Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 199

Longing to see Lord Caitanya

Lord Caitanya is the shelter of the demigods, the goal of the Upanisads, the be-all and end-all of the great sages, the beautiful shelter of His devotees, and the essence of the love of the lotus-eyed gopis. Will He again be the object of my vision?

Prathama Sri Caitanyastaka 2, from the Stava-mala of Srila Rupa Gosvami; Cc Adi 4.52, translation by Srila Prabhupada

Wiping out the dust

On the mirror if there is dust, you cannot see your face very nicely. If you wipe the mirror very nicely… So this Hare Krsna chanting is the process of wiping out the dust accumulated on the mirror of my mind.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 13.6-7 — Montreal, October 25, 1968

Re coronavirus: “You must be killed”

The injunction is, “Thou shall not kill,” but he will kill and kill and kill and kill, and still, he wants to be satisfied. Just see. The Bible says, “Thou shall not kill,” and they are simply engaged in killing business, and still they want to be happy. Just see the fun. Therefore Krsna says, “Yes, you be killed by occasional world war. You must be killed. You have created this situation. You must be killed. You may be American or Englishman or German or this or that. You may be very proud of your nationality. But you must be killed.” This is the position. Isvarasya vicestitam. “You have killed so many animals. Now wholesale killing, one bomb, one atom bomb. Be killed.”

These rascals, they do not know how things are going on. Isvarasya vicestitam. “Tit for tat.” There must be. If in ordinary laws, in the state laws, that if you have killed somebody you must be hanged, so do you think you can simply bluff the supreme authority, Krsna, that you are going, killing, killing, killing, and you will be saved? No. You will be killed in pestilence, in famine. Even within your mother’s womb, you will be killed. Where it is supposed to be good protection, there also you will be killed. The human nation being degenerated in such a way, the killing business is increasing daily, daily, daily, daily. Isvarasya vicestitam.

So we therefore must submit to Krsna. Sarva-dharman parityajya… [Bg 18.66].

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.24 – December 3, 1973, Los Angeles

King Pariksit said:

All the various activities exhibited by the incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are certainly pleasing to the ear and to the mind. Simply by one’s hearing of these activities, the dirty things in one’s mind immediately vanish. Generally we are reluctant to hear about the activities of the Lord, but Krsna’s childhood activities are so attractive that they are automatically pleasing to the mind and ear. Thus one’s attachment for hearing about material things, which is the root cause of material existence, vanishes, and one gradually develops devotional service to the Supreme Lord, attachment for Him, and friendship with devotees who give us the contribution of Krsna consciousness.

From Srila Prabhupada’s translation of SB 10.7.1-2

Relativity of time

Hayagriva: Plato states that time began with the creation of the material world. And how does this comply with the Vedic statement that time is eternal?

Prabhupada: Yes, time is eternal. The present, past, present, the three features of time, it is relative. What is your past or your future, that is not past, future, of Brahma. Brahma lives for millions of years. So within millions of years I had many past, present and future. Present…, past, present and future is relative according to the person, but the time is eternal. That is the point. It is clear? The past, present, future is relative according to the body. Otherwise time is eternal. Time has no past, present, future.

Hari-sauri: That means like time is actually like presence?

Prabhupada: No. Presence… It is always present. Say just like a small germ, he lives for three minutes. So his past, present, future within few minutes, while I am living. So I am not within his past, present and future. Therefore past, present, future is relative. My past, present, future is different from the past, present, future of a small germ. That is the idea.

(From a conversation regarding Plato)

Maya and Krsna, side by side

These two things are always side by side — Maya and Krsna — Krsna is service and Maya is sense gratification, so every moment we are prone to be subjugated by either of them. Our duty is therefore to be very, very careful. The poison is personal ambition.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Satyabhama — Bombay 1 November, 1970

Pure chanting, not as musical artists

It is not required for us to become artists. Our main point is service to Krishna, not to please an audience. We shall not divert our attention too much to adjustment of musical sounds. People should not misunderstood that we are a band of musical artists. They must know that we are devotees of Krishna. Our devotional practice and purity shall be so strong that wherever we chant there will be immediately an impression in the audience for devotion to Krishna.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Tamala Krsna — Tittenhurst 30 October, 1969

Pregnancy & preaching; how to be a great preacher

It is a fact that our movement will appeal to the heart of everyone, and they will join us. If one is not very much sophisticated and overburdened by material contamination, then he must respond to our call. The only thing is that we as preachers must be very, very pure, sincere and serious. The crude example is that when a man is physically very strong, and if he has sex intercourse with a woman, she is sure to become pregnant. When pregnancy fails, it is due to the weakness of the male partner generally. Similarly, if we are full with Krishna vitality, then wherever we go the audience will be impregnated with Krishna Consciousness. Now some of our leading boys, like you, Brahmananda, Tamala, etc. you should be very careful to train your other junior Godbrothers to the right type of preacher, keeping full faith in Krishna and the Spiritual Master, and executing the routine works of chanting and following the regulations. That will make you all great preachers, and wherever you go you will come out victorious.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Satsvarupa — Tittenhurst House, England 31 October, 1969

Women and sacred thread

So at least for one year chanting regularly, observing the rules and regulation, one comes to the platform of spiritual platform. And then, another initiation, this is called diksa. That is also diksa, that is first process. This diksa, second process, is not very essential. The essential is to chant. In this age, there is no need of this second initiation. But those who are going to be recognized as properly initiated, so this second installment was introduced by Sanatana Gosvami. Diksa-vidhanena dvijatvam [Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2.12], his twice birth he’s completed.

And so far men are concerned, they are offered the sacred thread. Not the woman. The idea is woman, every woman, is supposed to be married. Of course, in your country it is not very compulsory, not very essential. In India is still, but it is gradually declining. Unless a woman is married, his life is frustrated on his debt. Even one woman is diseased or something like that — nobody cares to marry such girl — then the system is that she marries one banana tree in order to get the certificate that she’s married.

So marriage is so much compulsory according to Vedic civilization for woman. Woman’s independence is never allowed by Vedic smrti. Smrti means regulation, Vedic regulation. Woman must be under the care of father so long she is not married, and then in her youthful age she must be under the care of the proper husband, and she must be under the care of elderly children in old age.

Now you will see how much husband takes care of the wife, how much it is obliging. You will see from the history of Ramayana. Rama…, Lord Ramacandra’s wife was kidnapped by Ravana. So it is not that the husband or like, “My one wife has gone; I can marry for the second time. There are any women I can…” No. He fought to the last, and He vanquished the whole family of Ravana to get out Sita. This is husband’s responsibility. So the idea spread here. So many women in this country say that “We are not going to be slave, slave of some man.” They say like that. India also there is some of these modern girls. One of my friend’s daughter, she was studying in M.A. and she was not willing to marry, so that my friend in my householder life, that friend called the daughter before me and he told me, “Abhay Babu,” that she, “she’s not willing to marry.” So I asked that girl, “Why you are not willing to marry? What is the reason?” “Oh, I’m not going to be a slave.”

This is also in India. But the sastra does not allow that. It is not slavery, actually; it is grand protection. If the husband is nice, then wife’s position is very secure. Just like a king, and the woman whom the king marries, she becomes at once queen, without any endeavor, and she gets all the respect of the husband. Just see Ramacandra. Ramacandra was very young ksatriya, fighter, everything. Sita has no such record. But Sita has got the same respect as Rama — Sita-Rama. Now we have heard so many activities of Krsna, nothing of Radharani, but Radharani is still as good as Krsna.

So this combination, Vedic idea that woman must be under the… They have got three stages of life. First stage under the father, second stage under the husband. Therefore initiation, to the woman, there is no need of, I mean to say, sacred thread, because she’s considered to be the half body of her husband. She’s half-shareholder in everything of the husband; therefore there was no necessity.

Even you’ll find in the picture of Ramacandra and Sita, Ramacandra has got sacred thread but Sita hasn’t got. That is the system. So this is Vedic system, that woman is given the mantra but not the sacred thread. Even she’s born of a brahmana father, there is no such system.

(Srila Prabhupada; Initiation Lecture — May 21, 1968, Boston)

We are not going to any office or any business

We are not busy how to go to the office, how to the business place. We are not interested. We are simply interested for mangala arati, for class, for chanting, dancing. That’s all. Practically see. We are not going to any office or any business.

Srila Prabhupada; Morning Walk — January 20, 1976, Mayapur