What will Gaudiya Vaisnavism be like in 2000 years?

[Guest guest]

Rupanuga Vicara-Dhara

by Sripad BV Aranya Maharaja

United Kingdom, 2000

 

One time the devotees came to Gurudeva very concerned, saying, "We have left ISKCON." He replied, "Why have you left ISKCON? Don't say 'I have left ISKCON'. Prabhupada has written 'Bhagavad Gita As It Is'. So, our sanga here is 'ISKCON As It Is', as Srila Prabhupada intended it to be."

 

Srila Prabhupada intended to have a universal movement, not a sectarian movement. His intention was that everyone should come together like one family for hearing, chanting and remembering with a fixed goal. Our goal is the exclusive service of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krsna. All our activities should be directed to this, not to politics, money or any sectarian idea.

 

Krsna Consciousness is not the property of any institution. And as far as allegiance to Srila Prabhupada is concerned, we should understand something about what is Guru Parampara. Guru Parampara is not a personality cult. Guru Parampara is not a diksa line; it may not even be a siksa line. If you look at our Guru Parampara, some of the personalities in our line never even met the next person in the Parampara. What kind of Guru Parampara is this? It is called vicara-dhara. Dhara means a current, and vicara means conception. The conception, the feelings, the ideas and realizations in the heart of Srila Rupa Gosvami are flowing in the heart of one Vaisnava into the heart of another Vaisnava and then another Vaisnava. And wherever that vicara-dhara, the mood of Srila Rupa Gosvami, is flowing in this world-that is our Guru Parampara. We go there and bow our head there and we take that.

Our allegiance, our faithfulness, is to our Guru Parampara. It is a sampradaya. Sampradaya means a party-like the Labor Party, the Conservative Party or the Congress Party. That party exists for many years and one person may be the leader of the party. Then another person becomes the leader of the party and later on another person may be the leader, but they have a manifesto-they have some ideals. So the sampradaya is the body of ideals coming down. Those are the ideals of Srila Rupa Gosvamipada. We must be true to these ideals, never compromising and always serving those ideals. And we must become the servants of the servants of his servants:

 

 

ei chaya gosai jara-mui tara dasa

ta-sabara .-renu mora panca-grasa

I am the servant of those who are the servants of these six Gosvamis. The dust of their lotus feet is my panca-grasa. I think that if you have five mouthfuls of food every day you won't die, but if you take less than this, you cannot subsist. The dust of the lotus feet of the Gosvamis is our food, our life and soul, and without the dust of the lotus feet of those who are the servants of the servants of the conceptions and feelings of the Gosvamis, we will die.

If we are a member of any institution which is saying we are following Prabhupada but the conception is not flowing there, then we will die. But where the conception of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Rupa Gosvami, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura-wherever that is flowing we render our service there. This is our allegiance to Srila Prabhupada; this is our allegiance to our Guru Parampara and to Srila Rupa Gosvami. Otherwise we cannot be considered a member of the sampradaya.

 

We have to put ourselves in a place where the current of the feelings of Srila Rupa Gosvami can be transmitted into our hearts. Then we become a member of our parampara. It is not a question simply of initiation or anything. If someone in any other sampradaya has the feelings of Srila Rupa Gosvami in his heart, then he is in my parampara. If my own godbrother or godsister does not understand what is the mood of Srila Rupa Gosvami, I have no affiliation with them. We cannot have a rigid material conception of what it means to be faithful, what it means to be loyal, what it means to give allegiance and be a member of our parampara. It is only vicara-dhara, and where that conception is flowing, we will join that current and we will flow and help others come into the current.

 

I think that many devotees have not gone deeply into the parampara-tattva. They should try to understand this, and then this question of allegiance or non-allegiance will not come up. I think that those who are not going deeply into the teachings of Srila Rupa Gosvamipada are not following Srila Prabhupada-not at all. They create their own idea of Srila Prabhupada's teachings, quoting from letters and conversations. They take a piece here, a piece there, and sew everything together, making one Frankenstein of all the random dead pieces. They create a Frankenstein and worship that, calling it Srila Prabhupada.

 

What is this Frankenstein? This Frankenstein is: You don't need sadhu sanga, you don't need to associate with devotees, you don't need to understand what is raganuga bhakti. You don't need any of these things. All you need is to read books, hear tapes and build big temples, and in this way you can go back to home, back to Godhead. If you have a membership card and Vaikuntha passport, automatically when you die, you go direct to Goloka Vraja! I saw an article on Cakra saying that Srila Prabhupada never spoke about raganuga bhakti because you don't need to know. He told us, "Only preach. Then, when you die and go back to Godhead, you can learn about raganuga bhakti there." This is on Cakra now. This is written in the name of following Srila Prabhupada, but this is not following Srila Prabhupada. It is only a Frankenstein made up of statements like "vani is better than vapu," and other such things taken from here and there, and sewing them together.

 

When the Baron Frankenstein made this monster, it came alive, turned around and attacked him. So they have made a big monster; it is not Srila Prabhupada. It is only a monster-you don't need sadhu sanga. Now it has turned around and attacked them in the form of the rtvika philosophy. They themselves have invented this rtvika philosophy and now it has turned on them and is attacking them. You don't need sadhu sanga. Okay, why do we need you? We can all make our own monster and worship that and then we will go back home, back to Godhead. This is all bogus, and those who are following this cannot make any advancement in lifetimes and lifetimes.

 

So what is real allegiance? We should go deeply into this. It is vicara-dhara. What feelings are in the heart of Srila Prabhupada? How he was living for years and years before he came to the west at Radha-Damodara Temple, always taking darsana of the samadhi of Rupa Gosvamipada and always praying to Rupa Gosvamipada! In 1965 Srila Rupa Gosvamipada came to Srila Prabhupada and told him, "Now is the time. Quickly go. The summer of love is coming. Many many hippies are there. You should go on a boat to America and start your preaching. Now the time is right." And Srila Prabhupada went to the West.

 

It is very significant that Srila Prabhupada was staying at Radha-Damodara in Seva Kunja for many years, right by Srila Rupa Gosvamipada's samadhi. He said, "This Seva Kunja is my eternal abode." What does this mean? It means that Srila Prabhupada by siddha deha is always with Rupa Manjari, Rati Manjari, Vilasa Manjari and all, serving the lotus feet of Radha-Krsna in Seva Kunja.

 

We must go into this deeply. Perhaps we cannot fully understand but our aspiration should be that some day we will realize this thing. Those who are following real sadhana-bhajana to realize this are really the followers of Srila Prabhupada and they are the real members of ISKCON.

 

Also I want to make one more point-it is very important that the books we are distributing en mass to the general public should be the books of the acarya who is present in the world right now. One time Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja explained this point to me. I was writing a book from his lectures and he took something out. I asked him for clarification on this point. He said, "No, I will not explain this. Don't print it." I asked him why not. He said, "They should read it and become confused. They will wonder, 'Who can explain this to me? I'll have to go find the sadhu who can explain the real meaning to me.'" He told me, "You should edit my books in such a way that they are so attractive that someone will read them and say, 'I want to meet the author of this book.'" If people only read, they get some benefit. But unless they make an endeavor to come to meet the author, then the help that we have given them is very minimal. Without meeting the current acarya, it may take them hundreds of lifetimes to come into bhakti. They may get a book of any acarya who has left this world now. They may become very interested but will think, "I can never meet with him." But if they receive the book of an acarya who is here and there is an address, then they can go to meet him and ask him their questions. How much more valuable this is!

 

Then having darsana of sad-guru-darsane pavitra koro - ei tomara guna-in a moment all their sins and anarthas go away. By this sadhu sanga they can quickly come in the line of suddha bhakti. The devotees asked Srila Bhakti Raksaka Sridara Maharaja, "If you are a conditioned soul and drowning, how can you help someone else who is drowning? Is it possible?" He answered, "Yes, it is possible. If you are drowning and someone else is also drowning but then you see a boat, you will say to that person, 'I see a boat. Look!!'" We ourselves may be drowning in this world, but we can help others by pointing out that boat, "Come with us. We know a boat. I cannot save you but I know someone who can." Then, when they meet Srila Gurudeva, he will bring them into the true line of sadhana and then they will be able to meet Srila Prabhupada personally-face to face. Where? In Vrndavana. So if you want to bring people to Srila Prabhupada, then bring them to a person who can bring them into siddha deha and send them in the service of Srila Prabhupada there eternally. This is really introducing people to Srila Prabhupada.

 

[vijay]

"Srila Prabhupada intended to have a universal movement, not a sectarian movement. His intention was that everyone should come together like one family for hearing, chanting and remembering with a fixed goal. Our goal is the exclusive service of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krsna. All our activities should be directed to this, not to politics, money or any sectarian idea. "

 

¼r¦la Prabhup§da, as the founder-§c§rya, is the

ultimate authority for ISKCON. Prabhup§da writes, “In that trust …

my name is registered there as the founder-acarya and that I am to be

the ultimate authority.(Letter, Bombay, December 28, 1974)

 

"Krsna Consciousness is not the property of any institution."

 

No one said it is the property of any Instituition.

 

If you look at our Guru Parampara, some of the personalities in our line never even met the next person in the Parampara. What kind of Guru Parampara is this? It is called vicara-dhara. Dhara means a current, and vicara means conception. The conception, the feelings, the ideas and realizations in the heart of Srila Rupa Gosvami are flowing in the heart of one Vaisnava into the heart of another Vaisnava and then another Vaisnava.

 

21 For instance, “ªik¢§-guru does not mean he is speaking something

against the teachings of the d¦k¢§-guru. He is not a ªik¢§-guru. He is a

rascal.” (Bg. lecture, Honolulu, July 4, 1974)

 

In the following quote, ¼r¦la Prabhup§da indicates that there is etiquette

in how ªik¢§ should be transmitted by a ªik¢§-guru: “If K speaks

what I speak, then he can be taken a ªik¢§-guru.” (Letter, July 20,

1974)

 

2. The founder-§c§rya

Though ª§stra repeatedly mentions ªik¢§-guru, it says

little of the founder-§c§rya; though the tradition of ªik¢§-

guru is abundant, that of the founder-§c§rya is not.

Yet there is a glorious culture of the worship of, and

obedience to, leaders of samprad§yas, such as Brahm§,41

Vy§sadeva, Madhv§c§rya, Caitanya Mah§prabhu, and R¡pa

Gosv§m¦,42 as well as other §c§ryas prominent by the recognition

of their followers.43 This traditional respect for

§c§ryas appears to be the basis upon which we now revere

¼r¦la Prabhup§da. Although tradition sometimes did

define the §c§rya within an institutional framework, that

was rare.44 And never did the framework parallel the

sophisticated modern institutional structures of the

Gau¨¦ya Ma±ha and ISKCON.45

 

Following the example of Bhaktisiddh§nta Sarasvat¦

çh§kura, ¼r¦la Prabhup§da introduced to ISKCON the

concept of an institutional §c§rya and coined the title

founder-§c§rya. To the present day, ISKCON’s leadership

continues to develop the idea of founder-§c§rya as it pertains

to ¼r¦la Prabhup§da.

The founder-§c§rya is a ªik¢§-guru of paramount importance;

his role in the tradition of ªik¢§ is all-pervading

in his line. This prominence is due to (1) the emphasis and

direction he gives the parampar§’s teachings,46 and (2) the

institution he establishes to fulfil Lord Caitanya’s mission.

47

Because of the indelible stamp the founder-§c§rya

places on the ªik¢§ of his line, all subsequent gurus and followers

must execute their service and direct their

dependents through the founder-§c§rya’s teachings.48 This

is the pre-eminent ªik¢§ position of the founder-§c§rya.

 

I cite the example of R¡pa Gosv§m¦’s pra£§ma mantra: “When will ¼r¦la R¡pa Gosv§m¦ Prabhup§da, who has established within this material world the mission to fulfil the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus feet?” So R¡pa Gosv§m¦, as the founder of Gau¨¦ya Vai¢£avism, established as its mission the fulfilment of Lord Caitanya’s desire. Following that line, ¼r¦la Prabhup§da, as the founder-§c§rya of ISKCON, summarised its mission in the Seven Purposes

of ISKCON’s founding charter (New York, July 1966).

 

Prabhup§da first taught devotees respect for superiors

and the value of transcendental knowledge. Later, he introduced

the terminology of ªik¢§ and explained its principles.

As Prabhup§da’s Society reached India, interaction

with other Vai¢£ava groups led Prabhup§da to enumerate

the guidelines restricting ªik¢§, as well as those encouraging

it.

With minor exceptions, these guidelines protected the

Society. After ¼r¦la Prabhup§da’s disappearance, however,

ISKCON was beset with a battalion of Vai¢£avas from

outside its boundaries, willing or wanting to advise and

initiate its members. Some of these Vai¢£avas were wellmeaning,others not so. In any case, Prabhup§da’s warnings,

when not heeded, turned to prophesy, and a unified

ISKCON fractured.

 

My submission is this: The well-enunciated principles

of guru-tattva left by ¼r¦la Prabhup§da and the §c§ryas

must not be compromised by attempts to be politically

correct,1 nor by the bullying of self-interested parties,2 nor by our ignorance of Vai¢£ava culture.3

Adhering to the eternal principles of guru-tattva preserves

the integrity of ¼r¦la Prabhup§da and the Society.

Such integrity calls upon the members of ISKCON to find

spiritual guidance within its precincts. Should we not, a

Pandora’s box of anomalies awaits us, a box we have already

more than peeped into.

 

2 I refer to the exploitative attitude by some Vai¢£ava societies (and

their members), which invokes seniority of age, or exemption by transcendence,

as a justification to transgress both ªik¢§ tradition and

Prabhup§da’s instructions.

 

9 Prabhup§da writes, “The GBC should all be the instructor gurus. I

am in [sic] the initiator guru, and you should be the instructor guru by

teaching what I am teaching and doing what I am doing.” (Letter, Detroit,

August 4, 1975)

 

“So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothers very

intimately because instead of inspiring our students

and disciples they may sometimes pollute them. …

This attempt was made previously by them, especially

M and T and B but somehow or other I saved

the situation. This is going on. We shall be very

careful about them and not mix with them. This is

my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in

our movement, but they are very competent to harm

our natural progress. So we must be very careful

about them.”16 (Letter, April 28, 1974)

 

While Prabhup§da instructed disciples to seek outside guidance on Deity worship, cosmology, performance of his sam§dhi ceremony, etc., such guidance was specific and isolated and solicited by him. However, Prabhup§da never gave any blanket instruction to take ªik¢§ from outside

Vai¢£avas.

 

In Prabhup§da’s mature estimation, other Vai¢£avas,

from outside ISKCON, could not represent him. No doubt

many Vai¢£avas had much to contribute, but experience

had shown that their ªik¢§ could also “poison” or “pollute” his disciples, something he wanted to avoid at all

costs.

See Letter, Calcutta, September 25, 1970.

See Letter, Tirupati, April 28, 1974.

 

"saw an article on Cakra saying that Srila Prabhupada never spoke about raganuga bhakti because you don't need to know. He told us, "Only preach. Then, when you die and go back to Godhead, you can learn about raganuga bhakti there."

 

Any devotee can write anything on chakra, theres gay iskcon devotees feminists etc. so what what is the point of quoting that unless its an official position. I could quote what some of the diciples of GM quote its not a representation of all of GM

 

"Also I want to make one more point-it is very important that the books we are distributing en mass to the general public should be the books of the acarya who is present in the world right now."

A clear example of how this maharaj differs from srila prabhupadas teachings an mood.

 

"The results show that there is no limit to our book distribution. Our books are qualified to be distributed unlimitedly."

 

(S.P.L. to Ramesvara dasa 18/1/76)

 

"These books are the life of human society. Others may be disturbed, but they cannot disturb this Srimad-Bhagavatam. Let any man come, but here they cannot touch. We are putting these books for deliberation before the topmost thinkers of human society. Therefore, I have to see that in all languages all of our books are published. If we strain, and if he takes one book home, some day people will come to understand what valuable knowledge they have received. It is transcendental literature. Nobody can challenge it. It is done so nicely, without any spot, the spotless Purana. Please continue like this to print books in all the languages for the benefit of suffering, misdirected humanity."

 

(S.P.L. to ., 4th May, 1976)

 

"don't need sadhu sanga, you don't need to associate with devotees, you don't need to understand what is raganuga bhakti. You don't need any of these things. All you need is to read books, hear tapes and build big temples, and in this way you can go back to home, back to Godhead. "

 

Well i dont know where he got that from.

 

“We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is

my instruction to you all.” (Letter, Tirupati, April 28, 1974)

 

¼r¦la Prabhup§da said, “So these rascals … they are envious that …

What he has written? B. Just see what kind of men they are. They are

not even ordinary human being. They are envious of me, and what to

speak of make a judgment by estimation? They’re envious. Enviousness

is immediately disqualification of Vai¢£ava, immediate. He is not a human

being.” (Conversation, Johannesburg, October 16, 1975)

 

“Unfortunately we are surrounded

by neophyte Godbrothers who do not appreciate the extraordinary activities

of spreading K¥¢£a consciousness all over the world. They simply

try to bring us to their platform, and they try to criticize us in every

respect.” (The Nectar of Instruction 6, purport)

 

In a letter Prabhup§da wrote, “Actually amongst my Godbrothers, no

one is qualified to become acarya.” (Letter, Tirupati, April 28, 1974)

 

Srila prabhupada understood there will be problems in iskcon,

So we shall not expect that anywhere there is any Utopia. Rather, that

is impersonalism. People should not expect that even in the Krishna

Consciousness Society there will be Utopia. Because devotees are persons,

therefore there will always be some lacking. …” (Letter, Bombay,

February 4, 1972

 

I would like to voice a note of caution about Vai¢£avas

outside who pose themselves as ªik¢§-gurus of ISKCON.

Their followers contrast them to ISKCON gurus, promoting

them as spiritual luminaries and panaceas for

ISKCON’s ills. Yet these Vai¢£avas and their followers

seem to do little else than canvas ISKCON’s already converted members. Why do they concentrate on ISKCON

alone, neglecting the unlimited conditioned souls who

have not heard of K¥¢£a?48 After all, ¼r¦la Prabhup§da described the external sign of spiritual advancement as the

ability to convert the fallen to Vai¢£avism.49

 

60 In a letter Prabhup§da writes, “… please try to follow my instructions & you shall never be unhappy.” (Letter, Navadvipa, October 29,1967)

 

61 “Maintain your activities and increase gradually. I have instructed everything in my books.” (Letter, M§y§pura, February 25, 1976)

 

Enough quotes, you can have these interpreted and put into context by your acarya, I will accept our acarya's clear words.

 

 

[vijay]

"Also I want to make one more point-it is very important that the books we are distributing en mass to the general public should be the books of the acarya who is present in the world right now."

 

This is a blatent major difference to what prabhupada asked his diciples to do, he said that they in the future should also right books, but he wanted his books distributed. Who elses books have had so mouch potency that people have become devotees not even by associating with devotees just by reading these time bombs, people from the middle east to australia have changed just by these special books. And the argument that the athor needs to be present on the earth to ask questions holds very little ground, prabhupada lectured many times on his books, and in fact most people that became devotees never even met prabhupada let alone needed to ask him any questions personally, most people got clarifcation form his dicsiples which prabhupada trained up.

 

Also if prabhupada was agreeing with BV Aranya Maharaja

that only a physically present acaryas books should be distributed en masse, the why did prabhupada continue to translate bhagvatam until the last moments? Why did he continue to say distribute his books even up to the last moments.

 

This is another case of ask the 'uncles' they actually know prabhupada's hidden desires.

[Guest guest]

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja Avirbhava Tithi

by Sripad Bhaktivedanta Aranya Maharaja

[28 August 2003

Vrndavana, India]

I offer my heartfelt dandavat pranama at the lotus feet of my gurupada-padma, om visnu-. astottara-sata Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, and to my siksa-guru, nitya-lila pravista om visnupada astottara-sata Sri Srimad Gaura Govinda Maharaja. Today is the subha avirbhava tithi of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja. This is a very auspicious day because on this day one very near and dear associate of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in this world.

 

Krsna has no birth and no death: "janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah" and "saksad-dharitvena samasta sastrair uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih." All sastras give the conclusion that Sri Guru has all the qualities of Hari—no birth, no death. "Kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya, vande guroh sri caranaravindam." The Vaisnava appears in this world to the eyes of the conditioned souls and he disappears from their eyes but he does not come or go. He is always present. "…iti bakabhid vartmapa-gane kuru tvam phutkaran avati sa yatha tvam mana itah." Sri Raghunatha dasa says, "O my dear mind, I am attacked by so many bad qualities. What should I do? Oh, just call out to the guardians of the path of raganuga bhakti and they will come and save you." Sriman Mahaprabhu’s powerful devotees are the guardians of the path of raganuga bhakti. If anyone takes shelter of them and prays to them, they will at once come and save that person.

 

So a Vaisnava has no appearance or disappearance actually but:

 

 

duhkha-madhye kona duhkha haya gurutara?’

‘krsna-bhakta-viraha vina duhkha nahi dekhi para’

Mahaprabhu asked Sri Raya Ramananda, "Of all types of distress, which is the most significant, highest distress?" Raya Ramananda said, "I don't know any distress." Why? Anyone who is following the path of uttama bhakti and who is surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord does not know the meaning of this word distress. "Atma-nivedana, tuwa pade kori, hoinu parama sukhi, duhkha dure gelo, cinta na rohilo, caudike ananda dekhi." Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would sing this kirtana all the time. "O my Lord, since that moment I surrendered my heart at Your lotus feet, I became happy. All my sufferings and sorrows have gone far away and everywhere I look I see only ananda—caudike ananda dekhi.

So what is distress? Sri Raya Ramananda said, "I don't know any distress except one: "krsna bhakta viraha duhkha". The distress of separation from pure devotees. Who can feel separation? One who has met the pure devotee can feel separation. Without sambandha, without relation, how can you feel separation? Also that person who has heard from his guru varga can feel separation. Why? One who has attachment coming from hearing, "sravana jata rati", can feel separation although he may not have met Srila Rupa Gosvamipada, Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja and others. If one hears from a realized person, then rati can come. Srila Gurudeva gives the example of Rukmini—she never met Krsna, but hearing about Him from Narada Muni, she became so attached, "Oh, I will give up my life, but I will only marry You." And she wrote the letter to Krsna. This is sravana-dasa prema.

 

I want to speak a few words in glorification of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja. He was born in a Vaisnava family in Orissa in Jagannatha-pura which is quite close to Jagannatha Puri Dhama. His father's brothers were very famous kirtaniyas. They would go everywhere doing harinama sankirtan. As a very small boy he would go with his uncles from village to village singing kirtans—especially kirtans of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Narottama dasa Thakura. In his childhood he was always reading Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritamrta. Before he was 10 he would give Bhagavatam lectures in the village. When he was a little older, not from any desire to be married but only out of responsibility to his family members, he was married—he saw the face of his wife for the first time on the day of the wedding. He was completely detached. Whatever his parents arranged, he was agreeable with. He was just doing his duty. His parents were poor so he had to work while studying at college part time. Even so, in the whole state of Orissa he got the second best results in his degree from the Utkal University. He was very intelligent.

 

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja became a school teacher. He taught a variety of classes, such as mathematics, history and Hindi but in every class he would teach his favorite subject, Srimad Bhagavatam. One time a government inspector came to the school and discovered that Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was telling Hari katha to the students. The government inspector questioned why he wasn't following the academic curriculum. The administration tried to make some problem for him but he was very strong because he knew what was the actual meaning of education. Many years later after he had given up householder life, about 30 of the boys he had taught in his purva asrama met him and became his disciples. This was the result of his strong preaching during his householder life!

 

When he was forty-five years old, he left home and traveled all over India meeting many sadhus and gurus. At that time he defeated many Mayavadis in debate. While he was in the Himalayas, he thought, "Surely Radharani will be merciful to me and give me the shelter of sad guru in the Holy Dhama of Vrndavana." Therefore he came to Vrndavana. He went everywhere in Vrndavana. He even came to Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha in Mathura where he met our Srila Gurudeva in about 1972. He came to Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha but he went on. Why? He had one determination in his mind. "I have read in Caitanya Bhagavat: 'Prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama/ sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama.' Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that in as many towns and villages as there are in the whole world my name will be preached everywhere. How will it be? I want to discover that person who can teach me this." So he went everywhere. When he came to Vrindavan somehow he got a "Back to Godhead" magazine with a list of many preaching centers all over the world and one Gaudiya Vaisnava sadhu preaching everywhere. In that magazine he saw Western people wearing tilak, sikha, and kanthi mala and he thought, "Perhaps I can find the answer to my question here." So he came to Krsna Balarama Mandir and connected with his eternal gurupada-padma, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At once he took shelter of him.

 

Sripad BV Padmanabha Maharaja: You know, the story of his sannyasa ceremony is very wonderful. Prabhupada had agreed to give him sannyasa but no one knew. At the opening of the Krsna-Balarama Mandira in 1975, Srila Prabhupada was giving sannyasa to Tripurari Maharaja. At the fire yagna there were two asanas, each with a set of cloth and danda. Tripurari Maharaja was sitting on one asana and the other was empty. No one could understand why there were two. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was the priest performing the ceremony. When it was time to receive the mantras, he got up from his place and went and sat down on the empty asana. The other sannyasis present expressed surprise, “But Prabhupada, he’s just a new boy.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “He was born a Vaisnava. You are the new boys!”

 

Sripad Aranya Maharaja: Srila Prabhpada sent him to Orissa right after their first meeting. Some persons had donated a piece of land in the middle of a jungle outside Bhubanesvara. At that time if you wanted to go there by rickshaw, the rickshaw wallas wouldn't take you there because it was only full of snakes, scorpions and dacoits. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja went to this piece of land in the middle of this dangerous jungle. With his own hands he built a mud and grass hut and he lived there. He thought, "Why did my Gurudeva tell me to make a temple here?" At that time in Bhubanesvara all the activities were going on in the old part of town but now we see in the last 30 years due to town planning that not so much is going on in the old part of town but now that piece of useless jungle is right in the middle of the most high-class area of the new town where all the doctors and lawyers are. Srila Prabhupada knew but Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was thinking, "Why did he tell me to make a temple here in the middle of nowhere? But anyway my Gurudeva has told me to do and I must obey his order."

 

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would often quote from sastra: "guru ajna na langhiye." The order of the guru is not the subject for your deliberation. You cannot question whether or not to do it or why or anything. You should just follow completely. To illustrate this point Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would give the example of Jamadagni ordering his son Parasarama to cut off the head of his mother. Jamadagni said, "Your brothers did not obey my order to cut off their mother's head so you cut off their heads and cut off the head of your mother also." At once Parasarama took his ax and killed his brothers and his mother. His father said, "I am so pleased with you. You can take any benediction from me." Parasarama asked, "Bring my mother and brothers back to life." Parasarama's father agreed. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would tell this story to illustrate that when the guru gives an order, you should follow without any speculation.

 

So he was in Bhubanesvara living in a mud hut in the jungle and gradually those students that he preached to when he was a school teacher met with him. They became brahmacaris and also made some huts and lived with him. He began to train them. One college student would come on his bicycle. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja wanted to go preaching here and there in Bhubanesvara. So, being a sannyasi he would sit on top of the back wheel of the bicycle and his disciple would peddle. He rode him all around Bhubanesvara and Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja preached to the people. Soon more and more people became attracted to him.

 

One of his godbrothers named Bhagavat dasa, who is now living in Florida, was a brahmacari at that time. He came to live in the mud hut with Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja and he saw how he lived. Other devotees were there also and were observing him. Sripad Padmanabha Maharaja told us that Bhagavat prabhu came to him and said, "I've been living with Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja and he's a sadhu!" Why did he have so much conviction that he was a sadhu? One of the reasons was that over a period of ten years no one ever saw him take rest. Maybe he took rest but no one saw because after everyone had gone to sleep, he was still writing and before everyone was up, he was chanting. So whether he took rest or not no one knew. At that time he would follow caturmasya strictly as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had followed. At the end of caturmasya he was only eating a handful of rice from the floor with his hands behind his back. He followed completely and strictly. At that time Bhagavat prabhu was convinced, "This person is a sadhu."

 

There are many astonishing stories about Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja and there is so much opulence in these stories but I remember once that one disciple of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was telling some pastimes and Srila Gurudeva wasn't satisfied. He said, "When you glorify your Gurudeva, you should tell laukika-sad-bandhu-vat sambandha. Why? This is more important because remembering stories of the natural affectionate dealings between guru and Vaisnavas will deepen your own connection with your guru and this will bring suddha sattva visesatma prema suryamsu samyabhak; the transference of all the bhava in his heart will come by the remembrance of his intimate relationships.

 

In 1977 just prior to the disappearance of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada came to Bhubanesvara. He wanted to see how his disciple was doing in this jungle. The other disciples and sannyasis traveling with Srila Prabhupada were making all arrangements for his tour. Srila Gaura Govinda had arranged for Srila Prabhupada and his party to stay at the Government Guesthouse in the middle of the city. When they arrived at ISKCON Bhubanesvara, they saw a mud hut with a straw roof and a few other straw shelters where the brahmacaris were staying. When Srila Prabhupada had finished inspecting the land they said “Okay, Srila Prabhupada, we should take you to the guesthouse now.” “Guesthouse? I’m not going to any guesthouse. I am staying here with my son Gaura Govinda.” They could not believe it. The bags where already in the city. They sent for Prabhupada’s bag and put it inside the mud hut. The only bathing facility was a bucket behind a hessian screen. Sometimes Srila Prabhupada would call Gaura Govinda Maharaj, lock the door for hours kicking out all other devotees and speak so many confidential topics. No tape recorder was allowed. Prabhupada stayed for 17 days in that hut with Gaura Govinda Maharaja always speaking hari katha.

 

Shortly after this Srila Prabhupada enacted his disappearance pastimes. The next year Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja came to the parikrama in Mayapur. It was Ekadasi day and kirtana was going on. During the kirtana Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja became unconscious and fell to the ground. The devotees picked him up and brought him back to his room. The devotees could not ascertain what was wrong with him. Sometimes he was speaking but he did not seem to make sense and sometimes he was rolling and he would become unconscious. Many sannyasis and gurus were there. They called a doctor who could not find out what was wrong. By the arrangement of Krsna, Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja came strolling into ISKCON Mayapur. He was always doing kirtana and had had stickers printed saying “Chant Hare Krsna Maha Mantra" and he would put them everywhere. Srila Prabhupada had told his disciples “You learn kirtana from Sri Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja.” He was always laughing and singing all the time and spoke very little.

 

One of the sannyasis saw him and said “Please come. We have a problem with one of our sannyasis.” He brought Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja to see Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja. Babaji Maharaja looked at him and was touching him and chanting something in his ear and then he began to laugh and said “Oh, don’t worry. He’s in bhava. No problem at all. He became unconscious just because of bhava.” So then the devotees who were there developed some deep respect for him.

 

Sripad Padmanabha Maharaja: I read an article by Lagudi dasa who was the personal servant of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja at that time. He wrote an article telling what happened. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was in this state of consciousness for a long period of time, maybe about four months. Lagudi prabhu narrated several stories about Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja during that time. He said that his body had become so skinny, weighing about only 80 pounds, because he was practically not even eating. He had no strength in his body so Lagudi prabhu used to carry him to go to the latrine and then bring him back. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was in such an incredible state of consciousness. Lagudi prabhu said they were staying in the Long Building. They could hear people as they were coming down the long veranda. As soon as anyone walked by the doorway, Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would immediately do full dandavat pranama. When another person walked by, immediately again he would do full dandavat pranama although he was in this very weakened condition. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was in a very extraordinary state of consciousness. Gradually one day he came out of this state of consciousness. He was looking at his hand and asked Lagudi prabhu, "What is this?Maharaja, that's your hand.This is my hand?" He was completely in another realm.

 

Sripad Aranya Maharaja: After some time Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja returned to Bhubanesvara. He was very humble. He never let anyone do any seva for him. Even in his old age he was washing his own cloth and living in one room—sleeping, writing, chanting, eating in only one room.

 

Once some of his godbrothers were living with him and they were all going out preaching. One night when he returned late from preaching there was a little milk left in the pot. Everyone had taken milk but there was a little left. He drank this. Then another devotee came back even later. He saw Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja drinking and he saw that the pot was empty. He said, "You drank all the milk. You didn't leave any for me." This statement was quite unreasonable because the devotee had come back really late but Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja felt so bad about the incident that for the rest of his life he never drank milk. From this incident we can have a little understanding how much he honored his godbrothers. He never wanted to accept any position higher or superior to others or for his personal convenience. He was such an exemplary person.

 

When he became a sannyasi, he left his home, his wife and seven children. He was 45 years old and his children were still young. After he left, his wife and children were in great difficulty to maintain their lives. Because he had been teaching in a school, he was entitled to receive a pension. The government told his wife, “If your husband will sign a document, you can receive his pension. All he has to do is sign this paper.” One government minister came to him when he was staying in his bhajana kutira and told him that his wife and children from his purva asrama were in great financial difficulty and that they could receive his pension if he would sign for them. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja answered, “I have no family members.” He was really sannyasi. Sannyasa means social death. He maintained no connection at all with his past life. He refused to sign that paper. Why? Because he was cruel? No, because he had faith in Krsna. “I should not compromise my sannyasa vrata.” He knew that Krsna would take care of everything.

 

So he went to preach in a village where he organized a big pandal program. One young man from a very wealthy family attended that program. He was very impressed when he heard Gaura Govinda Maharaja’s hari katha. After he asked some of the devotees who knew Gaura Govinda Maharaja, “This sadhu is a great personality. If he was previously in household life, then I want to marry his daughter because if he is so qualified, then his daughter must also be highly qualified.” He found out about Gaura Govinda Maharaja’s family and went to their village and proposed marriage to his eldest daughter. She was married to him and he maintained the whole family very luxuriously. Hari katha is so powerful—it fulfills all material desires, what to speak of all spiritual desires. Govinda Maharaja had many pastimes like this. His character was astonishing.

 

Now I want to tell something about Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja's Hari-katha. He was always very very inspired. At the time of speaking Hari-katha he would come with his stick and keep it by his asana. When Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was giving class, everybody would fight to be in front. Why did the devotees want to be in front? They wanted to be within the range of his stick because during his lecture at any time he could pick up his stick and—boom—hit someone on the head. He would ask a question. "Do you know this verse?No.Why not?" Boom! He would hit them with his walking stick. All the devotees would try to be far forward so that at least there would be a chance for getting his mercy.

 

One time Srila Gurudeva said that Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was a saktavesa avatara of Abhirama Thakura. Abhirama Thakura was an associate of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He had a whip and anyone he hit with his whip would get Krsna-prema. Srila Gurudeva said that the sakti of Abhirama Thakura came in Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja. Everyone was eager to be beaten by his stick so they could get Krsna-prema.

 

During every one of his lectures he would burst into song and sing at the top of his voice. On Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance Day just before he left this world, he was singing for hours very loudly. He would take his stick and swing it around his head and jump from his seat during the kirtana. It was amazing. Waves of the madness of Nityananda Prabhu's mercy were washing over everyone during his kirtana. During his lecture he would sing. He would especially sing the songs of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Narottama dasa Thakura. He gave me an order, "Everyday you must sing the kirtanas of Saranagati of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.” He always put stress on this. Why? You cannot do bhakti unless you have bhakti adhikara. What is bhakti adhikara? Saranagati. He told this to the devotees and sang the songs of Saranagati, explaining each verse and telling a story to illustrate each verse of every song.

 

However, he knew that most of his disciples had no adhikara in bhakti. Therefore he engaged them in going here and there to collect money to build the temple that Prabhupada had told him to construct in Bhubanesvara. Prabhupada gave him very strict instructions. You have to make three prakosthas for Gaura-Nitai, Krsna-Balarama and Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra, and in another place separate from Them, Radha-Gopinatha. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was very determined to fulfill Prabhupada’s instruction. As Western devotees became attracted to him, he would tell them to collect money. Thus gradually he was able to manifest this huge temple.

 

When he was starting the construction, one very wealthy Indian person came—someone from the Hinduja family. He was very impressed by the hari katha and said to Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja, “You are trying to build a temple here. Tell me how much it will cost. I will pay for everything and at once we will build the whole temple.” Gaura Govinda Maharaja said, “No. My disciples will collect all the money by hard work.”

 

This was a very ecstatic time and gradually the temple was built. There was a very big temple and big guest house also. But where did Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja stay? In his mud hut that he had built with his own hands twenty years earlier.

 

I remember that Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja used to love Srila Gurudeva’s books. If any devotees were going to Vrndavana, he would send them to bring all the books of Srila Narayana Maharaja. “If any new book has come out, bring it at once.” At first the disciples were bringing only the English books because they did not know that there were Hindi books. Then he asked them to bring all the Hindi books also. When Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would get a new book, he would stay up all night till he finished reading the book. When Venu Gita came out, Gaura Ginda Maharaja was so happy. He stayed up all night and read it from cover to cover. The next morning he said, “O my God! This Srila Narayana Maharaja is lifetimes ahead of me. In what life I will become like him I don’t know.” He kept all of Gurudeva’s books in the bookcase right next to his bed.

 

One time someone asked him, “Which is your favorite dhama? Where do you like to do bhajana?” He said, “Sri Ksetra Puri Dhama, where I have done bhajana my whole life. I like this dhama.” That person asked him, “Why don’t you go to Vrndavana?” Gaura Govinda Maharaja answered, “I will stay here in Sri Kestra Puri. Bhakti Pramoda Puri Maharaja is in Navadvipa, and Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami is there in Vraja Mandala. So there is no need for me to go there.” He was thinking, “There should be one powerful Vaisnava in each dhama. Then everything is okay.” This was his conclusion.

 

His lectures were very amazing and he created a phenomenon which no one had ever seen. Actually, our Bhakti Sar Maharaja was the person who brought Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja out of India for the first time. At that time Bhagavan was still ruling in Europe and everyone had to take initiation from him, but Bhakti Sar Maharaja thought that there should be some choice. When Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja came to Europe, he told the katha of our Gosvamis. No one had ever heard anything like it before. He was speaking from Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindhu, Ujjvala Nilamani, Gopala Campu, the books of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and many other Gosvami granthas. He spoke with so much affection.

 

During this tour of Europe, anyone who saw him would realize there and then that this was a real Vaisnava, the likes of which they had never encountered before, making their so-called “guru” look pale. And wherever he went, they would go with him. He would move around from country to country, and so many devotees would follow him. Usually the best devotees in each temple would disappear, and later they would end up in Bhubanesvara. The GBC was freaking out and was putting bans on him to keep him from coming to any of their temples. Still, he would go from country to country. He would fly and lecture in one country. He would take rest and in the morning he would fly to the next country. As soon as he would finish speaking, the devotees would jump into cars and buses and drive like crazy to the next country to get there just on time for the beginning of his next lecture. Again he would take rest, then the next morning fly to the next country.

 

The devotees followed him all around Europe like this. Why? Because his lectures were so astonishing. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would sit down with his notebook and say, "Today I want to tell you about something." I remember once in Paris he said, "I want to tell you about sat-sampradaya.” No one ever heard this word before—sat-sampradaya. What does it mean? The real rupanuga guru-varga. In those days we were all quite ignorant thinking that Prabhupada has a disciple and his disciple has a disciple and this is called parampara. He said, "There is such a thing as sat-sampradaya, which means the eternal transcendental sampradaya. And what is the difference between the sat-sampradaya and asat-sampradaya? The sat-sampradaya has one treasure, one dhana, aprakrta dhana, transcendental wealth. That transcendental wealth is one-pointed service at the lotus feet of Srimati Radhika. That guru who has the treasure of manjari bhava, service at the lotus feet of Radhika, is called guru in the sat-sampradaya. And if that treasure is not in his possession, then he is not in sat-sampradaya. It is called asat-sampradaya." We never heard any katha like that before. Then he would say, "What is that treasure?" And he would begin to sing the songs of Narottama dasa Thakura like "radha krsna prana mora yugala kisora…syama gauri ange dibo candanera gandha camara dhulabo kabe heribo mukha-candra." All were hearing what they never heard before. They thought, "This is wonderful katha!"

 

He would tell many things. He would speak about sabda brahman because many devotees had a misconception that simply by reading Prabhupada's books they could learn everything. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja said, "You have to hear directly from the lips of the pure sadhu. Bhakti-sakti is in his sabda brahman. Krsna Himself is sabda brahman. He will come in your heart and clean your heart through the sound vibration coming from the pure sadhu. Then you can get bhakti, otherwise not, impossible." Sometimes for three days he would lecture on verses from Srimad Bhagavatam only about sadhu sanga. He collected every verse from Srimad Bhagavatam and he would tell the verses and explain them one by one.

 

Sripad Asrama Maharaja once asked him, "Maharaja, what if we hear from tapes." Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja replied, "Tapes are something but not complete. You will have to hear directly." Sripad Asrama Maharaja asked, "But what about you?" Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja replied, "I am hearing from my Gurudeva everyday and what he is telling me I am telling you." This is why the lectures of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja were so powerful, attractive and revolutionary. Some people would say, “We don't accept him. Why is he so different from Srila Prabhupada?” But he told us, "I am hearing from my Gurudeva every day and what he is telling me, I am telling you." He was so humble about it, very, very humble. He would be like a lion while speaking, and as soon as the lecture finished, he became like a pussy cat, like a lamb, very very soft and shy, keeping his head and eyes down.

 

When he would start his hari katha, he would give a very long mangalacaranam, glorifying his guru, his guru-varga, all Vaisnavas, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krsna. Then he would recite many verses glorifying Srimad-Bhagavatam. He would become transformed and speak as if possessed. Observing him, we can see how the hari katha manifests in the world by the mercy of Krsna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

He was always saying, “You will have to associate with sadhus. Sadhu sanga sadhu sanga sarva sastre kaya. Satam pransangam mama virya samvido. Mahat-sevam dvaram ahur vimuktes. Sometimes for three days he would lecture only on Bhagavatam verses about sadhu sanga. He collected every verse from the Bhagavatam. He would recite the verses and explain them one by one.

 

On special occasions he would look at the audience and see that they were not so qualified, but he could not contain his mood, so he would say, “All of you, you are not qualified, so I am speaking this katha for Radha-Krsna, for the deities. You just sit and listen quietly.” He would speak for three hours in English. After that he would repeat the same lecture in Oriya. He would make all the Oriyas sit through the English lecture and all the Westerners sit through the Oriya lecture. He said, “It does not matter if you cannot understand the language. Just sit with your ears open and pray. You should have so much faith in sabda brahma.” He put so much stress on sabda brahma, transcendental sound. He would say, “This is not available anywhere. It only comes from the lips of a pure devotee.”

 

One time he went to New Vrndavana in America. He had been wanting to go there for many years because he wanted to tell the katha of Nava Vrndavana, Lalita Madhava of Rupa Gosvami. He said to the devotees, “You are not qualified to hear this. I am only speaking Lalita Madhava for Radha and Krsna. You should just sit and be quiet.” And he told very sweet pastimes manifested in this world by Srila Rupa Gosvamipada in his Lalita Madhava.

 

One time he was explaining the verse:

 

 

anyabhilasita sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam

anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama

He told us, "Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura said this word anukula is very significant. What is the significance?" At that time I didn't understand anything at all. After many years now something is coming by the grace of Srila Gurudeva. Srila Gaura Govida Maharaja said that uttama bhakti is the service of Krsna but not Krsna at any place, time or under any circumstances. Krsna has 96 heroic moods and among them are dhirodaatta, dhirodatta, dhira-santa, dhira-lalita. One mood is called satha. Srila Rupa Gosvami in Utkalika Vallari describes this heroic mood: satho 'yam naveksyah punar iha maya mana-dhanaya. What is satha? The satha-nayaka is that beloved who is very gentle and very honorable to your face but behind your back makes so many offenses. Another hero is called dhrsta, which means he is very proud, puffed-up, carefree and somewhat callous. Sometimes Krsna is daksina. This means when the hero meets with his beloved, in his mind from time to time he thinks about another girl. This is called daksina. He has love for her completely but he keeps some favorable disposition toward someone else. But another mood is when Krsna is so desperate that He will follow Srimati Radhika like a shadow anywhere She goes. Then He is anukula nayaka—completely absorbed in Radhika, and even the shadow of the thought of any other nayika cannot come in His mind.

Sometimes Krsna comes to the kunja of Radhika but Radhika told Rupa Manjari and Rati Manjari to stay outside and make sure Krsna does not come. “Yat-kinkarisu bahusah khalu kaku-vani / nityam parasya purusasya sikhanda-mauleh." At that time Krsna comes and falls at the feet of Rupa and Rati Manjari and begs them, "Oh, please let Me meet with your Svamini."

 

All the great devotees like Prahlada, Hanuman, Uddhava, the Pandavas, the 4 Kumaras, the 12 mahajanas, the Nava Yogendras can all pray to Krsna but Krsna is praying to the dasis of Radhika. And more than that, at that time when Krsna is praying to them, what are they doing? They are abusing Him using harsh language and making Krsna feel so bad that He prays the earth should open and swallow Him. Krsna begs, "Please let me meet with your Svamini. I'll never make such an offense again for my whole life."

 

"No, you should wait."

 

"I've been waiting for a very long time."

 

Krsna is begging again and again. Tears come in His eyes, but at that time Rupa Manjari and Rati Manjari, seeing His tears, still don't give in to Him because Radharani had told them, "Oh, when Krsna speaks sweet words to you, even He may cry, but you should keep your patience. Don't become soft. Don't give in to Him."

 

So even if Krsna is crying, they won't allow Him to meet with Radhika. Why? These tears are not anything special. These tears may be false. Even though He may cry, still the thought of another gopi may come in His mind as in His daksina mood. But when Krsna starts to perspire, that means He has forgotten about everyone else and only Radhika is in His heart. At that time Radhika is thinking, "Alright, I should meet with Him. He is really sorry." This feeling in the heart of Radhika comes in the heart of Sri Rupa Manjari because their hearts are connected like two points on a vina. If you pluck the string of a vina, then this note touches both ends. The feeling that comes in the heart of Radhika also comes in the heart of Rupa Manjari. When she sees that Krsna really is repenting—really He thinks of Radhika and no one else, and He is sweating—then Rupa Manjari takes Krsna by the hand to bring Him to meet with Radhika. This mood of Krsna is called anukula nayaka: "anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama". What is uttama bhakti? We will only serve Krsna who is anukula nayaka, who has completely forgotten about everyone else, who has only Radhika in His heart and not even the shadow of the thought of anyone else is in his heart.

 

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was a very astonishing personality. One year, perhaps 1994, Srila Gurudeva was in Puri and Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja came to meet with him. He came in the afternoon when Srila Gurudeva was resting. It was quite hot. Srila Gurudeva’s servant said, “He is resting now.” He went away and came back in the evening. He was very humble and determined, coming in the mood of a disciple. He asked Srila Gurudeva three questions. (1) What is the svarupa of Jagannatha Puri Dhama? (2) What is the exclusive aim and object for those who are rupanuga? (3) What is the meaning of this verse:

 

 

ahus ca te nalina-nabha padaravindam

yogesvarair hrdi vicintyam agadha-bodhaih

Srila Gurudeva was very happy to hear these questions and he began to speak. He explained that Jagannatha Puri Dhama is one prakash of Dvaraka. Yet Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to Puri to do bhajana and by His bhava-netra He saw Vrndavana. Why? Because Sri Caitanya Caritamrta (Madhya 17.55) says:

 

vana dekhi’ bhrama haya——ei ‘vrndavana’

saila dekhi’ mane haya——ei ‘govardhana’

It was a mistake. By mistake He thought that this was Govardhana and that this was Vrndavana. It is never written in Caitanya Caritamrta that Puri Dhama is Vrndavana. By mistake He thought that it was Vrndavana. Gurudeva said that Puri Dhama is not the original Dvaraka but is the Dvaraka prakash because Jagannatha-deva is Dvarakadhisa. He has the disc and conch in His hands, and Subhadra is next to Him. You can identify the dhama by the parikara vaisistya. But Mahaprabhu has come here to relish separation pastimes, and by His vibhrama He was seeing that this is Vrndavana.

The next question was what is the aim and object of rupanuga Gaudiyas. Srila Gurudeva described tat tad bhava icchamayi and in this bhava-ullasa-rati, the sthayi-bhava of the manjaris. This is the aim of the rupanugas—exclusive service to the lotus feet of Srimati Radhika.

 

Then he explained “ahus ca te nalina-nabha padaravindam” according to the commentaries of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Srila Sanatana Gosvami and others. As Srila Gurudeva was speaking, Sripad Bon Maharaja was there watching from some distance. He told me that he observed all the sattvika bhavas in the body of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja hearing Gurudeva’s katha. His hairs were standing on end, his body was trembling and tears were coming from his eyes. Bon Maharaja thought, “This sannyasi is no ordinary person.”

 

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja was living in Puri, and because the atmosphere of the dhama inspires one to remember Gambhira lila, he would especially tell everyone the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Gambhira. I remember how he would describe Mahaprabhu weeping in the Gambhira and remembering:

 

 

kva nanda-kula-candramah kva sikhi-candra-kalankrtih

kva mandra-murali-ravah kva nu surendra-nila-dyutih

kva rasa-rasa-tandavi kva sakhi jiva-raksausadhir

nidhir mama suhrttamah kva tava hanta ha dhig vidhih

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would sing this verse from Lalita Madhava and weep. He would explain how Sriman Mahaprabhu in Gambhira would embrace Sri Svarupa Damodara and Sri Raya Ramananda and say, “Oh, where is He who appeared like the moon in the dynasty of Nanda Maharaja and He grew up like a full moon? Where is He who wears a peacock feather in His hair? Where is He who played very slow and long drawn out notes on His murali? Oh, where is that Krsna whose complexion is like an indranila jewel? Oh, where is that Krsna who is an expert dancer? O sakhi, I am dying! You should bring Him at once. He is the only medicine to save My life. There is no other cure for My disease. Krsna is the treasure of My heart and He is My best friend. Oh, where is He? O Vidhata, O Creator, I curse you. Why have you taken Krsna away from Me?”

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja would tell these verses over and over again. He would say, “I have opened a crying school here in Bhubanesvara. You have come here to learn what? How to collect money? How to eat and sleep? No. You come here only for one thing.” Then he would sing a verse from Caitanya Bhagavat:

 

 

bhakti-yoga bhakti-yoga bhakti-yoga dana

bhakti-yoga ei krsna smarana krandana

“Bhakti yoga is a treasure. What is that treasure? You just remember Krsna and weep and weep and weep.” So he said, “I have to come to give you only this thing, not for anything else.” He would tell many many pastimes of Mahaprabhu’s separation. He told us, “You should learn the art of how to cry for Krsna. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself came to show us all of these things by His own example. Try to be a follower of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and learn how to cry for Krsna.” Then he discovered his disappearance pastimes and all were crying.

Srila Locana dasa Thakura said: abaddha koruna-sindhu katiya muhan / ghare ghare bule prema-amiyar ban. There was one ocean of mercy but there was a dam holding back the mercy. Nityananda Prabhu came and cut the dam, making a channel so that this mercy could flow to everyone’s door. I think that Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja opened a channel for us. We were all members of ISKCON and we did not know what was proper siddhanta, tattva, what is bhajana, who is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu or the aim and object of our life. But Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja came.

 

There was a big wall between ISKCON and Gaudiya Math and Srila Gurudeva. Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja came and broke the wall. Then all devotees went through the hole and came to Gurudeva. Because as soon as Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja left this world, only about four weeks later, for the first time Srila Gurudeva went on tour around the world. Mainly he went to the places where the disciples of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja were. They were inviting Srila Gurudeva, “Come to Australia. Come to Holland. Come to England. Come to America. Come to France” By the invitations of many of the disciples of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja, Srila Gurudeva began to go all over the world and his first temples in Australia, in Birmingham, in Malaysia, in Bali were opened either by the disciples of Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja or his friends and followers. They made a very good platform for Srila Gurudeva’s preaching.

 

Many people had been making problems for Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja. Thus upset his disciples and they all wanted to leave ISKCON. We would say to him, “We don’t need this movement. Let’s make our own movement.” On one or two occasions he answered, “No, we should not leave. This is Prabhupada’s movement. You should be patient. We should only leave when it becomes intolerable.” One disciple asked, “What does it mean ‘when it becomes intolerable’?” Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja said, “When they change the siddhanta. If they will pass a resolution changing the siddhanta, then it will become intolerable.” So this happened. A resolution was passed in 1995: we have all fallen from Goloka-Vrndavana. He told the devotees, “Wait until ’96. Then the Prema Yuga will begin. The Age of Love of Vrndavana will go everywhere.” And in l996 Srila Gurudeva started going everywhere.

 

In this way we see how Srila Prabhupada, Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja and Srila Gurudeva are all on the same team, all in the same line and together cooperating to bring the nectar and mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, His very rare gift of rupanuga bhajana to the jivas of Kali Yuga.

 

Gaura premanande!

 

 

 

[vijay]

Thanks for that.

Still doesnt answer my question when has prabhupada ever suggested his books should not be distributed en mass after he leaves the planet, actuaully he says the opposite.

[Guest guest]

Fine to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. Nothing wrong with distributing the books of any acarya who has entered maha samadhi. We can simultaneously read and distribute the books of current acaryas who are manifesting their nara lila and inquir from them. To actually fully appreciate and understand the books of the predecessor acaryas you also have to HEAR from a present one. Hearing from the person bhagavata is fully explained throughout His Divine Grace's purports (read Cc. Antya lila 5.131)and lectures. That point wasalso confirmed by SBSST after the disappearance of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Read this:

 

 

Thakur Bhaktivinode

 

We avail of the opportunity offered by the Anniversary Celebrations of the advent of Thakur Bhaktivinode to reflect on the right method of obtaining those benefits that have been made accessible to humanity by the grace of this great devotee of Krishna. Thakur Bhaktivinode has been specifically kind to those unfortunate persons who are engrossed in mental speculation of all kinds. This is the prevalent malady of the present Age. The other Acaryas who appeared before Thakur Bhaktivinode did not address their discourses so directly to the empiric thinkers. They had been more merciful to those who are naturally disposed to listen to discourses on the Absolute without being dissuaded by the specious arguments of avowed opponents of Godhead.

 

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode has taken the trouble of meeting the perverse arguments of mental speculationists by the superior transcendental logic of the Absolute Truth. It is thus possible for the average modern readers to profit by the perusal of his writings. That day is not far distant when the priceless volumes penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode will be reverently translated, by the recipients of his grace, into all the languages of the world.

 

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode provide the golden bridge by which the mental speculationist can safely cross the raging waters of fruitless empiric controversies that trouble the peace of those who choose to trust in their guidance for finding the Truth. As soon as the sympathetic reader is in a position to appreciate the sterling quality of Thakur Bhaktivinode's philosophy the entire vista of the revealed literatures of the world will automatically open out to his reclaimed vision.

 

There have, however, already arisen serious misunderstandings regarding the proper interpretation of the life and teachings of Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode. Those who suppose they understand the meaning of his message without securing the guiding grace of the Acarya are disposed to unduly favour the methods of empiric study of his writings. There are persons who have got by heart almost everything that he wrote without being able to catch the least particle of his meaning. Such study cannot benefit those who are not prepared to act up to the instructions lucidly conveyed by his words. There is no honest chance of missing the warnings of Thakur Bhaktivinode. Those, therefore, who are misled by the perusal of his writings are led astray by their own obstinate perversity in sticking to the empiric course which they prefer to cherish against his explicit warnings. Let these unfortunate persons look more carefully into their own hearts for the cause of their misfortunes.

 

The personal service of the pure devotee is essential for understanding the spiritual meaning of the words of Thakur Bhaktivinode. The Editor of this Journal, originally started by Thakur Bhaktivinode, has been trying to draw the attention of all followers of Thakur Bhaktivinode to this all-important point of his teachings. It is not necessary to try to place ourselves on a footing of equality with Thakur Bhaktivinode. We are not likely to benefit by any mechanical imitation of any practices of Thakur Bhaktivinode on the opportunist principle that they may be convenient for us to adopt. The Guru is not an erring mortal whose activities can be understood by the fallible reason of unreclaimed humanity. There is an eternally impassable line of demarcation between the Saviour and the saved. Those who are really saved can alone know this.Thakur Bhaktivinode belongs to the category of the spiritual world-teachers who eternally occupy the superior position.

 

The present Editor has all along felt it his paramount duty to try to clear up the meaning of the life and teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode by the method of submissive listening to the Transcendental Sound from the lips of the pure devotee. The Guru who realises the transcendental meaning of all sounds, is in a position to serve the Absolute by the direction of the Absolute conveyed through every sound. The Transcendental Sound is Godhead, the mundane sound is non-Godhead. All sound has got these opposite aptitudes. All sound reveals its Divine face to the devotee and only presents its deluding aspect to the empiric pedant. The devotee talks apparently the same language as the deluded empiric pedant who had got by heart the vocabulary of the Scriptures. But notwithstanding apparent identity of performance, the one has no access to the reality while the other is absolutely free from all delusion.

 

Those who repeat the teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode from memory do not necessarily understand the meaning of the words they mechanically repeat. Those who can pass an empiric examination regarding the contents of his writings are not necessarily also self-realised souls. They may not at all know the real meaning of the words they have learnt by the method of empiric study.Take for example the Name "Krishna". Every reader of Thakur Bhaktivinode's works must be aware that the Name manifests Himself on the lips of His serving devotees although He is inaccessible to our mundane senses. It is one thing to pass the examination by reproducing this true conclusion from the writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode and quite another matter to realise the Nature of the Holy Name of Krishna by the process conveyed by the words.

 

Thakur Bhaktivinode did not want us to go to the clever mechanical reciter of the mundane sound for obtaining access to the Transcendental Name of Krishna. Such a person may be fully equipped with all the written arguments in explanation of the nature of the Divine Name. But if we listen to all these arguments from the dead source the words will only increase our delusion. The very same words coming from the lips of the devotee will have the diametrically opposite effect. Our empiric judgment can never grasp the difference between the two performances. The devotee is always right. The non-devotee in the shape of the empiric pedant is always and necessarily wrong. In the one case there is always present the Substantive Truth and nothing but the Substantive Truth. In the other case there is present the apparent or misleading hypothesis and nothing but un-truth. The wording may have the same external appearance in both cases. The identical verses of the Scriptures may be recited by the devotee and the non-devotee, may be apparently misquoted by the non-devotee but the corresponding values of the two processes remain always categorically different. The devotee is right even when he apparently misquotes, the non-devotee is wrong even when he quotes correctly the very words, chapter and verse of the Scriptures.

 

It is not empiric wisdom that is the object of quest of the devotee. Those who read the scriptures for gathering empiric wisdom will be pursuing the wild goose chase. There are not a few dupes of their empiric Scriptural erudition. These dupes have their admiring under-dupes. But the mutual admiration society of dupes does not escape, by the mere weight of their number, the misfortunes due to the deliberate pursuit of the wrong course inaccordance with the suggestions of our lower selves.

 

What are the Scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure devotees of the Divine Message appearing on the lips of the pure devotees. The Message conveyed by the devotees is the same in all ages. The words of the devotees are ever identical with the Scriptures. Any meaning of the Scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original communicant of the Divine Message contradicts its own claim to be heard. Those who think that the Sanskrit language in its lexicographical sense is the language of the Divinity are as deluded as those who hold that the Divine Message is communicable through any other spoken dialects. All languages simultaneously express and hide the Absolute. The mundane face of all languages hides the Truth. The Transcendental face of all sound expresses nothing but the Absolute. The pure devotee is the speaker of the Transcendental language. The Transcendental Sound makes His appearance on the lips of His pure devotee. This is the direct, unambiguous appearance of Divinity. On the lips of non-devotees the Absolute always appears in His deluding aspect. To the pure devotee the Absolute reveals Himself under all circumstances. To the conditioned soul, if he is disposed to listen in a truly submissive spirit, the language of the pure devotee can alone impart the knowledge of the Absolute. The conditioned soul mistakes the deluding for the real aspect when he chooses to lend his ear to the non-devotee. This is the reason why the conditioned soul is warned to avoid all association with non-devotees.

 

Thakur Bhaktivinode is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as possessing the above powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is sought the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

 

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode are valuable because they demolish all empiric objections against accepting the only method of approaching the Absolute in the right way. They cannot and were never intended to give access to the Absolute without help from the pure devotee of Krishna. They direct the sincere enquirer of the Truth, as all the revealed scriptures do, to the pure devotee of Krishna to learn about Him by submitting to listen with an open mind to the Transcendental Sound appearing on His lips. Before we open any of the books penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode we should do well to reflect a little on the attitude, with which as the indispensable pre-requisite, to approach its study. It is by neglecting to remember this fundamental principle that the empiric pedants find themselves so hopelessly puzzled in their vain endeavour to reconcile the statements of the different texts of the Scriptures. The same difficulty is already in process of overtaking many of the so-called followers of Thakur Bhaktivinode and for the same reason.

 

The person to whom the Acarya is pleased to transmit his power is alone in a position to convey the Divine Message. This constitutes the underlying principle of the line of succession of the spiritual teachers. The Acarya thus authorised has no other duty than that of delivering intact the message received from all his predecessors. There is no difference between the pronouncements of one Acarya and another. All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the Divinity in the Form of the Transcendental Name Who is identical with His Form, Quality, Activity and Paraphernalia.

 

The Divinity is Absolute Knowledge. Absolute Knowledge has the character of indivisible Unity. One particle of the Absolute Knowledge is capable of revealing all the potency of the Divinity. Those who want to understand the contents of the volumes penned by the piece-meal acquisitive method applicable to deluding knowledge available to the mind on the mundane plane, are bound to be self-deceived. Those who are sincere seekers of the Truth are alone eligible to find Him, in and through the proper method of His quest.

 

In order to be put on the track of the Absolute, listening to the words of the pure devotee is absolutely necessary. The spoken word of the Absolute is the Absolute. It is only the Absolute Who can give Himself away to the constituents of His power. The Absolute appears to the listening ear of the conditioned soul in the form of the Name on the lips of the sadhu. This is the key to the whole position. The words of Thakur Bhaktivinode direct the empiric pedant to discard his wrong method and inclination on the threshold of the real quest of the Absolute. If the pedant still chooses to carry his errors into the Realm of the Absolute Truth he only marches by a deceptive bye-path into the regions of darker ignorance by his arrogant study of the scriptures. The method offered by Thakur Bhaktivinode is identical with the object of the quest. The method is not really grasped except by the grace of the pure devotee. The arguments, indeed, are these. But they can only corroborate, but can never be a substitute for, the word from the living source of the Truth who is no other than the pure devotee of Krishna, the concrete Personal Absolute.

 

Thakur Bhaktivinode's greatest gift to the world consists in this; that he has brought about the appearance of those pure devotees who are, at present, carrying on the movement of unalloyed devotion to the Feet of Shree Krishna by their own wholetime spiritual service of the Divinity. The purity of the soul is only analogously describable by the resources of the mundane language. The highest ideal of empiric morality is no better than the grossest wickedness to the Transcendental perfect purity of the bonafide devotee of the Absolute. The word 'morality' itself is a mischievous misnomer when it is applied to any quality of the conditioned soul. The hypocritical contentment with a negative attitude is part and parcel of the principle of undiluted immorality.

 

Those who pretend to recognise the Divine Mission of Thakur Bhaktivinode without aspiring to the unconditional service of those pure souls who really follow the teachings of the Thakur by the method enjoined by the scriptures and explained by Thakur Bhaktivinode in a way that is so eminently suited to the requirements of the sophisticated mentality of the present Age, only deceive themselves and their willing victims by their hypocritical professions and performances. These persons must not be confounded with the bonafide members of the flock.

 

Thakur Bhaktivinode has predicted the consummation of religious unity of the world by the appearance of the only universal church which bears the eternal designation of the Brahma Sampradaya. He has given mankind the blessed assurance that all Theistic churches will shortly merge in the one eternal spiritual community by the grace of the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna Chaitanya. The spiritual community is not circumscribed by the conditions of time and space, race and nationality. Mankind had been looking forward to this far-off Divine Event through the Long Ages. Thakur Bhaktivinode has made the conception available in its practicable spiritual form to the open minded empiricist who is prepared to undergo the process of enlightenment. The key stone of the Arch has been laid which will afford the needed shelter to all awakened animation under its ample encircling arms. Those who would thoughtlessly allow their hollow pride of race, pseudo-knowledge or pseudo-virtue to stand in the way of this long hoped for consummation, would have to thank only themselves for not being incorporated in the spiritual society of all pure souls.

 

These plain words need not be misrepresented, by arrogant persons who are full of the vanity of empiric ignorance, as the pronouncements of aggressive sectarianism. The aggressive pronouncement of the concrete Truth is the crying necessity of the moment for silencing the aggressive propaganda of specific untruths that is being carried on all over the world by the preachers of empiric contrivances for the amelioration of the hard lot of conditioned souls. The empiric propaganda clothes itself in the language of negative abstraction for deluding those who are engrossed in the selfish pursuit of worldly enjoyment.

 

But there is a positive and concrete function of the pure soul which should not be perversely confounded with any utilitarian form of worldly activity. Mankind stands in need of that positive spiritual function of which the hypocritical impersonalists are in absolute ignorance. The positive function of the soul harmonises the claims of extreme selfishness with those of extreme self-abnegation in the society of pure souls even in this mundane world. In its concrete realisable form the function is perfectly inaccessible to the empiric understanding. Its imperfect and misleading conception alone is available by the study of the Scriptures to the conditioned soul that is not helped by the causeless grace of the pure devotees of Godhead.

 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura,

The Harmonist, December 1931, vol. XXIX No.6

************************************************

TEXT 131

 

TEXT

 

"yaha, bhagavata . vaisnavera sthane

ekanta asraya kara caitanya-carane

 

SYNONYMS

 

yaha--just go; bhagavata .--read Srimad-Bhagavatam; vaisnavera sthane--from a self-realized Vaisnava; ekanta asraya kara--fully surrender; caitanya-carane--at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

TRANSLATION

 

"If you want to understand Srimad-Bhagavatam," he said, "you must approach a self-realized Vaisnava and hear from him. You can do this when you have completely taken shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu."

 

PURPORT

 

Herein Svarupa Damodara Gosvami instructs the poet from Bengal to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam from a pure Vaisnava and learn from him. In India especially, there is now a class of professional Bhagavatam readers whose means of livelihood is to go from village to village, town to town, reading Bhagavatam and collecting daksina, or rewards, in the form of money or goods, like umbrellas, cloth and fruit. Thus there is now a system of Bhagavata business, with recitations called Bhagavata-saptaha that continue for one week, although this is not mentioned in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Nowhere does Srimad-Bhagavatam say that the Bhagavatam should be heard for one week from professionals. Rather, Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.17) says: srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah punya-sravana-kirtanah. One should regularly hear Srimad-Bhagavatam from a self-realized Vaisnava. By such hearing, one becomes pious. Hrdy antahstho hy abhadrani vidhunoti suhrt-satam. As one thus hears the Bhagavatam regularly and sincerely, his heart is purified of all material contamination.

 

nasta-prayesv abhadresu

nityam bhagavata-sevaya

bhagavaty uttama-sloke

bhaktir bhavati naisthiki

 

"As one regularly hears the Bhagavatam or renders service unto the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is practically destroyed, and loving service unto the glorious Lord, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact." (Bhag. 1.2.18)

This is the proper process, but people are accustomed to being misled by professional Bhagavatam reciters. Therefore Svarupa Damodara Gosvami herein advises that one should not hear Srimad-Bhagavatam from professional reciters. Instead, one must hear and learn the Bhagavatam from a self-realized Vaisnava. Sometimes it is seen that when a Mayavadi sannyasi reads the Bhagavatam, flocks of men go to hear jugglery of words that cannot awaken their dormant love for Krsna. Sometimes people go to see professional dramas and offer food and money to the players, who are expert at collecting these offerings very nicely. The result is that the members of the audience remain in the same position of grham andha-kupam, family affection, and do not awaken their love for Krsna.

In the Bhagavatam (7.5.30), it is said, matir na krsne paratah svato va mitho 'bhipadyeta grha-vratanam: the grhavratas, those who are determined to continue following the materialistic way of life, will never awaken their dormant love of Krsna, fur they hear the Bhagavatam only to solidify their position in household life and to be happy in family affairs and sex. Condemning this process of hearing the Bhagavatam from professionals, Svarupa Damodara Gosvami says, yaha, bhagavata . vaisnavera sthane: "To understand the Srimad-Bhagavatam, you must approach a self-realized Vaisnava." One should rigidly avoid hearing the Bhagavatam from a Mayavadi or other nondevotee who simply performs a grammatical jugglery of words to twist some meaning from the text, collect money from the innocent public, and thus keep people in darkness.

Svarupa Damodara Gosvami strictly prohibits the behavior of the materialistic so-called hearers of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Instead of awakening real love for Krsna, such hearers of the Bhagavatam become more and more attached to household affairs and sex life (yan maithunadi-grhamedhi-sukham hi tuccham). One should hear Srimad-Bhagavatam from a person who has no connection with material activities, or, in other words, from a paramahamsa Vaisnava, one who has achieved the highest stage of sannyasa. This, of course, is not possible unless one takes shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is understandable only for one who can follow in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

HDGACBSP

Cc. Antya 5.131

[Guest guest]

Vaisnava is Higher than Sastra

 

Practically, we should come in connection with the service of a Vaisnava. But where, whom to serve? I can't come directly in connection with Him. Who can I serve? The Deity form of the Lord, the vigraha is there, the sastra is there—but in a sense these are superficial. The real substance we find in a Vaisnava, in his heart. Dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam. The Krsna conception, Krsna as He is, knowledge and love, we find living in the heart of a Vaisnava who directs all activities towards Him, towards His service.

 

Faith in the devotees, the Vaisnavas, grants us the most substantial help. Such a position is not flickering, but firm. One who has faith in the Vaisnavas achieves devotion of a tangible character. Otherwise, with only abstract faith in the Lord, without faith in the devotees, we are but beginners in the stage of kanistha-adhikari. This is an

unreliable platform. Our devotion reaches a reliable standard when we can develop faith in the devotees, and recognize their importance. The devotees are above even sastra, the scriptures. The tangible stage when our real faith in them develops is the middle stage, madhyamaadhikari.

 

In the Vaisnava, the truth is animated more than in the vigraha [Deity], the tirtha [holy place of pilgrimage], or the sastra [scripture]. We find a direct connection with Krsna in the consciousness of a Vaisnava. We find that which is regulating all his activities and withdrawing him from worldly attraction, guiding him towards some unknown and most desirable direction. He is moving towards that direction. The Lord is making him move in a particular direction that cannot be traced by any loss or gain of this world. What is that thing? "I am there. I am not even in Vaikuntha, nor in the hearts of the yogis.

But where my devotees are singing with pleasure about me, I am there." [Mac citta mad gata prana bodhayantah parasparam

kathayantas ca mam nityam tusyanti ca ramanti ca.] "The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me." (Gita 10.9)

 

Pure Spiritual Attraction

 

In the Ramanuja sampradaya there is a story about three devotees whoarrived at their temple for some occasion. They did not know one another. In the darkness one is talking, another hearing. Their talk is very sweet. Then the third devotee also joined there and they were talking together, although they did not know one another. They have heard the name of this devotee, that devotee. Then after talking for

some time, a question was asked. "We are three here, but do you feel the presence of a fourth person?Yes, I feel the presence of a fourth one, and it is that Person about Whom we talk-the Lord has appeared here. In our talk, in our conversation, He has appeared." Develop this

attraction, pure spiritual attraction, until nothing can be pleasing to us but Krsna, Radharani and the gopis. That is what is necessary, for Krsna and His group to take possession of the innermost part of our hearts by the thought of His lila, His Name, and His paraphernalia.

 

manmana bhava mad bhakto mad yaji mam namaskuru

mam evaisyasi satyam te pratijane priyo 'si me

 

Krsna says to Arjuna that he is the most favorite devotee. "I promise you that at the very least I won't deceive you. I say that I am everything and I won't deceive you. Manmana bhava, always remember Me, mad bhakto, be My devotee, serve Me. Manmana bhava mad bhakto, mad yaji, if you sacrifice anything, do it for Me. Mad yaji mam namaskuru, or at least show respect for Me. You are

sure to enter into Me, to come to Me. Mam evaisyasi, you will come to Me alone; satyam te, this is the truth, pratijane, I promise you. Priyo 'si me, you are My favorite. The truth is this: do everything for

Me, attend Me, always think of Me and you are sure to come to Me. This is the plain truth."

 

That thinking, the life of engagement, is attraction for Him. How do we develop that attraction for Krsna? We get it from the devotee. Superficially we can obtain it from the scripture, but substantially only from the devotee.

 

Within their heart, within their endeavor, pervading through all their activities, there is a particular attraction and that is a divine thing. We want that. It is the subtlest of the subtle, the nerve structure within. It can move the body. It can help the body to function. We are attractedto the inner energy in the devotee, which makes him do that which we do not find in this world: no attraction for sense pleasure, no attractionfor fame, name, or money.

 

Something else is there: attraction for Krsna. We must follow his guidance. "One who comes to serve Me directly, he is not really My devotee. But one who is devoted to My devotee is My real devotee." What is the meaning? Vaisnava-seva, guru-seva, nama-seva; service to the devotees, the spiritual master, and the Holy Name. "His love for

Me is so intense that wherever he finds any external connection with Me, he engages himself fully there."

Real Taste for the Truth Until and unless we find in our hearts a real taste for the truth, we are not safe.

 

First, on the surface, spiritual life begins with sraddha, faith,and underneath with sukrti, or special merit. Next is sadhu-sanga, or company with the saints. Within that is our surrender to guru. Then bhajana begins, our serving life in various forms, such as sravana, kirtana, prasada-seva, or hearing, chanting, and respecting the Lord's remnants. Then anartha-nivrtti, our attraction for objects other than

Krsna, objects other than God, diminishes. Then nistha, continued effort in devotional service, and not for anything else.

 

Then ruci, taste, is developed.Real taste for the truth will be awakened in our heart. We are safe then, but not before that. When spontaneous taste for the truth awakens within us, we are safe. We can make fair progress from that time. Taste will take us. When we have acquired the taste of sweetness, automatically we shall run towards that which is very sweet. Prior to that, we must remain under the guardian. Until and unless we find that the truth is sweet, that Krsna is sweet, we are not safe in our approach towards Him. So many distractions may take us hither and thither. . . "

 

Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Maharaja

Follow the Angels

[Guest guest]

TEXT 53

 

 

bhattera hrdaye drdha abhimana jani'

bhangi kari' mahaprabhu kahe eta vani

 

SYNONYMS

 

bhattera hrdaye--in the heart of Vallabha Bhatta; drdha--fixed; abhimana--pride; jani'--understanding; bhangi kari'--making a hint; mahaprabhu--Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu; kahe--spoke; eta vani--these words.

 

TRANSLATION

 

Knowing that Vallabha Bhatta's heart was full of pride, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu spoke these words, hinting at how one can learn about devotional service.

 

PURPORT

 

Vallabha Bhatta was greatly proud of his knowledge in devotional service, and therefore he wanted to speak about Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu without understanding the Lord's position. The Lord therefore hinted in many ways that if Vallabha Bhatta wanted to know what devotional service actually is, he would have to learn from all the devotees He mentioned, beginning with Advaita Acarya, Lord Nityananda, Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and Ramananda Raya. As Svarupa Damodara has said, if one wants to learn the meaning of Srimad-Bhagavatam, one must take lessons from a realized soul. One should not proudly think that one can understand the transcendental loving service of the Lord simply by reading books. One must become a servant of a Vaisnava. As Narottama dasa Thakura has confirmed, chadiya vaisnava-seva nistara payeche keba: one cannot be in a transcendental position unless one very faithfully serves a pure Vaisnava. One must accept a Vaisnava guru (adau gurv-asrayam), and then by questions and answers one should gradually learn what pure devotional service to Krsna is. That is called the parampara system.

 

HDGACBSP

Sri Cc. Antya-lila Ch.7 Text 53

[vijay]

Thanks for those long articles, but now you have gone on to something diffeent.

 

-First was the case that you should distribute only the current acaryas books "en masse" so people can speak to the athor, although prabhupada wanted his books to go out 'en masse'

 

Now your articles say that you have to have a current acarya to explain the previous acarya. There is no disagreement in this. I agree.

 

But who that self realised devotee I follow is someone who i accept is serving in iskcon, and trying to follow srila prabhupada's mood, principles and aims he established for ISKCON.

 

Jai

[Guest guest]

Good luck to you. Buyer Beware!

[vijay]

Thank you for the luck and the warning, im confident that my sincerity will judge whether I will be cheated or awarded by krishna. A sincere searcher will have to put all his efforts in to look for krishna and his representative, although he can never qualify himself to actually know what is truth krishna will see the endeavour, and bestow what he lacks. Its like the story of the mother who lost her eggs in the ocean, she asked for them back and the ocean denied her, so she tried to empty the ocean out with her beck, which is impossible, however the effort was there, guarada saw this, and was amazed, he then personally threatened the ocean to give the eggs back or it will be emptied, the eggs where returned.

 

I pray that one day I put enough effort in to deserve a mercyful glance.

 

Good luck prubhuji, once taken to the path we are all garunteed one day to go back home, I hope and pray to meet you up there serving sri Radha

[Guest guest]

". . . No one is a good preceptor who has not realised the Absolute. One who has realised the Absolute is saved from the necessity of walking on the worldly path. The good preceptor who lives the spiritual life is, therefore, bound to be wholly good. He should be wholly free from any desire for anything of this world whether good or bad. The categories of good and bad do not exist in the Absolute. In the Absolute everything is good. We can have no idea in our present state of this absolute goodness. Submission to the Absolute is not real unless it is also itself absolute. It is on the plane of the Absolute that the disciple is required to submit completely to the good preceptor. On the material plane there can be no such thing as complete submission. The pretence of complete submission to the bad preceptor is responsible for the corruptions that are found in the relationship of the ordinary worldly guru and his equally worldly-minded disciples.

 

All honest thinkers will realise the logical propriety of the position set forth above. But most persons will be disposed to believe that a good preceptor in the above sense may not be found in this world. This is really so. Both the good preceptor and his disciple belong to the spiritual realm. But spiritual discipleship is nevertheless capable of being realised by persons who belong to this world. Otherwise there wold be no religion at all in the world. But because the spiritual life happens to be realizable in this world it does not follow that it is the worldly existence which is capable of being improved into the spiritual. As a matter of fact the one is perfectly incompatible with the other. They are categorically different from one another. The good preceptor although he appears to belong to this world is not really of this world. No one who belongs to this world can deliver us from worldliness. The good preceptor is a denizen of the spiritual world who has been enabled by the will of God to appear in this world in order to enable us to realise the spiritual existence.

 

from Initiation into Spiritual Live

by

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

http://bvml.org/SBSST/diksa.htm

 

 

". . . In this verse Srila Rupa Gosvami advises the devotee to be intelligent enough to distinguish between the kanistha-adhikari, madhyama-adhikari and uttama-adhikari. The devotee should also know his own position and should not try to imitate a devotee situated on a higher platform. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has given some practical hints to the effect that an uttama-adhikari Vaisnava can be recognized by his ability to convert many fallen souls to Vaisnavism. One should not become a spiritual master unless he has attained the platform of uttama-adhikari. A neophyte Vaisnava or a Vaisnava situated on the intermediate platform can also accept disciples, but such disciples must be on the same platform, and it should be understood that they cannot advance very well toward the ultimate goal of life under his insufficient guidance. Therefore a disciple should be careful to accept an uttama-adhikari as a spiritual master.

 

HDGACBSP

Purport Verse 5

Nectar of Instruction

[vijay]

Thanks for churning out loads of lectures and verses (although some are too long and currently dont have time to read them), I completely agree with that one.

[vijay]

You quoted gaura govinda maharaj many times to show that ISKCON should be following and going to narayan maharaj, Here is an article by one of gaura govinda maharaj's diciple and backed by his senior diciples. This is just so you can get the other side of it, not just the side you guys want to propmote.

 

Srila Gour Govinda Swami And Sripad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja

 

 

--

BY MADHAVANANDA DAS

 

There have been some articles published recently on VNN concerning our revered guru-.-padma Srila Gour Govinda Swami, and many devotees have approached us for clarification. Finding it necessary to respond publicly in order to uphold the prestige of our Guru Maharaja, we therefore take the dust of the lotus feet of all the Vaishnavas, and with straw in our teeth offer the following information. The questions we have been asked are:

 

Q1: Some devotees are saying that Srila Gour Govinda Swami had a meeting with Sripad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja. Others are saying that they never met. What is the actual history?

 

Q2: We have also been told that Srila Gour Govinda Swami instructed some of his disciples that after his disappearance they should take shelter of Sripad Narayana Maharaja. Is this a fact?

 

Q3: Some devotees are saying that Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja has now merged into the body of Sripad Narayana Maharaja. Have you found any justification for such a statement?

 

Regarding the first question, we have noted that there are widely conflicting accounts as to when the alleged meeting took place, where it happened, who was there, and what went on. To investigate, we interviewed the devotees who were closest to our Guru Maharaja at the various reported times of the supposed meeting (1993, 1994 and 1995 according to different versions). We also went over our Guru Maharaja’s diaries from those periods (in which he daily recorded details about all of his activities), we spoke to his personal servants, and we listened to the tapes from those periods. From these authoritative sources, to this day we have not been able to substantiate any part of any of the various stories.

 

But in any case, even if such a meeting had occurred, we would not consider it relevant. Our Guru Maharaja may have met many people. The sastric injunction (Bhag. 10.33.30) is that a great personality may do many things, but we should not imitate him—naitat samacarej jatu manasapi hy anisvarah. Rather than imitate we should follow his instructions, and since our Guru Maharaja never mentioned the meeting to any of us we do not consider it to be a very relevant fact in our spiritual lives.

 

Regarding the second question, we have spoken to nearly every disciple of our Guru Maharaja, and not a single one has reported that he or she was told by him to go for shelter to Sripad Narayana Maharaja. The only comments we have found from our Guru Maharaja regarding this issue have been ones like the following. We quote them unedited, with clarifying explanations in brackets. The first is from April 1995:

 

They [some senior devotees] are going to Narayana Maharaja. They came to me. I said, "You committed wrong. They [others in general] cannot understand these things, so they [the activities] create disturbance." They [some senior devotees] said at last, "Yes. What you say is true." Last time at the end of GBC meeting they came to me and said, "Yes, Maharaja. What you have said is true." I said, "I told you in the beginning you committed wrong. We are in a society. Some cannot understand. So if you want to take siksa from an advanced devotee, do it secretly, don't expose it." But they exposed. The people cannot understand because this question of adhikara is there. They have no adhikara, how can they understand rasika-bhakti? Raganuga-bhakti? "If you are doing you should do it secretly. Nobody should know it. But you didn't do it secretly. Publicly you did, so these things [disturbances] come, and it is quite natural." At last they said, "What you have said is correct." [Darsana with Srila Gour Govinda Swami 18/4/95]

 

Furthermore, from the tapes of our Guru Maharaja and from the devotees who lived with him we find a very clear indication that he was always strongly against devotees leaving the mission of his guru, Srila Prabhupada. He tolerated and served in ISKCON out of devotion to Srila Prabhupada, not out of any mundane party spirit or institutional fanaticism. He always saw ISKCON as the seva/sanga of Srila Prabhupada. The following excerpt from an evening darsana in 1989 is typical of his attitude on this subject:

 

Parabrahma Das: You said we should always seek the association of advanced devotees. When Srila Prabhupada left the planet some of his disciples took shelter of....

 

Srila Gour Govinda Swami: Thereby they committed a mistake.

 

PD: Who committed a mistake?

 

SGGS: They left Prabhupada’s mission. For the clarification of philosophical doubt or [to] accept some siksa from him [one may visit]. But why do you leave?

 

PD: Some people took shelter of ... and naturally because he was giving some instruction they became attached to him, and also accepted him as guru, siksa-guru. But because of this it seems that [some of the leaders of] our society [iSKCON] rejected them rather than they rejected our society, in some cases.

 

SGGS: Why should they leave ISKCON?

 

PD: Some people... I spoke to one devotee who had taken shelter of... and he said that his life was made very difficult within ISKCON and he could no longer preach, he was so restricted. Therefore in order to preach he left ISKCON.

 

SGGS: What difficulty is there! Preaching the mission of Gauranga Mahaprabhu? Mahaprabhu says, "I will help you... I assure you I’ll protect you, I’ll help you. You’ll never be affected by maya." [if] you have no faith in Gauranga Mahaprabhu, then you’ll be put into difficulties. Understand? They have no faith in Gauranga Mahaprabhu, so they faced difficulties. Don’t be afraid of problems. Krishna is there. His representative, guru is there. They are always with you. Do you understand? They are always prepared to help you. And these dangers, these problems, difficulties, will help you to become fixed. Do you understand? To become fixed. So they [the problems] are welcome. [20/11/89 BBSR]

 

As far as the third question is concerned, even if such an event as a departed Vaishnava merging into the body of another Vaishnava is ontologically possible, as tiny baddha-jivas we have no ability to perceive such events, and hence we could only speculate about the authenticity of the statement. However, if it were true that our Guru Maharaja entered the body of Narayana Maharaja then it would be reasonable to assume that the teachings of Sripad Narayana Maharaja would not differ in any significant way from those of our Gurudeva. We have found that in most areas Sripad Narayana Maharaja speaks in a similar way to our Gurudeva. Yet we have also found some differences we consider significant. To cite one of several differences: Iiiin the Rays of the Harmonist magazine Vol. III 1999, in an article entitled "Vrsabhanu-Nandini", Sripad Narayana Maharaja describes Puri Dhama as being equivalent to Dwarka and on a spiritual platform less than Vrindavan and Nabadwip. He describes the pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri as being full of opulence and on a lower level than His pastimes in Nabadwip.

 

Our Guru Maharaja’s conception is quite different. Quoting from Vaisnava-tantra and Srila Sanatana Gosvami’s Brhad-bhagavatamrta, he repeatedly established that Puri is non-different from Vrindavan. He also taught that Mahaprabhu’s pastimes in Puri were the topmost part of gaura-lila. We quote from The Embankment of Separation:

 

"This lila [of Mahaprabhu] is like an unlimited ocean. That ocean swells up, and the topmost swelling is there in Purusottama Ksetra [Jagannatha Puri] because Mahaprabhu manifested His antya-lila in Jagannatha Puri Dhama." (Pocket edition p.48-49)

 

"Jagannatha Puri Dhama is known as Sri Ksetra. Sri Devi is the svarupa-sakti, Krishna’s internal potency. Therefore, that dhama which is glorified by the presence of the sri-sakti is known as Sri Ksetra. Sri means sarva-laksmi mayi amsini radhika, Srimati Radhika, Who is the source of all saktis. ... Therefore, those who are followers or devotees of madhurya-rasa can see that Sri Ksetra is the ksetra in which Radharani’s madhurya-rasa is manifested. Only such madhurya-rasa bhaktas can see it; others cannot. That is why Jagannatha Puri is known as Sri Ksetra." (Pocket edition p.78)

 

The topic of Puri dhama was very dear to our Guru Maharaja, so much so that in 1996 while describing the esoteric non-different nature of Puri and Vrindavan he displayed various symptoms of ecstasy and left his body.

 

This information should be sufficient to resolve any doubts in the minds and hearts of the devotees. Our purpose in presenting it is not to quarrel with anyone, we have simply tried to present the facts as we have found them in an honest way. In presenting this topic if we have somehow unintentionally disappointed or offended anyone we beg their forgiveness. As Maharaja Rahugana said to Jada Bharata:

 

naham visanke sura-raja-vajran

na tryaksa-sulan na yamasya dandat

nagny-arka-somanila-vittapastrac

chanke bhrsam brahma-kulavamanat

 

"My dear sir, I am not at all afraid of the thunderbolt of King Indra, nor am I afraid of the serpentine, piercing, trident of Lord Siva. I do not care about the punishment of Yamaraja, the superintendent of death, nor am I afraid of fire, scorching sun, moon, wind, nor the weapons of Kuvera. Yet I am afraid of offending a brahmana. I am very much afraid of this." Bhag. 5.10.17

 

Wholehearted support and agreement for the publication of this article has been offered by the following senior disciples of Srila Gour Govinda Swami: Srimat Sacinandana Das; Srimad Atmarama Das; and Srimac Caitanya Candra Das.

 

[Guest guest]

http://www.gopaljiu.org/Gurudeva/Gurudeva.htm

 

In 1991, after sixteen years of endeavor, Gour Govinda Swami opened the magnificent Sri Sri Krishna-Balaram temple in Bhubaneswar on the auspicious occasion of Lord Ramachandra’s appearance day. Today, the Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir is the second most popular temple in Orissa, after the Jagannath Mandir in Puri, and the area around the temple is the fastest growing section of Bhubaneswar.

 

In July 1994, in New York City, Gour Govinda Maharaja spoke to the devotees about his mission:

 

There are three things that are very important to me. One is that I want to preach to the preachers. It causes me so much pain to see the devotees falling down and going away. The second thing is that I want to show how everything is in Prabhupada’s books. Those persons who are saying that Srila Prabhupada only gave ABC, it causes me so much pain in my heart. I want to make them silent. And the third thing is that I want to show how everything is in ISKCON and that devotees do not have to go elsewhere for higher teachings.

 

[Guest guest]

it is Gaura Govinda Maharaja who legitimated iskcon when he was in this world

 

with him ISKCON was ISKCON

 

i can put a sign on my door with: "Vaishnava League"... or "Gaudya Sampradaya"... or "Society of Krsna Consciousness"......... but it means nothing if i am not a true devotee

 

so gaura govinda maharaja was the kind of devotee we can find in a true International Society Of Krsna Consciousness

 

if there's no one like him where's the question to belong or not to an organization?

[Guest guest]

Madhavananda prabhu is still a member of iskcon. Everyone makes his own choice who to hear from. He takes siksa from a disciple of Ananta Vasudeva, Fakir Mohan Prabhu.

 

Disappearance Day Of

Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja

Germany: February 21, 2003

Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja

http://www.purebhakti.com/lectures/lecture20030221.shtml

 

Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja Appearance Day

Vrndavana, 28 August 2003

Sripad Bhaktivedanta Aranya Maharaja

 

http://www.purebhakti.com/articles/sbam_sggm_app.shtml

 

 

Srila Gour Govinda Maharaj And Srila Narayan Maharaj

By Giridhari Das

http://bvml.org/SGGM/sggmasnm.htm

 

 

Srila Gour Govinda Maharaj Did Meet Srila B.V. Narayan Maharaj

by Giridhari Das

http://bvml.org/SGGM/sggmdmsbvnm.htm

 

 

Iskcon And Non-Iskcon

by Jagadisa Pandit Dasa

http://bvml.org/SGGM/iani.htm

[Guest guest]

A Society Without Envy

[This wonderful lecture was one of the last given by His Divine Grace Srila Gour Govinda Maharaj, before he departed from this world]

Mayapura, 21 February l995 - Bhg. 4:18:33-36

http://bvml.org/SGGM/aswe.htm

 

excerpt:

 

". . . Society Without Envy

 

This is the society for Krsna consciousness formed by Srila Prabhupada. One who becomes a member of this society gtes the opportunity to develop complete Krsna consciousness, to see Krsna everywhere.

 

Yo mam pasyati sarvatra

Sarvam ca mayi pasyati

Tasyaham na panansyami

Sa ca me na panasyati

(Bg. 6.30)

 

This is the goal. Prabhupada has written in his books, "The Krsna consciousness movement aims at crating an atmosphere of non-envy. Of course, it is not possible for everyone to become Krsna conscious, but the Krsna consciousness movement can create an exemplary society wherein there is no envy." Where is the question of enviousness? One who is envious is not a Krsna conscious person. In other words, he is not a Vaisnava. A real Vaisnava sadhu is not at all envious. He sees every jiva as Krsna's jiva. Krsna is the object of his love, so how will he be envious?

 

Enviousness means lust. What does that mean? Pride is your enemy, crookedness‹kapata. If someone is making advancement on the spiritual path, others become envious of him. They cannot tolerate it. "Oh, he is making such advancement." They start to speak all nasty things about him. Combining together, they start pulling down on him and attacking him. This is enviousness. In a society of Vaisnavas that should not be done. A Vaisnava is not envious at all, atra paramo nirmatsaranam satam vedyam. Who understands bhagavata-dharma-tattva? Only a Vaisnava, who is non-envious can understand. Others will speculate, "Oh, this is that, this is that." Only speculation will go on because they cannot understand. They are not Vaisnavas, they are all envious persons. Prabhupada says, "One who is envious of the success of a Vaisnava is certainly not a Vaisnava himself but an ordinary mundane man." He may be pretending to be a Vaisnava, but actually he is only an ordinary mundane man.

 

If the purpose of forming his society fails, how will Sria Prabhupada be happy ? This is a most important factor. So here it is said, "Generally when we find someone more qualified than ourselves, we become envious of him." This is the general nature of people who are avaisnavas‹who are not Vaisnavas, they become envious when they see a person more qualified than themselves. But a Vaisnava, who is completely Krsna conscious, he'll never become envious. "Instead of being envious of a more qualified man one should be jolly to receive him." Krsne prema krsna-bhakte maitri acarana-he who develops krsna-prema, he develops friendship with Vaisnavas, krsna-bhaktas. And when he sees a more qualified Vaisnava than himself he becomes jolly. That is a real Vaisnava, a pure Vaisnava. This is the purpose for which Srila Prabhupada formed this society for Krsna consciousness."

 

[vijay]

So it boils down to the fact that you believe there is not even one pure devotee in ISKCON.

 

"it is Gaura Govinda Maharaja who legitimated iskcon when he was in this world

 

with him ISKCON was ISKCON"

 

"because some ISKCON gurus have proven themselves

disqualified, all ISKCON gurus are disqualified.

I would like to voice a note of caution about Vai¢£avas

outside who pose themselves as ªik¢§-gurus of ISKCON.

Their followers contrast them to ISKCON gurus, promoting

them as spiritual luminaries and panaceas for

ISKCON’s ills. Yet these Vai¢£avas and their followers

seem to do little else than canvas ISKCON’s already converted

members. Why do they concentrate on ISKCON

alone, neglecting the unlimited conditioned souls who

have not heard of K¥¢£a?48 After all, ¼r¦la Prabhup§da described

the external sign of spiritual advancement as the

ability to convert the fallen to Vai¢£avism."

 

best of luck on your path back home. A fool thinks he knows the puity of every other devotee he has not even met. And therefore claim a whole organisation is bereft of a single pure devotee. It is useless speaking to you on your armchair posting selective lectures implying iskcon is defunct and that the only way is for the gurus to come to your jagat guru, other wise they are all envious. I think instead of concentrating on iskcon guru's envy (As they must be since they are not coming to your guru) and wasting time trying to preach to members of iskcon try to preach to the unlimited souls out there, after all that is why mahaprabhu advented to this world. If your guru is so powerful why doesnt he just create a better world wide mission which prabhupada seeemed to of failed to do as he created a bunch of envious gurus.

 

A fool will brand all envious if they do not agree with him. The leture can also apply to those gm gurus who can not convert as many souls as a single ISKCON guru therefore they bully them into trying to take them as siksa gurus else branded envious. This is hypothetical and a reality that occured during prabhupads time.

 

Before you try judge every member of iskcons purity bear in mind it is impossible to do so with out knowing them. Some of these gurus and even life long bramhacharis and grhstas have done amazing services, Jananivas and pankjangari prabhu, indradyumna maharaj, radhanatha swami, I am a fool, to say I know what platform they are on, but I know they are doing what prabhupada has told them to do, and are on a much higher platform than I can ever imagine, In the same way with out knowing the other GM i would be a fool to say that they are all defunct, i have no idea on there surrender to krishna, even if one pure devotee is produced or even bought to the path of bhakti it is succesful in krishnas eyes.

 

"The second prong of the doubt is the assumption that

all ISKCON gurus are fallen. Intellectual integrity begs

those making such a claim to provide satisfactory evidence

in its support, in the absence of which, such a statement

merely burdens an already crowded ether. The argument is

an overgeneralisation and not the type generally voiced

among charitable Vai¢£avas. ¼r¦la Prabhup§da, as critical

as he was of Vai¢£ava groups, rarely questioned the right of

others to be guru.

As institutional disorder is not the monopoly of

ISKCON, nor are fallen gurus. Most Vai¢£ava organisations

have a history of deviation and fall-down; therefore it

seems unfitting to single out ISKCON.45

In addition, evidence supporting ISKCON’s gurus cannot

be ignored. That evidence is the satisfaction ISKCON’s

devotees world-wide experience in their gurus’ guidance.

Then some may argue, “But these gurus also may fall

down!”

To this Prabhup§da replied, “No, this argument is not

very strong. Just like one foodstuff, freshly made, it is

fresh. But if somebody argues that if it remains four days

more, it will become bad, that is surmisation. Now it is

fresh. We take it fresh. What will happen in future, that is

no consideration. In future, everyone may fall and everyone

may become elevated. But we have to take his present

situation, what he is at present.”46

Is it rational to argue that ¼r¦la Prabhup§da was empowered

to spread K¥¢£a consciousness all over the world,but incapable of producing even one qualified disciple to

carry on his legacy?47 Hardly! Though the indictment is

directed at Prabhup§da’s disciples, it discredits ¼r¦la

Prabhup§da as well!"

 

[Guest guest]

". . . We have already related two histories explaining Jagannatha's appearance, and there is one more, a third history, which came from the heart of a very advanced devotee. This history has extraordinarily deep and secret rasa, transcendental flavor. I used to relate it in Mathura and Vrndavana, and in Jagannatha Puri as well. When I told it, everyone listened silently, and they were moved, for they had never heard such secrets before. They wondered, "Where has he discovered this?"

 

A few years later I saw a magazine article by Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja, a prominent disciple of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja. As I began to read it, I thought, "Oh, he has written the same thing here with a few small changes. How has he taken this from my heart?" I became happy and thought, "This person, Gour Govinda Maharaja, is one of the rare people in this world who are genuinely in the line of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the Gosvamis. Only a real devotee can know all these truths."

 

A few years ago, while I was translating some books in Jagannatha Puri, Gour Govinda Maharaja came with only one disciple to meet me. He heard my hari-katha very patiently, and he was charmed. We became friends, and he told me, "I saw you in Vrndavana at the time of Srila Prabhupada's disappearance, when you placed him in samadhi. I was there, but at that time I was quite insignificant. You moved me very much, and I wanted to meet you and hear your classes, but I could not do so at that time. Now I have come."

 

He continued, "There are some problems. I cannot speak the glories of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krsna. I am controlled by some people who don't want to hear them. They are creating problems, and even stopping me from going to Australia, Germany, and other countries. I cannot open my heart and tell these glories," and he began to weep. I embraced him and said, "Don't worry - be strong like me. If problems come, jump over them like a lion. Be like Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and my gurudeva." I consoled him so much, and then he went away. The next year he went to Mayapura, and there he departed from this world while relating this very history. Many of his disciples came to me weeping, and I told them, "I will help you. Don't worry." His ideas were very similar to my own, and this story is therefore also related to him.

 

What I explained there in Jagannatha Puri and during our grand Navadvipa Chariot Festival has also been published in our monthly magazine, Bhagavat Patrika. I also searched for the scripture in which this pastime was originally written, but no one could tell me where it was. I asked many learned pandas in Jagannatha Puri, and they could only tell me, "We've read it, and we'll have to search for the original book," but they could not produce it."

 

 

from:

The Third History

by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Goswami Maharaja

[Chapter 8 of The Origin of Ratha-yatra]

 

http://bvml.org/SBNM/tth.html

 

A careful reading of this and these two other posts ,for those who can find the time, will show that SNM and SGGM did not differ with regard to SCM's pastimes in Puri as Madhavananda falsely suggested.

 

The Appearance Of Lord Jagannatha

by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Gosvami Maharaja

[July 1, 2003 is the beginning of this year's celebration of Ratha-yatra in Jagannatha Puri, India, where millions of pilgrims will gather to pull Lord Jagannatha-deva's chariot. Each year since 1997, during his world praeaching tours, Srila Narayana Maharaja has been lecturing on the glories of Lord Jagannatha for one week, when the time in the West corresponded with the Puri Chariot Festival. A collection of his five years of lectures were compiled into a book called The Origin of Ratha-yatra, and this book is at the printers in Tennesee at the present moment. The following is Chapter 1 of that book. If you would like to read or download or order the entire book, please logon to http://www.purebhakti.com.

Chapter 1 of The Origin of Ratha-yatra

From the Lectures of Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja

http://bvml.org/SBNM/taolj.html

 

 

 

 

 

The Second Reason For Lord Jagannatha's Appearance

by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Gosvami Maharaja

Chapter Two of the new book THE ORIGIN OF RATHA-YATRA

(see also Chapter 1)

http://bvml.org/SBNM/tsrflja.html

 

 

[Guest guest]

vijay

If you are convinced that you can find genuine sadhu-sanga in iskcon then you should stay there by all means. Re so called "iskcon gurus" a sad guru is never established by ecclesiastical appointment. The readers are free to read offered material and make up their own minds. Re envy, If the shoe fits otherwise not. The gbc can't re write gaudiya siddhanta re guru and jiva tattva, to suit its management.

 

Ecclesiastical Guru! Reality or Illusion?

http://bvml.org/contemporary/PDA_egroi.html

 

Paramartha-gurasrayo vyavaharika-gurvadiparityagenapi kartavyah

"One should not accept a spiritual master based on hereditary, social or ecclesiastical conventions. Such a professional guru should be rejected. One must accept a qualified spiritual master, who can help one advance toward the ultimate goal of life, krsna prema (Bhakti-sandharba, annucheda 210

 

Shiva Rama Maharaja's assertion that acaryas from other missions are only interested in recruiting from the iskcon membership is simply gbc propaganda. You want to claim Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja for iskcon, but the gbc was preparing to eject him.

 

As far as I am concerned anyone who accepts disciples when there is a superior Vaisnava present on the planet,(regardless of which institution he comes from) who can actually offer diksa, is committing maryada-vyatikrama.

[Tarun]

HDG was present for 11 yrs after PrabhupAd's departure 1977-88. He preferred others initiated.

He did state: "only send me the 'difficult cases'. Those who insisted upon nothing less than...

[Guest guest]

2+2=5

the gbc has no business now, never had, and never will have any business in saying who is a guru? Have you ever seen or read the ISKCON Law Book? That book is not a vedic literature. Guru is self effulgent, and sad-guru descends from the transcendental realm, and is either an eternal maid servant of Srimati Radhika or a direct manifestation of Lord Nityananda. That is confirmed in His Divine Grace's Cc. purports (Adi 1.35-47)

 

The iskcon gbc has made the same miscalculation that the gm gbc made when they held an election to appoint the next acarya and spit into two factions. I know all the devotees you mentioned. All glories to their service,especially the pujaris in Mayapura, who are certainly gentlemen and very steady in their seva to His Divine Grace.

 

Only one questions. Under whose guidance are my godbrothers serving the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu since l977?

If you feel they are perfected souls who didn't then and don't now require any further training from any siksa guru, then you follow them at your own risk.

[Guest guest]

"So it boils down to the fact that you believe there is not even one pure devotee in ISKCON."

 

no.... mine was not the most clear message in the world so i am happy to rectify

 

you cannot cite gaura govinda maharaja and prabhupada and apply their words to an organization where they are not now visible

 

iskcon is not a name... iskcon is not a building

 

iskcon is a concept, everything that happens changes the adherence of the organization called now iskcon to the iskcon original concept...

 

following prabhupada is essentially "tad viddhi pranipatena...", to find a pure devotee who's "tattva darshina", who sees directly the truth, sri Krsna, and to take shelter in him

 

who is serious does not make any question of organization.. if he finds a pure vaishnava he's happy,and this is iskcon

 

so the iskcon of prabhupada and of gaura govinda maharaja was existing when they were present in this world, the same organization now is in the hand of other people, and on the basis of the qualities of these leaders and gurus we can evaluate if they deserve the iskcon "label" on their door or not

 

so you cite gaura govinda maharaja "do not leave iskcon?" ok.... bring him there and i will be sure to see the real iskcon. Now my opinion is neutral, it's up to you the decision.. if you enter in the iskcon building and you find someone like prabhupada or gaura govinda maharaja this is still their iskcon, and if you, outside the iskcon building, find a guru who has the same purity of GGM and SP you have found iskcon

[vijay]

"Re so called "iskcon gurus" a sad guru is never established by ecclesiastical appointment. The readers are free to read offered material and make up their own minds. Re envy, If the shoe fits otherwise not. The gbc can't re write gaudiya siddhanta re guru and jiva tattva, to suit its management."

 

So it was okay to have a board allowing other gurus to initiate which sridhara maharaj originally suggested and help develop. Narayan maharaj still offered guidance to these gurus 'established by ecclesiastical appointment', saying nothing to them or rejecting them instead encouraging them, until they stopped going to him.

 

So I dont think the problem was guru nominations it was the fact that they stopped recieving siksa from them.

 

Which is justified by srila prabhupadas instructions regarding his god brothers, which i have already quoted from previously.

 

"Shiva Rama Maharaja's assertion that acaryas from other missions are only interested in recruiting from the iskcon membership is simply gbc propaganda. "

 

He does not say "are only interested" in the passage I quoted, throughout his book he does say that some where genuine in offering help.

 

"so you cite gaura govinda maharaja "do not leave iskcon?" ok.... bring him there and i will be sure to see the real iskcon. Now my opinion is neutral, it's up to you the decision.. if you enter in the iskcon building and you find someone like prabhupada or gaura govinda maharaja this is still their iskcon, and if you, outside the iskcon building, find a guru who has the same purity of GGM and SP you have found iskcon "

 

I agree if you find a genuine guru who follows the founder acarya he is a guru in Iskcon which srila prabhupada intended to be and instrument which follows his books as the final law as he is the pre-eminent siksa guru of the intitution he founded. Those who are pure who may be outside the 'Institution' of 'ISKCON' that sril prabhupada founded may regard them selves in ISKCON but its not the 'Instituition' which srila prabhupada set up and inteneded to be the final athority and founder. They have no need to follow him as the final athority.

 

So you can be in iskcon which was founded by srila prabhupada, whose instructions are the final athority, he set up a gbc (which yes makes mistakes) set up an athority structure, and the mood and emphasis on preaching. He also set out instructions in regard to his god brothers. The followers of srila pabhupada may stay under this institution if they believe they have a guidence of a guru who is pure and under the 'institution' that srila prabhupada established obiding by its laws.

 

If however you feel the institution is completely defunct of any pure devotees then yes look outside the Institution Iskcon, and follow that. (This may also be regarded as 'Iskcon' but obviously not the institution of iskcon where srila prabhupada is the pre-eminent siksa guru and his books are the basis, as other gurus do not need to follow the mood and instructions srila prabhupada gave the institution).

 

"As far as I am concerned anyone who accepts disciples when there is a superior Vaisnava present on the planet,(regardless of which institution he comes from) who can actually offer diksa, is committing maryada-vyatikrama."

 

Doubt 7: J¦va Gosv§m¦ states that a guru, who, out of

envy, forbids his disciples to take ªik¢§ from a superior

Vai¢£ava, should be rejected.Is this not evidence that ISKCON’s gurus should allow their disciples to hear from superior Vai¢£avas at all costs? And, if they do not, does it not mean such gurus are envious, proving their disqualification? And if they are envious, then why should ISKCON devotees not turn to Vai¢£avas outside?

 

Answer: I assume this doubt refers to the vai¢£ava

vidve¢¦ cet passage of Bhakti-sandarbha 238.

 

The Sanskrit is vai¢£ava vidveª¦ cet parity§jya eva. “guror api

aviliptasye” ti smara£§t, tasya-vai¢£ava-bh§va-r§hityena avai¢£avatay§

 

¼r¦la Bhaktisiddh§nta Sarasvati thakura quotes this same verse

in the Prak¥ta-jana-ka£¨a of his Brahmana and Vaishnava,

introducing it as follows: “If a so-called guru is envious of the Vai¢£avas, then one should reject him, remembering

the guror apy avaliptasya verse.”

 

“A so-called guru addicted to sensual pleasure and polluted by vice, who is ignorant and has no power to discriminate between right and wrong, and who follows processes other than pure devotional service must be abandoned.” (Mah§bh§rata, Udyoga-parva 179.25)"

 

He quotes this to support his claim that a “so-called guru” who is envious of

Vai¢£avas is a non-devotee: “for their own spiritual welfare his disciples should reject him without hesitation.” Bhaktisiddh§nta Sarasvat¦ çh§kura writes, “If one fails to do so, one will incur sin and deviate from the path of devotion.”

 

Bhaktisiddh§nta Sarasvat¦ çh§kura translates the

vaishnava vidveshi cet passage: “Such an envious guru lacks

the mood and character of a Vai¢£ava, and ª§stra enjoins

one not to accept initiation from a non-devotee

(avaishnavopadistena).35 Knowing these scriptural injunctions,a sincere devotee abandons such a false guru. If, after leaving one who lacks the qualities of a true guru, one is without spiritual guidance, his only hope is to seek out a maha-bhagavata Vaishava and serve him. By constantly rendering service to such a pure devotee, one will certainly attain the highest goal of life.”

 

Here srila Jiva Gosvsmi has emphasised the general

quality of a guru: he is non-envious. Those who are envious

of pure Vaishnavas should be rejected without hesitation;

they are neither Vaishavas nor gurus — quite a straightforward instruction.

 

But the interpretation upon which this doubt is based is

different by far. It opines that “because gurus who are envious of pure Vaishnavas forbid their disciples to take siksa from those Vaishnavas, therefore every guru who forbids his disciple to take siksa from a pure Vaishnava is necessarily envious and should be rejected.”

 

Such a creative rendition does not at all represent Jiva

Gosvswamipada. It is tantamount to saying, “Dogs have four

legs; anything with four legs is a dog.” Sorry, that is just bad logic.

 

Applied categorically to every ISKCON guru (which

would include srila Prabhupada), it is worse than a dead

argument. It demeans ISKCON gurus and srila Prabhupada, and, ironically, it is the very attitude, which, according

to Jiva Gosvsmi, is offensive to Vai¢£avas.

 

It is the role of the founder-acarya to define codes of

behaviour for his followers and the duty of his follower gurus to be faithful to those codes.

 

When experience has repeatedly proven the dubious integrity

of certain Vaishnavas, the founder-acarya cannot be

called envious, when, out of wisdom and love, he restrains

his followers from taking shelter of them. And when a

diksa-guru, out of concern for his disciples and allegiance

to the order of his own guru, also forbids his disciples from taking siksa from certain Vai¢£avas, he is simply dutiful, not envious.

In fact, srila Prabhupada — whom all those presenting

these doubts profess to revere — considered not his disciples, but many Vai¢£avas outside ISKCON, envious of

himself,Srila Prabhup§da said, “So these rascals … they are envious that … What he has written? B. Just see what kind of men they are. They are not even ordinary human being. They are envious of me, and what to speak of make a judgment by estimation? They’re envious. Enviousness is immediately disqualification of Vai¢£ava, immediate. He is not a human being.” (Conversation, Johannesburg, October 16, 1975)

 

a Vaishnava of the highest order. In his books Prabhup§da writes, “Unfortunately we are surrounded by neophyte Godbrothers who do not appreciate the extraordinary activities of spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world. They simply try to bring us to their platform, and they try to criticize us in every respect.” (The Nectar of Instruction 6, purport)

 

In keeping with the above teachings of Jiva Gosv§m¦ —

that those envious of Vai¢£avas should be rejected —Srila

Prabhupada did exactly that: he rejected those envious of

him. And he indicated that anyone of a like mentality

should be similarly rejected. That, then, must be the mood

of srila Prabhupada’s bona-fide followers: rather than run

to such envious persons for siksa —regardless of their apparently high stature — reject their association. I marvel that this self-evident point seems to escape those who have raised such doubts.