He did not want to create another society of love friendship and socializing, a free

[Guest guest]

Dear Das,

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

 

Here in Cloverdale, at Jim's house we have a program every Thursday night. Some of his students have become more serious about Chanting and following the principles. Recently another person, (Paula) who was also a teacher to Radharani, and a professional musician and voice (Singing) teacher approached us for taking part in the production of a CD of religious chants from around the world. So I started preaching to her, and now she is totally enlivened about being a devotee, chanting and reading Bhagavad-gita, telling all her friends about Krishna etc...

 

So following this method we find that one person awakens and tells those in their circle of associates, eventually someone else will be awakened, and they in turn will tell all their associates and one of them may also be awakened and go on to preach to their circle of friends. In this way the message of Prabhupada may actually be spread by the dynamic principle of exponential expansion. This I believe is the real purport of "You become Guru and tell everyone that you meet about Krishna"

 

These new awakened ones have no interest in the institutional world of ISKCON. They are simply interested in the Teachings of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna as they apply to their everyday life, therefore when they go on to explain Krishna to those in their orbit of life, it is very real, and effective. It is as effective as some friend telling another about a great new restaurant, or a great bargain to be had at some shopping center. The advertising by word of mouth is most effective. In the sixties the spread of LSD and other indulgences was done purely by word of mouth.

 

Conviction is infectious, and this is the platform Srila Prabhupada worked on. His conviction infected one person ( Hyagriva, Kirtananada ...) they infected their friends, and so the virus spread, Mukunda was infected by Srila Prabhupada, he went to the west coast, there his friends were infected, Shyamasundar, Malati, Guru das and this is the real beginning of Krishna Consciousness in America. Every movement, political, social, or spiritual, begins from this point.

 

So this is going on, I am sure it will grow, and that growth will be substantial.

 

To join ISKCON, or to join Narayan Maharaja's camp or any other group is not the aim of Krishna Consciousness. A person must embrace the Teachings of Srila Prabhupada, apply them to life and become a leader, by actually following Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. Simply becoming a member or follower of a GROUP, or a CROWD will be useless and do no good for the individual, or for the crowd. The sectarian party spirit is the great enemy of progressive Krishna consciousness. We see that Srila Prabhupada never joined the Gaudiya math, he never lived in the temple, and Srila Bhaktsiddhanta supported and protected him from his envious godbrothers.

 

The further you get away from any dealings of ISKCON or their controversies, the better. It is a pot ( an ocean ) of sour milk, therefore any fresh milk ( New comers ) that is poured into the sour milk pot, that also immediately becomes sour. No amount of Fresh milk can bring the sour milk back to being fresh. Forget this ISKCON, it is a fossil, a petrified forest, an antique of a by gone era. Very interesting, but no more practical value. Like a model T Ford automobile which has been well preserved and sometimes taken to antique auto shows, it is very interesting, but no more practical value, just an entertainment, an item of curiosity, something to muse and sentiment over, but it's time , rather it's inventor, the man of genius ( Henry Ford ) is gone, and other men of genius have taken the development further, like Honda or the Toyota, and Mitsubishi.

 

The only thing that has life is the words emanating from the lips of the pure devotee, everything else is a covering, a facade, a deception. New people do not need to be saddled with the stifling burden of an institutional ISKCON, they need your example by association, and they need to understand Prabhupada's teachings in as much as they apply to solving their everyday problems of life. This is, I believe , is the purport of Lord Chaitanya's meeting and teachings to the "Kuruma Brahmin." When the Kuruma Brahmin expressed his frustration with material life, and request to join Lord Chitanya, The Lord replied, to him, "better to remain at home, read Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam, Chant Hare Krishna and in this way YOU become GURU and tell everyone that you meet to do the same." But because we are ambitious for the prestige of being a holy man, we don’t want to do this, we want to have some designation, in some Institution, and have followers, money and comforts. But this was not Prabhupada's aim. He was preaching to individuals: madmen, perverts, drug addicts. It became gradually a small group, some facility was necessary to accommodate them, and from there it grew, on the basis of individual preaching, one convinced devotee to another. The institution is a by-product of the preaching spirit. Now the preaching spirit is a by-product of the Institution. More correctly, preaching is just a show, or ritual done in an obligatory way to justify their "Eating and sleeping" in the temple. Actually they have converted the temple into their living quarters, like a man rents an apartment, where he eats and sleeps. They preach for maintaining the Institution, it is a show only, ritual a ploy for maintaining their bureaucracy. The aim of their preaching is to recruit you into the crowd, the group, the party spirit.

 

But Srila Prabhupada preached for the love of Krishna and his Spiritual master, not for position, or followers. Actually we do not want followers, we want leaders. Prabhupada said he wanted to create a class of honest and pure men, Brahmins who could give advice to the whole society. He did not want to create another society of love friendship and socializing, a free hotel, a society of mutual admiration, a society of bureaucrats... Social parasites in the name of God and Hindu religion. The world hates these religious institutions which have exploited them in the name of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and now Krishna, Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada.

 

So I am going in that direction. Less intelligent people want to join something, real intelligent persons want to have the freedom and individual responsibility ( Independent thinkers ) that comes with actual knowledge and renunciation from being absorbed in the teachings and discipline of The Sampradaya Acharya, Spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.

 

Your servant,

 

Hansadutta das

 

[Bhaktavasya]

Hamsadutta: "Prabhupad infected Kitanananda, Mukunda..then the virus spread.."

 

Is this the same Hamsadutta who was 'one of the 11' and just survived a heart-attack? Did he have a brain aneurism also? Just as everyone was starting to remember him fondly for is 'ecstatic kirtans' he shows his old true colours; "anyone who joins a group like Iskcon of NM is less intelligent.."

 

Right, Hamsadutta. They should all just listen to you.

 

Even a close brush with death cannot stop those who are determined from spreading hate and division amongst the Vaisnavas, all in the name of Prabhupad.

 

 

 

 

 

[livingentity]

of this letter, please?

[Bhaktavasya]

Speaking of a group or society of friendship and love where Radha and Krishna are at the centre, yesterday here in Victoria, B.C. a group of Narayana Maharaj disciples held a picnic feast at the park, word spread amongst the various devotees and the spontaneous turn-out included SP disciple Gopijanavallaba and his wife Chandravali and their children, NM disciples Venu Gopal and Karuna Mayi, a few other SP disciples, Bhakta Wayne who has been associated with the HK movement for decades, some other familiar faces who have been favorable to the movement for years and the ususal 'fresh faces' of young and some older people who gathered to hear the chanting and take prasadam.

 

Gopijanavallaba gave a delightful explanation of the Hare Krishna mantra, emphasizing that we are worshippers of Radha, the divine feminine counter-part, as well as Krishna. Venu Gopal spoke sweetly of the 6 ways of exchanging love between devotees (offering gifts, inquiring and revealing one's mind in confidence, etc)at the urging of Parat Para (SP disciple)and everyone sang in kirtan for about half an hour while the food was offered at a 'portable' altar set up underneath a shady tree. Even though it began to rain lightly, the group huddled closer together under the tree, chanted for another half hour then feasted on the prasadam prepared by Venu Gopal and Karuna Mayi, which consisted of potatoe-green bean subji, dahl, tumeric rice, stawberry halavah and strawberry nectar.

Another melodious kirtan picked up as people finished their prasadam and exchanged light conversation. Wonderful.

 

If the NM 'group' had not come together to continue the tradition of public kirtan and feasting then it would have been a missed opportunity for various devotees and fresh faces to come together to chant and give others a nice taste of KC. We SP disciples living here all have SP's books in our homes, every now and then we come together in each other's homes for kirtan and prasadam and we usually talk about KC philosophy with non-HK acquaintances but the public kirtan and feasts are non-existant.

 

So Hamsadutta is partially correct when he says that everyone doesn't HAVE to join a group or live in an ashram, but he is off-base when he demeans any-one who wants to practise sadhana bhakti under the guidance of a guru or in any of the iskcon ashrams. Bhakti Marg Swami from Canada is an excellent example of someone who is still connected to the Iskcon establishment and is helping other souls to understand KC by accepting disciples and guiding them on a personal basis.

 

Just telling someone about Krishna at a party and saying they should read SP's books is not the same as personal instruction on a regular basis from someone who has read and studied all of SP's teachings is able to explain them to neophytes. I know of some women who are friends of SP disciples and who are reading the books but who after many years thought Hanuman was the consort of Mother Sita until they asked if it was true. This was amazing to me because they have sat through and chanted along during dozens of Sita-Rama kirtans, 'heard' the stories of the Ramayana on various 'story-telling' occasions and somehow got confused (probably with Hamuman bringing Sita the ring)in their minds about who Sita's relationship with Hanuman. No fault on the part of the SP disciples who thought that 'simply by hearing the holy names of Sita and Rama (with a Jaya, Jaya Laxmana, Jaya Hanuman sung along with during the refrain)', seeing a play and hearing the gist of the story is sufficient for one to 'enter into' the deeper understanding and appreciation for the transcentally tragic love saga of Sita and Rama. Admittedly, you don't need to go to an Iskcon temple or become a NM disciple to ge the 'inner meaning' of that lila; everyone with access can read Valmiki's version from the library. It's a matter of the heart, so someone has a deep interest and attraction to that particular lila then Supersoul will direct him or her to a teacher who will explain the finer points of sentiment as well as the 'next glorious chapter' of the seemingly ill-fated lovers' story; Radha-Krishna lila.

 

"People of the World

Need to come together

People of the world (need to)

Start a Brand New Day"

 

stop the insanity stop the fighting let love live

 

 

[Bhaktavasya]

 

The letter may have been written before his heart-attack, if so then I've jumped the gun with my comments. There is nothing like having an experience of near-death to bring about a change of heart.

[Guest guest]

The Preaching Spirit and the Institution

 

 

Srila Prabhupada did not want to create another society of love friendship and socializing... A free hotel, a society of mutual admiration, a society of beaurocrats. Social parasites in the name of God and the Hindu religion. The world hates these religious institutions which have exploited them in the name of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and now Krishna, Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada.

By------Hansadutta dasa (04-04-02)

 

[Bhaktavasya]

 

My point exactly. Hamsadutta is one to talk.