Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 10

Mayavadi way of insulting Krishna

The Mayavadis’ proposition that God has no legs, no eyes, no ears, and no hands is an indirect way of insulting Him by defining Him as blind, deaf, dumb, lame, helpless, etc.

Srila Prabhupada CC Adi 7.99 purport

The post Mayavadi way of insulting Krishna appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Modern civilization: heaps of stones and bricks

Enamored by these big, big buildings, that’s all. “Oh, they are so advanced.” And naturally, the common man comes to a European or American city, he says, “Oh, Americans are so rich.” “Rich” means they have piled up stones and bricks, that’s all. This is their richness. What is there in the richness here? But people are common men. They think that this piling of bricks and stone is like real civilization. What do you think? Is that real civilization? Piling of bricks and stones? Heaps of stones and bricks? That is emblem of civilization?

Srila Prabhupada; Conversation, 31 May 1974

The post Modern civilization: heaps of stones and bricks appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

The highest method of worshiping

TEXT
It is said that great personalities almost always accept voluntary suffering because of the suffering of people in general. This is considered the highest method of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone’s heart.

PURPORT
Here is an explanation of how those engaged in activities for the welfare of others are very quickly recognized by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (18.68-69), ya idam paramam guhyam mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati… na ca tasman manusyesu kascin me priya-krttamah: “One who preaches the message of Bhagavad-gita to My devotees is most dear to Me. No one
can excel him in satisfying Me by worship.” There are different kinds of welfare activities in this material world, but the supreme welfare activity is the spreading of Krsna consciousness. Other welfare activities cannot be effective, for the laws of nature and the results of karma cannot be checked…. If one tries to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, he should be understood to be performing the best welfare activity. The Lord is automatically very pleased with him. If the Lord is pleased with him, what is left for him to achieve? If one has been recognized by the Lord, even if he does not ask the Lord for anything, the Lord, who is within everyone, supplies him whatever he wants…. The best welfare activity is raising people to the platform of Krsna consciousness, since the conditioned souls are suffering only for want of Krsna consciousness…. All the sastras conclude, therefore, that spreading the Krsna consciousness movement is the best welfare activity in the world. Because of the ultimate benefit this bestows upon people in general, the Lord very quickly recognizes such service performed by a devotee.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.7.44 rendered by Srila Prabhupada

The post The highest method of worshiping appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Srila Prabhupada instructs how to have sex

You have to make it public, that “I am going to have garbhadhana-samskara.” It is not a secret thing. It is a ceremony. And then, when she is pregnant, no more sex. No more sex means so long the child is there, ten months, and unless the child is grown up at least six months, no sex. That means once you have sex and then abstain for sixteen months. You know what is that dharma? So who is such a foolish man that for once having sex and then abstaining…? Therefore those who could not abstain, they used to keep many wives.

Room Conversation – May 8, 1977, Rishikesh

The post Srila Prabhupada instructs how to have sex appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Devotees cannot be called back to materialistic activities

At the moment, devotees in the Western countries are being attracted by Krsna consciousness and becoming uninterested in materialistic activities, and therefore people are trying to oppose this movement. But they cannot possibly check this movement or stop the activities of the devotees in Europe and America by their artificial impositions. Here the words srotranjalir upasprsya indicate that simply by hearing the transcendental activities of the Lord the devotees become so pure that they are immediately immune to the contamination of materialistic fruitive activities. Anyabhilasita-sunyam [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11] Materialistic activities are unnecessary for the soul, and therefore the devotees are freed from such activities. The devotees are situated in liberation (brahma-bhuyaya kalpate [Bg. 14.26]), and therefore they cannot be called back to their material homes and materialistic activities.

Srila Prabhupada SB 9.24.62, purport

The post Devotees cannot be called back to materialistic activities appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Killing the demoniac mentality

Whenever God incarnates He has two missions, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita. There Krsna says, “Whenever I appear, My mission is to deliver the pious devotees and to annihilate the demons.” When Krsna appeared, He had to kill many demons. If we see a picture of Visnu we will notice that He has a conchshell, lotus flower, club, and disc. These last two items are meant for killing demons. Within this world there are two classes of men-the demons and the devotees. The devotees are called demigods; they are almost like God because they have godly qualities. Those who are devotees are called godly persons, and those who are nondevotees, atheists, are called demons. So Krsna, or God, comes with two missions: to give protection to the devotees and to destroy the demons. In this age Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission is also like that: to deliver the devotees and annihilate the nondevotees, the demons. But in this age He has a different weapon. That weapon is not a club or disc or lethal weapon-His weapon is the sankirtana movement. He killed the demoniac mentality of the people by introducing the sankirtana movement. That is the specific significance of Lord Caitanya. In this age people are already killing themselves. They have discovered atomic weapons with which to kill themselves, so there is no need for God to kill them. But He appeared to kill their demoniac mentality. That is possible by this Krsna consciousness movement.

From The Science of Self-Realization by Srila Prabhupada

The post Killing the demoniac mentality appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Less advanced, less suffering

In your country, nice city, New York City, but every moment there is fire – dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung. Why? Very nice city, big city, big roads, big…, but there is suffering. Who wants this fire? But government has to make arrangement for fire brigade, and because it is great nation, very prosperous nation, there is very constantly, very frequently, there is fire. Frequently. You won’t find such fire in India, at least. We have no such experience that every moment there is fire brigade. Is it not? I am exaggerating? Huh? You see. We have got so many cities in India, but we don’t have such arrangement that constantly, twenty-four hours, dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung-dung. At least we haven’t got. Less suffering, because we are not so advanced. The more materially you become advanced, the more suffering. Daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya [Bg. 7.14]. These rascals, they do not know.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.22 – September 18, 1976, Vrndavana

The post Less advanced, less suffering appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Eternally a servant of Krishna

Your next question is if Visala Das will be your name eternally. As I have told you in San Francisco, Visala means Krishna, the Greatest, and Das means the servant of. So eternally you are the servant of visal, or Krishna, and thus you are always Visala Das. Krishna has so many different names because He is unlimited in all respects, and you are Krishna’s eternal servant. What your name will be eternally is not a very important subject at the present moment, but it is sufficient for you to know that you are always the servant of Visala, Krishna.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Visala – 16 June, 1969

The post Eternally a servant of Krishna appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Srila Prabhupada’s first Rathayatra

Just this morning when Srila Prabhupada arose from bed, He spoke to me about how He had held Rathayatra early in His childhood. He recounted as follows: “When I was five or six years old, any carpenter I saw I would ask him why don’t you make a Rathayatra cart for me. ’Yes, why not,’ they would say. I would have my father take me to the carpenter shop, but none of them would make it. One old lady saw me crying on the street because I could not have the Rathayatra cart built. She asked my father why is he crying and my father explained because he wants a Rathayatra cart but no carpenter is making it. I have got one, said the old lady, and my father purchased it from her. He bought oil paint for me and I painted. I was also preparing fireworks for the occasion. I saw little books how to do it. My father gave me anything I wanted and thus put my mother into anxiety. And I was very persistent. All day friends and children would help me and I was never lazy. From my birth I was never lazy neither dull. Neither was I ever defeated by anyone. Whatever I would order to my parents or friends must be obeyed. Krishna has given me always leadership. How I a poor Indian, have leadership of the Europeans and Americans? And amongst the authors of the world I am also the leader.”

From a letter by  Tamala Krsna Goswami to God-brothers and God-sisters of New Dvaraka-dhama

The post Srila Prabhupada’s first Rathayatra appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Lord Caitanya’s trick

Seeing that the Mayavadis and others were fleeing, Lord Caitanya thought: I wanted everyone to be immersed in this inundation of love of Godhead, but some of them have escaped. Therefore I shall devise a trick to drown them also.

Here is an important point. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to invent a way to capture the Mayavadis and others who did not take interest in the Krsna consciousness movement. This is the symptom of an acarya. An acarya who comes for the service of the Lord cannot be expected to conform to a stereotype, for he must find the ways and means by which Krsna consciousness may be spread. Sometimes jealous persons criticize the Krsna consciousness movement because it engages equally both boys and girls in distributing love of Godhead…. However, since both the boys and girls are being trained to become preachers, those girls are not ordinary girls but are as good as their brothers who are preaching Krsna consciousness. Therefore, to engage both boys and girls in fully transcendental activities is a policy intended to spread the Krsna consciousness movement. These jealous fools who criticize the intermingling of boys and girls will simply have to be satisfied with their own foolishness because they cannot think of how to spread Krsna consciousness by adopting ways and means which are favorable for this purpose. Their stereotyped methods will never help spread Krsna consciousness. Therefore, what we are doing is perfect by the grace of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, for it is He who proposed to invent a way to capture those who strayed from Krsna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada; Cc. Adi 7.32 text & purport

The post Lord Caitanya’s trick appeared first on Bhakti Vikasa Swami.