*GBC AGM--Oath of Allegiance

Every year during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (GBC), GBC members reaffirm their Oath of Allegiance. This year GBC members gathered in Srila Prabhupada’s samadhi in Sridham Mayapur for the event, and Bhaktimarga Swami led the recitation of the Oath. The following is the Oath of Allegiance and photos of the occasion.

1.To accept His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as the Founder-Acarya and Supreme Authority of ISKCON. To follow his teachings, instructions and directions.

2.To accept the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON as the ultimate managing authority of ISKCON as directed in Srila Prabhupada's last will and testament.

3.To abide by the Society's spiritual rules, namely no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating and chant a minimum of sixteen rounds of maha-mantra japa every day. To follow the principles set forth in Srila Prabhupada's books.

4.To accept that all ISKCON's funds, assets and properties under my control or direction, including anything ISKCON may have acquired under my direction, is the sole property of ISKCON and in the event of my death, resignation or other relinquishment of all ISKCON responsibilities, all these shall accrue solely to ISKCON and at all times I shall have no claim on them whatsoever.

5.To be guided by the spiritual directions of ISKCON's management, to cooperate with the local GBC representative, and to fulfill my duties in a serving spirit never intentionally acting against ISKCON's interests.

6.I will maintain the spiritual programs, standards, and teachings established by Srila Prabhupada in the projects and with the devotees placed in my care. I further agree not to involve the Society or those devotees placed under my care in any activities contrary to the above mentioned principles.

GBC Meeting Report—February 26th-27th

By Sraddhadevi Dasi

ISKCON’s 2011 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Governing Body Commission (GBC) continued February 26th and 27th with GBC members separating intocommittees to discussion specific topics. Some of the committees were Guru Services, GBC-BBT Relations, Parallel Lines of Authority, and the Sannyasa Committee. Regional Governing Bodies, such as the Latin Governing Body and the North American GBCs also convened to discuss issues particular to their geographic area of service.

In most cases, GBC committees discuss and research a specific subject matter, then seek approval from the GBC body on suggestions regarding how toproceed. The primary role of most committees is to assist in educating others on the content of the topic and how it relates to ISKCON and ISKCON’smembers. To do this, committees may develop seminars, courses, or written documents pertaining to their topic.

For example, the GBC Guru Services committee has introduced educational resources, retreats, and training sessions to assist devotees in their role as a disciple or guru. The committee continues to organize annual Guru Seminars and Retreats, which allow devotees who serve as instructing or initiating gurus to associate with one another and share their experiences. This year the Guru Services committee is also launching a multi-day course for prospective disciples, in attempt to better educate devotees in the qualifications, responsibilities, and roles of both disciples and gurus. The hope is that in the future this will be a standard course for devotees who desire to take initiation within ISKCON.

Committees may also suggest policy or request permission from the GBC body to create and oversee an official system of evaluation. For example, by approval of the GBC body, the Sannyasa committee established a comprehensive evaluation process to guide and approve sannyasa candidates. Such a  process helps to clarify for sannyasa candidates the responsibilities and position of a sannyasi, and also creates a support system that aids in strengtheningthe overall health of the sannyasa ashram within ISKCON.

As for the other committees, the GBC-BBT Relations committee discusses issues specifically related to enhancing communications and cooperation between the GBC and the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT). Furthermore, the Parallel Lines of Authority committee explores the relationship between the authority and directions of various leaders such as gurus, GBCs, and local management, and how these lines of authority can and should cooperatively work together.

Committee work is ongoing throughout the year, and additional committee meetings will be interspersed between plenary sessions throughout the remaining days of the GBC’s Annual General Meeting.

Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

Date: March 9th, 2011

Topic: Dhruva Maharaja Goes Back to Godhead

Verse: 4:12:33

Speaker: HH Prabodhanand Sarasvati Swami

iti vyavasitam tasya

vyavasaya surottamau

darsayam asatur devim

puro yanena gacchatim

TRANSLATION: The great associates of Vaikunthaloka, Nanda and Sunanda, could understand the mind of Dhruva Maharaja, and thus they showed him that his mother, Suniti, was going forward in another plane.

PURPORT: This incident proves that the siksa- or diksa-guru who has a disciple who strongly executes devotional service like Dhruva Maharaja can be carried by the disciple even though the instructor is not as advanced. Although Suniti was an instructor to Dhruva Maharaja, she could not go to the forest because she was a woman, nor could she execute austerities and penances as Dhruva Maharaja did. Still, Dhruva Maharaja was able to take his  mother with him. Similarly, Prahlada Maharaja also delivered his atheistic father, Hiranyakasipu. The conclusion is that a disciple or an offspring who is a very strong devotee can carry with him to Vaikunthaloka either his father, mother or siksa- or diksa-guru. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura used to say, "If I could perfectly deliver even one soul back home, back to Godhead, I would think my mission -- propagating Krishna consciousness -- to be successful." The Krishna consciousness movement is spreading now all over the world, and sometimes I think that even though I am crippled in many ways, if one of my disciples becomes as strong as Dhruva Maharaja, then he will be able to carry me with him to Vaikunthaloka. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.33]

HH Prabodhanand Sarasvati Swami: So Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport expressing his greatest humility that, "The Krishna consciousness movement is spreading now all over the world, and sometimes I think that even though I am crippled in many ways, if one of my disciples becomes as strong as Dhruva Maharaja, then he will be able to carry me with him to Vaikunthaloka." That means the Srila Prabhupada wants us to be surrendered devotees like Dhruva Maharaja.

Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura in his Saranagati says that:
sad-anga saranagati hoibe jahara, tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara [SNG: Introductory Song]
If a devotee could fully surrender at the lotus feet of Krishna or in other words when a devotee exhibits the symptoms of saranagati - there are six principles of surrender - then all his prayers will be fulfilled by the Supreme Lord immediately. Krishna fulfills the desires of a surrendered devotee. Sad-anga saranagati hoibe jahara, tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara. Then he is saying what are the symptoms of saranagati?
dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana, 'avasya raksibe krsna'-visvasa,palanabhaki-anukula-matra karyera svikara, bhakti-pratikula-bhava varjanangikara[SNG: Introductory Song]

There are six symptoms of saranagati. If each follower can follower these principles of saranagati in his life then all his prayers can be fulfilled by the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna. Whatever desires comes in his mind like we are seeing here the desire of Dhruva Maharaja was to deliver his mother. He was thinking seriously about his mother. He did not tell Nanda and Sunanda. The associates of Vaikunthaloka, Nanada and Sunanda could understand the mind of Dhruva Maharaja thus they assured him that his mother Suniti was going forward in another airplane.

The first symptom of surrender is dainya. Dainya means humility. Just like here Dhruva Maharaja was exhibiting this quality. Though he had desire  forliberating his mother he was also considering that he was not the Supreme therefore Krishna fulfilled his desires. Only then would it be possible. So he was depending upon Krishna. He was not thinking, "I am capable of delivering my mother."

Similarly Srila Prabhupada is exhibiting his humility. In many instances we see how even though he was a maha-bhagavata uttama Vaisnava and we are alldepending upon him to return back to Godhead but Srila Prabhupada is saying that if someone becomes as strong as Dhruva Maharaja then he will be able todeliver him to Vaikunthaloka. This is because of his humility. This is a symptom of an uttama Vaisnava that,

uttama hana apanake mane trnadhama, dui-prakare sahisnuta kare vrksa-sama[Antya 20.22]
When someone is on the maha-bhagavata platform he thinks that I am the most fallen soul. Bhaktivinode Thakur sings in the bhajan 'Gopinatha'
visayi durjana, sada kama-rata, kichu nahi mor guna [Verse 1]
Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura is telling Gopintaha, "I have no good quality. I have so many lusty desires." In fact this is expressing his humility. Srila Prabhupada also in many instances has exhibited this quality that a pure devotee never i himself as a devotee.

Once Srila Prabhupada was arriving at the airport and devotees were waiting to receive Srila Prabhupada. There were many devotees chanting and dancing,brahmacaris were with shaved head and they were chanting Hare Krishna maha mantra, and Lord Caitanya's mantra and then Jai Prabhupada. There were somejournalists there who were surprised to see the devotees chanting and dancing. They enquired why they were chanting and dancing and what they were doing there. The devotees told them, "We are here to welcome our spiritual master who is just about to arrive here." So the journalist became more inquisitive and waited there. Upon Srila Prabhupada's arrival the disciples saw Prabhupada from a distance and paid their full dandavat pranams. When Prabhupada came close they offered garland upon garland upon him. The journalist were surprised to see what was going on and wondered why this person is getting so much respect.

Even the countries president or prime minister upon their arrival there is some gunfire or some form of formal respect is shown to them but this person was getting so much respect by these people. So as Srila Prabhupada was walking one journalist asked Srila Prabhupada, "Swamiji are you God? Why are you getting so much respect?" Srila Prabhupada said, "No I am not God. I am servant of God." He took a step further and stopped and when the journalist  came to his side Srila Prabhupada said, "Actually I am simply trying to be a devotee of Krishna." So that is the humility of Srila Prabhupada. A pure devotee never considers that he is a devote. He also considers that, "I am a fallen soul."

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura used to say to his disciples when they paid obeisances to him, "Daso 'smi - I am simply your servant" The spiritual master thinks in that way that, "These disciples are sent to me by Krishna simply for me to guide and serve them.

In one of his songs Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura says:
ami ta' vaisnava, e-buddhi ha-ile, amani na haba amipratisthasa asi', hrdaya dusibe, ha-iba niraya-gaminije srestha jani',  ucchistadi-dane,  habe abhimana bharatai sisya tava, thakiya sarvada,  na la-iba puja kara [Kalyana-kalpataru]

Bhaktivinode Thakur is expressing his feelings that - ami ta' vaisnava, e-buddhi ha-ile - thinking that I have become a Vaisnava, amani na haba ami - then thinking that I have now become a great Vaisnava I cannot be humble thinking that now I have become a great Vaisnava so everyone should pay me respect. Everyone must pay obeisances unto me. pratisthasa asi' - my heart will get contaminated by the desire for name, fame - puja and pratisthasa. Then thinking that I am I great Vaisnava I will think people should touch my feet and take dust from there then they will become free from sinful reactions; if they eat my remnants all good qualities from me will be transferred to them. Ucchistadi-dane, habe abhimana bhara - in this way I will get polluted within my heart having desire for name fame and distinction.

Sila Bhaktivinode Thakur prays that, "Please bless me my Lord so that I may always remain as a disciple of my spiritual master that I may always keep myself as a disciple and not as a guru. Bless me to become a perfect disciple of my spiritual master." So these are the feelings of the great Vaisnavas. So Srila Prabhupada is expressing humility in this way. Although we are all depending upon Srila Prabhupada and he also has given us a guarantee that if you follow these principles given by him: attending mangal arati, regularly hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam and performing devotional service then we will return back to Godhead by his blessings. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura says,

krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro, tomara sakati acheami to' kangala, 'krsna' 'krsna' boli', dhai tava pache pache
Krishna belongs to His pure devotees, aham bhakta-paradhino [SB 9.4.63] Srila Prabhupada can give Krishna to us but as we heard Srila Prabhupada is saying that, "My disciples can take me back to Godhead." People generally want a son - putra. Pu means hell and tra means to deliver. One who delivers his forefathers from hell, he is called putra. That is the duty of a putra, son - to deliver his forefathers from hell. Here Prabhupada gave the example of Dhruva Maharaja and Prahlada Maharaja delivering his demoniac father, Hiranyakaspipu. When Nrsimhadev asked Prahlad Maharaj to accept some boons Prahlad Maharaja said, "I am not a businessman. I performed devotional service unto You simply to please you, not to take any material things in exchange."

If a devotee by performing devotional service wants something material from the Lord but when the Lord told Prahlad Maharaja to please ask for something. He asked him this again and again then only did he express his idea for delivering the conditioned souls and finally he said, "My father has committed so many offences at Your feet please deliver him." The Nrsimhadev told him, "You do not have to ask for such a boon. For a pure devotee like you My dear Prahlad Maharaja twenty one generations of your family automatically get delivered from hell." Prabhupada told his purport that his forefathers from his previous birth also, not only from this birth. The family members of a devotee's family from his previous birth also get delivered. That is the exalted position of a devotee.

That is why Prabhupada use to say putra means to deliver his forefathers from hell. If a son is not able to deliver his forefathers from hell then he is not called putra. He is called mutra. That is a very strong word that Srila Prabhupada used to say. Semen and urine comes from the same source. A son's duty is to deliver his forefathers from hell and if he cannot perform this duty then he is not a son. That is why everyone wants a son. So Prahlad Maharaj begged for his father Hiranyakasipu and here we see Dhruva Maharaja was thinking about his mother. At the same time they are not selfish n only thinking of their parents. Prahlad Maharaja was also thinking about all conditioned souls.

naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaranyas [SB 7.9.43]
Just like yesterday HH Danavir Goswami Maharaja already recited that verse from the Bhagavatam how Prahlad Maharaja was so compassionate towards the conditioned souls. He was thinking about delivering all conditioned souls from the cycle of birth and death. In another verse it is said, - SB 7.9.44 Prahlad Maharaja says,

prayena deva munayah sva-vimukti-kamamaunam caranti vijane na parartha-nisthahnaitan vihaya krpanan vimumuksa ekonanyam tvad asya saranam bhramato 'nupasye

He is expressing that almost everyone is thinking about their own deliverance from the cycle of birth and death, their own liberation. That is why they go to the Himalayas and maunam, they become silent and they meditate on the Supreme Brahman. They are thinking how to deliver themselves from this material world. But Prahlada Maharaja is not thinking like that. He was thinking for all other living entities, all other conditioned souls. So he was not ready to go with Nrsimhadeva even though Nrsimhadev personally asked him to return back to Godhead with Him he was saying how could he leave behind all these conditioned souls.

Similarly we see in Lord Caitanya's pastimes about Vasudeva Datta. He was asking a boon from Caitanya Mahaprabhu that, "Please give me all the sinful reaction of all the living entities born in 84 lakh species. Give all of their sinful reactions to me. Let me suffer for them for time immemorial in hell but please deliver all conditioned souls from death. This is the mood of a Vaisnava.

Although Dhruva Maharaja went to Badrikasrama and was performing austerities there still when he was already on board the divine spiritual airplane he was still remembering how to deliver his mother. This is an example that a Vaisnava is very compassionate to all conditioned souls.

So how can we perform saranagati as I was saying in the beginning, we may have such desires but Krishna will fulfill our desires when we become a pure devotee and exhibit all the symptoms of saranagati. First is dainya, humility. A devotee thinks, "I am very fallen." Even though he is on the topmost platform like Srila Prabhupada and Prahlad Maharaja or Bhaktivinode Thakura. They are expressing their feelings in that way.

Then atma nivedanama. A devotee surrenders everything at the lotus feet of Krishna. Bhaktivinode Thakura says,
janaka, janani, dayita, tanay, prabhu, guru, pati-tuhu sarva-moy [[Manasa Deha Geha]

Janaka, janani - Krishna is my mother, Krishna is my father; dayita, tanay - He is my son; Prabhu - He is my master; guru - my spiritual master; pati - my husband and relative. He is my everything. Krishna is everything for me. Surrendering everything to Krishna like Bali Maharaja also surrendered everything at the lotus feet of Krishna. When one surrenders everything at the feet of Krishna then he is not illusioned. Actually Krishna thinks about the devotee who surrenders everything at His feet.

Goptrtve varana - Krishna is my protector. Krishna is my maintainer and  Krishna is doing everything for my welfare. Krishna is my only well wisher. These are the feelings of a devotee.

A devote thinks Krishna is my protector. That is why devotees become fearless. They never fear anyone. In this material world everyone fears death but a devotee is never fearful about death because a devotee feels the presence of Krishna with him. When a devotee is alone, like when a child is alone and he sees a gigantic person in front of him then he become fearful. But if his father is with him he will not fear If the person in front of the child would speak some word to the child, the child will immediately answer or reply. In this way a devotee always thinks that Krishna is his protector all the time.

Not only is Krishna protecting him, Krishna is also maintaining him. Krishna maintains all living entities whether a small ant or an elephant. A small ant eats just a small speck of rice and an elephant eats isome other substances but everything is supplied by Krishna. So Krishna maintains His devotee. The pure devotee thinks, "My duty is perform devotional service and we have to leave what we eat (?) That is Krishna's duty." Krishna never neglects His devotees." Like we see how Madhavendra Puri was doing parikrama around Govardhana Hill but he was not thinking of any arrangement for his food. He was sitting at the bank of Govinda Kunda and Krishna came as a cowherd boy and supplied milk for him. Krishna personally brought milk for him.

There are many instances like this how Krishna maintains a devotee. Krishna fulfills all the necessities for His devotee. Devotee thinks in this way, "Krishna is my protector. Krishna is my maintainer. And whatever Krishna is doing is for my benefit."

suhrdam sarva-bhutanam, jnatva mam santim rcchati [Bg 5.29]
Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, fifth chapter, concluding verse: that one who accepts Krishna as his beneficiary, friend and Krishna as the friend of all living entities then such persons can achieve peace and happiness. So when we accept that Krishna is the only original friend then one can achieve peace. This is one symptom of saranagati.

Finally there is:

bhaki-anukula-matra karyera svikarabhakti-pratikula-bhava varjanangikara

anukulyasya sankalpah, pratikulyasya varjanamraksisyatiti visvaso, goptrtve varanam tathaatma-niksepa-karpanye, sad-vidha saranagatih [Hari-bhakti-vilasa (11.676)]

There are six symptoms of sarangati. Anukulyasya sankalpah - a devotee accepts what is favorable for devotional service and rejects what is unfavorable on the path of devotional service. We know, utsahan niscayad dhairyat [NoI: verse 3] Rupa Goswami instruct in his Nectar of Instruction, to be enthusiastic when performing devotional service. With firm  determination one should think that, "In this one day if I can achieve success in my devotional service."

One must be patient - dhairyat and follow in the footsteps of the previous acaryas. tat-tat-karma-pravartanat, sanga-tyagat sato vrtteh [NoI: verse 3] One should give up association of non devotees and Mayavadis and remain always in the association of the devotees and follow in the footsteps of the previous acaryas. These are helpful for advancing in spiritual life. This is called bhaki-anukula. And one must reject that which is not favorable.

atyaharah prayasas ca, prajalpo niyamagrahahjana-sangas ca laulyam ca, sadbhir bhaktir vinasyati [NoI: verse 2]
These things atyaharah - to accept something that is not required. One should be satisfied with the minimum necessities. Just like Prabhupada used to say, "Simple living and high thinking." Devotee should aspire for things which are not desired for him to maintain his body. He must eat just what is necessary to maintain his body and not just saying in this human body to eat and enjoy.

In this way one must avoid atyaharah and give up that which is not necessary for maintaining this body and performing devotional service. Over endeavorto get all these material things for sense gratification. And Prajalpa, not to talk about mundane things. Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave a warning:

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe [Antya 6.236]
One should not talk about gramya katha or mundane things and one should not hear about gramya katha or mundane things. This is called prajalpa.

Niyamagrahah. Prabhupada defines niyamagrahah in two ways niyamagrahah and niyamagrahah. Some people follow the principles very strictly but they donot understand what is the purpose of following these principles. Some avoid all the regulative principles and think themselves to be on the path of ragabhakti and they give up all rule and regulations artificially. So both of these will destroy devotional service. So one must be careful and observe the instructions of the spiritual master and also know what is the purpose why he is following those things. The raganuga bhaktas like the Gosvamis of Vrindavan are strictly still following:

sankhya-purvaka-nama-gana-natibhih kalavasani-krtau[Sri Sri Sad-gosvamy-astaka Eight Prayers to the Six Gosvamis by SrinivasaAcarya]

They are strictly chanting the holy name of the Lord in a specific quantity as advised by Lord Caitanya. We see Raghunath dasa Goswami who is consideredas prayojana acarya was performing devotional principles very strictly. Thus in Caitanya-caritamrta Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami is mentioning that:
raghunathera niyama, -- yena pasanera rekha [Antya 6.309]

Just like one puts a line on a stone and it cannot be erased so easily similarly Raghunath dasa Gosvami was performing his sadhana very strictly. He was paying thousand dandavats to Radha Krishna, two thousand dandavats to the Vaisnavas and every day chanting a specific number of rounds like more than one lakh and he was speaking for about three hours on Caitanya lila. He was speaking and only drinking one cup of buttermilk within forty eight hours. So they are strictly following the regulative principles. Raganuga bhakti platform does not mean that one should give up all the regulative principles. The  Gosvamis were following strictly. They were following theinstructions of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So niyamagrahah - one should follow therules and regulations given in the scriptures but at the same time knowingwhat is the purpose.

jana-sangas - one should give up bad association. Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave awarning
asat-sanga-tyaga, -- ei vaisnava-acara 'stri-sangi' -- eka asadhu,'krsnabhakta' ara[Madhya 22.87]

One should leave these two types of asat sanga. One is too much attached to women, stri-sangi and those who are thinking women are only for one's sensegratification. Too much attached to women. Krsnabhakta' ara - one who is a non devotee, specifically Mayavadis, sunyavadis. Mayavadi krsne aparadhi [Madhya 17.129] They are offenders at the feet of Lord Krishna. On should give up association of Mayavadis and non devotees.

Then laulyam - one should not be thinking of achieving material things. You are getting something today and you will get more tomorrow. Like this you make more and more plans to achieve material facilities. Material desires are unlimited and one cannot be satisfied. Desires come one after another.

When a devotee follows all the principles of saranagati in his life then Bhaktivinode Thakura says, tahara prarthana sune sri-nanda-kumara. Then Nanda-kumara Krishna fulfills all the desires of such a devotee. It is not so easy to become a strong devotee just for a while. He is telling if somebody becomes a strong devotes like Dhruva Maharaja. This is what it means by 'a strong devotee' - it means a saranagata bhakta, fully surrendered devotee who thinks, "Krishna, everything is for You" and who is surrendering to the feet of his spiritual master and Krishna. Surrendering to Krishna means surrendering also to the feet of the spiritual master.

Spiritual master is representing Krishna and Krishna's instructions are coming to us through our spiritual master. In this way this is what it means to be a strong devotee. As Prabhupada explains if somebody becomes a strong devotee he could deliver himself and he could help deliver others from this material world and the cycle of birth and death.  Hare Krishna. Any Questions?

Prabhu: There are favorable activities and there are unfavorable activities and you explained that we should be fully surrendered but sometimes I see the devotees make their standard so high that it is so difficult and they don't make so much advancement. How do we know, like I may say I will chant thirty two rounds but maybe for me it is too much? Or I may be a working man and I maya say that I will work less and devote more time o Krishna consciousness but maybe that is not good. But you were saying that we should be fully surrendered but how can we gradually get there?

HH Prabodhand Sarasvati Swami: So there are three things - sadhu, sastra and guru. We check instructions of the spiritual master, following strictly whatever instructions given by the spiritual master. And the instructions given by Srila Prabhupada to specifically chant at least sixteen rounds and follow the four principles: no gambling; no meat eating; no illicit sex and no intoxication.

Sometimes devotees ask whether we are advancing in spiritual life or not. Actually a devotee knows whether he is advancing or not specifically what is going on within. Ask oneself how much you are free from material desires, from lust. So In this way a devotee knows how much he is i If he is strictly following the instruction of spiritual master then he is advancing, if he is abiding by all the advice given by the spiritual master, chanting sixteen rounds etc.

Srila Prabhupada followed strictly his spiritual master and he told, "This is the secret of my success that I followed very strictly the instructions of my spiritual master." So if one surrenders to the spiritual master and follows his instructions strictly then he is a surrendered soul.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur said to chant 64 rounds but Srila Prabhupada said only sixteen rounds. How it is possible that by chanting sixteen round one can return back to Godhead? But Srila Prabhupada gave us guarantee. He told us, "I am not cheating." Spiritual master is never a cheater. We must have full faith in the words of the spiritual master. Prabhupada said those who are chanting sixteen rounds will enter into the spiritual worldiWe must have full faith and follow our spiritual master strictly then it is considered i We cannot imitate the standard of Raghunath  dasa Goswami but at least we can follow the instructions of our spiritual master strictly, what Prabhupada gave us.

Prabhu: Regarding chanting sixty four rounds: Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur said that those who have no engagements they can chant sixty four rounds and those with preaching engagements minimum four rounds less that sixteen rounds.

HH Prabodhand Sarasvati Swami: So today is also the appearance day of a great Vaisnava acarya, Purshottama dasa Thakur who is considered one of the twelve Gopas in Krishna lila. The tenth gopa's, his name was Stoka Krishna in Krishna's pastimes. Now in Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes he appeared sthe son of Sadasiva Kaviraja. He is considered the twenty fourth branch of Nityananda Prabhu's branch. It is mentioned in Adi Lila, 11th chapter and also in Caitanya Bhagavata in Antya lila 5th there is description about Purushottama dasa Thakura that he was very dear to Lord Nityananda. He could understand the heart of Nityananda and he was immersed in transcendental emotion chanting and dancing and glorifying Lord Gauranga.

Purushottama dasa Thakura had three disciples, Sri Mahdvacaraya, Sri Yadavacarya, and Devakinandana dasa. Mahdvacaraya later became the son in law of Nityananda Prabhu. He married Ganga devi, the daughter of Nityananda Prabhu. And Devakinandana dasa was a great Vaisnava poet. He composed many devotional songs and specifically a book glorifying all the Vaisnavas. His resident was in Sukhasagara. Now his deities are in Candudegrama which is known as i nowadays. So today is his appearance so we pray at his lotus feet for his mercy so we can make spiritual advancement. Hare Krishna. SrilaPrabhupada Ki! Jai! [Applause]

Hare Krsna Prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

On the second day of the 2011 book distribution seminars in Mayapur,

Sadbhuja Prabhu, the president of the Leipzig (Germany) temple, spoke. He said that a scholar in Germany did a survey of religious movements around the world and found that every decade hundreds of movements begin and stop. One of the main prerequisites for a movement to last, he found, is that it has to inspire its members to do voluntary service by going out to spread the message. Movements that do this are much more likely to last than others.

In the beginning of our society, said Sadbhuja, there was much more interaction with the public by harinam and book distribution. Therefore the movement grew very quickly. Now we don't go out as much, so naturally not as many people see us and inquire about us and join us. We have to go out more with books and harinama.
Sadbhuja said that the Leipzig devotees try to follow up on the nice people they meet on book distribution. They visit them at home and invite them to the temple festivals. It's very inspiring when these efforts lead to their coming closer to Krsna consciousness and then joining. But to accomplish this we have to focus on not just distributing books but on bringing people closer to Krsna. We all know when we meet a really nice person who is superinterested, get his contact information, and stay in touch with him, he may become a devotee with a little effort.

The next speaker was Mohan Rupa Prabhu, the president of the New Delhi temple. He said, "Srila Prabhupada said, 'Book distribution is my heart.' And because of this, book distribution is going on all over the world and is increasing. In New Delhi over 2,000 devotees participated in the marathon. The more we increase our congregation, the more we will distribute books.Most of the book distributors were women. They would go to the malls, get permission, and set up tables with Prabhupada's books on them.

"Another thing we did was conduct a Bhagavad-gita contest. We enrolled 9,000 students for the contest. They would study the first six chapters and then have to answer questions. They would pay 150 rupees to be in the contest,and at the end they would be allowed to keep their Gita. There was another contest on "The Introduction to the Bhagavad gita." Over 6,000 students participated in this contest. Some of these students read the introduction eight to ten times to win the contest. So more than 15,000 students read Prabhupada's books during the marathon and then got to keep the books. On January 1st we called all these students, and they came to the temple with their parents for prizes and certificates. This is a good way to increase the congregation and thus make more book distributors. Prabhupada said, 'Tax your brains on how to distribute more books.' So this is another way.
"There is a preaching center in New Delhi with only three devotees living there, but they have a congregation of three hundred devotees, and during the marathon they distributed 62,000 Bhagavad-gitas."

Hare Krsna dear Prabhuji:

Please accept our humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Thanks a lot for your kind concern.

By Krsna's mercy all well.It was a nasty quake. Lasted few minutes.Though Tokyo is not as bad as Sendai/Miyagi.Miyagi/Sendai near the epicenter devastated.Tokyo shocks were about 6.

I just came to ground floor and was about to ride bicycle. I started waving like drunkard. Could not understand what is happening. Ran away from the building in the open area. Wife and younger daughter were following me but got late. So they were up on 7th floor when earth shook. Wife chanting Narasingh Prayers hard and younger one panicked & crying. But safely got on to the ground level. Elder one was in school. They also panicked out of school.
Elder one got a dream last night that earthquake is coming and our building in sinking inside the earth. 7th floor becoming 2nd floor.

Our newly made Temple & Deities are fine. One deity displaced back on the back rest but no damage. Minor cracks in temple Govinda's restaurant.

Buildings & poles were oscillating like anything. By your good wishes not much fear in us. Lord there to take care.
Phones are difficult to connect with locals. Hence no contact with devotees. Few whom we could contact are fine. No untoward news from any devotee. Hopefully safe. Trains were stopped. Some started working.

Not sleeping in our apartment on 7F. Staying in the temple as it is on ground level. 3m Tsunami in Tokyo. Few fires & damage in nearby area. Traffic jams. People walking 20-30 kms. to reach home. After shocks continue causing fear. People in some panic.

Your servant,

Sanjay Krsnacandra das

Dear Vaishnavas,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Guru-parampara ki jaya!

Meet four students of Bhaktivedanta College coming from all parts of the world. Hear them share their experiences of the college so far--some are sad of finishing their third year, others enjoying the prasad, kirtan, and devotee association--but all the same are happy with their studying and stay in the Radhadesh community.

Link:http://bhaktivedantacollege.com/index.php?p=news&id=337

Fourth Annual Global Daiva Varnasrama Convention held

ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry - India Mayapur

Date: 9th March 2011

Fourth Annual Global Daiva Varnasrama Convention was recently held here at Sridham Mayapur from 4th March to 7th March.

The event was inaugurated by His Holiness Lokanath Swami, His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami, His Holiness Bhakti Dhira Damodara Swami, His GraceSamba Das and His Grace Bharat Chandra Das by lighting the lamp.
His Holiness Lokanath Swami in his keynote address, said that, "In the beginning, the ISKCON movement moved at a high pitch.  Changing ashram  wasconsidered as a black spot.  The scene changed after many years.  Not all will become brahmacharis and sannaysis.  Over time, we have seen sannyas ashram has shown black spot.  If we had varnasrama system, the devotees who changed ashram, would not have had to leave ISKCON to survive in the society.  We want to keep everyone in the house which Srila Prabhupada built, where whole world can live. 'varnasrama caravata...na anyat tat tosa karanam', there is no other way to please Krishna other than varnasrama system in this material world! Srila Prabhupada mentioned that this is 50% of his mission!"

His Holiness Lokanath Swami giving a piece of advice said, "Those who want to be protected, should protect dharma - Dharmo rakshanti rakshitah". The free seminar was well attended by 50 devotees representing various countries and coming from various background.

His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami leading the seminar expressed his deep conviction and inspired the audience with his experience.  Maharaj, taking a session on "Four waves of Srila Prabhupada's movement" explained that it is order of Srila Prabhupada that devotees bring about an overhaul of the thesociety and revert to Daiva Varnasrama.
His Holiness Bhakti Dhira Damodara Swami speaking on "The Need for Varnasrama", aske the audience that - how many would go to the harinam without prasadam?  Our philosophy is harinam and prasadam, and prasadam comes from land!
Various topics were presented in the four day convention, with a theme of four varnas covered on each day.
Topics such as:

1. Varnasrama College - Bharat Chandra Das

2. Brahmana occupations - Bharat Chandra Das

3. Varnasrama Development-Global Overview -  His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami

4. Ksatriya Dharma -  His Grace Yogesh Chandra Das and Bhakta Nikhil

5. Land Ownership and Land Distribution - His Grace Jiva Tattva Das

6. Adopt a Village - HG Hari Kirtan Dasa

7. Traditional Agriculture - HG Bharat Chandra Das

8. Biodiersity of Food - HG Sanat Kumar Das

9. Sustainable Cow Protection - HG Bhakta Vatsala Das

10. Self-sufficiency Efforts - HG Rama Vigraha Das, His Grace Jananivas Dasand Her Grace Murari Mohini Devi Dasi

11. Social Norms & Traditional Occupations - HG Samba Das

12. Home Schooling and Role of Women - HG Vrindavana Lila Dasi

13. Summary/Feedback/Closing Remarks

One of the most attractive sessions were on Ksatriya dharma by Yogesh Chandra Prabhu, Social norms- a case study of Amish community by Samba Prabhu and Self sufficiency efforts by His Grace Rama Vigraha Prabhu.  Rama Vigraha Prabhu joined the movement in the early 70s and right from the beginning days of his devotional life has been involved with the Varnasrama movement.  It was great to see him express natural joy of simle living and high thinking.

Another interesting session was on "Role of Women" by Her Grace Vrindavanlila Mataji.  She spoke quoting from 7th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam and other references about role of women in a Daiva varnasrama society.
Also, lot of discussions and urgent need was felt to introduce the efforts of realizing the world lead by ideal leaders during the presentation on Ksatriya dharma by Yogesh Chandra Das.  The presentation showed the stark reality of the nasty affairs of the parliament where the leaders of the society fought each other almost to death.
The four days of the seminar was well spent in sharing, discussing, learning and enthusing each other.
The last day was concluding session.  Concluding session saw Group discussions.  The teams came up with recommedations and suggestions for theministry to implement.

Some of the concluding recommendations from the audience were:

1. Creating widespread awareness within devotees and amongst non-devotees.

2. More emphasis on creating model project.

3. Preparing a guide on how to start a varnasrama project.

4. Literatures of varnasrama dharma to be sent to all the temples

5. Developing curriculum and systems to train girl child on varnasramaculture.

"Attending the four day seminar was an eye opener to me!" said Her Grace Gandha Manjari mataji.

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

your servant,

Bharat Chandra Das

Navadwip Mandal Parikrama- Day 3 10th March 2011

 Today is the 3rd day of the Navadvip Mandala Parikrama. Our first group to be visited today was the International party in Naimisharanya. When we were about to go out from the Lotus Building through the exit of Caitanya exhibition Hall,we heard the beautiful greeting kirtan for Their Lordship Sri Panca Tattva'Sri Krsna Caitanya Prabhu doya kore moreeee....' was going on in the temple hall. Guru Maharaja told us to wheel him down towards the temple hall for taking darshan of the deities. We left Iskcon Mayapur at 7.30am and drove towards Naimisharanya. While driving down we were told by the manager of the party that Naimisharanya cannot be accessed by car and we should meet them at Pushkar Tirtha. So we changed our plan and drove to Pushkar Tirtha which is just a kilometre by walk before Naimisharanya. We reached Pushkar Tirtha but the International party was yet to reach.

Guru Maharaja asked us to give a try to meet them at Naimisharanya. We took a different route which is just enough for a car to pass through and we made it. Upon reaching there, we saw the party was about to leave to Pushkar Tirtha. Yet, His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaj welcomed Guru Maharaja and requested everyone to sit back and listen to the speech. Guru Maharaja delivered a short speech. Before the party departed, His Holiness Lokanath Maharaj took over the mic and said that Lord Siva visited Naimisharanya to hear the Gaura Bhagavata Katha being spoken there. While riding on his Nandi on his way here, he was getting frustrated because Nandi was moving slowly. He then borrowed Brahmaji's swan (Hamsa vahana) and cruised to Naimisharanya to reach on time just to listen to Gaura katha. Maharaj continued that Jayapataka Maharaj, though he is having this slow moving body but using this new vahana (pointing at Guru Maharaja's car) he made it on time to Naimisharanya to share the nectarian pastimes of this holy spot. The crowd chanted out loudly Hari Bol!!!! Hari Bol!!!!

Our next group to be visited was Hindi party who were in Pratap Nagar which is about 20 minutes drive from Naimisharanya. Guru Maharaja had his breakfast on the way. When we reached Pratap Nagar, the devotees were having their breakfast. Guru Maharaja waited for them to finish their breakfast and then at 10.35am he started his class. He spoke for 40 minutes. His Holiness Radha Raman Maharaj thanked Guru Maharaja for making His presence in Hindi Party despite of all His physical difficulties. He further said "Over five hundred years ago Lord Nityananda took Sri Jiva Goswami on tour around Navadvip and revealed the holy dham to him. So today we have total of five thousand devotees doing Navadwip Mandala Parikrama and all these credits goes to His Holiness Jayapataka Maharaj because he has played a very important role in revealing the Navadwip Dham to Iskcon Devotees around the world." Devotees thanked Guru Maharaja with loud hari bol!!!

At 11.35am we left from Pratap Nagar to Campahatti to meet the Russian Party. We reached at 12 noon and we saw the other Swamis were narrating pastimes related to Champahatti. Guru Maharaja used this opportunity to take darshan of Lord Gaura Gadadhara(Gaur Gadai) -In His class He mentioned that Srimati Radharani was very dissatisfied being born in female form which was restricting her from associating with Lord Krsna freely especially during the day time. The gopas do not have such restriction on them. So in order to associate with Krsna like how the gopas do, she desired to take birth as Gadadhara (male form) during Caitanya Lila. Here in Champahatti Gaur and Gadai are always together showering their mercy. At the end of every class of Guru Maharaja, he describes the greatness of other parikrama parties and in this way he creates trancendental competition among them. He also said that matajis are good at doing uludhwani but we have another dhwani for prabhus, yes!! Haridhwaniiiiiii!!!!... Hari bol!!!!!!! Everyone chanted Hari bol!!!!!!!!! His Holiness Kavicandra Swami was the last speaker at Champahatti. After that a nice drama on the pastimes of Jayadeva Goswami was also performed by the Russian devotees. Guru Maharaja also welcomed another well known disciple of Srila Prabhupada, HG Dina Bandu prabhu who is from Vraja Dham and thanked him for his presence. At 1.40pm we left from Champahatti to Bhaktivedanta Arogya Ashram to meet the Bengali group. Here, the Bengali party just reached and most of the devotees gone for shower and to do their laundry. As soon as Guru Maharaja’s car entered the BAA compound, hundreds of devotees swarmed his car to welcome him. We saw some prabhus coming running with wet gamchas and wet body to welcome Guru Maharaja.This was their enthusiasm!!!!! Guru Maharaja had darshan of the presiding deities and then continued with his lunch. After lunch He went to the prasadam tent to address three thousand bengali devotees who were waiting for their lunch to arrive.Since I am not good at Bengali,I took this chance to conclude the diary for the day. While i was typing this diary using Guru Maharaj's Blackberry the prasadam truck arrived. Wondering what would be the lunch menu for the Bengali party? OK! Let me check it out for you all and meanwhile get your plates ready. Hmmmm there are hot rice, dhal, three varities of subjis, paneer mix, tomato chutney, rasa gulla, sweet rice, rice chips and misti dahi(sweet yogurt) Hari Bol!!!!!

Guru Maharaja concluded his class and departed to iskcon mayapur at 4pm.

Your Servant,

Maha Varaha Das

1) Zoom in----Earth, Asia, India, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Chowpatty, SSRGM, Devotees dancing.

1st the larger picture and then zoom in for the details.

Similarly, SB condensed by Purna Prajna Prabhu or SB at a glance by Narayani Mataji shows us in summary what is in the SB. Then whatever we feel inspiredby, we zoom in to that canto, relish and come back. Then some other canto and so on.

Just as a not so intelligent student goes for a tuition class. The tuition teacher after years of experience of teaching weak students makes a guidebook to inspire the students to read textbooks. Similarly, these books help us to study SB better.

2) Narasya abharanam rupam:
Good-looking face may stand out and attract people in a crowd. Good looks (Rupam)---ornament to a human being
Rupasya abharanam gunah:
Can't sustain that attraction if no good qualities.

Ex: Kaikeyi very beautiful but no body wanted to even see her face coz ofher envy and malice.
Good looks (rupam)----short-term sustainability.

But beauty of qualities----long term----we want to be with people who have good qualities not just good looks)
Beauty ornamented by good qualities.
Gunasya abharanam jnanam:
Good qualities beautified by sound philosophical knowledge. Other wise even good qualities----mano rathena asati dhavato bahih.

Ex: Arjuna on the battlefield-----good qualities of compassion but not based on the foundation of philosophy----not beautiful.
A surgeon removes the tumor and doesn't act in a goody goody way coz not good for the patient. LK surgeon, Arjuna---scalpel, Du and party----tumour.
Jnanasya abharanam ksama :
Ornament of that knowledge is forgiveness. In the larger picture what will please the Lord.
knamayä rocate laknmérbrähmé sauré yathä prabhäknamiëäm äçu bhagaväàstunyate harir éçvaraù

3)      Ksama:
Behind the act of forgiveness-----underlying emotions
Beliefs-----Attitudes-----perceptions (these 3 underlying principles under the tip of the iceberg) Response (response only the tip of the iceberg)
To understand the 99% below the iceberg----beliefs attitudes and perceptions----we have to study the scriptures scrutinizingly. Study the personalities of the SB. How to mete out justice yet forgive.

Ex: Asvatthama to be dealt with. Lord with the Pandavas. Still varied opinions @ how to deal with Asvatthama amongst the eternally liberated devotees of the Lord, the Pandavas.

4)Heart (spirit) of the law and letter of the law Person who made the law understands the heart of the law-The Lord gives dharma (dharmam tu saksat bhagavat pranitam) and thus He knows the heart ofthe law.

Devotees understand the heart of the Lord and thus they understand the heart of all the statements of the scripture (laws)-----sadhunam hrdayam mahyam,sadhunam hrdayam tvaham. 
Therefore sometimes the devotee even does exactly opposite of what Lord says, understanding His heart----(of course one has to be 1st class servant for that) Ex: LNP comes to Orissa although LCM forbids.
Thus to know the heart of the law, one has to:

a)study how the Lord acted---dharman tu saksad bhagavat pranitamR.. b) study how the great souls act---mahajano yena gatah sa panthah

5)Whenever the Lord glorifies----doesn't glorify his physical features----look at his beautiful eyes, nose etc. He glorifies the good qualities.

Ex: a) sthitha prajna----prajahati yada Kaman     b) advesta sarva bhutanam     c) Lord Kapila: titiksa karunika---sadhunam sadhu bhusanam

LK & His great devotees----attracted by the essence---the beauty of good qualties and bhakti.
What beauty did Sabari, Jatayu, Hanumanji have from the material standards.

6) Good teacher one who loves his subject  Better teacher one who loves teaching Best teacher one who loves his students

7) Seasoned person like Yamaraj fainted on seeing mercy on Jagai and Madhai-----for him it's a regular affair---to see biggest of sinners but can imagine the extent he was overwhelmed seeing the mercy of LCM. He knows the extent and science of sinning
Ex:* a doctor----on postmortem doesn't faint coz seasoned
* Man driving hearse standing next to dead body smoking  bidi whereas all relatives crying
* Small magic cannot make P C Sorkar faint

8)How to cultivate good qualities.
 Yasyasti bhaktir bhagavti akincanaR..
Kali people have no money to buy anything. LCM understanding this gives 100 % discount. Giving patra----qualification and fills in with the quality as well.

9)Socially Institutionally Individually We will exhibit the quality of forgiveness in a different way.
The underlying principle always is to please the Lord and benefit others.
If this is our purpose, then even if we go little overboard or under board we will always be protected.

10) Just as a cow very peaceful but gets angry when calf affected only out of love for the calf.

Ex: Sri Laxmanji harsh calling father lusty man, misunderstanding Bharat etc----not intentional but out of deep affection for L Rama. Lord pleased internally.
Thus we should try to understand not just slokas but the purports.

Simplicity Nectarean Mellows class

Once at New Dwarka Srila Prabhupada was in his nice quarters. There was even a little chandelier. It was not really opulent. It was just basically nice. And Prabhupada said to one of his followers “Do you remember my quarters at Radha Damodara”? And in those days it wasn’t like it is now, Radha Damodara,it has been really renovated. It was just really simple - back in the early seventies, very very simple, like a little cave practically. He said “Do you remember my place in Radha Damodara? I’m simply longing to go back to live there. But that would be sense-gratification for me because my guru maharaj wants me to preach to the world”. Therefore he’s accepting jet airplanes, he’s accepting nice quarters, beautiful quarters given by disciples all over the world. He’s accepting beautiful garlands and Vyasa Pujas. But he’s longing to be at Radha Damodara temple where he can just with all simplicity, practically poverty just be chanting Harinaam and worshipping Sri Radha Damodara. Simplicity! Actually he was accepting facilities for our sake. He had no duplicity. HH Giriraj Maharaj often tells a nice story where Srila Prabhupada very boldly was explaining avajananti mam muddha - That those who do not accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, those who consider Him an ordinary person are fools and asses. They are muddhas. Prabhupada was speaking very boldly right here at Radha Rasbihari temple and one cultured man said ‘why do you have to use such harsh words as fools and asses, muddhas. Why do you have to use such harsh words’? Prabhupada said, “Krishna said it! I didn’t say it. Krishna said it. I’m just repeating Krishna. What can I...If Krishna said it what can I do? I can only repeat”. That is simplicity.

H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj

I was distributing books at the University of California Irvine campus in USA with Sachitanoy prabhu when I saw a young lady near by sitting and reading something. I looked closely and to my surprise she was reading "Krishna the Reservoir of Pleasure." I saw her reading and reading with a huge smile in her face.

She finsihed the pamplet and as she was leaving I asked her, "Did you liked what your were reading?"

She was surprised that I knew what she was reading and said, "Yes I did, every word that the author said made sense and I really want to get more books by him."

I said, "Well today is your lucky day because I have about five titles by the same author that I'm distributing right now."She showed so much excitement and surprise, bought all the titles I had and gave me a $20 donation.

I thought she got the pamplet from Sachitanoy who was also distributing with me but to my surprise she said she got the "Krishna the Resevior of Pleasure" ages ago, (the time bomb affect) it was in her bag, she just saw it and decided to read it that day while I was distributing right next to her (Paramatma does it again).

Your Humble Servant

Shastra Krit das

"Chant Hare Krishna and be happy"

                         Radhanath Swami at Interfaith Dialogue

February 10, 2011, Mumbai: Radhanath Swami was invited for an interfaith dialogue on the topic “Decline of morality in public life: Role of religion in restoring it” organized by K.J. Somaiya Bhartiya Sanskriti Peetham. The Somaiya trust is one of the largest educational trusts in India with 34 institutes and 27,000 students. 

The dialogue brought together members from the highest order of the Christian, Hindu and Islamic faiths. H.E. Oswald Cardinal Gracias and H.E. Cardinal Murphy-O’ Connor represented Christianity, H.H. Radhanath Swami and Pandit Vidyasimhacaharya Mahuli represented Hinduism, and Prof. Advocate Ashraf Ahmed Shaikh and Maulana Abdul Malik represented the Islamic view. It was attended by over 500 students and guests.

His Eminence Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor from the Vatican, who was in India to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II visit to the country, gave the keynote address. He said that to bring about a positive change in the world spiritual vision is of utmost importance, which is based on ethical values of service to others, charity, forgiveness and compassion. He urged that we should strongly unite to form a culture of love and peace. Radhanath Swami spoke about the necessity of harmony among different religious faiths. He said that any relationship in this world is sustainable only if we are willing to resolve differences and unite for a higher cause. He illustrated this principle by giving an example from his personal life. When he was a young boy his parents were strongly considering separating, but decided against it because they realized that this decision would adversely affect their children’s future. Therefore, they decided to resolve all mutual differences for the sake of their children. 

Quoting the Holy Bible and Bhagavata Purana, Radhanath Swami said that the essence of religion is not sectarianism based on external rules and rituals, but the principle to love God and become an instrument of His compassion in this world. Religion is not about affiliation but about genuine transformation of heart, he said.

He also spoke about cultivating mutual respect amongst people of various faiths and substantiated it with the example of a dog’s loyalty to its master. He said that the master may be dressed in different clothes each day, but the loyal dog can still identify him or her and express its love. Similarly one who truly loves God can appreciate Him in His various manifestations. Maulana Abdul Malik emphasized that a self-centered lifestyle leads to increased immorality in society. He stated that selfish people are ready to do anything for their personal interests without concern for others. Their whims become their God and they become slave of their desires. He said that all these problems can be overcome if one follows the codes of religion in one’s life and live by the principles of brotherhood, peace and equality. This was followed by a thought-provoking Q & A session, felicitation of the dignitaries and lunch for all the attendees.

The following are the profiles of the speakers:

• Mr. Samir SomaiyaVice President, Somaiya Vidyavihar, MumbaiChairman, Somaiya Trust, Mumbai

• H.E. Cardinal Murphy-O’ConnorCardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Emeritus of    Westminister,Former President of the Catholics Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales

• H.E. Archbishop Oswald Cardinal GraciasPresident of CBCI, Archbishop of Mumbai

• H.E. Archbishop Felix MachadoArchbishop of Vasai, Mumbai

• H.H. Radhanath SwamiGoverning Body Commissioner, ISKCON

• Pandit Vidyasimhacharya MahuliKulapati, Satyadhyan Vidyapeeth, Mumbai

• Maulana Abdul MalikHead, The Islamic Studies in Matliwala Public School, Bharuch, Gujarat

• Prof. Advocate Ashraf Ahmed ShaikhAdvocate and Social activists, Mumbai

• H.E. Salvatore PennacchioApostolic Nuncio to India

Mukunda Goswami:

"How did Lord Caitanya do kirtan in the sixteenth century? What did the chanting parties look like?"

Srila Prabhupada: 

   "Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami writes of this in his Caitanya Caritamrita. There were two mrdunga players, two dancers and seven karatalas. Other people would join in, but the main ones - the mrdungas, karatala men and the dancers - they were the center...

       "When (the) leader chanted, drums and cymbals would play quiet, so everyone could hear. Then when everyone sang, drums and karatalas played loud. And when the leader sang again, they would play soft again. So soft and loud, they would go on in that way, and repeat."

Date : March 11, 2011

Place: Bhaktivedanta Hospital,

MumbaiHare Krishna!

This is a very inspiring story of a simple young devotee boy from Mumbai, who is in the verge of leaving his body at Bhaktivedanta Hospital. Anoop Banerjee, born in 1st June 1983, is from a Bengali Family. He has lived most of his life in Jogeshwari, a western suburb in Mumbai. His family (members) are  not ISKCON devotees or followers, but have a  favourable disposition.

From their very old memories way back in 1989-90, When Anoop was around 5-6 years old, both the father and son shared that -  he was taken to chowpatty Radha Gopianth mandir by his father. They had taken darshan of “Sri Sri Radha Gopinath” and some how went back-side of the temple, where H.H.Radhanath Maharaj’s room was there. H.H.Radhanath Maharaj was sitting in his room (that time much fairer than he is now). He saw this little boy standing far away. Maharaj called the boy, took him in his lap and gave him a Maha-chocholate wrapped in golden paper.

This incident was not taken very seriously. The family departed and went on with life. Little Anoop grew up in the normal course. When he was 22 years, he attended Juhu-temple Jagannath Rath Yatra. He became inspired and started chanting “Hare Krishna”. So from 2005 October he was chanting between 10 to 16  rounds. Devotees from Juhu temple such as Nimai Nitai Prabhu, Radha Aparajita Prabhu, Hara Prabhu, Azim Krishna Prabhu etc gave their association. He started visiting Juhu temple on Sundays. He used to work in a call centre.

In 2008, he went to Goregaon base and also had association with Jagannath Prabhu from Chowpatty. He occasionally visited Chowpatty ISKCON temple also.Anoop was working in a call centre. In mid-2010, Anoop started developing stomach pain and upsets. In 2010 October he was detected of having “Intestinal Cancer”. It was a huge shock for him and his family. He was admitted in Nanawati Hospital. He was shuffling between hospital and home for chemotherapy treatments. Since that time, its been difficult times with lot of pain and suffering and Anoop was unable to go to Satsangs and take devotee association. As a result he almost stopped chanting. However, during the course of this treatment period Anoop obtained “Journey Home” book from some devotee and was also reading it.In February 2011, he asked his father to take him to “Bhaktivedanta Hospital” owing to its devotional atmosphere.

He was brought to the Bhaktivedanta hospital.  When he met “Dr. Vinita Sharma” from palliative care he expressed his desire to become a disciple of Radhanath Maharaj. He started chanting 2 rounds a day. The same was conveyed to Ram Sharan Prabhu, who is the Executive of Spiritual Care Department. Ram Sharan Prabhu tried speaking to senior devotees to see if something can be done to connect him to Maharaj, but (Since anup was not known to any of the devotees in the temple and also Maharaj had to go to Pune the next day so it was very difficult) Suddenly on March 08th 2010, H.H.Radhanath Maharaj on his way to Pune stopped by the hospital to see Yamuna mathaji. When he finished his meeting and came out Ramsharan Prabhu explained about this devotee. Maharaj went to his room. As  anup saw maharaj he could not believe his eyes. He fell flat as a danda at the feet of maharaj. The Intravenous  line was still on hand, so the saline stand was about to fall but Ramsharandas held it somehow and removed the saline bottle from it to that the tension doesn’t pull out the needle from his hand which busy grabbing the feet of maharaj. He cried for sometime then was lifted by Ramsharandas and put on the chair as he could'nt get up on his own. Then Maharaj took him in his arms and pacified him.. He kept on saying to Maharaj “Please give me your mercy) Maharaj (gazed at him with compassion

Maharaj: I will comeback  from pune and meet you again. (smiled)

Anup: Maharaj please give me your mercy.

Ramsharandas: (whispered in anup’s ears)This visit of his is mercy

Maharaj: (gazed at him for some time) are you asking for initiation.

Anup: (couldnot speak out of shame and shyness) Maharaj I had prayed to this Photograph of Krishna intensely that I could meet you and he has fulfilled my desire…. (mumbled) please give me your mercy.

Maharaj: Alright, I will send you beads to chant.

Anup: But Maharaj Now I am unable to chant 16 rounds. I chant 1 round or max 2 rounds daily.

Maharaj: (took his face in his hands) I initiate you right now. Your name will be Achyut Govind das. (All Shocked)

Ramsharandas: H.G.Achyut Govind Prabhu Ki  

All: Jai.( Maharaj leaves)

Anup: (stultified) So will he initiate me …. What …. When…

Ramsharandas: (in ears) you fool he has already initiated you. Your new name is H.G.Achyut Govind Das(embraced him). (Anup was in a shock) Next day Ramsharandas visited H.G.Achyut Govind Das at 11am. He was sitting on the bed his legs on the chair and his hands folded on the knees and his head on his arms chanting intensely. He was sitting in such a position to bear the pain of his stomach in order to chant attentively his eleventh round.

H.G.Achyut Govind Prabhu is now chanting 16 rounds and is in his last days in this mortal world..

H.H.Radhanath Swami Maharaj ki Jai!

ISKCON founder Aacharya Srila Prabhupad Ki Jai!!

“A moment of pure devotee’s association cannot be compared”“Svalpam Apyasya Dharmasya … even a little bit of endeavour can save one from the most dangerous type of fear”

When Vaisesika Dasa, born William Suczek before he embraced Hinduism, was 15, he became extremely interested in spiritual knowledge. He became a seeker to find the purpose of life. Suczek, both of whose parents were professors in San Francisco, read many books to quench his intellectual thirst. When he read the Gita translated by ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he found the answers he had been seeking. Suczek, who met Swami  Prabhupada and became his disciple in 1973 in San Francisco, was given his present name by his spiritual master.

"He (Swami Prabhupada) engaged me in the service of distributing the Bhagvad Gita and spreading divine knowledge," explained Dasa, president of the  San Jose International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple. "Ever since I became his disciple I have been doing that in different ways, and this was a new way of distributing knowledge that master asked me to do. As far as we at ISCKON are concerned, this is the most needed thing in today's world. Despite progress in technology and other kinds of advancements--all of which are fine --the only thing is people are unhappy  because they do not have this knowledge (of the Gita)."

 "Right now we find that Americans are fascinated with India [ Images ], its culture and yoga has been the biggest thing. Now, when we show people the Gita, in every state, people become interested," added Dasa who has visited India several times.

"People need knowledge and they do not care where it comes from as long as it is pure," he continued. "They want some tools to become spiritual and they see it in the Bhagvad Gita. They see that this is a non-sectarian book and there is something for everybody in this great book. So, it is reaching to all kinds of people. It is fascinating that people from all kinds of religious backgrounds are taking to it."

"We find that through our distribution of the Gita in motels that people are very eager to communicate," he added. "And if this grows, sectarian feelings and hatred will evaporate. That is the healthiest thing to happen. America is based on freedom of expression of ideas, specifically to bring people together for a higher cause. That is what America is all about. And we are hoping to add to that by bringing the great treasure of the Gita to America.'

Suman Guha Mozumder in New York

Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

Date: March 8th, 2011

Topic: Dhruva Maharaja Goes Back to Godhead

Verse: 4:12:32

Speaker: HH Danavir Goswami

sa ca svarlokam aroksyan

sunitim jananim dhruvah

anvasmarad agam hitva

dinam yasye tri-vistapam

TRANSLATION: Dhruva was seated in the transcendental airplane, which was just about to start, when he remembered his poor mother, Suniti. He thought to himself, "How shall I go alone to the Vaikuntha planet and leave behind my poor mother?"

PURPORT: Dhruva had a feeling of obligation to his mother, Suniti. It was Suniti who had given him the clue which had now enabled him to be personally carried to the Vaikuntha planet by the associates of Lord Visnu. He now remembered her and wanted to take her with him. Actually, Dhruva Maharaja's mother, Suniti, was his patha-pradarsaka-guru. Patha-pradarsaka-guru means "the guru, or the spiritual master, who shows the way." Such a guru issometimes called siksa-guru. Although Narada Muni was his diksa-guru (initiating spiritual master), Suniti, his mother, was the first who gave him instruction on how to achieve the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
[HH Danavir Goswami comments: If we remember Dhruva had the desire to get a great kingdom. He was so strongly set on it and he asked his mother how he could do that. She said, "If Krishna helps you then you can get it. You need to find Krishna." So that was the hint, that was the direction that if you want something extraordinary then you have to get Krishna. She also told him to go to the forest. So gave him two good advises. So we will continue with the purport.]

 It is the duty of the siksa-guru or diksa-guru to instruct the disciple in the right way, and it depends on the disciple to execute the process. According to sastric injunctions, there is no difference between siksa-guru and diksa-guru, and generally the siksa-guru later on becomes the diksa-guru. Suniti, however, being a woman, and specifically his mother, could not become Dhruva Maharaja's diksa-guru. Still, he was not less obliged to Suniti. There was no question of carrying Narada Muni to Vaikunthaloka, but Dhruva Maharaja thought of his mother.

Whatever plan the Supreme Personality of Godhead contemplates immediately fructifies. Similarly, a devotee who is completely dependent on the Supreme Lord can also fulfill his wishes by the grace of the Lord. The Lord fulfills His wishes independently, but a devotee fulfills his wishes simply by being dependent on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore as soon as Dhruva Maharaja thought of his poor mother, he was assured by the associates ofVisnu that Suniti was also going to Vaikunthaloka, in another plane. Dhruva Maharaja had thought that he was going alone to Vaikunthaloka, leaving behind his mother, which was not very auspicious because people would criticize him for going alone to Vaikunthaloka and not carrying with him Suniti, who had given him so much. But Dhruva also considered that he was  not personally the Supreme. Therefore, if Krishna fulfilled his desires, only then would it be possible. Krishna could immediately understand his mind, and He told Dhruva that his mother was also going with him. This incident proves that a pure devotee like Dhruva Maharaja can fulfill all his  desires; by the grace of the Lord, he becomes exactly like the Lord, and thus whenever he thinks of anything, his wish is immediately fulfilled. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.32]

HH Danavir Goswami: There are many nice points here. We can appreciate Suniti's vision. When he asked her she did not say, "Go get an MBA and then you will be able to have a lot of wealth." She said, "Go to Krishna." We understand,

akamah sarva-kamo va, moksa-kama udara-dhihtivrena bhakti-yogena, yajeta purusam param [SB 2.3.10]
Whether one has no material desires or has all material desires or desires liberation he should go to Krishna. Tivrena bhakti-yogena - he should engage in very strong devotional service. Devotional service means to Krishna, not to the demigods or anyone else. He should perform very strong devotional service and he will gain his desire. Krishna can give everything. He can give wealth and He does give wealth, material wealth to those He likes because they come to Him asking for wealth, He gives it to them.

ye yatha mam prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhajamy aham [Bg 4.11]
He rewards them accordingly. Those who want to merge into His existence or to the Brahmajyoti or to some other impersonal or voidistic goal He can givethat and He does give that. But to those who are very dear to the Lord He gives devotional service and by that devotional service,

bhaktya mam abhijanati, yavan yas casmi tattvatah [Bg 18.55]
He gives Himself. He is purchased by devotional service. So Dhruva had a material desire but still his mother thought, "I am not going to send him to some material place to get wealth. I'll send him to Krishna. Krishna can fulfill his desires."

In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is stated by Krishna that, "When someone who worships Me for some material thing I can give it but being intelligent whyshould I give him something that is not good for him?" So Krishna may give him that material thing that he wanted in such a wonderful way that he loses his desire for it. Then because he came in contact with Krishna now he only wants Krishna. That is exactly what happened to Dhruva Maharaja

kacam vicinvann api divya-ratnam,  svamin krtartho 'smi varam na yace[Madhya 22.42]

 Dhruva Maharaja (I guess I don't want to spoil the story) has already seen the Lord (so it is not spoiling) He said when the Lord asked him during his bhajan for devotion under Narada Muni's instruction - meditation, chanting om namo bhagavate vasudevaya for six months and then Lord Visnu-garbha camebefore him and asked him, "What do you want My boy? I am very pleased with  you." And Dhruva Maharaja said, "I was searching for pieces of broken glassbut now I have found the most valuable jewel. I don't have any more desires to be fulfilled. I am simply satisfied seeing You."

So he became purified by association with Narada Muni. Narada Muni is his diksa guru. He initiated him in the chanting of the mantra.

sampradaya-vihina ye, mantras te nisphala matah [Padma Purana]
Unless one receives initiation in the sampradaya the mantra that he is chanting will not have any fruit. It won't bear fruit. We are also in the line of Narada Muni and we are also chanting the mantra. We are chanting om namo bhagavate vasudevaya and we are also chanting: HareKrishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. This mantra was also recommended in the Vedas. It is recommended by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Narada Muni brought the chanting of the maha mantra to earth so it is bona fide and we are initiated through thesampradaya of Narada Muni and Dhruva Maharaja and our goal is to go back to Godhead.

Why back to Godhead? Because the Lord wants us to come back to Godhead. We have been away far too long. How long have we been in the material world?Since time immemorial! How long have we been neglecting the Lord's instructions? How long have we been committing so many abominable actions,  eating abominable things in different species? The Lord wants us to come back to His lotus feet because after all He is the Supreme father and the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Master. Whatever one's relationship is, whatever rasa one has with the Lord He is the ultimate shelter of that relationship,So He wants us to come back.

We should also want to come back because it is His desire and the duty of the servant is to fulfill the desire of the Lord or the master. The master wants us to come back to Godhead. Prabhupada made his magazine, which is meant to be the backbone of the Krishna consciousness movement, 'Back to Godhead Magazine.' Because that is what this movement is meant for, sending people back to Godhead. Whether we are acting as siksa gurus or diksa gurus it is the same thing - instructions.

yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa, amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa[Madhya 7.128]
Wherever we go, whoever we meet we should become guru. And what does it mean to become guru. In this age it means to teach them the process for goingback to Godhead.

harer nama harer nama, harer namaiva kevalamkalau nasty eva nasty eva, nasty eva gatir anyatha [Adi 17.21]
In this age there is no other process, there is no other way to go back to Godhead - no other way, no other way, no other way. That means not by karma, not by jnana or not by yoga but by chanting Hare Krishna. That is the process for going back to Godhead in kali-yuga. kalau tad dhari-kirtanat [SB 12.3.52] Whomever we meet we should be kind to them. We should become their patha-pradarsaka-guru, show them the path, show them the way, chant Hare  Krishna. That is the path. That is the way in this age. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself.
sri krsna caitanya radha krsna nahe anya

Krishna has appeared as a devotee in kali-yuga to teach the yuga dharma that means the process of self-realization for the age and He showed us sodynamically that the process is chanting hare Krishna. So if the Supreme Personality of Godhead personally comes, not just the Supreme Personality ofGodhead but the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, svayam bhagavan, the source of all incarnations, avatari. He has come and teaching thisprocess. He only comes once in a day of Brahma. So,

sahasra-yuga-paryantam, ahar yad brahmano viduh [Bg 8.17]
Sahasra-yuga means a thousand ages make up Brahma's one day and similarly his night. So two thousand ages 8 600 000 years, something like that. LordCaitanya comes every 8 600 000 years. It is a very rare appearance. He has appeared only five hundred years ago in this place. How fortunate are we to be here. He made it very clear, He never instructed people to practice other processes. He never instructed people to practice karma or jnana or yoga. He instructed people to chant Hare Krishna because everything is there.

ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanamanandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam [Siksastakam 1/ Antya 20.12]

Everything is there. Knowledge is there. Purification is there. Bliss is there. What more do you want? So it is all there in the chanting. The chanting gives knowledge. The chanting gives Krishna. The chanting of the holy names of the Lord is non-different than the Lord.
nama cintamanih krsnas,  caitanya-rasa-vigrahahpurnah suddho nitya-mukto,  'bhinnatvan nama-naminoh [Madhya 17.133]

Krishna is present in kali-yuga in the form of His holy name. kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara [Adi 17.22]
Everything is complete by chanting Hare Krishna. When Narada Muni instructed Dhruva that was a different age. In this age people are,

mandah sumanda-matayo, manda-bhagya hy upadrutah [SB 1.1.10]
Very slow, not interested, lazy, not interested in self-realization and if they are interested a little bit they will find some cheater to take away all their money and mislead them. That is how unfortunate we are in this age but although this age is an ocean of faults,

kaler dosa-nidhe rajann, asti hy eko mahan gunahkirtanad eva krsnasya, mukta-sangah param vrajet [SB 12.3.51]
But there is one good quality and that is the chanting of the name of Krishna by which one can reach all good perfection. What is the perfection? You can board a Vaikuntha airplane to go back to home back to Godhead. In this case Dhruva Maharaja was the son. He was strong, very powerful and he achieved perfection. By his perfection his good mother also got perfection. Prabhupada said although we have a hard time accepting it at face value but at least we can repeat it that he was hoping that he would also have at least one very good disciple who would be able to go back to Godhead and take him also along - as if he were not qualified.

So every spiritual master should think like that, that, "I pray that I can inspire someone to become a pure devotee of Krishna and become qualified to go back to Godhead and then they will also take me back to Godhead simply by their desire as Dhruva Maharaja desired, 'O my poor mother! How can I go alone?'" Krishna understood. The indication was given to the Visnuduttas and they said, "Yes she has also come in a separate airplane."
This is what we are supposed to be shooting for in this life. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said that that we should not come back here again, take birth here again because it is a very terrible place. Very dangerous! Maya can strike at any moment and we can fall down. If we are lucky enough not to have fallen we shouldn't become too confident or over confident because it is very easy to fall down at any moment.

Therefore we should genuinely desire to go back to Godhead to get out of this material world. Krishna promises that, "Having once come to that abode of Mine you will not return here again." Therefore we accept that. We don't have to speculate that, "Maybe I will fall down again or whatever." Krishna promises in Bhagavad-gita and we accept that. Therefore our mind can be put to rest. No need to be in anxiety. Krishna promises that if we attain that place by His grace. By His word we will not fall down again into this material world and we will be able to live eternally in the association of the Lord, in bliss and knowledge.

This is the real spirit of preaching isn't it? That I am going back to Godhead but I don't want to go alone. This was also the mood of Prahlad Maharaja,

soce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyartha-maya-sukhaya bharam udvahato vimudhan [SB 7.9.43]
Soce, means I am lamenting. He was assured of going back to Godhead but he was also thinking what about all these vimuddhas, all these foolish rascals who are making big, big plans to make a permanent settlement here in this material world or they are making big, big plans to make the material world a better place for their children or grandchildren who are also fools. We are making a big, big plan to stop the global warming, all kind of arrangements we are going to make a wonderful place here for our  grandchildren. Why waste your time with that? That is a waste of time. Why not make an arrangement so that your grandchildren will come back to Godhead in this lifetime?

The word used her is jananim. Jananim means mother.
gurur na sa syat sva-jano na sa syat, pita na sa syaj janani na sa syat [SB 5.5.18]
One should not become a guru or a father or a mother,
na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum [SB 5.5.18]

Unless he can deliver his ward from the cycle of birth and death, unless he can deliver his dependants. So if you want to become a mother then you have to be able to deliver them back to Godhead. If you want to become a guru or a worshipable demigod, this is the responsibility of being a leader or being practically any kind of guide or mentor. You have to take them back to Godhead. And if we do that then our going back to Godhead is guaranteed.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarsavati Thakura also prayed, "If I could have one pure devotee I would consider all my efforts to be successful." Of course one pure devotee is compared to a moon. The moon can destroy all the darkness. The moon can give more light that thousand and millions of stars - one pure devotee! And how will we get such pure devotees? We have to give them the opportunity; we have to transmit the same message as we have heard without any adulteration. That means without adding anything or subtracting anything. Subtracting is also adulteration.

If you take milk and you take out the essential product of milk and you just have some white substance left, it is not milk. It is an adulteration. And if you add something,

avaisnava-mukhodgirnam, putam hari-kathamrtamsravanam naiva kartavyam, sarpocchistam yatha payah [Padma Puraëa]
If you add something that is not pure to the milk that is also adulteration. So our duty as disciples is that we should receive a message as it is, hearing from a spiritual master with full faith. On my initiation letter I received from Srila Prabhupada he said, he wrote, that one who has implicit faith in both Guru and Krishna, to such a person all the imports of the Vedic knowledge are automatically revealed.

So implicit faith in Guru and Krishna all the transcendental knowledge is  revealed and this transcendental knowledge, it is our duty to present it as we have heard it without changing it just like a postman brings the letter to the recipient. He doesn't make any changes. He doesn't consider what is politically correct or politically incorrect because if that were the case then it would certainly be politically incorrect for Srila Prabhupada to preach that one should give up intoxication, illicit sex, meat eating and gambling in America.  Nobody was preaching that. That wasn't correct. That was completely incorrect. He was preaching to people, we have some of them here, they were taking LSD and engaging in other illicit activities but Prabhupada preached, "You should give all these things up and simply surrender to Krishna." Completely opposite! It was opposite government, the  government's policy was opposite but because he was initiated in the sampradaya, he was initiated in the Brahma Gaudiya Sampradaya, it was his duty to present the message whether the people accepted it or not. That was not up to him.

nacao nacao prabhu nacao [Written by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at Boston Harbor, September 18, 1965]

"I am Your puppet so if you have brought me here to dance then make me dance. I will present the message and if they take it by Your grace then that will be very nice." [Written by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at Boston Harbor, September 18, 1965] 

So that is the message. We have a big message.  The ultimate message is surrender to Krishna, chant Hare Krishna but we have so many other things to teach also. We have the whole Srimad-Bhagavatam, all the Puranas, Mahabharata, Upanisads, so much knowledge to teach to convince people to chant Hare Krishna. All the Vedic literatures, just like this Temple of Vedic Planetarium - why, why so much effort to teach about planets? Because if they learn about the planets and they learn about cosmology then that will break their faith in the mundane nonsense atheistic scientific theories; big bang.

Modern science is teaching that everything comes from a void. What is a void? What is the scientific definition of a void? It doesn't exist. At least there is space. Space is something. So there is no void  scientifically. It is not proven that there is any void but science says that everything came out of a void and then the big universe popped out of the void. So if it is a void and there is nothing there how can universes pop out of it? It means something was there. Another contradiction! 

Then after the universe came out of the void it exploded and everything became very orderly like we have today - the sun, moon - everything in orbit. This is modern science cosmology. And it all happened accidentally as well. No one in control! So this is atheistic demoniac theory and it is all wrong and there is no science to it. Therefore it has to be defeated and Prabhupada's genius to defeat it was Vedic cosmology presented as it is. And if you present people will take notice. So I think we will stop there. Thank you for your kind attention. We have a few minutes if there are any questions.

Prabhu: Hare Krishna. Thank you Maharaja. Maharaja you quoted twice the statements, once of Srila Prabhupada and once of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura that if we take one person back to Godhead then we can also like they were telling for themselves in humility. i we are giving out Krishna consciousness to others as service. So we have quality and quantity. We have responsibility to preach to many people and still few people and bring  quality.(?) So how do we balance between both of this two?

HH Danavir Goswami: When you first started your question I immediately thought yes we should become like mad men going out, "Here please take this.Take this Hare Krishna." Take this Krishna consciousness to as many people as possible because one of them may become a pure devotee and then my pathback to Godhead is guaranteed. Right? That is true. But then as you said we also have to train them up how to go back to Godhead.
I will tell you a story that was told by one of our god brothers who was preaching in India in the very beginning before there were any Iskcon temples when they were staying in other Gaudiya Math temples. So the devotee was speaking to Srila Prabhupada and he said that, "I have seen that in some of the temples we stay at that there are many. Many followers but the standard is not so high. And in other temples not so many devotees but the standard is high.' He said, "But Prabhupada I noticed that in your preaching you have many, many devotees and also the standard is very high." Prabhupada said, "Now you have understood."

So that is the greatness of Srila Prabhupada that he is simultaneously presenting Krishna consciousness all over the world,

prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama, sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama[Caitanya-bhagavata (Antya 4.126)]

Every town and village! He is sending devotee out to every town and village everywhere but at the same time he has a very strict standard of training. He said our temples are not for lazies and crazies. Our temples are for very serious people who want to follow and who want to go back to Godhead and are willing to follow. I know because I was given that service for training up new devotees and some if they were not capable of following or willing to follow then we had to ask them to leave. That is what Prabhupada wanted but at the same time he wanted to bring everyone into the temple.

So how do you reconcile? Reconciliation is everyone should be invited but the condition is, "Are you willing to follow the Vedic principles, follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions?" Then everyone is welcome. We don't discriminate on the basis of birth or caste or creed or gender or whatever they have done. It is not that, "Well, you are to sinful." That may even be a qualification because if one thinks, "I am most sinful. My claim is first." No restriction but the restriction is you have to follow. So I think we will stop there. Thank you very much. Srimad Bhagavatam Ki! Jai.[Applause]

Navadvip Mandala Parikrama-Day 4,the 11th March 2011

Today is the 4th day of the parikrama. At 7.15am Guru Maharaja came down to the temple hall to take darshan. He comes down from His quarters to the temple hall through the Caitanya exhibition hall using the newly installed elevator. Unfortunately an embarrassing incident took place this morning. The key for the grill gate which divides the temple hall and exhibition hall was misplaced. Guru Maharaja waited for almost five minutes and while He was waiting, I saw the devotee who was pushing the wheelchair slowly stepped far away from Guru Maharaja, fearing he may get scolded. This is the second time such thing has happened. It was very embarrassing for me because at least 8 of us were there with Guru Maharaja but none made sure if the key is with us or went ahead to open the gate. Guru Maharaja kept himself quiet and decided to leave without darshan. Guru Maharaja has very high level of tolerance. He tolerates our mistakes so much. But one should not take advantage of His kindness. Anyway let's get back with the parikrama now.

We left Iskcon Mayapur at 7.30am. We drove towards Simantadwip which is about 20 minutes drive to meet the Hindi party. Guru Maharaja spoke about the pastime of Simantini Devi (Parvathi Devi) who got the darshan of Lord Caitanya. Simantadwip was named after this pastime.After spending 30 minutes with the Hindi party, we headed towards Pancaveni to meet the Bengali party. Guru Maharaja had his breakfast on the way to Pancaveni (Gauranga Bridge). Half way through our journey, we met the Bengali party whowere streaming along the main road with loud kirtan and colourful flags. They were stretched for almost 3 kilometres. We reached Pancaveni before them. While waiting for them, Guru Maharaja took a walk along the bank of Pancaveni.

Half an hour later as the kirtan was resounding near by, we knew the Bengaliparty which has 3000 devotees, were approaching us. As soon the party entered the road leading the downhill from the Gauranga Bridge to the bank of Panceveni, thick dust clouded the whole atmosphere. After the devotees settled down in front of the small stage, Guru Maharaja spoke for 30mins. By now it was already 10.15am and none had their breakfast. Understanding the situation, Guru Maharaja stopped the class and requested Satya Narayanan Prabhu to chant the prasadam prayers... sarira avidyajal.....  We departed from Panceveni to Pratap Nagar at 10.45am to meet the Russian Party. Again we were ahead of the Russian party too. The Russian party arrived in Pratap Nagar at 11.10am and had their breakfast. After breakfast, Guru Maharaja narrated few pastimes which are significant to Koladwip. He mentioned, in Satya Yuga Lord Varaha appeared in this place and told Vasudeva Brahmana the following, "Whoever resides in Navadvipa will attain the results of residing in all other tirthas. There is no place in the three worlds equals to Navadwip Dham. Koladwip is also known as 'Aparadha Vanjan Kuliyapad ’the island which forgives all the offences... Guru Maharaja asked the devotees if anyone asked forgiveness for their offences committed against Vaishnavas knowingly or unknowingly while being in Koladwip. When devotees replied ‘nyet’ (no in Russian) he repeated 'Nyeeeet?' (Noooo) why? and told them to beg for forgiveness right here because this is the last spot for the Russian party in Koladwip. Immediately a loud prayers of Vanca kalpa...erupted. From Russian Party we left to meet the international party at Vidyanagar.

At this point of time the weather was little cloudy and started drizzling too. As we reached Vidyanagar, we saw some last batches of devotees still walking into the ground of Gaur Nitai Temple.At 2.20pm Guru Maharaja started his speech by thanking His Holiness Lokanath Swami for leading the International party so nicely. He mentioned in His class that all the knowledge from the Vedas was given from here.... Lord Ramachandra is expert at using the weapons, Lord Krsna is expert at herding the cows and Lord Caitanya is expert at Knowledge...He has so much knowledge that even attracted Brhaspati who was very eager to see the pastimes of the Lord where he is giving out knowledge..... His eagerness forced him to appear as Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya in Caitanya Lila much before than Mahaprabhu's appearance. At 3pm all Srila Prabhupada's disciples were invited to take lunch at HG Meenakshi Radha Mataji's house. She lives in Vidyanagar and feeds all the senior Vaishnavas every year during the parikrama. All Srila Prabhupada's disciples who attended the parikrama were served with traditional Bengali lunch feast.

Your Servant,

Maha Varaha D

Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

Date: March 7th, 2011

Topic: Dhruva Maharaja Goes Back to Godhead

Verse: 4:12: 30

Speaker: HH Bhakti Purushottama Swami

tadottanapadah putro

dadarsantakam agatam

mrtyor murdhni padam dattva

arurohadbhutam grham

TRANSLATION: When Dhruva Maharaja was attempting to get on the transcendental plane, he saw death personified approach him. Not caring for death, however, he took advantage of the opportunity to put his feet on the head of death, and thus he got up on the airplane, which was as big as a house.

PURPORT: To take the passing away of a devotee and the passing away of a nondevotee as one and the same is completely misleading. While ascending thetranscendental airplane, Dhruva Maharaja suddenly saw death personified before him, but he was not afraid. Instead of death's giving him trouble, Dhruva Maharaja took advantage of death's presence and put his feet on the head of death. People with a poor fund of knowledge do not know the difference between the death of a devotee and the death of a nondevotee. In this connection, an example can be given: a cat carries its kittens in its mouth, and it also catches a rat in its mouth. Superficially, the catching of the rat and the kitten appear to be one and the same, but actually they are not. When the cat catches the rat in its mouth it means death for the rat, whereas when the cat catches the kitten, the kitten enjoys it. When Dhruva Maharaja boarded the airplane, he took advantage of the arrival of death personified, who came to offer him obeisances; putting his feet on the head of death, he got up on the unique airplane, which is described here to be as big as a house (grham). There are many other similar instances in Bhagavata literature. It is stated that when Kardama Muni created an airplane to carry his wife, Devahuti, all over the universe, the airplane was like a big city, carrying many houses, lakes and gardens. Modern scientists have manufactured big airplanes, but they are packed with passengers, who experience all sorts of discomforts while riding in them. Material scientists are not even perfect in manufacturing a material airplane. In order to compare to the plane used by Kardama or the plane sent from Visnuloka, they  must manufacture an airplane equipped like a big city, with all the comforts of life -- lakes, gardens, parks, etc. Their plane must be able to fly in outer  space and hover, and visit all other planets. If they invent such a plane, they will not have to make different space stations for fuel to travel into outer space. Such a plane would have an unlimited supply of fuel, or, like the plane from Visnuloka, would fly without it. [End of Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 4.12.30]

HH Bhakti Purushottama Swami: There is a unique description of an aeroplane. It reminds me of Brahma-vivarta Purana explains the aeroplane of Srimati Radharani. When Krishna left Srimati Radharani and went to Viraj's kunja to take service from her then Radharani became very angry. She wanted to go immediately and see how Viraja is serving Krishna. She had an aeroplane. And how many people that aeroplane could fit? To serve Srimati Radharani in Goloka Vrindavan She has only three hundred and sixty million gopis to help Her. And She took all of them on board this aeroplane. From that you can imagine how big this aeroplane would be which can allow three hundred and sixty million gopis inside. Very nice description of that aeroplane! How many wheels, how it is decorated, inside the big palaces, gardens, mountains, lakes, rivers, everything is there! Such a beautiful aeroplane!

Today's subject matter is a little different but a very special subject matter which targets a specific subject about death. When Dhruva Maharaja was attempting to get onto the transcendental plane he saw death personified approaching him. Not carrying for death, however he took advantage of the opportunity to put his feet on the head of death. Thus he got onto the aeroplane which was as big as a house. In this regard I will try to describe something about death.

Death is a very special subject matter but unfortunately nobody wants to discuss about death. Everybody wants to discuss how to live nicely but nobody wants to discuss about how to die nicely. Prabhupada says, bhajan koro sadhan koro murte janle haya [Bengal proverb quoted in Srila Prabhupada lecture, Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.27-34 -- Surat, December 17, 1970] Do your sadhana, do your bhajan but try to learn how to die.

We may not like death. We may be averse to death. We may be afraid of death but death likes us very much. So many ihave created and they have left us but death will not leave us. Death is very fond of us. , "No, no I am with you always." The interesting thing Prabhupada is saying is that just see in this material world everything we discuss is relative subject matter. There is only one absolute subject matter that nobody can deny: jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur [Bg 2.27] In English we say, 'as sure as death' For which subject matter there is no contradiction, there is no debate. Whether you are India, American, Hindu, Muslim or Christian or different groups of politicians with different views and different opinions, different debates, but one subject matter that there is no debate that everybody agrees. That is why it is Absolute Truth because death represents Krishna. It is the Absolute Truth.
Everybody will face death. Krishna says, kalo 'smi [Bg 11.32] I am kala. mrtyuh sarva-haras caham [Bg 10.34] Krishna's other form is death. Everybody will see Krishna. If we become His devotee we will see Krishna. Some people say, "Oh. I have no time to go to temple. I have so much work. I am duty bound. I have no time to take darsan of Krishna." Then Krishna says, "Oh. You have no time to come to see Me. Okay. Stay in your house. I will come to give My darsan to you." That day will come in everyone's life. He will come to our doorstep. In which form He will come? That ghastly form! Death will come and we will all have to surrender. You cannot say, "Please wait one second. I have to take my last cigarette or whatever it is." No immediately you have to go - we surrender.
Srila Prabhupada says that goal of life is not how to live nicely but the goal of life is how to die nicely. In India we have one institution founded  by Ravi Sankara - 'The Art of Living.' They propagate the art of living. That is very good but to know the art of dying is more important than to know the art of living. The art of dying, that moment is the most precious moment of our lives. From our birth after our death in between all the moment you have passed over, the most important moment is the moment of death.

That is why you will see in Srimad Bhagavad-gita Krishna has dedicated a whole chapter to aksara brahma yoga describing death; if you die day time where you will go; if you die night time where you will go; if you die while the sun moves to northern side where you will go; if you die when the sun is in the southern side where you will go; if devotee dies where they will go. He is explaining:

yam yam vapi smaran bhavam, tyajaty ante kalevaramtam tam evaiti kaunteya, sada tad-bhava-bhavitah [Bg 8.6]

Whatever you think of at the time of death accordingly your destination will be. Krishn is telling us:
anta-kale ca mam eva, smaran muktva kalevaramyah prayati sa mad-bhavam, yati nasty atra samsayah [Bg 8.5]
"At the time of death if you think about Me there is no doubt that you will go back to Godhead." Then somebody will say, "Oh very nice! Then why throughout my life I have to do hare Krishna Hare Krishna, follow regulative principles, get up for mangal arati. Why do I have to go through so many difficulties? When my time of death comes I simply remember Krishna. That is it! Everything is achieved. Very simple process!" But no! That doesn't happen because Krishna cannot be remembered. How will we remember? We remember with our mind but Krishna is not subject to our mind. Krishna is beyond our mind and  intelligence. We cannot remember Krishna unless Krishna by His sweet will manifests Himself within our mind. Then only can we remember Krishna, otherwise we cannot remember Krishna.

It is not that we have to wait 'til the time of our death or you have to wait for when you become old. Anytime we may die and also we can remember Krishna. That is why King Kulasekhara is saying,

prana-prayana-samaye kapha-vata-pittaih kanthavarodhana-vidhau smaranam kutas te [MM mantra 33]
At the time of death my throat will be choked with kapha, vata and pitta, where is the question of remembering You? How can I remember You? So painful! I have heard that at the time of death it is so painful and is compare to the pain of ten thousand scorpion bites. That much pain one experience! Anybody here was bitten by a scorpion? Two Indians. Yes, in the village's scorpion bites are very common. In a house rats, snakes, scorpions everything is there. In the west if you see a cockroach in your house you get scared but for us it is very simple. I have been bitten by scorpion in my house and I know how painful it is. It is very painful. You will jump up and down. Imagine ten thousand scorpions biting - that much pain! And smaranam kutas te - where is the question of remembering You? Sometimes I feel I have realized that while we chant sixteen round every day we struggle to remember Krishna.
I am thinking of a simple stomach problem, fever or headache then we keep the bead bag away, "Tomorrow I will chant a few more rounds." Sometimes thatis such a small pain and we say, "Tomorrow I will chant my rounds." Where is the question of when the pain of ten thousand scorpions biting that we willremember Krishna. Rightly King Kulasekhara has said, smaranam kutas te - "Where is the question of remembering You?" 

It is not that at the time of death we can remember. We can remember unless we are in devotional service so that Krishna feels obligated, "Oh. He has been doing so much service so I have to manifest Myself within his mind."Then we can remember.

In this way we see that Krishna has given so much importance on this topic of death. In Bhagavad-gita he has dedicated a whole chapter in discussing death. Just imagine the whole Bhagavad-gita, why Bhagavad-gita was recited? For what did the Bhagavd-gita discussion take place? Simply to answer one question. The Bhagavatam was not discussed. Bhagavatam was not discussed by Sukadev Goswami how to live nicely. Rather just to answer one question of Pariksit Maharaja.

When Pariksit Maharaja was cursed by Srngi because he put a dead snake around his father's neck. Srngi was then induced by Kali, "Go curse this king." Then he cursed him that within seven days he will die by snake bite. When Samika Rsi heard he felt very bad, "What have you done? Such a nice king! Because of him we are practicing our devotional life. For a small mistake you have given such a heavy punishment. Immediately you go and inform him." Immediately he went, "Pariksit Maharaja you are cursed that at the end of seven days you will die of snakebite." Then what Pariksit Maharaja do?

He prepared to die. 'I only have seven days before I die." If something happens to us we run all over the world. "For how long more I can survive." But he took seven days to prepare. He prepared to go to Patita-pavana-ganga. "I committed that mistake because of my past desire. I will not drink water or anything. I will sit there." He did not try to save himself. Rather he said, "I have seven days. I will prepare to die.' It was not so difficult for Pariksit Maharaja to try to protect himself.

When he prepared to leave his body all great saintly persons gathered there - all great yogis, rsis and jnanis gathered to see when Pariksit Maharaj awill leave his body. Not only that! From the heavenly planets the demigods also came. I read in one place when Sukadev Goswami was about to recite Bhagavatam the demigods were saying, "O Sukadev Goswami, now that Pariksit is destined to die, we have brought nectar from heaven. Let him drink nectar so he won't die and in reciprocation we will listen to your Bhagavatam nectar".

Then Sukadev Goswami became very angry, "Get out from here. You have come here to compare your heavenly nectar to Bhagavatam nectar. No!" He  hastisedthem. The point is Pariksit Maharaja could survive. What is a snake bit! The snake charmer also is saving so many people from snake bite. But Pariksit Maharaja did not try for that. In fact somewhere it is written in some Purana the one Brahman came. His name is Brghu Brahman not Brghu Rsi to save Pariksit Maharaja. On the way one man approached him, "Where are you going?"Then this brahmana said, "I am going to protect Pariksit Maharaja because Pariksit Maharaja is cursed to be bitten by a snake, Taksaka the snake. And I am going to take protect him from that." "How can you protect him from that?" "When Taksaka will bite I will bring him back to life."

That man was Taksaka himself. In the disguise of a human being he was walking. Then he revealed his own form. He said, "I am Taksaka that snake. I am going to bite." Then Taksaka was thinking, "Oh already made plan. I must be careful. If this man can bring him medicine." "Is it true?" He said, "Yes. I know mantra. If somebody dies I can bring him back to life.' Then Taksaka said, "Can you prove that to me/" he said, "Yes." Taksaka said pointing to a big banyan tree, "I will bite this tree and turn it into ashes. Let me see how you can bring it back to life.' Taksaka doesn't need to bite. He was very powerful. Fire comes from this kind of snake's mouth. 

So the tree turn into ashes and this brahmana chanted mantra and Taksaka was very surprised to see the trees growing and growing and growing. Somebody  told me that when this thing was going on one human being was also in the tree. When the tree manifested the human being also manifested So Taksaka thought, "Oh. Very powerful personality. All my plan will become useless." So he sai, "Why you are going there? What is the benefit for you? Why should you go to bring him back to life?" The brahmana said, "Then I will get a l lot of donation." "So how much donation will you get?" Then he said on lakh rupees or dollar or whatever currency was that time. He said some amount. Then Taksaka said, "I will give you double than that. You don't go there." The brahmana was greedy. He said, "Double than that?" He was very happy so he took double than that and then he went back to his house. The rsis became very angry with him that just for this he did not come to save Pariksit Maharaja The point I am trying to make it was not a big deal for Pariksit Maharaja but he took advantage of these seven days. So there he prepared to die. All kinds of karmis, jnanis yogis and thousands of saintly personalities gathered there. So Pariksit Maharaja asked, "Please protect me. Let me know how I can survive?" No he did not ask this question.

End of the first canto he asks the first question, "O my dear Gurudev, my death is eminent, like every other living entity, everybody's death is eminent. I have only seven days. What can I do?" He asked all the saintly personalities. Some karmis got up, "O Pariksit Maharaja no problem. You did some sinful activities, you do some atonement. This will work." Pariksit Maharaja rejected, "What atonement! To take a different birth!" He did not accept the karma khandis.

Then all the jnanis got up, "O Pariksit Maharaja, no problem. You practice  jnana and by the power of jnana all you sinful reactions will turn into ashes." Pariksit Maharaj said, "I have only seven days.
bahunam janmanam ante, jnanavan mam prapadyate [Bg 7.19]

Jnana process will take many, many lives. So there is a problem with jnana also. Tell me something by which in seven days I can get perfection." all the jnanis sat down.

Then the yogis got up and said, "Pariksit Maharaja you please practice yoga and by yoga practice you can transcend all material problems." He said, "Yoga practice takes thousands of years - yama, niyama, pranayama! I only have seven days. In seven days how can I get perfection?"

In the meantime they saw one personality approaching the assembly. He was naked and his hair was scattered here and there. Children.....crazy guy, they were chasing him, teasing him yet he was a very effulgent personality. When he approached the assembly of sages all the saintly personalities got up. That was Sukadev Goswami. Pariksit Maharaja got up, gave him a nice asana and washed his lotus feet and did arati. He sat down at his lotus feet. The he asked, "O my dear Gurudev I have one question. I only have seven days before I die. Please tell me what should be my duty that within seven days I can get perfection?"

Then Sukadev Goswami said, "Seven days is a long time. No problem." Then he recited the instructions of Katvanga Maharaja. Once during a big fight between the demons and the demigods, the demigods were almost defeated. They then came to earth planet to invite Katvanga Maharaja who was a verypowerful personality that ruled all over the earth planet at that time. "Please help us fight the demons." Katvanga Maharaja was such a powerful personality and he went to fight on behalf of the demigods and all the demons were defeated. This was in the heavenly planets. Then the residents of the heavenly planets were very happy and said to Katvanga Maharaja,  "Thank you very much. You saved us from this danger. Now you are going back to earthly planet. Please tell us, we would like to give you a gift, what gift you want?"

Just imagine if some of us had gone to heaven and there is an opportunity to come back here and the residents of heaven asked us, "What gift you want?"We will be very eager to gather some nice Parijata flowers or some Menaka girls. "Okay let's go back. Things are so opulent and not available here." But Katvanaga Maharaja did not take interest in this. He said, "No. no. I don't want all these things but I know you are the siddha perfect personalities so please tell me how much more time I have to survive." Then the demigods calculated and said, "O Katvanga Maharaja in one moment you will die." "One moment? Then I will remember Krishna." Then he left his body. That is why Sukadev Goswami said: ante narayana-smrtih [SB 2.1.6]  So whatever you do my Guru Maharaja HH Jayapataka Swami was saying, "Just imagine Pariksit Maharaj knew he had seven days to die. Katvanga Maharaja knew he had one moment to die but we don't know - seven days, seven years, seven moments - we don't know how long it will take. So that is the reason why Srila Prabhupada is saying bhajan koro sadhan koro murte janle haya. All of our endeavor throughout our whole human life is simply meant to prepare for one moment of our life, to pass the most glorious moment of our life. Death is such a thing! People try to avoid but death is the most glorious moment of our whole human life.

The whole human life is given to us to prepare to meet with death in one moment. So we can't avoid that. As Bhagavad-gita is saying,

jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur dhruvam janma mrtasya ca [Bg 2.27]
One who has taken birth has to die. No one can avoid death. Devotee will surrender to Krishna. Non devotees do not surrender to Krishna but they are forced to meet death. As Prabhupada explained devotees are dying, non devotees are dying but there is a big difference when devotees die and the non devotees die. So everyone will have to die. Jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyu. No one can avoid death though throughout our life we are trying in so many different ways to avoid death. In this regard in one Purana one description was given by HH Radha Govinda Swami Maharaja.
He said once Srila Vyasadev's grandfather, a very old man was very attached to the body. He did not want to die. So he came to Vyasadeva and requested," O my grandson can you do something to stop my death?" Vyasadeva said, "How can that happen? Everyone has to die in this material world." "No, no, no.You are an incarnation of God. You can do. Please help me. I am your grandfather. My one request is that I won't die.' Then Vyasadeva said, "Okay I can try for you."

Then Vyasadeva took his grandfather and he went to Yamaraja. In Pitrloka Yamaraja is residing there. Then Vyasadeva asked Yamaraja, "Can you help me?My grandfather doesn't want to die. Can you arrange to stop his death?" Then Yamaraja said, "How can I stop death? I am not the controller of death. Ionly take care of the people who come here andi attend to their sinful and pious activities. I never stop death." "Then who stops death?"  "Oh you cantry the controller of death, the Maha-kala-purusa. Go to Maha-kala-purusa. He is the controller of death. He can help you."

Then Vyasadev prepared to go to Maha-kala-purusa along with his grandfather. Then the grandfather told Yamaraja, "Can you accompany us? On my behalf  you can tell my request to Maha-kala-purusa so that he will stop my death." Then Yamaraja said, "The request is from grandfather of Vyasadeva so I musthonor." So Yamaraja accompanied them and they all went to Maha-kala-purusa. Vyasadev told Maha-kala-purusa, "Please do me a favor. You are thecontroller of death. Can you stop the death of my grandfather? He is a bit afraid of death."

The Maha-kala-purusa said, "It is true that I am the controller of death but I cannot stop. In order to stop his death you have to go to Citragupta. In Citragupta's office all records are kept. There you check and then let me know what is happening." They then all prepared to go to Citragupta's office and grandfather told Maha-kala-purusa, "Please accompany us. You can say a few words to Citragupta to stop my death." Then Maha-kala-purusa also accompanied them. So in this way the grandfather was accompanied by Vyasadeva, Yamaraja and Maha-kala-purusa and they all went to Citragupta's office.

Then Vyasadeva said, "O Citraguptaji please help me. My grandfather doesn't want to die. Can you check his records how to stop his death?" Then Citragupta was checking the account of the activities of grandfather. Then he said, "Oh you will be surprised to know that there will be no death for your grandfather." So everybody became very happy. "Oh! That is what we wanted. No death for grandfather." They were all very jubilant and happy. The Citragupta said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. Actually there is no death for your grandfather. Your grandfather will only die if sometime Vyasadeva, Yamaraja and aha-kala-purusa will come together. Then only he will die. Otherwise there is no death for him." All of them were together and grandfather died.

This story Maharaja told. Just see you can't die. There is no death. But he went and did all his endeavor for everybody to come together so that he willdie. That is what is happening in the material world. Everybody is endeavoring not to die but each endeavor meant not to die is only for death. This is the conclusion of Maharaja's explanation. Every activity that you are doing and you are thinking, "I am trying to welcome death."That is only leading to the death. So, how to be safe from death? How to know the art of dying? Srila Prabhupada said: bhajan koro sadhan koro murte janle haya.

Here we see Dhruva Maharaja a pure devotee of Krishna. A pure devotee of Krishna will not die. Prabhupada said to stop death means to stop birth. We may die but we will not take birth again. There is no birth again. As iis saying:
punarapi jananam punarapi maranam, punarapi janani jatare sayanam,

One has to go again and again through the cycle of birth and death but devotees even if they will leave their body, their leaving of the body is different - so much so that the demon Vrtrasura was waiting to die. Indra tried to kill Vrtrasura by he defeated the again and again. Vrtrasura encouraged him , "No, no. You come. You kill me, kill me." And Vrtrasura was so powerful that Indra by thunderbolt cut one hand and Vrtrasura was still fighting to make him angry so that Indra will kill him. He cut off his two hands and Vrtrasura was such a powerful demon that at one point he  swallowed, ate Indra along with his elephant. Everything he put in his stomach. Then what Indra did? By his thunderbolt he cut his stomach into pieces and came out of his stomach.

Then Bhagavat said the Vrtrasura was killed and everybody was glorifying Indra, "Jai Indra. All glories to Indradeva." And Visvanath Cakravatipada gives commentary. "Who is glorified? Who was saved and who was killed? Actually Indra did not kill Vrtrasura. Vrtrasura was very powerful. Indra was trying to cut with his thunderbolt his stomach into pieces. Vrtrasura went into meditation to leave his body. So externally everybody thought that Indra was the winner. Visvanath Cakravati says Indra is not the winner. Who won? Vrtrasura won.

He was waiting for death. So devotees of Krishna, Vrtrasura is a unique demon. He was a krsna-bhakta demon. Usually demons are never krsna-bhakta but he was a very unique demon, a krsna-bhakta demon. He was waiting for that moment.

In this way we see so many incidents in the Srimad-Bhagavatam: the death of Hiranyakasipu, Hiranyaksa, how Hiranyakasipu is giving nice explanation tothe wives and children of Hiranyaksa. Then the death of Citraketu's son - so nice explanation! And the death of Srivas Thakur. His eldest son died and Srivas Thakur is in ecstasy. When all the ladies were crying Srivas asked them, "Why are you crying? If while Caitanya Mahaprabhu is dancing in my house one hundred of my sons die I will be happy. What are you crying for? That is the goal of my life to die like this."
So in this way we see throughout the Vedic literatures there are so many examples which tell us how to prepare to leave our bodies very blissfully while meditating upon the lotus feet of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Madhava. But as I said it doesn't happen by our own endeavor. We may talk so much, we may do so many things but until and unless Sri Sri Radha Madhava by Their causeless mercy appear within our minds we can't remember them. That is the reason Prabhupada has tried to engage us in devotional service. So if  you engage very sincerely in devotional service, at the time of death Radha Madhava will appear in our mind and then we can get the highest destination. Jai Sri Sri Radha Madhava Ki! Jai. Harinama-sankirtana sama veta bhakt vrnda Ki! Jai Nita Gaura premanande hari-haribol. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. [Applause] Any questions?

Prabhu: One comment. There is that wonderful verse:

tam mopayatam pratiyantu vipra, ganga ca devi dhrta-cittam isedvijopasrstah kuhakas taksako va, dasatv alam gayata visnu-gathah [SB 1.19.15]

Maharaja Pariksit said, "O brahmanas please accept me as a surrendered soul to Krishna and also let Mother Ganga accept me in the same way because I have already surrendered unto the Lord. Let this snake bird or whatever magical thing the brahmanas Srngi has created bite me at once. My only recourse is that you continue chanting the glories of Visnu.

I wanted to ask you there is this one story I heard many years ago. I don't know if it is a bona fide story. It is the story of one foolish man who was thinking he could ward off death. He said, "If I can make myself smell really bad then death will come and run away because death will not like the smell. So he  smeared himself with stool. Did you ever hear such a story like that?

HH Bhakti Purushottama Swami: No I didn't hear that.

Prabhu: It didn't work.

HH Bhakti Purushottam Swami: The Bhagavatam explains that when Sukadev Goswami was speaking Bhagavatam Yamaraja came to listen to the Bhagavatam.So if you do Bhagavatam Yamaraja will be busy listening Bhagavatam so he will have no time to kill you. So that is another way you will be saved. Prabhu: That is a more pleasant method.

HH Bhakti Purushottama Swami: Actually I have one day to give class during festival time. Being so busy in meetings I was thinking if some topic comes related to death, my next publication - I have written a few books about Radharani and about the Parikrama etc. but I am planning that my next book will be about death. [Applause] I was thinking that whatever verse comes to me I will relate it to death. Then when they gave me the verse the verse was about death so I beg you to pray for me that this book 'Death' will come out nicely. Please bless me so that when all the devotees read this book I will become free from the fear of death.

In Chartigarh (?)i the Vrajamandal area there is one boy who remembered his previous life. He wentiwere he remembered so many things and he said in hisprevious life he was born in Radhakund and he left his body in Radhakunda. He was killed by gundhas or dacoits. So the question by some devotees was how is it possible that someone who is born in Vrajamandala and lives in Vrajamandala still didn't go back to Godhead?

 HH Bhakti Purushottama Swami: So that person said if someone takes birth in Vraj he will go back to Godhead. How can he come back again? I don't know ifhe will take birth in Vraj he will go back to Godhead. Not necessarily. Somebody who has taken birth in Vraj during pastimes of Krishna, they will go back to Godhead and somebody in the dham, does not mean that dham will give this to everybody. Even in the dham if you practice Krishna consciousness according to their sincerity different people will get different result. In the dham you will get some result but not necessarily you will go back to Godhead immediately. Even if you are practicing devotional service in the dhama and we don't complete our sadhana then we may have to take birth as dogs or hogs. There is an explanation like that. 

So if you are here in the dham and you practice Krishna consciously sincerely and you develop that prema or love you can go back to Godhead otherwise for one or two lives you may have to come back again. In this particular case I don't know what would have been.

HG Jananivasa Prabhu: This boy in Chartigarh (?)Chartigarh (?) is also a dhama so he still gone back to Godhead - it is no different.

HH Bhakti Purushottama Swami: Jananivas Prabhu says no difference. Go back there, take birth in Vraj. Chartigarh is in Vraj so for him no difference. Very Good. Hare Krishna,. Thank you all very much.

Dear Vaishnavas

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!Guru-parampara ki jaya!

Bhaktivedanta College Radhadesh has an opening for the position of Promotion/Fundraising Manager and Receptionist. If you want to be part of and enthusiastic team offering a vibrant service to Srila Prabhupada, in a well-established spiritual community, then please announce your interest. We would be happy to send additional information. This is a full time position, but we may consider other options for a mature devotee with the right qualifications. We are accepting applications up to 1st of April 2011.

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