practiced, thereby we can be benefited. I come here every year by the mercy of all the Vaisnavas, not to speak but to have darsana of all the devotees. No, I can not speak. This gatherings is the cream. I want to see you all and take your blessings. Svami Maharaja Prabhupada, he blessed me; he was very kind toward me, and that can not be exposed, it is our matter. He is an ideal personality. He went to America, and I saw there in New York those places where he was sitting and doing bajans. We went to Los Angeles, very big palace.

 

We were very much fortunate to see that opulent place. Lokanath Swami was there to guide us. I’m glad how they are keeping Mahaprabhu and Prabhupada names nicely. Yes, Prabhupada is great, nobody can compete with him. He is great, nobody can become great like him. He is a mahatma, a single person went there without a single penny. He has published so many volumes of books. Thousand of volumes, and you see everywhere Iskcon can be maintained with a income of the books; so much service he has done. Wherever you go, everywhere there are books. Wherever we go, they ask "You are from Iskcon. Are you from Iskcon?Yes, we tell, afterward we may explain it." Now, he had the great ideal that all the people in the world should follow the message of Lord Gauranga. With that aim he has travelled all over the world at that old age. He travelled all over the world. Now wherever we go everybody says "Hare Krishna". Everybody says "Hare Krishna", he does not know what is Hare Krishna. Yes, "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna", everybody laughs. Now we also ask to them to stand and to repeat Hare Krishna. If one does not repeat Hare Krishna , then we ask again to repeat. On the end he will repeat definitely. Then we say: "You go!" Now they are purified and they will go. Since I am an old person, they will not speak or punish me. They can not punish me, they like to repeat nama. That nama was preached by Swami Maharaja Prabhupada. He has single hand done. By the blessing of his Guru Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and Gauranga he was able to do that. With their blessings he could do wonder in this world. Wherever you go, everybody knows Prabhupada and Harinama sankirtan. But we must be alert. See how it was the time of Prabhupada and how far it is grown up. That we have to see. Because the first and second meeting I came here, ther were hundreds of dandas. But gradually it is reducing, it is going down. Now you have to bring the message of Prabhupada door to door with bigger effort. This is necessary. As Nityananada Mahaprabhu says:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suno suno nityannada suno haridasa

 

Sarvatra amara ajnaya koro he prakas

 

Prati ghare ghare ghiya koroye ei biksa

 

Bolo Krishna baja Krishna karo Krishna sikkha.

 

 

You go to every house and beg the householder "Sir we have come to you to beg you. You don’t know. This western people does not know begging. But begging is a part of vedic culture. A brahmacary shoul beg and a Vaisnava also must beg. He must do to the householder "Sir, we have come to beg youWhat do you want?" Rice, clothes, money? What do you want?No, no, no, bolo Krishna bajo Krishna karo Krishna sikkha. You repeat Krishna nama and baja Krishna, you serve Krishna and follow the teaching of Krishna. If you say that you will follow, we will go to the next door." This is how they were ordered by Mahaprabhu, Nityananda said to Haridasa "Mahaprabhu has ordered us just like a governor or a police officer", "you go, carry My command. If we go everywhere, some will say "yes, yes we will do". Others will say "you yellow, you have no money, nothing to eat, this is the way that you earn. No, you go!" In the evening Nityananda and Haridas were reporting to Mahaprabhu. Once Nityananda saw two great robbers, Jagai and Madhai. They were the terror. Now terrorists are the enemies of the world. At that time also terrorists were there. So He thought (Nityananda): "Let me purify these two terrorists, they are brahmin brothers." And Haridasa said "From tomorrow I don’t want to go with Nityananda to preach. He goes to the drunkards to make them repeat Harinama. They will never hear, instead today they could have taken away our lives. My Lord, You are here to save us. From tomorrow I will not go with him, let him go". But Mahaprabhu said: "Nityananda is determined to purify them. It will be done in three or four days. Just on the third day, in the evening, when he was coming alone on the way, He saw these two brothers, Jagai e Madhai, they were drunk and they were fighting. They asked Nityananda "Who are you?" Nityananda replied "I am avadhutaAhhh!! Avadhuta!!". And with both hands they throw a pot full of liquor, that was like a coconut and broke the head of Nityananda. Then Mahaprabhu was coming running to punish this fellow, because he has committed offences at the feet of the Vaisnavas. "I must kill him" said Mahaprabhu and called the Sudarsana Cakra to come. But Nityananda said: "In this yuga you can not call the Sudarsana, only nama sankirtana. You teach them nama sankirtana, they will be no purified". So Mahaprabhu said "All right, you have beaten Nityananda. But I request you to repeat Krishna nama at least once." Then they immediately say "Krishna!"And all their sins were gone. Then they catch hold the feet of Mahaprabhu requesting Him to bless them. And Mahaprabhu blessed them. Then they were brought to the house of Mahaprabhu. And these two and other Vaisnavas, they started sankirtana for three hours, dancing and singing for three hours. After three hours the colour of Mahaprabhu and Nityananda changed. Now Jagai and Madhai became pure. Then Mahaprabhu ordered to them that they should clean the ghat, Jagai ghat and Madhai ghat, and "food will be given to you daily. Clean the ghat and those who will come to take bath, you raise your hand and beg for excuse to those that you have committed offences." So saying they did this service and this message was scattered through the world and all the people was coming there. Now sarvatra mara ajnaya koro he prakasa, Mahaprabhu says: "You carry to all the corners of the world my message." Swami Maharaja Prabhupada has done this and now we can not forget him. You must sing his glories, you must remember him, think of him always and speak of him always, then only you will be able to conquer maya. Daivi esa guna may mama maya duratiayah.

 

I have taken much of your valuable time, I beg to excuse me for anything wrong that I have committed. Vancha kalpa tarubhias ca…. (applause)

 

 

[Gauracandra]

Very, very nice. I remember hearing Srila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Maharaj comment that this world cannot survive without sadhus. A genuine sadhu is like a precious gem found deep within the ocean. They are not just lying on the beach. Thanks for this nice gem of a lecture.

[bhaktivaibhav.net]

For all who are interested, more lectures are available on bhaktivaibhav.net . Also, you'll all be most interested to know that Srila BV Puri Maharaj will be soon embarking on his 2nd World Tour. More information will be posted soon, but in the meantime I shall be more than happy to answer questions here.

 

bhaktivaibhav.net webservant

[Gauracandra]

Thank you. Please keep us informed of his plans. And any other lectures - just keep them coming They are very inspiring to read.

[Bhaktavasya]

Originally posted by Indradyumna das:

Because the first and second meeting I came here, ther were hundreds of dandas. But gradually it is reducing, it is going down. Now you have to bring the message of Prabhupada door to door with bigger effort. This is necessary.

 

 

While appreciating much of what BV Puri Maharaj has to teach, particularly that the teacher must be without malice and his humility (who can argue with vancha kalpa tarubyas ca?)is his vision one of more dandas and a rejuvenation of door to door style preaching?

 

 

[Bhaktavasya]

 

on second thought, maybe he was saying that it is a good thing that it is 'going down'.

 

 

[bhaktivaibhav.net]

Bhaktavasya:

 

Well, I personally believe Srila Maharaj's point was that fewer were holding to the commitment of sanyas. The western followers of Srila Maharaj treat renunciation in a very serious, reverent manner, in line with the strict guidelines set by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur (not that the Indians would be different, but I wanted to stress on western followers). You don't see so many westerners in saffron in this camp, but when you do, they are usually in a very humble, gentle mood.

 

As for "door to door style preaching", I'm not sure if it was meant quite literally, or as a hope to see a more intrepid Gaudiya mission of seriously reaching the masses of the world, one person at a time. My intuition tells me the latter.

 

Gauracandra:

 

Thank you for your kinds words of encouragement, prabhu. Here is the current schedule. Local contact information is pending, but if you have a question about a specific stop, I'll be happy to help you.

 

July 25-29: Vienna, Austria

July 29 - August 5: Sardinia, Italy

August 6-12: Rome, Italy

August 12-15: Rimini, Italy

August 15-22: Florence, Italy

August 23-25: Turin, Italy

August 26-28: Milan, Italy

August 28-30: Vicenza, Italy

August 31 - September 1: Vienna, Austria

September 2-4: Slovenia

September 4-7 Croatia

September 9: Vienna

September 9-15: New York

September 16-19: Denver

September 28 - October 8: Mexico

 

October 20: India arrival

 

I apologize for the gaps, but I haven't received 100% of the information. I'm pretty sure California will be included in due time, though.

 

Gaura Premanande!

 

bhaktivaibhav.net webservant

 

[This message has been edited by bhaktivaibhav.net (edited 07-16-2002).]

[Bhaktavasya]

Originally posted by bhaktivaibhav.net:

Bhaktavasya:

 

Well, I personally believe Srila Maharaj's point was that fewer were holding to the commitment of sanyas. The western followers of Srila Maharaj treat renunciation in a very serious, reverent manner, in line with the strict guidelines set by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur (not that the Indians would be different, but I wanted to stress on western followers).

What are the guidelines set by Bhaktivinode Thakhur for taking sannyas? Does BV Puri Maharaj emphasize that in accordance to Vedic tradition sannyas should not be entered into until after 50 years of age? The reason the majority of men who entered the sannyas order during the time of AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad gave it up was because they were still in their 20's or early 30's. In some cases it was an excuse to avoid householder responsibilities. Because of the serious damage that occurred in ISKCON partially because of false renunciation and renunciation of family in general, I trust that BV Puri Maharaj must have elaborated more in his lectures and writings on this serious topic.

 

 

 

[Shashi]

Originally posted by Bhaktavasya:

While appreciating much of what BV Puri Maharaj has to teach, particularly that the teacher must be without malice and his humility (who can argue with vancha kalpa tarubyas ca?)is his vision one of more dandas and a rejuvenation of door to door style preaching?

 

 

What are you woorrying that maybe while you are out walking and talking with Lord, some rejuvenile dandas might be banging on your door?

 

 

[Gauracandra]

In terms of door to door preaching I actually have long felt it would be a good idea for a simple reason. Why is it that a number of Christian groups do this form of preaching? For the simple reason that you then know exactly where favorable people reside. For instance, a devotee approaches someone in the airport who is favorable, he gives the person a book ... and... you never see the fella again. EVER. Sure there is the occasional run in again, but lets be honest, that person is gone.

 

Now with door to door preaching, if someone expresses some level of interest, you then note down the address, and then send a followup post card invitation to a festival with directions etc....

 

These Christians aren't ignorant. They know what works, and what doesn't. If we are to take what they do as their testimony to what works, then door to door preaching is certainly effective. 11 million Mormons can't be wrong

[Avinash]

11 million Mormons can't be wrong

 

Why are the words mormons and morons so similar?

[bhaktivaibhav.net]

Because of the serious damage that occurred in ISKCON partially because of false renunciation and renunciation of family in general, I trust that BV Puri Maharaj must have elaborated more in his lectures and writings on this serious topic.

 

If you read the biography of Srila Maharaj that is on www.bhaktivaibhav.net, you can see that he is lifelong brahmachari, and took sanyas from Srila Giri Maharaj at the age of 53. I know as a fact that the 1-2 sanyasis that I inquired also never married. Beyond that, I'm not going to take a census, since it is an awkward situation to ask sanyasis about their pre-renunciation lives. I've not heard of any westerners taking sanyas initiation from Srila Maharaj though.

 

In the coming weeks, I may very well have access to a very large number of lectures, and I will be sure to look for anything pertaining to renunciation and copy it. If any other readers here are looking for a specific topic, please let me know by next week, and I will try to facilitate your desires.

 

As for the age of 50 being the minimum age of sanyas, I didn't see this in the Jaiva Dharma, and I've read two different translations. Perhaps I read too fast, if anyone can cite such a passage, please do so. It should be known that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupad was only 44 when taking sanyas.

 

Gauracandra: Fascinating vision. Maybe I'm wrong, and Srila Maharaj was quite literal with the door to door quotation. I'll have to ask someone close to him. Personally, I'd imagine it very difficult for a Krishna devotee to get a foot in the door to talk about Krishna and Bhagavad Gita for starters.

 

I'd like to know if any devotees are endeavoring to do this method of preaching. The encounters would probably be more interesting than those found in airports and the like.

 

[This message has been edited by bhaktivaibhav.net (edited 07-17-2002).]

 

[This message has been edited by bhaktivaibhav.net (edited 07-17-2002).]

[Gauracandra]

I don't want to veer the thread off the very nice lecture. But I just wanted to add one more thing about door to door preaching, the way the Mormons do it. Basically when they decide to enter into a city for preaching purposes, they put the entire city on a grid, and go box, by box, one block at a time.

 

Several years ago some Mormons came to my door and started preaching. I was very friendly, took their publications, and that was about it. Then a number of months later, they showed up at my door again and said "Do you remember us?...."

[Shashi]

Originally posted by Gauracandra:

Several years ago some Mormons came to my door and started preaching. I was very friendly, took their publications, and that was about it. Then a number of months later, they showed up at my door again and said "Do you remember us?...."

Why GlutenJI are they asking this one? Are you having the forgetful face?

 

 

[Tarun]

Due to some health fault, ZrIla Bhaktivaibhava Puri Gosai's scheduled yearly visit to Austria & Italy has been delayed or put off till further notice.

Email KRSNa dAs for further inquire:

heradhegovinda@.de

[stonehearted]

bhaktivaibhav.net wrote: "Personally, I'd imagine it very difficult for a Krishna devotee to get a foot in the door to talk about Krishna and Bhagavad Gita for starters.

 

I'd like to know if any devotees are endeavoring to do this method of preaching. The encounters would probably be more interesting than those found in airports and the like."

 

Somehow, I just now picked up on this part of the thread. From early 1971 into '73, door-to-door preaching was an important part of our program at the Honolulu ISKCON center. Turiya das, Siddhasvarupa, and I went out one Sunday afternoon in Manoa Valley, our neighborhood, to test the waters. After that, the entire temple went out just about every afternoon for the next couple of years. Of course, many folks weren't home, and we were turned away from many doors, but we had thousands of interesting encounters. Many folks invited us in, offered us water, juice, or milk, and asked us lots of questions.

 

We had a Thomas Brothers map of the island and kept track of every block we covered. We did the same on Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii. It was quite wonderful. I remember that one afternoon in Kalihi Valley, we stopped to pick up a Godbrother named Kanva. He was walking down the road with a kritan party of about a dozen neighborhood kids, tears streaming down his face. When we stopped to pick him up he asked if we could please let him go to two or three more homes. "I just want to let them keep chanting," he explained. When he went to the door, the kids would stay out by the road, chanting Hare Krishna.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

I think in India it is more common than other places, and perhaps easier for obvious reasons.

 

Many devotees go door to door preaching in India. Other's preach in the marketplace, shop to shop, usually distributing books or something.

 

I have tried it a few times in China Towns, in the U.S. The chinese people are respectful of "monks", but are scared of religious books. They don't want to become monks themselves, and the book may make them change their life.

 

[Gauracandra]

That is interesting about how chinese react to books. This would be an interesting analysis, how do various ethnic groups react to various forms of preaching. Every group will have a different comfort zone with different approaches. Some groups might like one on one preaching, others might prefer preaching to a crowd. I don't know. Anyone with insight into how different cultural groups prefer being approached? There are always issues of space, body language etc....

 

Also, great story Stonehearted. I think door to door preaching is viable. Just one more quick point about Mormon preaching. I keep bringing them up because I think they are effective and I've read a bit on them. Their preachers have a goal I "think" of making 2 (maybe 1) converts per year. Thats quite an interesting statistic if you think about it. You have full time preachers, preaching every day for a 2 year mission, and their goal is to make 2-4 "devotees". I don't know how many surpass this goal. But think of it this way. If we wanted to set such a standard, then I think the best approach to temple planting would be to send large teams of devotees into new areas. If you send 3 people, maybe after 1 year you have 6 devotees. But if one could mobilize 100 preachers and go into a single area, that would mean after 2 years 200-400 devotees. It was just an interesting statistic to me.

[bhaktivaibhav.net]

Thanks for the great story, Stonehearted! I hope to do this someday, but I for one am quite shy.

 

The 2002 European Tour of Srila Bhaktivaibhav Puri Goswami Maharaj was delayed until Janmastami, and is concluding today in Vienna (I am not sure if Srila Maharaj gave class today, since I have returned home only a few hours ago). Sweet and ecstatic.

 

I have recorded (via MiniDisc) almost every lecture given by Srila Maharaj during the tour, including one newspaper interview. I am hoping to soon transcribe to text, convert all the lectures to MP3 format, and place everything on a CD for distribution. I am hoping many will enjoy and benefit from these nectarine lectures.

 

Om Visnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya ashtottara shatta Sri Srimad BhaktiVaibhav Puri Goswami Maharaj ki jaya!

[Guest guest]

 

All Glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!

 

Please, send me your address for contact.

 

My e-mail is govardhanadasa@aol.com

 

Thank you!