Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 2

Krsna plays the flute backward

Acyutananda Swami was standing next to Prabhupada that night in the Calcutta temple. “Prabhupada,” he said, “someone put Krsna’s flute in backward.” Prabhupada looked. It was backward. “Krsna is all-powerful” he said, turning to Acyutananda Swami. “He can play from the back end also.”

from Srila Prabhupada lilamrta

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Message for the leaders of ISKCON

This [book distribution] is our most important work. All the leaders should tax their brains for increasing the sales of our books. I have always said that if we simply rely on book distribution all our needs will be met.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Rupanuga; 11 January 1976

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Grhasta-brahmacari

A brahmacari is good for living a life of celibacy, but a person who can live a life of celibacy in the presence of a beautiful and obliging wife is more than a brahmacari. Of course anyone who is stuck up with only one wife is also called brahmacari. You will set a very good example if both of you agree not to have sense gratification anymore and still you remain as husband and wife together. This is possible, however, only if both of you are fixed up in Krishna Consciousness activities. I thank you very much for your sincere endeavor to do this activity.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Hansadutta, January 12,1969

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Perfect knowledge

Guest (5): I have great difficulty with the meaning of the term “perfect knowledge.” I… Could you…

Prabhupada: Perfect knowledge means what you say, it is correct; there is no mistake.

Guest (5): In any and all circumstances.

Prabhupada: Yes. That is perfect knowledge. Not like the scientists. They changes: “Yes, it was this. Now it is now changed.” This is not perfect knowledge.

Guest (4): Yes every day day they keep change.

Prabhupada: They simply change. Therefore we say mudhas.

Guest (4): There is diference between jnana and vijnana in that way, vijnana.

Prabhupada: Perfect knowledge is that what you say, that is correct forever. That is perfect.

Conversation – February 12, 1975, Mexico City

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Chanting the holy name more important than misguided yoga

The purpose of pranayama, or mystic yoga, is to stop the mind and senses from engaging in fruitive activities. The so-called yogis who practice in Western countries have no idea of this. The aim of pranayama is not to make the body strong and fit for working hard. The aim is worship of Krsna.

So-called yogis, without knowledge of the real purpose of yoga, practice it in order to keep the body fit. Thus they engage themselves in fruitive activities, and thus they are bound by desire to accept another body. They are not aware that the ultimate goal of life is to approach Krsna. In order to save such yogis from wandering throughout the different species of life, the sastras warn that in this age such yogic practice is simply a waste of time. The only means of elevation is the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.

In this age this practice of yoga is misunderstood by fallen souls who are not capable of practicing anything. Consequently the sastras enjoin: kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha. The conclusion is that unless the karmis, jnanis and yogis come to the point of devotional service to Lord Krsna, their so-called austerities and yoga have no value. Naradhitah: if Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is not worshiped, there is no point in practicing meditational yoga, performing karma-yoga or culturing empiric knowledge. As far as pranayama is concerned, chanting of the holy name of the Lord and dancing in ecstasy are also considered pranayama.

The actual aim [of pranayama] is to strengthen the mind and senses in order to engage them in devotional service. In the present age this determination can be very easily acquired simply by chanting the holy names — Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.23.8

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Polluted desires lead to rebirth

The minds of those who are addicted to fruitive activity are always filled with unclean desires. Fruitive activities are symptomatic of our polluted desire to dominate material nature. As long as one continues to be subject to polluted desires, he has to accept one material body after another.

From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.23.8

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Revealed knowledge, & how to receive it

The disease of the modern civilized man is his disbelief of everything in the revealed scriptures. Faithless nonbelievers cannot make progress in spiritual realization, for they cannot understand the spiritual potency.

Although there are varieties of personalities, from Brahma down to the insignificant ant, all of whom are living beings, their development of knowledge is different. Therefore we have to gather knowledge from the right source. Indeed, in reality we can get knowledge only from the Vedic sources. The four Vedas, with their supplementary Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and their corollaries, which are known as smrtis, are all authorized sources of knowledge. If we are at all to gather knowledge, we must gather it from these sources without hesitation.

Revealed knowledge may in the beginning be unbelievable because of our paradoxical desire to verify everything with our tiny brains, but the speculative means of attaining knowledge is always imperfect. The perfect knowledge propounded in the revealed scriptures is confirmed by the great acaryas, who have left ample commentations upon them; none of these acaryas has disbelieved in the sastras. One who disbelieves in the sastras is an atheist, and we should not consult an atheist, however great he may be. A staunch believer in the sastras, with all their diversities, is the right person from whom to gather real knowledge. Such knowledge may seem inconceivable in the beginning, but when put forward by the proper authority its meaning is revealed, and then one no longer has any doubts about it.

From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to CC Adi, 5.14

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Vedanta study & chanting

People in general in Kali-yuga are so fallen that it is not possible for them to obtain perfection simply by studying Vedanta-sutra. One should therefore seriously take to the constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord.

Although Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna, the spiritual master of the entire universe, He nevertheless took the position of a disciple in order to teach by example how a devotee should strictly follow the orders of a spiritual master in executing the duty of always chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. One who is very much attracted to the study of Vedanta philosophy must take lessons from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In this age, no one is actually competent to study Vedanta, and therefore it is better that one chant the holy name of the Lord, which is the essence of all Vedic knowledge, as Krsna Himself confirms in Bhagavad-gita,

vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham
“By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” (Bg. 15.15)

One who imperfectly knows Krsna consciousness cannot know Vedanta philosophy. A showy display of Vedanta study without Krsna consciousness is a feature of the external energy, maya, and as long as one is attracted by the inebrieties of this ever-changing material energy, he deviates from devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. An actual follower of Vedanta philosophy is a devotee of Lord Visnu, who is the greatest of the great and the maintainer of the entire universe. Unless one surpasses the field of activities in service to the limited, one cannot reach the unlimited. Knowledge of the unlimited is actual brahma-jnana, or knowledge of the Supreme. Those who are addicted to fruitive activities and speculative knowledge cannot understand the value of the holy name of the Lord, Krsna, who is always completely pure, eternally liberated and full of spiritual bliss. One who has taken shelter of the holy name of the Lord, which is identical with the Lord, does not have to study Vedanta philosophy, for he has already completed all such study.

One who is unfit to chant the holy name of Krsna but thinks that the holy name is different from Krsna and thus takes shelter of Vedanta study in order to understand Him must be considered a number one fool, as confirmed by Caitanya Mahaprabhu by His personal behavior, and philosophical speculators who want to make Vedanta philosophy an academic career are also considered to be within the material energy. A person who always chants the holy name of the Lord, however, is already beyond the ocean of nescience, and thus even a person born in a low family who engages in chanting the holy name of the Lord is considered to be beyond the study of Vedanta philosophy. In this connection the Srimad-Bhagavatam states:

aho bata sva-paco ‘to gariyan
yaj-jihvagre vartate nama tubhyam
tepus tapas te juhuvuh sasnur arya
brahmanucur nama grnanti ye te
“If a person born in a family of dog-eaters takes to the chanting of the holy name of Krsna, it is to be understood that in his previous life he must have executed all kinds of austerities and penances and performed all the Vedic yajnas.” (S.B.  3.33.7)

There are some sahajiyas who, taking everything very cheaply, consider themselves elevated Vaisnavas but do not care even to touch the Vedanta-sutras or Vedanta philosophy. A real Vaisnava should, however, study Vedanta philosophy, but if after studying the Vedanta one does not adopt the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, he is no better than a Mayavadi. Therefore, one should not be a Mayavadi, yet one should not be unaware of the subject matter of Vedanta philosophy. Indeed, Caitanya Mahaprabhu exhibited His knowledge of Vedanta in His discourses with Prakasananda Sarasvati. Thus it is to be understood that a Vaisnava should be completely conversant with Vedanta philosophy, yet he should not think that studying Vedanta is all in all and therefore be unattached to the chanting of the holy name. A
the importance of simultaneously understanding Vedanta philosophy and chanting the holy names. If by studying Vedanta one becomes an impersonalist, he has not been able to understand Vedanta. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (15.15). Vedanta means “the end of knowledge.” The ultimate end of knowledge is knowledge of Krsna, who is identical with His holy name.

Extracted from Srila Prabhupada’s purports to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 7.71, 72

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The austerity of chanting Hare Krsna

Human life is meant not for becoming a hog or dog, but for tapo divyam [SB 5.5.1], transcendental austerity. Everyone should be taught to undergo austerity, tapasya. Although it may not be possible to undergo tapasya like that of Prsni and Sutapa, the sastra has given an opportunity for a method of tapasya very easy to perform — the sankirtana movement. One cannot expect to undergo tapasya to get Krsna as one’s child, yet simply by chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra (kirtanad eva krsnasya [SB 12.3.51]), one can become so pure that one becomes free from all the contamination of this material world (mukta-sangah) and goes back home, back to Godhead (param vrajet). The Krsna consciousness movement, therefore, is teaching people not to adopt artificial means of happiness, but to take the real path of happiness as prescribed in the sastra — the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra — and become perfect in every aspect of material existence.

From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.3.34-35

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Raising humans from the animal platform

Practically there is no religion. And without religion human society is animal society. Dharmena hina pasubhih samanah: “Human being without any ideas of religion, God, he is no better than animal.” That is the difference between animal and human being. Animals eat, we eat; animals sleep, we sleep; animals have sexual intercourse, we have; animals also defend, we also defend. These are common features. And what is the special feature? The special feature of human being is that he can understand what is God. So if he does not understand God, he is animal, because the distinction between animal and man is being avoided. So far other activities are concerned, they are the same as of human being and as of animal. But what is the distinction? The distinction is that in the human society there is an endeavor to understand God, and the animal society, there is no such endeavor. So when the human so-called human society becomes devoid of God consciousness, it is animal society. Sa eva go-kharah [SB 10.84.13]. So this Krsna consciousness movement is meant for raising the human society to the real platform of human society, not to keep them in the animal platform.

Srila Prabhupada; Conversation, 1 March 1975

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