Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 134

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Rupa Gosvami, & smoking bidis

Vaisnava position is not very easy thing; above all qualities. Therefore Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura introduced not to become an imitation of Rupa Gosvami. Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana, the Gosvamis of Vrndavana, they are paramahamsas. And in Vrndavana you’ll find so-called babajis, they have imitated the dress of Rupa Gosvami — half loincloth — but a bidi in the mouth. What is this nonsense? Rupa Gosvami used to smoke bidi? [laughter] [chuckles] Not only that; you’ll find in Vrndavana so many Rupa Gosvamis are making bidi. Have you seen in the Gopinatha Bazar? They’re making trade, bidis, and shameless. Therefore my Guru Maharaja introduced this. Of course, sannyasa is there in the Vaisnava… All the acaryas, they were sannyasa, but later on, it so degraded that these bidi-smoker, ganja-smoker, they imitated Rupa Gosvami. Therefore to purify, Guru Maharaja introduced this sannyasa system, below the paramahamsas, not that artificial means I become a paramahamsa.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.41 — October 21, 1974, Mayapur

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We are all cats and dogs

In London he was on television, and the interviewer… So Prabhupada began to explain, he said, “A society without religion is a society of cats and dogs.” So the interviewer said, “Do you mean to say that we are all cats and dogs?” Prabhupada said, “No. Not only you, the whole world.”

Lecture, Hamsaduta Dasa, in Vedabase

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Straightforward instructions from Srila Prabhupada

The most important thing is that we must be ideal Krsna Conscious persons, and then we can attract others. This means chanting, reading my books, going on sankirtana, following the regulative principles and worshiping the deity. Whoever take part in these things, no matter what he has done of sinful activities before, will automatically advance in spiritual realization. This is the simple process and if we follow it we will become ideal. Otherwise, they will become victims of women and wealth.

From a letter by Srila Prabhupada to Jayatirtha — Bombay 1 May, 1974

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The grossest kind of ignorance

Slaughter is the way of sub-humans…. The animal killers do not know that in the future the animal will have a body suitable to kill them. That is the law of nature. In human society, if one kills a man he has to be hanged. That is the law of the state. Because of ignorance, people do not perceive that there is a complete state controlled by the Supreme Lord. Every living creature is a son of the Supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even an ant’s being killed. One has to pay for it. So indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance. A human being has no need to kill animals, because God has supplied so many nice things. If one indulges in meat-eating anyway, it is to be understood that he is acting in ignorance and is making his future very dark…. Human society is advancing in the wrong direction and is clearing the path to its own condemnation.

Srila Prabhupada, Bg 14.16, ppt.

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Utilize whatever time you have

Instead of contemplating what will happen to this world – you have got a short duration of life, say fifty, sixty years – you should chant Hare Krishna and go back to home, back to Godhead. Don’t consider what will happen to this world. Nature will take care of it. Don’t puzzle your brain with these thoughts. You should utilize whatever time you have in your possession and go back to home, back to Godhead. You cannot check it. The best thing is that you mold your life and go back to home, back to Godhead. Oil your own machine, instead of thinking what will happen elsewhere. [Those things] will happen. Because people will go on with their rascal civilization, natural consequences will be there. Better you take advantage of whatever time you have got, become fully Krishna conscious and go back to home.

Srila Prabhupada, Morning Walk Conversation in Caracas. 21 February 1975.

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The motto of life

One should work hard and worship the Supreme Lord by the fruits of one’s hard labor for existence, and that should be the motto of life.

Srila Prabhupada, SB 1.2.27, purport

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In actuality, God owns everything

Here Krsna proclaims that He is the enjoyer of all activities and the proprietor of all planets (sarva-loka-mahesvaram). An individual may possess a large tract of land, and he may be proud of his ownership, but Krsna claims to possess all planetary systems. Krsna also claims to be the friend of all living entities (suhrdam sarva-bhutanam). When a person understands that God is the proprietor of everything, the friend of everyone and the enjoyer of all, he becomes very peaceful. This is the actual peace formula. No one can have peace as long as he thinks, ‘I am the proprietor.’ Who is capable of claiming proprietorship? Only a few hundred years ago the red Indians were considered to be the proprietors of America. Today we in our turn are claiming that proprietorship, but in four hundred or a thousand years perhaps someone else will come to claim the same. The land is here, and we come here and falsely claim ourselves to be proprietors of it. This philosophy of false proprietorship is not in line with Vedic injunctions. Sri Isopanisad states that ‘everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord.’ The truth of this statement is factual, but under illusion we are thinking that we are the proprietors. In actuality God owns everything, and therefore He is called the richest.

Srila Prabhupada, in: Raja-Vidya: The King of Knowledge

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How the conditioned soul becomes entrapped

This false identification with material nature is the cause of false ownership of things which are offered by the arrangement of superior control. All material resources are offered to the living entity for his peaceful living and for the discharge of the duties of self-realization in conditioned life. But due to false identification, the conditioned soul becomes entrapped by the sense of false ownership of the property of the Supreme Lord.

Srila Prabhupada; Purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.12.2

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Perfect scripture, Bhagavad-gita

Paramahamsa: The Bible has gone through so many interpretations and so many changes in the last two thousand years. I’ve talked to professors who know the original Hebrew and the original tongues that the Bible was written in. And they say that is has changed so much that you can hardly…

Prabhupada: Yes, they are changing. Just like he said, “Thou shall not kill.” They are now changing, “Thou shall not commit murder.” They are doing that.

Paramahamsa: Yes. They have a modern Bible, using all modern terminology.

Prabhupada: So when you change, then the authority is lost. Therefore we should advocate that Bhagavad-gita is not like that. It is coming in the same form as it was taught to Arjuna. If you challenge that “How you know that it has not been changed?” the acaryas are there. The acaryas are there, and they are accepting; therefore it is correct. We have to follow the acarya. So when we see the acaryas have accepted, then we accept. All the acaryas — Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, before that, other acaryas also — they accept. They never say that “This was not in the original scripture. It has been changed.” You don’t find any such statement of the acaryas. The best thing, therefore, if you want a religious system, Bhagavad-gita is coming without any contradiction, change, for the last five thousand years. You accept it. Other scriptures are newly introduced, and there are so many doubts, so many interpretations. So if you want real religious system, this is the scripture spoken directly by God and accepted by all the acaryas, so take it. If you are really after God, so you take enlightenment from this perfect scripture. If you want truth, it doesn’t matter wherefrom it is coming; I must accept the truth.

(May 10, 1975, Perth, Australia)

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A-B-C-D, Bhagavad-gita

Bhagavad-gita is the A-B-C-D of spiritual knowledge. If we do not understand even the A-B-C-D of spiritual knowledge, then where is the progress? Unfortunately, we are neglecting. But it is our duty to propagate this knowledge of Bhagavad-gita.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 13.1–2 — September 25, 1973, Bombay

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