We are working in such a way that we may cover many areas of the finishing work simultaneously, few of which have commenced as you have been able to see in the previous updates.

Next step- The Chatris.

The TOVP has a total of 8 chatris on top of the staircases surrounding the temple.

We begun by placing GRC ribs on the chatris and now between each rib, we are laying blue ceramic tiles.

The GRC ribs are produced here in Mayapur and we are using a special custom made ceramic blue tile. These same tiles will be used on the 3 big domes.

To enrich this splendid blue color, a layer of titanium nitride will be added to the centre of every rib.

By admiring this progress, you will also be able to have an understanding of how the big domes will look once we

Source: https://goo.gl/0w5GaQcommence.

By Bhaktividya Purna Swami

Today, we’ll try to look at a different angle or go a step a little further in trying to understand the culture. If we’re accepting our premise that culture means following the Vedic rules and regulations with a desire to please the Lord and these rules and regulations then come to us in the form of this varnasrama culture –this dharma. Things become a little bit more easy to categorize if you have a framework to work in.

Dealing with varnas and asramas.

Now then the difficulty comes in. We have these varnas, we have these asramas and then were trying to establish our self within these. The asramas side is not so difficult, generally it’s quite easy. We’re either married or not married. If we’re not married, either we wanted to get married or did not want to get married or we’ve been married and now we’re through with being married, so it kind of comes quite easily and then if you’re through with being married, then you’re still either with the wife or you have not spent so much time together or once taken sannyasa or gone to Vrindavana, just living as a recluse, so that it becomes a little bit more obvious. But then when we’re dealing with varnas that’s generally where all the problem comes. Cause somehow or another the nature is they, you know I mean, anywhere in the material world especially the western culture. We find in the modern situation there’s so much emphasis on position, control, and the prestige that goes along with that. So when looking at this we won’t necessarily look at our own nature and how to engage it but we will look at what is best for us, what is the most prestigious and how, what is the platform we can get to acquire for our self the best result, the best whatever we’re wanting.

You have a culture – you have to have a hierarchy.

But varnasrama system is not actually meant for that. It’s actually meant to just take care of our needs, what we want in a way that we can relate to. So the idea is everybody is doing some activity. Everyone will be maintained by that activity and that activity is in accordance with your nature.

Like a brahmana just can’t get into making business and doing a big administrative thing and taking their taxes or different things for them and they don’t want to just go out and work for someone at their whims cause they have their study, they’re teaching others things to do. So they just take either by begging or just what people give in charity to them and whatever comes, that’s what they set their life at. Means they see what their money is and establish their life. If it’s very minimal, then they live very simply. If there’s more, they may live more comfortably. If there’s more than that, then they start giving it away. So it’s a matter of how you maintain yourself. So it’s not so much prestige. As Jayadvaita Maharaj was pointing yesterday, if you have a culture you have to have a hierarchy. If there’s no hierarchy, you cannot have organization. You can’t have discipline, there must be. So we may say oh, it’s all equal and all this hierarchy, it’s artificial and this and that. But if we look at the spiritual world there is a really strong hierarchy there and that doesn’t move. There’s no change in it. Absolutely no change! Cause it’s Absolute Truth so there’s absolutely no change.

The higher you are up on the pile, the less you taste.

So you have Krishna on the top of the pile and then you have all the heads of the different rasas right under that and then you have under them their main people and then you have whatever your acaryas in that line and then at the end of that you have us. So it’s fixed. The basic principle, the principle is dasanu-dasanu-dasa. The reality is what Krishnadas Kaviraj says is dasanu-dasanu-dasa thousand times removed servants, like that and that’s fixed. It’s there. But in the spiritual realm everyone is pleased because of that, cause the interesting thing in the spiritual realm, the higher you are up on the pile, the less you taste. The farther down you are, the more you taste. Because you are performing your activity to please the person above you. So you become pleased when they are pleased. So now if you’re pleased when the person above you is pleased then that’s one level. But now if there’s a person above that is pleased then you get to see both of them pleased, that increases your pleasure more. If there’s three above then you get to see three people pleased, you get more pleasure than just seeing one. So like that how far removed you are, that much you see and that you get more pleasure. So there the proximity isn’t the important thing.

Vaikuntha they’re worried about that. I want to be on the same planet as the Lord or I want to be in the same, I want to be an intimate associate of the Lord but in Vrindavana that worry is not there because when you’re back far, you see more, you see how they’re all pleased, that makes you happy. So the happiness comes from seeing others happy rather than there’s one’s own happiness.

So the hierarchy is a natural thing and if we can adjust our mentality we can also get the benefits of that happiness that is there in working within. In other words it’s a teamwork. So when there is a teamwork, then there is happiness. So the teamwork doesn’t have to be equals. There’s also it can be those who are above us, those who are below us, cause everyone is working very nicely to please Krishna. It becomes very strong, so there is a taste there, there is the happiness there. And you know at least we should theoretically accept it and then there can be discipline. If we don’t accept it then there is problem. As Maharaj pointed out there will be chaos within a few minutes if not less.

So that is not a consideration for us. Is what our position, just what part we play and then we have a taste from it. So that is the basic principle, is that wherever we naturally fit due to our conditioned nature, means we have a conditioned nature. We’re intelligent, we understand I have a body and that body has its limitations. If I’m very strong I can do big physical work. I will not comfortable sitting around all day. If I’m not physically strong I would rather do something that’s not, I would not like to move bricks all day, I want to do something a little bit more passive. Same with the mind, we have a particular kind of mind. It likes to work in a particular field and we have a particular kind of intelligence and that works in theoretical or practical or in the arts or so many different things. So depending on what it is, we’re comfortable. So it’s only natural that an intelligent person establishes oneself according to one’s physical or psychological nature and they’re satisfied with that.

It doesn’t matter the prestige in that, you’re satisfied what you’re satisfied. Just like we say okay mango is the king of fruits but we don’t really like mangoes. Right! You like apples. So now will it be proper will we be more satisfied eating apples and letting some Christopher one else eat the mangoes? or do we eat the mangoes cause we know they’re the king of fruits, so if I’m eating them then I’m special. What is the reality? We’re going to be satisfied eating what we like to eat. Even if it’s more prestigious otherwise it’ll just be a false prestige, something we get from the prestige but it won’t address us. May be we’ll do it for a short time. But when nobody’s around and the doors are locked, I’ll eat my apples. So that was what Krishna was telling Arjuna. You will walk away from the battlefield and you’ll be very detached, very compassionate, very humble and you’ll go to the forest and then in the forest you get into a fight and then you fight cause you’re a ksatriya. You will do these things, you will not avoid them. Maybe this moment because you don’t like the downside of the ksatriya duties, you only like the upside. Like I have my kingdom and I have all my friends but his duty is to fight, so that means I get the kingdom or the friends. I don’t get both but because I won’t get both then, ok you know forget it, we go to the forest. But He said, you still act according to your nature, because you’re not actually, it’s not your nature at this point to be detached. Maybe later in life you’ve given up these things. Then it maybe. But now no.

Following religious principles to please Krishna.

So one has to accept that one’s nature is natural for him. Nature and natural, kind of have probably have a similar route. They have something to do with each other. So that is the basic principle. Then we take it another step. Now we’re not following the varnasrama just to follow dharma. In the Bhagavatam in the second verse it is already said, following the religious principles for material profit is thrown out here. Following religious principles to please Krishna, that is what’s being explained. So now if we look at that point then we come up with something very very interesting. Is that the, this principle Prabhupada talks about, the brahmana. The brahmana he first becomes, the first stage of a brahmana is dvija. Then one becomes or gets the adhikara or the right to perform and learn brahminical activities. Right! but to get, when you get that right you don’t know anything. . Just like today someone gets brahminical initiation, they don’t know how to do Puja, how to do any of these things. So now you have the right to do. Then the next stage is he studies, he learns, he knows things and he can apply it. And when he knows and he can apply those things expertly he’s called vipra. Then one is very respected as a brahmana in the society. Then when performing those activities by good association, we come in contact with the pure devotees, the Bhagavatas. Then we come to the platform where we understand that we are servants of Krishna and all this knowledge that I have, all the activities I’m doing, that’s brahminical sphere of activities, is all for Krishna.

So whatever I’m doing, I do it for Krishna. And then that is a devotee and we know then that anyone who is a devotee, then is automatically a brahmana. Now what we’re looking at here is where automatically a brahmana, why is the brahmana now a devotee? because he realized what his work was for, is for Krishna. Not that he’s doing astrology and then now he’s doing it for Krishna. That makes him a devotee. Cause he’s an astrologer but astrologer for Krishna that is a devotee. Or is a sanskritist because he is a sanskritist for Krishna, therefore is a devotee or he’s into logic and that he’s doing it for Krishna, therefore he is a devotee. No, he understands whatever work he’s doing that is being done for the Lord. So that means anyone who understands that whatever their work is, that is to be done for the Lord, they have that topmost brahminical understanding. Therefore one can plow the field but you know that this is Krishna’s field and I’m doing it for Krishna, one is actually a brahmana by realization, by understanding. This is where the difficult part comes in understanding, are the specifically the devotee, the Vaisnava, Gaudiya Vaisnava view or angle on the daiva varnasrama system. This is the point because you can have the Brahminical mentality right that I do my work for Krishna. We have the brahminical motive to please Krishna, one attempts to be free from desire and free from ego but one still has one’s physical and mental conditional nature. So that means one can have the culture of the brahmana and mentality and work ethic but have a totality different non brahminical occupational duty. This is where one becomes, it starts to go out of perspective. Now cause we know everyone is a brahmana but at the same times we have all these natures and all this, everything gets mixed up. So that means as far as the culture goes cause we see the brahmana’s have their culture, the ksatriya’s have their’s. . The brahmanas they live simply, there are so many rules they follow. . The ksatriya’s have another set of rules. Basically the same, same principles. Principles are always the same. Slightly different culture. Ksatriya may keep hundreds thousands of wives, he has a whole big thing, this and that. Brahmana doesn’t. Vaisyas have another nature. They don’t necessarily worry about getting up so early and doing this. They have to do whatever is necessary more for the business. Sudra has to adjust his life for his work. But for the brahmana his lifestyle and his work, he adjusts the work for the lifestyle or makes at least minimal adjustments. I don’t chant my rounds now, I chant them later in the day cause I dressed the deities or this or that.

Two classes of devotees

So it’s just a matter of the priorities that is there. So one can, so what we see is that those who are Gaudiya Vaisnavas specifically who is in Vaisnava sampradaya, then they follow the brahminical culture. So this is important. When you have devotees, devotees meaning anyone who accepts the Supreme Lord. Therefore the daiva varnasrama is very broad and you have two classes of devotees following the daiva varnasrama. One is the ordinary devotees. Those who accept the supremacy of the Lord but they themselves don’t necessarily follow the principles very strictly. You know they know their philosophy but they don’t follow very nicely or they don’t know the philosophy very well or they’re born in the family of of devotees, of properly situated devotees but they themselves don’t take much care in it. You ask them, are you a devotee and they’ll say yes but you know they may wear tilaka may not wear tilaka, may wear proper dress, not follow nice programs, may chant, may not, like that. You know this is ordinary devotee. So anyone who has accepted the Supreme Lord is an ordinary devotee.

Then you have from those the sampradayic devotees means those who have made the endeavor to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master and to follow the rules and regulations that come along with that surrender that, what do you call… responsibility. So now, what we are talking about, we’re not talking about the daiva varnasrama as followed by the ordinary devotees, cause that will be, the plan will be very similar to the, how even the asuric (?) varnasrama will work. Because you have your varna, you have your asrama, you are that. you identify with that, you do those things but you know it’s pious and proper and all these things. There may be an understanding to do it for God. There may not be. But you understand this is God’s plan. I follow God’s plan. I’m pious, I follow God’s rules. But those the sampradayic devotees, they’re following the daiva varnasrama means that what I’m doing, I’m doing for the Lord. I have a conditioned nature. I must engage in the Lord’s service so therefore I engage in this way. I do those prescribe duties but for Krishna. It’s a very, it’s a definite determination, we have that desire. So this means, they get situated in a different culture. They don’t follow these four different cultures, they follow the one culture, the brahminical culture. The brahminical culture is actually very simple, culture in the way of how they live. The basic, the brahminical culture will be based on either the Vedic terms of sadhana, the pancaratrika terms of sadhana, as given by the acaryas. So the brahminical standard as far as we go we follow pancaratrika Then this means basically we are waking up in the morning, we’re chanting the Lord’s name or remembering the Lord, we offer obeisances to the spiritual master. Then we take our, we brush our teeth, use the toilet, take our bath. Then we put our tilaka, we wear neck beads, we wear brahmana threads, we wear devotional clothing, we chant our Gayatri, we go to the temple, we ring the bell, we offer our obeisances, we sing the mangala-aratika, we may clean the temple and in our activities in the temple with the devotees, we take care of guests, we respect and interact with devotees, we hear the scriptures, we chant the holy name, we take prasadam, we worship tulsi, we do some service for the temple at the dhama. That is the brahminical scope in which they act and if you’ll notice that’s exactly what Prabhupada has given everybody in ISKCON to do. It’s such a nicely framed that devotees don’t really think that they have just followed all the rules of pancaratrika. What I just described now is anything that is required of any brahmana within the pancaratrika, doesn’t matter what sampradaya, this that. This is what they do and maybe some finer details. You know how they take a bath, but the principals of the areas that they work in. That’s it. There aren’t more areas. And we see every devotee does that. This is our like sphere in which we act. And that is the brahminical culture.

Following the brahminical culture.

We’re not living like Yudhisthira, you hear battlefield how he wakes up. So you know when it’s time for him to wake up then the singers start singing, the dancers start dancing, the reciters of mantras starts reciting mantras, they start playing drums and bugles and horns and veenas and everything like that and they make so much noise that it’s heard up to the heavenly planets. And that’s how he wakes up. Does that sound familiar? You know any devotees doing that? Ok so we won’t bother getting to the rest. Said one of the points of logic means logic, logic and argue. Logic means you know it means the human beings form of discussion like that, so when you defeated the big wrestler, all of the small ones are considered defeated. You don’t go into guerilla warfare. So since we know we’ve defeated this point we will not even bother with the rest of this point.

So we can see we’re following the brahminical culture . Even if someone’s living outside, is not married, necessarily so strict, they still do these things. Maybe they do it more nicely, maybe less nicely. But this is the field in which they deal. That means all devotees are following the brahminical culture. And that is the interaction, so when we’re dealing in the temple and dealing in this activities then generally everyone is accepted on this brahminical platform. That is the thing. Of course we have to endeavor to not perform activities improperly, to avoid offences and all that. But that’s the platform. And we do our morning program, we have an evening program, a study and that. And that is our lifestyle. Then in between the morning and evening we have something that we do particularly for Krishna. . We do things in the temple. We do things outside the temple. You know it’s either under the direction of the temple authorities or it’s we are working on our own. But whatever it is then that is, we are not that. That’s why Prabhupada said it’s an offense to consider that a devotee is of one of those varnas, that hey are brahmana, ksatriya, no. They are devotee ,who is doing that occupational duty. That is the point. That is what’s necessary for them at this point. That’s their conditioning. That’s what they’re good at. And then he followed that. Then becomes very very easy.

So this is, if that understanding is there that we have followed the brahminical culture we follow the, we have the, at least endeavor for the understanding and mentality and consciousness of a brahmana, then in that we situate ourselves because of our conditional nature in one of four asramas and one of four varnas, then it becomes very easy to understand the system. Then there’s not a whole fight over well who’s got the power or who’s got the money. It’s generally, it’s my experience when we discuss social development then we limit ourselves basically to one asramas and two varnas. The main problem is nobody really cares who the brahmanas are cause who listens to them anyway and the sudras what do you worry about? Brahmacaris are not serious to consider because they’re not honest anyway and sannyasi’s have got their own trip and vanaprastha’s whosever heard of them. So therefore, ksatriyas got the power and the vaisyas got the money and that they’ll only give the money if they also have power and ksatriyas only get the money if they also relinquish some of the power. We can enjoy all that facility in grhastha-asrama. So this is the basically western approach to varnasrama-dharma. But unfortunately, this doesn’t fully address the nature of all the living entities. We still have another five varnas and asramas to consider. Varnasrama system means you take the whole picture. When you understand the whole picture then you can understand where you fit into that picture. So now there has to be two levels of understanding of the whole picture. One is we have enough to understand how we fit it and fit in and do our needs and our business. The second is if we can understand deeply how it operates, then we can help others situate themselves or we can organize the systems so that we see that there’s place for everyone to be situated. So you have two levels of understanding of this. But everybody must have some understanding of it, enough to situate yourself. But those who can have more, they have more than they can either advise or they can organize so that the system runs.

Then now let us, connected topic then we can go into some questions. I’m wondering if I should make this next point, then go into questions cause it may, cause it’s so related. It may answer a few things. Now we look at how does this fit in. Means within our devotional service ok some service but then our sadhana, how does the sadhana, the culture and the service also match because we’re following brahminical sadhana and devotional sadhana but we have our service. So we go back to the point Krishna makes in the Gita of the different levels of ideal of surrender. First is best, He says complete 100 percent surrender on the spot, which is possible. The Bhagavatam gives a few examples of some devotees who’ve done that. The Gopi’s did like that, then we see the wives of the brahmana’s, yajna brahmana’s they did like that. When Krishna went to Mathura, Dvaraka, so many people did like that but it was more rare. It was not the general rule. So if one can do that, that is the best. You know like Maharaja Khatvanga, in a moment just surrender. That’s the best. You don’t waste any time, it’s very direct, very simple. Right, you know. There’s no difficulties, you just do it. But if you can’t do that, if that’s difficult means that there are some obstacles. Then you follow sadhana bhakti. So now when we get into sadhana then we’re dealing, now we’ve come from the first platform means we are not on the conditional platform. We’re actually on the Brahma-bhûta platform, though we are moving in the world. Then you come in contact with a pure devotees then that is immediately fully awakened and one takes it up. That’s the first platform, just fully surrender. One can’t do that, that means cause the conditional nature still has to be attended to.

If conditional nature needs a little more attention…

Conditional nature means our gross and subtle conditioned nature. The body and the mind, intelligence and ego. That has to be addressed. Means we’re attached to it, we must deal with it. So we must engage it in Krishna’s service. So the first platform of that or the subtlest is the, just a platform of sadhana bhakti. Sadhana bhakti means you just perform those activities that I mentioned. What I mentioned is the brahminical culture, the foundation of that. You just do those things. You don’t do anything else. So all you do basically is temple activities, temple service. And that’s all and it doesn’t really matter so much what one does but one does these things. One’s fully absorbed in chanting and all these other things and that’s it. Chanting, preaching, you know, taking prasadam and we saw the interaction of devotees is there. So respecting those above us, we’re friends with those we are equal, compassionate to those who are below that. So we see that and we’re taking prasad you know that we woke up and there’s also we go to sleep then on the end of it there’s we go to sleep remembering the Lord. So we see that all our physical and all our emotional needs are taken care of but in a very sattvic platform. I mean totally just mode of goodness platform. And all those things are directly in connection with Krishna. There services that are directly connected to Krishna or connected, directly connected to those things are like chanting. You have two categories. That’s called mukhya, means those activities that they themselves can deliver you like chanting Hare Krishna, hearing Bhagavatam. Or those things that are supporting that, they are called gauna like taking our bath, putting on our tilaka all these different things. So between these two they’re very directly or just under that engaged in. They’re not even neutral, they’re positive. Engaged in service. So one can be satisfied with that then that is good because it deals with our spiritual nature, our emotional and our physical nature everything. It’s complete in itself. It’s a complete system. But you still don’t give up the desire to fully surrender to Krishna. So the higher platform the first platform is kept but we work on the second with that goal. Krishna says if that also is not possible then He says, then you work for me. That means now the conditioning is a little stronger. We can’t just do any service, can’t chant all day and just do some preaching when it comes up and take prasad when it’s there and just do the needful on that platform of goodness. The conditional nature needs a little more attention. You know there’s a little more passion, little more ignorance, little more attachment. Then we have to identify what is our nature. Our conditioned nature and then do that for Krishna.

Work for Krishna. So then the varnasrama system comes in there otherwise varnasrama system is there in the platform of sadhana but only the brahmana aspect of it. So brahmanas, the four asramas are there and the one active and the occupational duties of the brahmanas and that’s it but that’s your full time engagement. So five of the varnas and asramas are manifest. If you can then Krishna says work for Me. Then you have to add in the other three varnas. . asramas are established. We see that yeah, then one is able to know ok I can do this kind of service for Krishna and maybe able to do temporarily another service if there’s an emergency but it’s a long term thing I’m not satisfied with I’m doing my particular nature. So now when doing that we still perform our sadhana with the goal of fully surrendering to Krishna and then these are like the best of them. And this is basically as far as at least someone who is definitely very close with the temple. You know dependent upon the temple, or very much part of the whole temple activities. But if that’s still is difficult because here you’re working for Krishna means what you’re doing and it’s for Krishna, fully for Krishna. If not then Krishna gives a fourth, then at least give the result. You’re not working for Krishna means ultimately you are working for Krishna. It’s my work, my results, my money but I give to Krishna. That’s the fourth level. So that kind of person must situated themselves outside the sphere of the temple dependents means you can’t be in that mentality and expect the temple is going to maintain you. Unless the temple wants to like take you on for a specific job or like that. They need it so then there maybe an opportunity for that. But one cannot expect that. That one must be honest like the brahmacaris and be out of the temple and do your own work. Maintain yourself get your own money, facilities and if it goes nice, great, if it doesn’t go nice, that’s the way it is. You cannot blame anyone else because now it’s your work not Krishna’s though you do it for Krishna ultimately. Do we understand this subtle difference? That’s the point. All these things are so subtle one can be in one or the other. So one has to be very careful.

Like I’ve seen, I’ve seen in Bombay both these kind of devotees or life member, businessman and that. There are those outside who do their business, they maybe initiated and all this and now and again they not come into the temple fairly regularly but they come at a festival, do something, give some regular donations and all that but they do their own thing and all that and it’s kind of like they come to Krishna or come to the temple on their terms- no obligations. No one expects and they don’t. Then you have another kind who, they are part of the whole temple’s scene, they have their business, they’re making plenty of money in this and that but that they consider we are temple devotees. I live outside, I have my whole thing, I maintain myself, I don’t burden the temple and they take part in temple activities, organizing the festivals, managing. Whatever needs to be done they do it, in their areas of expertise. And their money is for Krishna but because they know money, they know how to manage money, they manage it also for Krishna. Cause others may not know how to manage it, cause money is their area they know what to do with it. You know so in discussion with others and others in the community and other like-minded persons like them and temple authorities they decide okay. We’re going to do a Rathayatra, this or that and each person is going to give so much money and this is going to manage this is and that and this works very nicely. So you don’t know see any difference between them and the full time devotees. Except the ones that are sit, I mean full time meaning those who are living in the temple cause they’re full time devotees also. The only difference is they have more facilities, more stuff and the temple’s devotees has less. So we see the temple devotees are very nicely established on that the platform of sadhana or those activities engaging, the nature of it is fully Krishna things and they’re outside doing it. So in those who are inside the temple we only have sadhana and working for Krishna and outside the temple you can have working for Krishna and those who you give the results to Krishna. So it makes it very easy to understand is that the sadhana and that it’s just a matter of development and with time it’s understood, by following properly you’ll move to the next and next levels. That’s what whole idea, grhastha life maybe performed on either of those working for Krishna or giving the result to Krishna. But vanaprastha means sadhana. You’ve come up to that platform or at least you’re working for Krishna. It can’t be the lower platform otherwise, it’s not vanaprastha. Then the sannyas must mean just sadhana. It becomes very easy to understand where one’s situated and the whole idea is this another thing we’ll bring in – is the aspect of pravrtti nivrtti. Pravrtti means we’re engaging ourselves in following the rules and regulations of the Lord not specifically sadhana but Varnasrama. And within this you find that there is a aspect nivrtti means cause there’s few rules to follow cause we have so few stuff. So brahmacaris, vanaprastha and sannyas, that is nivrtti Cause you’re dealing less with the senses but of course everybody is dealing with the senses. Everybody has some possessions but because the amount of rules and amount of attachments and the amount of things are less therefore three are called nivrtti and one is called pravrtti. But the purpose of both is to get to Krishna. Engage whatever your attachments are in Krishna’s service. One has an attachment of being detached. You engage that in Krishna’s service and one has an attachment of being attached. They engage that in Krishna’s service. It’s a very simple thing, it is not a problem, we have to be, we have to accept all these words, terminologies in the system, it is a very nice… how you say it, user friendly! You know it’s not, we have to be very very careful to take this terminologies and concept and turn them into buzz words and issues and all these kind of things. We have to take them as they are and how they relate to each other, then we get a very nice package that we can very pleasantly work within. Questions or comments or?

School systems.

Male Question: Nowadays we see in many schools they take into account the attitude of the students. They may talk with the student, they see some psychologists they see what is their attitude so that to address them in a proper way but we see this point is little lacking in our society to address some person specifically to some varna.. So what’s your advise? What do you think about?

Well the basic point is you’ll see cause you’re quoting western systems that they’re start to do because those parents and students are submissive to that system. They respect the school. They respect the authorities of that school. So therefore there is discipline. There is and the system works. That’s why that principle is so strongly enunciated in the Vedic literature but the devotees then you have to see is they have to be willing to accept this kind of direction. Of course you must have those who understand this as to ones who are giving that direction. But we must be willing to accept it. We must be able to give up our (?) three varna and asrama concept. Instead of eight we only see three. So we must be able to give that up and generally the difficulty comes is, one is that the school’s of them being able to recognize it. But even if they were to work in that direction to do that, that others would recognize that. Cause these are our difficulties. If you want to establish brahmacari that means a brahmacari is not, his focus, his center is the school right or whoever he is working under. Like in the temple, then the temple authorities. It’s not the home. He transfers from the parental rasa of the family to the parental rasa of the school. If he doesn’t, he just stays in the house. He’s a grhastha. He’s not, he’s an unmarried grhastha, he’s a bachelor. He’s not a brahmacari. A boy that grows up in the house never goes to the Gurukula is not a brahmacari. They’re just an unmarried grhastha. They’re just too young and when they get older they’ll get married. That’s the Vedic understanding. But you find very few parents will let the school actually take care. One may say okay, school’s haven’t taken care but then what is the solution? not send the kids to the school? Send them to karmi school? or see that qualified people are running schools? This is the point we were making yesterday. Is solutions to problems only come I mean solutions to our material difficulties, sensual and our physical, emotional or metaphysical, only come when you have dharma. They cannot come in any other way. Absolutely will not come. It’s like saying I’ll boil water without sticking it on the fire. I’ll just put it in the pot. Put it in the closet and it’ll boil cause I want it to. I demand it. I start a movement. I have a webpage. You know? And this water will boil in the closet and we don’t care about all these other you know fundamental fanatic right wing conservatives who say you have to put it on the fire, otherwise it won’t boil. We don’t care. You know we have our rights. We have our say but it’s just nature. You can look in history. That’s what Western history is good for. You want to see what doesn’t work, read it. And then if you’re smart, you’ll avoid it. And if you want to see what does work, read the Bhagavatam. That is also history but that works.

You have to have qualified teachers, qualified students and qualified parents.

So you must accept that if you want to solve the problem of Gurukula means you have to have qualified teachers, qualified students and qualified parents. So the teacher can’t deal with the student because the parents weren’t Krishna conscious when they conceive the child. You cannot blame the school or the temple authorities or the GBC or ISKCON that they were not sitting there next to your bed cheering you on when you conceived the child saying, remember Krishna. They were not. They were not there. The parents did that themselves. So what is their consciousness that’s what they got. So now if you don’t get someone with high consciousness, it’s not easy to deal with, then you have to have a special school for that. But if the parents know they dropped out of the heavenly planets. So Krishna says in the Gita, they were born in the family of devotees. Like that but there’s different grades of devotees. You may have attracted a blue fringie (?). I mean there are devotees that are right out on the edge and they have died. You know it’s natural to a comeback and this isn’t the only time, Lord Caitanya’s movement has been going on for a while. So there maybe those dropping, you know coming back from later and you catch someone around the edge. Someone doesn’t accept authority. Don’t accept the GBC, he doesn’t like management ISKCON, these kind of things that administration, Prahupada all these of course but whatever the other side. Now if that person leaves the body then where is he going to take up his devotional services again? Is a great pure unalloyed devotee and all that? Now he’s going to continue, Krishna says you go up to 50 percent? You start the next life at 51. So they still don’t accept authority, still don’t want to work in a management structure, still can’t relate to other devotees, still have material attachments, don’t really like to dress like devotees, act like devotees listen to devotees, anything like that. So that’s the kind of kid if you’re not careful you can get. They’re available. On a list of kids available, they’re on the list.

So if you want Prahlada Maharaj then you have to be like Hiranyakasipu. Now one may laugh but now we should look at this which is very interesting You have Diti and Kasyapa. Kasyapa is the son of Brahma. So he is a Brahmarsi and Diti is very qualified, they have a demon for a son. Then their demon son, like the best of the demons. You can’t there’s no one more demoniac like Hiranyakasipu. He was like the king. He has a pure devotee as a son. We should look at this. This is very sensual for these points, cause we’re just talking on parents. Then as we discussed Diti and Kasyapa. Diti was very interested in position Her sister Aditi already had children. She was very anxious that her prestige was not as much. So she was totally interested in prestige, position. So laabh puja pratistha – Distinction, adoration, profit, that’s all in that same category. They’re all connected. So whichever angle you come from, the other one is there. She is very much interested in that, the wealth of the children, the prestige that comes from it , the respect that will come from that, from the others in the family and all those things. So that was her motive why she wanted a child. She wasn’t interested in sense gratification. She was just wanted that. And Kasyapa told her, you wait a few minutes since it’s sandhya now, I’ve just finished my yajna and all that and this is Shiva’s time, so as soon as the sandhya is over then from that time on the scriptures say this is proper. In other words he is professing that they follow what the Gita recommends that you plan having children. Then that’s dharma. But she was basically saying, no, I want right now. You know we can see, the child now that means you know 24 minutes earlier I’ll get all the prestige and everything I want. I don’t want to wait that 24 minutes. So then because he is not so controlled in his senses like Kardama therefore he fell prey to this lust. So he was attracted by the senses and by the thought of spending that time comfortably with the wife. So that the wife was into Hiranya and the husband was into the kasipu. So he, I mean in other words you get exactly what you pay for. You know you don’t get something else. So the kid is exactly the combination of consciousness of the parents, not something else. It won’t be something else.

Now when they ask well okay now you have this demoniac father. How did He you get Prahlada? This is an interesting story. This is told in the Nrsimha Purana. That the first time Hiranyakasipu went out to do his austerities with his brother Hiranyaksa, so they went up to the mountains and started their austerity. And then the demigods became very worried. Because already there’s such big demons and making so much trouble that they were thinking if he does austerities, he’s going to become even more powerful and more trouble. So they’re thinking what to do and none of them can do anything. Cause already he’s been more powerful than them, just they’re afraid of them. So then they’re all sitting and discussing and Narada Muni says, don’t worry I’ll take care of it. He tells his friend Parvata Muni. I think it is Parvata who went with him. Then they went down to where they were performing austerities and they both took the forms of sparrows, little dinkie bird and they flew over to a branch that’s within ear shot, quite close to Hiranyakasipu but not too close. You know they’re not fools and they sat down on the branch and they ruffle their feathers a little bit, sit their nicely and then they start chanting at the top of their voices “om namo narayanaya,, ….” And if you heard the sparrows they have a very annoying piercing voice. Their chirp is not sweet. It’s very piercing. So you can imagine them chanting as loud as they can “om namo narayanaya,, ….” right next to Hiranyakasipu So then he breaks his meditation, sees these two birds there, tries to shoo them away. So they just move a little bit up on the branch, situate themselves. Start chanting again. Then he gets real angry now and you know he’s a big controller. He couldn’t get rid of two birds and they are chanting the name of his enemy, his life enemy. So then he reaches over, picks up his bows and arrows and goes to shoot, by the time he shoots, they fly away. So he tries to go back to his meditation but now he’s so disturbed with this, he can’t concentrate. So he figures okay, they will go back to the palace, take a few days and then we’ll come back for our austerities. So he and his brother went back down to the palace and then at the palace when he came back and everyone is interested to see him back and he told the story, terrible story of hearing the Lord’s holy name being chanted and then he set about about busying himself in the pleasures of the palace – listening to music, taking good food, drinking and being with friends, just doing anything to forget this terrible experience. But unfortunately he couldn’t forget. It still was just riveted in his mind “om namo narayanaya,,….” and these birds. So then he decided, ok, this didn’t work, so no problem. I’ll spend the night intimately with my wife. Of course I’ll forget all things with that. So then he spent the time and then at the moment of conception, he is thinking of these two birds which is Narada Muni and Parvata Muni, great sages and devotees. And he is constantly in his mind “om namo narayanaya, om namo narayanaya, ….” Like this. So this is his consciousness at the moment of conception. Therefore, Prahlada Maharaj, pure devotee. So this is the point. That’s why Narada Muni later then when the demigods catch Hiranyakasipu ‘s a wife when he went for his second time for austerities. He said don’t worry. This is not a demon. This is devotee. He just knows. And so he instructed Prahlada in the womb and like that. So that is there. Then you have you know you want a result out of the Bhagavatam, it starts with the parents. Then you must have good teachers. The teachers must understand their duties, have the brahminical qualities and they must be able to identify the nature of the student and know how to engage that nature in the Lord’s service properly. And the student has to be prepared nicely by their parents.

You see in India, generally find Indian parents by the time his kid comes to the gurukula they’ve already learned the respect for authority, gentleness in dealing with others, they deal very nicely with compassion to those who are younger than them and they have an interest to learn. Because when they ask questions, some will always answer it., they’ll spend the time with them. So they put a lot of energy into the kid and that kid can give a lot of energy out. They can absorb a lot of energy meaning they can absorb proper channeled energy from authority in a very nice pleasant way. And they are able to give that out to those below them. So that’s this is what happens in the family before the child gets to gurukula. Is the members of the family especially the women they have the full time, the full freedom to give that energy to the kids. And the kids become very powerful, very qualified. very cultured. Then when they come to the school and then now you have something like you’ve taken you know gold ore and made it into gold. The parents have done that. Now the teacher can make the gold and make it into an ornament. They can refine it. So what happens is this they go from the shelter and that relationship with the parents is parental rasa. They go to the teacher now for that shelter and parental rasa. It’s the same rasa but because there’s no bodily attachment therefore the child does not take things for granted. And in the house you just walk in, you get something to eat. You throw your stuff on the floor, your mother will pick it up. You know everything is automatic. It’s an amazing place you walk in the door and everything is automatic. But it’s not automatic, people are there, they’re endeavoring, things are going on, there are so many things happening. And the reason is that is seems automatic because everyone there is trained. Father’s trained, mother’s trained. So therefore, it seems automatic. But now the child will understand that. Means the subconscious principles they take but the conscious they don’t, so they go to the school cause in the school then the teachers make them conscious of what are those principles. What is, actually they become conscious of what is authority, what is their position, what is dealing with those equals and juniors and above. What is, their questioning goes from why is the grass green? and the sky is blue? These things, into inquiring about spiritual topic matters and those activities that you can engage according to one’s varna and asrama in the Lord’s service. So they become that was what was this morning the point of jijnasuh sreyah uttamam that was that meaning. They become inquisitive of it. So all that is done. Then the teacher can take them very far. So when you have all these in place, good student, good child, good teacher then you get the results directly seen in the Bhagavatam. So if something’s wrong in it then rather than throw the system out, Prabhupada gives the example of removing the eye when there’s a cataract. No, you remove the cataract. Is that if there has been problems, is not that the gurukula system doesn’t work. It’s just we don’t work. We’re a problem. We don’t know how to parent the children properly. We don’t know how to raise them. The teacher’s aren’t trained, they don’t know how to teach and the kids aren’t trained. So therefore there’s a mess. The western system isn’t a great alternative. We must, we must understand that all the different institutions and persons who are involved in school mismanagement.

You know abuse cases and all these things and all that. That they weren’t just developed in the recent years just for ISCKON schools The only place where abuse is going on planet is there. It’s going on outside this. So we ourselves being part of the, part and parcel of the western environment we are also influenced by it. So as it degrades, specially we find the glorious American culture, we heard a very interesting point today. English, I think an English gentleman made a point that America’s culture is very unique in the world cause they went from the barbarism to degradation without going to the normal intermediate step of civilization. Right you know, most others the barbarians, they become civilized and then they become degraded. But America just they’re so practical, practical minimalist. That they just, well we see our position now as barbarians, we know the goal the future becoming degraded so why waste time, we go just go straight there. So we you know should not be overly influenced by this phenomena, so we take these things. Only solutions are these Vedic solutions. Of course we have to be practical. How much we can apply, we apply. How much we don’t, we do the best we can. Means it takes time to develop. But unless you have a goal and unless you have a framework or a concept to work with, one won’t get anywhere. It’s not practical. So the most practical is the Vedic. Cause it’s made for the material world. You know, the manufacturer of the material world made the Vedic culture to run it. So they’re both from the same factory. They’re both made by God while the modern things are made by us, by the people. So this is our point, we can either accept that there’s absolute truths and we come in line with these truths or we ourselves dictate what is absolute truth and then we mould the society and culture corp for this.

Back to the Socrates.

That is basically what we’re faced with. The point of do we keep the philosophy and religion together or do we keep the philosophy and make our own religion and therefore we have to adjust the philosophy. This is the bottom line. So for western culture this decision was made some thousands of years back, like the time of Socrates. Like generally when we think of western culture, we think back to the Greeks and we think back to that time. So Socrates was saying, there’s an absolute truth. We must come in line with it. He didn’t know much about it but he knew that it existed. And that we must find the absolute truth and mould our life according to it. And the Sophists said no, we make the rules. What we need now. What is the culture now. We adjust with that now and that becomes our thing. In other words the voice of the people is the voice of God. Vox populi vox dei. So the whole western culture is based on the Sophist philosophy. And you see that’s what’s going on today. You’re modern revolutions, your modern disturbances. It’s all based on that. We set the standards not God has a standard. We have to come up to it. We set the standards because it’s practical. I like this so it’s practical for me to adjust everything around me, so that I can get what I want. Rather than things aren’t going right that’s because there maybe something wrong with me. I have to adjust so I come in line with the proper standard. Then things go right . It’s just a matter of which side you look at it. So we can either accept the Vedic situation or we can accept the Monard the Sophist situation. And that’s basically what we’re left with. So we may say practical this and jump up and down. But it’s nothing new. I’ve heard devotees say that we’re a unique breed, we’re something special, like Maharaj was saying yesterday, – I’m a victim, now I’m special. I was just a face in the crowd. But now I’m the victim, so I’m special. And we victims get together and make clubs and then you know all these things. Like I heard the herpes club. You know when everyone sits around and cries on each shoulder. That we all got herpes. You know stuff like that. So you know we become special because of this. So that is the whole point. I want to make myself special rather than I’m just one ten thousand the tip of the hair and there’s unlimited numbers of us here and I’m just one of them. And if I want things to go right, I have to adjust my life to please Krishna.

Practical is what actually works.

So that is the point. We may say practical this that. But practical is what actually works. And what actually works is Vedic. If anything works in the Vedic culture. I think Maharaj mentioned that yesterday because it’s just a reflection of a little bit left of it. The European, this whole European and Anglo Saxon culture, just a burnt reminisces of the ksatriyas that ran off to Europe and go to middle Asia. You know carouse around there for a while and then make a feel something like invasions and then come in. You know that it seems that the first group was more into just getting it together. They went in all the kelts and all that and established their culture and then the ones who are more wild and woollied even roaming around in the middle mid Asia and then you know came in a few times invaded and then took over. So we have this kind of a culture. So we can take that, So if no excuse me that wasn’t the point. Is so whatever little bits there that work in the cultures it’s because of that Ancient connections or someone’s intelligent enough to look at the material nature to see it works like this and then make the philosophy. The problem if coming from this way, ain’t way of ascending is that you may learn the points but you can’t connect them to God’s points of religion. You figured out function of the material world on the sensual platform or on the economic platform but you can’t connect to the Lord’s, the Lord’s rules of life. You know dharma religion. So in other words it has no culture. You know it becomes a culture of lack of culture. What was your point for going in and making that observation. That’s going to be the basis of that culture. While the Vedic thing is this how to get out of this material nature’s the reason that we have the rules and then that comes down and then comes to the next levels. How to economically developed, how to enjoy the senses. All in line with this so you can get out of here. So these are the two angles that we can come from. Like that coming down from the authority of Vedas and then apply it according to the time, place and circumstance, the best we can or we can remove that and come up from the bottom and be always totally lacking culture. You can’t get beyond that. That’s the point. Modern the speculation cannot come up to that level. By definition you can’t. You know.

Iskcon culture and the panchratrika culture.

Female question: Maharaj you are speaking about iskcon culture the panchratrika culture. And according to it … but it’s like a general observation then the brahmanical devotees to some extent they can maintain it but as soon as you … then when they get so much into service or when they get into family, somhow this sadhana seems to go. It happens very happen. I wonder is it natural just because we are… even though we are not brahmanas by birth or it is just a motivation to join ISKCON… or I don’t know hwat is the reason because it seem to be so commmon ?

That’s good point. I would kind a look at it from a different, I take a different angle. It’s that the devotees have this tendency. I see this in the children in the school of students. Whatever I can do..huh. What is question? The question basically is that when someone comes into the society then we follow this brahminical culture that I was talking about. We see that others when they get into other activities then that are not necessarily brahminical occupational duties. They have trouble with this sadhana and lifestyle. So two aspects are there. One is sadhana and the principles of it so maybe for a brahmana following the sadhana maybe the most easy, just by conditional nature. Even if they’re not devotional, they can follow it by conditional nature. But the point is, this is the culture of someone who is interested in devotional activities. So anyone who has that strong devotional drive, it won’t be a difficulty to follow. They may have to adjust a little bit and do they best they can. But the principles of it will be maintained. That’s the point cause maybe I don’t sit down and chant 16 rounds at one shot without moving. Maybe I chant something here and I’m chanting on the bus and then I chanted some breaks at the work and I chant a little bit in the evening. So it’s not the ideal. But in other words, we can’t necessarily cook everything and offer everything so our outside, we buy a little something, we offer it. You know like that. We don’t have deites but the principles remain.

F: .. love and devotion ….

Yeah so that always remains. But why I would say is the tendencies that it would drop would be, so that’s one aspect is that we have to see the difference between the ideal application of it and the details being manifest nicely and the application of it that the principles are never compromised. Okay, so that ‘s one platform. Then another way, another aspect of looking at I it will be that devotees aren’t understanding that this is our culture and we don’t take this kind of duty, non attached duty very seriously means okay I’m attached to the family, I’m attached to money, I have to get it. So I do that. But because of attachment, not as his duty, because if there is some problems there in the home, the husband and wife don’t get along – now I don’t want to get money. And then the thing gets worse and then there’s more plates flying and more things happening and then it just all breaks up. And then we decide okay, it was that one. I was alright but the other one didn’t, didn’t work properly. So you get a new one. So we don’t value the rules, we don’t value that these are duties and we must do them. And so this is there, I’ll work it in somehow. Just like I have to maintain the house. I have to have money. Somehow another I work it in because it just has to be done. But the point is I only do this as long as there’s attachment. So we have to be learn do to activities because we’re supposed to do them rather than from the platform of attachment. Then a third thing is why also it’s easy to drop the rules. Not understand this is a body of rules and we always have to follow. I’ve seen this in students, is that what you do at a younger age. when you get older you figured that you’re more advanced you will be doing, you won’t be doing things you could do the first day you walk in. So It’s like I’ve seen mixed with adult students with the younger kids children. If the children are able to do it, the adult students think I shouldn’t be doing that, I’m wasting my time, I can do something better. So when you come into the temple, your’re new bhakta, the new bhaktin, they teach you in the first few months to do all these different things, put on your tilaka and all that and now I’m advanced, so it’s not so important. You don’t understand that these are just, the Vedic concept of learning is – nothing that you learn is useless. You know just like in I don’t know if you have here but in English you have things like, you used to do the nursery rhyme is another useless thing. You never use this as an adult really in your life. But you learn them. But Vedic Culture they’ll never do that. What they do is that you take the body of the adult knowledge, figure out what it is you can memorize in simple concepts, that’s given to the youngest kids. Then the technical aspects of it are given to the middle aged kids. And then theoretical and theological aspects are given to the oldest, most qualified. So they break it up like that. But we’re used to a different system. We know what you do in first grade you don’t do when you’re in higher levels. So the tendency is this oh I did that already, Oh yeah, oh that again, you know it’s kind of like, sit down, oh we got to chant the prayer, you know and stuff like that. It’s just like we’ve done that. Let’s move on. But the thing is these are our culture. If you don’t do them, then you have to do something. There has to be some system to remember that this prasadam came by Krishna’s grace. The Lord’s grace I have this. And so you either accept our system. or you sit there and say, say your know whatever it is you say, what the Christians will say about , God give us our daily bread or you say your brouha (?) or you say something. Otherwise you know it’s not proper. But we’ll just sit down and just start eating. There’s no culture there.

Even the common Christian or Jew has more culture than that cause they follow a system, means there’s a regulation, there’s a rule that governs your life and you do that. It’s a duty. I have to recognize God. So the whole idea is to recognize God at all these points. When I wake up I recognize yes I’m servant of Krishna. I chant Krishna’s name. Then I’m servant of Krishna then but how as a servant I serve my spiritual master. I offer my obeisances to my spiritual master. Then I clean the body. The body belongs to Krishna. How Krishna likes it. He likes us to clean our teeth. You know he likes us to take our bath and do all these different things. Then we decorate the body according to Krishna’s culture. Like that so this is the way Krishna. So this is something anybody new can learn. So that is the principle. Those are given first. And then as we go we come to the point of being able to study and understand Bhagavatam. This is for the mature experienced. Means they already know how to put on tilaka and they do put it on. They can taste Bhagavatam. Those who know how to put it on and don’t put it on, they won’t taste Bhagavatam. That’s all. Cause there’s no culture. So the Bhagavatam is showing you how to take Krishna’s culture. Now you’re putting the tilaka and you know how to do it and remembering Krishna. That’s what the Bhagavatam shows you. So first you have to be cultured. Then you can get the full benefit from it. Otherwise you won’t get. So we have to value the culture. Then we get the result.

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17885

Fortunate People (4 min video)
Public sharing their feelings about the Hare Krishna mantra and the devotees!
Key quotes from this video: “To share this beautiful vibration with the streets that Hare Krishnas do everyday is beautiful service to the humanity.”
‘Walking passed them I can’t stop smiling. They are pure joy!”
‘It has attracted deep-thinking people of higher minds.
There must, must be something in its message!”
Source: https://goo.gl/pQ1c02

“Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura adopted many practices that were very unusual at the time in order to attract people. He was especially interested in attracting westerners. At the time India was under the rule of the British and perhaps the British looked down on them as a subjugated people. But, although he was so austere and simple, he dressed in a way that an English gentleman would consider him as his equal.”

Disappearance Day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

Source: http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=10507

If an exalted soul or God descends to this planet and performs activities, in sanskrit it is called lila. The difference between lila type activities and activities of normal humans is that lila is not out of compulsion of the demands of the body and mind rather it is out of supreme independence or adherence to a divine plan. Lila therefore cannot be interpreted within the realms of normal behavior and hence cannot be applied to human beings en masse. In order for us to understand the lila of an individual requires the back up of siddhanta (perfect conclusions) based on evidence from revealed scriptures coming through the mouth of a self-realized soul.

In the western religious order such as Christianity and so forth, there is little to no siddhanta backing the lila of Jesus or other saintly characters. Hence over zealous religionists take the scriptures literally citing evidence of apparent contradictions and fight. This fighting has been going-on since the dawn of these religions. The crusades, inquisitions, jihad, anti-semitism etc are simply a manifestation of the misunderstandings of the activities of saintly people or God and with false prestige/ pride commit offense against contradicting parties. Western religious order does not have the concept of teacher-disciple lineage as they do not believe in self-realization but only salvation through a savior.

In eastern traditions such as Hinduism also we have similar scenarios where the stories of Gods are misinterpreted to suit one's own false pride stemming from a bodily concept of life. Therefore, within the teachings of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan, the stress is given to the need to understand the categorical differences between exalted souls and normal souls. The stress is given to understand the context, and inner meaning behind certain activities. One is advised not to imitate but to follow. So it is essential to have a grasp of this inner meaning or conclusions (siddhanta) coming down to us in the order of disciplic succession. When we recite stories from scriptures to a group of people or make a drama or movie out of it, without the proper siddhanta, merely reciting stories will cause disturbance in society than good.

Hare Krishna

Source: http://servantoftheservant-ananda.blogspot.in/2015/12/lila-vs-siddhanta.html

UK Marathon results: All records smashed!!! 131,340 transcendental books distributed!!!
Sutapa das: We concluded the counting of scores yesterday evening. More to come in, but we have to stop somewhere. Nikhil prabhu and myself went to Srila Prabhupada’s darshan room to offer him the final results. In that transcendental tirtha, Mahaprabhu’s commander-in-cheif looked effulgent and absorbed, ever exuding the purity and potency which drives this movement forward. As Prabhupada glanced over each devotee’s name, I prayed for compassion, conviction and creativity. Aside from serving this preaching mission, I thought, what else is worthy of our energies? This is the family business - the best job in the world - and many devotees experienced that in the last month.
This marathon, as an offering to Their Lordships and Srila Prabhupada in this 50th anniversary year, over 500 devotees together distributed… 131,340 transcendental books!
A historic effort indeed - all targets smashed. Thanks for taking part, giving your heart, and making it a resounding success. Anticipating more transcendental adventures in 2016. 
All glories to Srila Prabhupada! ! !

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17892

Today’s huge THANK YOU must go to one of my oldest and dearest friends Chris Foreman aka Chrissy Boy from Madness.
Chris has been a tower of strength in my life for as long as I have known him and is one of thee most compassionate people I have ever met. Thank you so much for sponsoring this trip to Calais our Chris, you have helped us to turn what was a Mission Impossible to a Mission Possible and fully accomplished.
It’s harsh out there at this time of year and in general, it is a hell on earth for the people residing in this place.
Food For All team managed to offer approx 1,000 people a hot healthy vegetarian meal with fruits, cakes and biscuits, we were also able to supply much needed wood to assist with cooking in the camp and heating but so much more is needed.
This short film will show you how much more needs to be done to assist them as this is not going to go away anytime soon.

Monday’s ‘From Cally to Calais’ team were Food For All Director Parasuram, Matchless Gifts Manager Jennie Matthias, assistants Giordani Di Napoli and Elise. Things we that these people are in dire need of are pots and pans, firewood, wellington boots, gloves and warm socks. For our part Food for All can supply the manpower, time, energy, enthusiasm, food, and some warm clothing. It takes finance to get us out there so if you or anyone you know wishes to sponsor the next trip to Calais then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get in touch with us and let us know…

THANK YOU to everyone involved in making this one happen.

Hare Krishna
Jennie Matthias

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada was known as 'simha' (lion) 'guru' due to his fearless and ferocious preaching. If an impersonalist saw him on the street, the impersonalist would cross the road in fear, or turn off onto another street. Those who didn't, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta would go up to and shake them violently, his huge body towering over them, and say, "Why do you say the Lord has no form? Nonsense offender!" We have already mentioned his birth and some of his early pastimes in conection with his father Srila Bhaktivindoda Thakura, and his 'Guru' Srila Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaja. 

He appeared on February 6th 1874. Father was deputy magistrate of Puri, had been for three years. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur had been concerned that the pure teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would be usurped by unauthorized persons, who were members of 13 apasampradayas and so he prayed for a Ray of Vishnu. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura had started his mission for Lord Caitanya late in life. He was also very busy with his profession. But he wrote profusely, and wanted someone to preach boldly to establish these pure teachings. 

The Padma Purana predicted Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati: a very elevated, pure and learned personality would appear in Purushottama-ksetra to spread the glories of Lord Jagannatha all over the world. His activities would be very unique. 

When he was 6 months old, the Rathayatra was held. The cart stopped in front of Srila Bhaktivinoda's house (which was on the main road between the temple and the Gundica mandira. The cart stayed there for 3 days. On the 3rd day, Bhagavati devi (mother of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati) brought out the child and the 'pujaris' picked him up and put him on the cart. He crawled to the base of Lord Jagannatha, and touched His lotus feet. Simultaneously a garland fell from the neck of the Lord and landed around the child. The pujaris exclaimed that this boy is particularly blessed by Lord Jagannatha. 

The 'Annaprasha' festival (first grains ceremony), first grain taken by children which is usually given when the first sign of teeth are there something like six-months old, so for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati the first grain was Jagannatha Prasada. Vimala devi is offered the 'prasada' after Jagannatha takes; hence his name Bimala Prasada. When during the 'Anna-prasna' ceremony the child is shown the 'shastra' and coins to give some indication as to his nature by what he goes for baby Bimal chose the Srimad Bhagavatam as opposed to the gold coins. 

When he was five family had become senior deputy magistrate: only three of these in all of India under British Raja. Mango incident happened at this time. Never again took ripe mangos. But he took green mango chutney offered by his disciples; this was a favourite of his. 

When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was 7 years old, his father Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura moved to Calcutta, to the "Bhakti-Bhavan" house was building. While digging foundation they found Deity of Lord Kurma. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura gave him his first initiation and the name Siddhanta Saraswati; and initiated his son into the worship of Lord Kurma. He was doing this every single day without missing. Even when he was admitted into school. 

He was a very expert student. However his preference was to study the Vaishnava books of his father. He did just that and studied books of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, but never fell behind in school - he remembered everything after hearing it once. His teachers were astonished, and his father was very pleased. 

As a boy, Bimala Prasada delivered his oldest brother Acyutananda from an offense he'd made in his last life. Acyutananda had a nervous disease, and once became very sick. Bimala Prasada took 'karatals' and chanted the 'Hare Krishna mantra' constantly for 6 days without eating. Then Ramanuja-sampradaya 'tilaka' appeared on Acyutananda's forehead. He said, "I am a Ramanuja Vaishnava. I committed an offense to a Gaudiya Vaishnava in my last life and therefore had to take this birth. Now I am relieved." Then he left his body for dead. 

In 1892, after passing his entrance examination, Bimala was admitted into the Sanskrit College of Calcutta. There he spent considerable time in the library studying various books on philosophy. He also studied the Vedas under the guidance of Prithvidhara Sharma. As a student he contributed many thoughtful articles to various religious journals. However he did not continue with his college studies for long. 

We told this story before, but from another angle; Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had taken initiation from Bipin Bihari Goswami, who came in the line of Gadadhara Pandit, through Janavi Devi. However once when Bipin Bihari Goswami was visiting Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, the Thakura paid obeisances and Bipin Bihari Goswami placed his foot on Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's head. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati saw this and was surprised. He thought this was a dangerous thing for Bipin Bihari Goswami to do. When Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura left the room, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura asked him a question: "You are my father's 'guru'. But do you know who he is?" Bipin Bihari Goswami was taken aback at this 7-year-old's question. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati continued, "My father is a 'nityasiddha', an eternal associate of the Supreme Lord. Do you have sufficient spiritual potency to place your foot on his head?" Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura returned at this time, so the conversation was interrupted. Bipin Bihari Goswami said, "Your son is bold to the point of being rude." Later on, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura found this out and used to tell this story to his disciples. 

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in Krsna-lila is Kamalaman-manjari, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati is his eternal assistant, Nayana-manjari. At age 13 he started higher education. Once Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura returned from Puri with Tulasi and initiated his son into chanting Hare Krsna Mahamantra and he also took 'Nrsingha mantra' initiation, 'ugram bhiram maha-vishnum'.......etc. 

During this time he invented, and developed a shorthand script called 'Vikanta', so much was his genius. 

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, after seeing the wonderful vision of a golden 'mandira', began begging door to door for funds to establish the Yoga Pitha. At 18, Srila (Bhakti) Siddhanta Saraswati entered Capital Sanskrit College affiliated with Calcutta University. Within a short time mastered the 6 limbs of Sanskrit studies: 'shiksha', 'jyotish', 'chanda', 'alankara', etc. 

When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was 22 he left college to avoid taking householder life. He took up work under the king of Tripura. Tripura had been turned to a Vaishnava state by the king of Manipur, who was a disciple of Narottama dasa Thakur. So Srila Bhaktisiddhant Saraswati became Raja Pandit there for 3 years. He retired with full pension, which Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati accepted for a few years and then voluntarily stopped.

Around this time he took initiation from Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji. Srila Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji had been a grain merchant before taking 'babaji'. He'd gone to Vrindavana and did 'bhajana' for a long time. Then he came to Navadwipa. By this time Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had retired and had built a 'bhajana kutir' in Navadwipa (Godruma). He gave Srimad Bhagavatam class there every day. Srila Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji used to come to these classes. Srila Bhaktivinoda told Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati to accept Srila Gaura Kishora as initiating 'guru'. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati approached Gaura Kishora, asking "Please give me your mercy." Gaura Kishora answered, "Mercy is not mine to give. It is the property of Lord Chaitanya Himself. I'll ask Him, and if He agrees, I can give you." 

Second time they met, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati inquired, "Did you ask Him?" "No, I forgot." Third time same thing happened. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati said, "You worship that great cheat, Krishna, Who is cheating everyone. And so you are also cheating me. But if you continue in this way, I will simply give up my life, because my life is useless without receiving you mercy." Then Gaura Kishora das Babaji gave initiation to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati as Varshabhanavi-devi dasa. Then Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati gave up all other activities to chant 194 rounds daily for 7 years. He had a 'kutir' but did not spend the time to repair the roof; he just used an umbrella if it rained. 

In 1897 he started an autonomous Catuspathi ('Sanskrit' school) wherefrom monthly journals entitled "Jyotirvid", "Vrihaspati", and many old treatises on astrology were published. In 1898, while teaching at Sarasvata Catuspathi, he studied Siddhanta Kaumudi under Prthvidhara Sarma, at Bhaktibhavana. By the time he was twenty five he had become well versed in Sanskrit, mathematics, and astronomy, and he had established himself as the author and publisher of many magazine articles and one book, Suryasiddhanta, for which he received the epithet Siddhanta Sarasvati in recognition of his erudition. 

In 1895 Sarasvati Gosvami accepted service under the Tripura Royal Government as an editor for the biography entitled Rajaratnakara, the life histories of the royal line of the independent Tripura Kingdom. Later he was entrusted with the responsibility of educating the Yuvaraja Bahadur and Rajkumar Vrajendra Kisore, in Bengali and Sanskrit. After a short period of time, Siddhanta Saraswati took up the responsibilities for inspecting various ongoing activities in the royal palace for the state of Tripura. However, after finding enviousness, malice and corruption surfacing in every corner of his inspection, Siddhanta Saraswati very quickly developed an aversion to state affairs and gave notice of his intention to retire to Maharaja Radhakisore Manikya Bahadur. The Maharaja approved of Siddhanta Sarasvati's plans for renunciation and awarded him full pay pension. However, after three years Siddhanta Sarasvati also renounced his pension. With his father, he visited many Tirthas and heard discourses from the learned pandits. In October 1898 Siddhanta Sarasvati accompanied Bhaktivinoda on a pilgrimage of Kasi, Prayag, Gaya and other holy places. At Kasi a discussion was held with Ramamisra Shastri regarding the Ramanuja Sampradaya. After this talk Siddhanta Sarasvati's life seemed to take a turn, his inclination towards renunciation increased, and he quietly continued to search for a 'sadguru'. 

When Siddhanta Sarasvati was twenty six his father, understanding the mind of his son, guided him to take initiation from a renounced Vaisnava saint, Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji, who we will now bring into the picture. actually it is inpossible to separate these three especially, anyway we will do our best to shed some light on their all effulent forms. Although it is like shining a candle to illumine the Sun globe. One disciple of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura who wanted to continue the mission came looking for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati in Navadwipa at this time, knowing him to be as powerful a personality as his father. He went around asking the locals if they knew of a sadhu matching Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's desciption, but they all answered, "We don't know of a sadhu, we only know of one madman. We see him moving here and there, crying aloud and sometimes rolling on the ground." So he went searching for him in the jungle next to the Ganga, where they said he sometimes could be seen. Suddenly he heard Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati crying "Krishna Krishna Haribol! Nitai Gaura Hari Bol!" He saw him burst out from the forest and plunge, fully dressed, into the Ganga. He kept on shouting in the water, splashing about. Then he came out. The disciple of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura then approached him, requesting him to come to Calcutta to head up the sankirtana mission there. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati answered, "Sankirtana? Can you not see the wonderful 'sankirtana' mission of Sri Caitanya right here in the holy 'dham' of Navadwipa? Is it not wonderful? Sri Pancha-tattwa are chanting and dancing in ecstacy, surrounded by all their associates. Can you not see this?" Then Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati ran off, again shouting "Haribol" in great ecstacy. As it was sunset by this time, that man took his bath in the Ganga, and mentally renounced the idea of organizing the 'sankirtana' mission. 

But later on, in 1918, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati appeared at his door in Calcutta, in 'sannyasi' robes with 'danda', freshly shaven, and ordered, "Now we are founding a Society, the Sri Gaudiya Matha. Draw up the papers immediately and have it registered. Though he'd arrived at 4 p.m., the work was done before that same afternoon was ended. 

Even before 1918 he decried the 'Jatigosai'/'brahmana' monopoly of giving initiation only to born 'brahmins'. He preached very boldly against them. The 'brahmins' challenged him, "where does the 'Gaura mantra' appear in any authorized scripture as a Gayatri?" (Because the Gaudiya Vaishnavas would take this 'mantra' as a 'pancharatriki mantra' for 'brahminical' initiation.) They said, "Sri Chaitanya claimed only to be a devotee. Why do you say he is the Supreme Personality Of Godhead and use His name in place of authorized scriptural names and 'mantras'?" 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati cited Chaitanyopanishad from the Atharva-veda, discoverd by Srila Bhaktivinode, 19 verses glorifying Lord Chaitanya. In another assembly he directly attacked the 'brahmins' and 'Jati Gosais'. He initiated the movement to take back the teachings of Lord Caitanya from the hands of such unauthorized persons. Srila Vishvanatha, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, his disciple Uddhava dasa Babaji, his disciple Madhusudana dasa Babaji, were all saintly renounced souls: after Baladeva there was no-one to strongly represent the pure teaching of Lord Caitanya and preach them boldly. During Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's time, Gaudiya Vaishnava meant Baul, Aula, Sakhi-Beki, Jati Gosai, etc. who were all degraded. The Vaishnavas got no respect. At this time the shaktas became strong from Rama-Krishna-Vivekananda, and this put further obstructions for the establishment of pure Vaishnava dharma. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati preached against all of this nonsense. 

When Srila Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaj left the planet, the 'babajis' wanted to do the 'samadhi' rites. He'd said he wanted to have his body dragged through the streets by his "disciples". The 'babajis' had gathered to do that, they'd tied a rope around the neck. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati crossed over to Navadwipa from Mayapura and stopped them, saying "None of you are his disciples." Babaji Maharaja had one disciple, that one was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, (in other records it says he only had two disciples, the other was Vamsivata dasa Babaji Maharaja, who was an 'avadhuta'). "I am the right claimant to perform these last rites." They said, "But he was a 'babaji', and you are not." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati answered, "Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji does not come in 'babaji' line. He was initiated by Nimai Chand Goswami, who was a Nityananda Parivat, coming in the line of Lord Nityananda. He received his 'Vesha' ('babaji' dress) from Bhagavata dasa Babaji Maharaja, who is an initiated disciple of Jagannatha dasa Babaji." 

Before Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, from time of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, param-bhakta Vaishnavas would get 'Vesha' (white knee length cloth, 'koupin', waterpot and bead-bag) initiation, not 'tridandi sannyasa'. "Bhaktivinode Thakur also took 'Vesha' from Jagannatha dasa Babaji. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, though 'diksha' initiated of Bipin Bihari Goswami, received 'siksha' and 'vesha' from Jagannatha dasa Babaji. And Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji received 'siksha' from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's line is Bhagavata Parampara, not seminal line." So he challenged them to show that any such line came from Rupa or Sanatana Goswami. As to be a Rupanuga means coming in Bhagavata Sampradaya. Rupa told of Advaita's rejecting His own son Madhusudana because he accepted Lord Caitanya only, but not Lord Nityanananda. "If you are Babajis, then you are fully sense controlled. So the one of you who has not engaged in any illicit activities in the past 1 year, come and do the last rites." No one stood up. "One month? One week? 24 hours?" No one stood up. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati then placed Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Magharaj's body in 'samadhi'. So after finishing with the 'smartas', 'jati gosais', he took on 'Babas'. He would take on and defeat anyone solely to establish pure unalloyed, undeviated Krsna consciousness.

Then in 1918 he opened his first center in Ultadanga Road in Calcutta. He was then 44. Kunjabihari Vidyabhusana (Bhakti Vilasa Tirtha Maharaja) was his main manager and a prominent devotee in the Matha. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati had made a vow after taking 'sannyasa' that he would never touch money. Everything was arranged by his disciples. Many of them wishing to assist his mission took up responsible jobs, e.g. Kunja Babu became a post-master.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati did 'nagara kirtana' with disciples and was invited to programs by the King of Burdwan or the King of Kooch Bihar; everywhere he established Lord Caitanya's teachings as the most excellent spiritual philosophy.

He knew all Vaishnava philosophies most expertly. He brought out books on their 'darshans', e.g. Madhwacharya's arguments against Mayavadis. As well as other Vaishnavacaryas like Ramanuja. In the temple he established in Mayapur he built 4 small temples in honor of the 4 Vaishnava sampradayas. He put the deities of the 4 founder acaryas there; Madhwacarya; Ramanujacarya; Nimbarkacarya; and Visnu Swami.

He started the Gaudiya Mission in the midst of war and national liberation agitation. He was uncompromising in his disregard of such mundane concerns. "The most important thing is to invoke the spirit of devotion to the Supreme Lord; this concern lies far above any material consideration." Many leaders objected, but he continued. In this period the aristocratic young Abhay Charan De (latter known as Srila A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) visited Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati on the rooftop at Ultadanga Road; At this time Abhay charan De was adherent of the national liberation movement, but Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati convinced him in one sitting of the vital necessity of Lord Caitanya's mission over everything else.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's 'sannyasa': happened in 1918. He could have taken 'babaji' but didn't. Many 'babajis' wanted to initiate him, as he'd shown himself to be such a powerful exponent of Vaishnavism (e.g. his 3-day debate with caste 'brahmins' attended by Vaishnava scholars, in which he resoundingly defeated caste pretensions and established the Vaishnava view of 'brahminical' status by quality of work, not birth).

When he gave himself 'tridandi sannyasa' (or more correctly, had taken 'sannyasa' from a picture of Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaj), this was a shock to even his supporters, including disciples of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. The controversy was not over the method of initiation in this instant as some criticise him for. But over 'varnashrama'; they thought he was returning to the 'Varnashram-dharma' that Lord Caitanya had rejected in his talks with Srila Ramananda Raya. But the concern was for nothing, as he was not continuing the bodily 'varna'-and-'ashram' system, but was establishing 'Daivi-varnashrama'.

Srila Prabhodananda, Lokanatha Goswami were great Gaudiya 'sannyassis' of the past. Prabhodananda Saraswati converted a great 'smriti acharya', Gopal Bhatta Ghosh, and gave him 'tridandi sannyasa'. Srila Gadadhara Pandita was also 'tridandi sannyasi'. Without establishment of 'Daivi-Varnashram-Dharma', 'babaji' (supposedly, or with the concept of 'paramhamsa' initiation) will, as it had become a farce.

In this way Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati travelled and preached initially from Mayapura to Vrndavana and challenged the authority of the 'babajis', and others.

Some ritualistic and narrow minded persons found fault, as one can even do with the moon in the sky. "They protested that this was unauthorized." He said, "Everything I am doing can be supported by scriptural reference, but nothing you do can be. You take young boys who don't even know how to clean themselves after passing stool and giving them 'sakhi rupa.' I am giving 'samskara' to reform the fallen souls, and this 'samskar' is the 'Hari Nama', which Lord Chaitanya gave as the 'siddha pranali'. No rules of caste or creed bind this 'Harer Nama diksha."

Then they tried to say that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was not properly initiated in an established line. He disproved this. Srila Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaja was initiated in line of Nityananda, but he (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati) did not accept that line. In fact Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati rejected that line from Nimai Jatgoswami (line of Nityananda, Jahnavi, Bir Chandra Prabhu. Rather Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura stressed Bhagavata Sampradaya, and didn't care for material or seminal lines.

Therefore in his pranams the term, 'Rupanuga virrudhapa siddhanta', 'any conclusion against the precepts of Rupa Goswami is to be rejected immediately' is to be found.

In his life he founded 64 Gaudiya Math temples throughout India. For his further preaching and attempts to spread Krsna consciousness beyond the bounds of India, as his father had desired too, he sent three disciples to west, and he gave ten westerners initiation, mostly from young intelligent men from Germany and a couple of elderly women in St John's Wood in London, by sending sannyasis to Germany and England(Rupa Vilasa dasa. 1988. "Raya of Visnu".).

During this time Abhay Caran De (Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) met Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada. He was a young man - a 'khadi' clad follower of Gandhi's national movement. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada, seeing this bright faced young man before him, convinced him of a necessity to preach Krsna consciousness. "In this world there is no shortage of anything, only Krsna consciousness." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta also requested young Abhay Caran De, "You are an intelligent young man. If you ever get money, print books in the English language." Our Srila Prabhupada was so impressed that he took this as his life's mission. Some eleven years later he took diksa initiation from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, who told his other disciples who printed the Sajjana Tosani newspaper on his order, "Whatever Abhay Caran writes, print it." He obviously knew his worth.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada was always eager to reveal transcendental knowledge. Whenever he found an eager listener he would go on speaking, not knowing bounds of time and space. Disregarding requests of his medical advisers, up to the last moment, he continued to deliver the message of the Supreme Lord to all people. This was his only purpose for his appearance in this world. All his tours were highly successful, though not without events because many of his disciples were not from orthodox 'Brahmin' families. Though they wore the sacred 'yajnopavitra', 'brahmin' thread of the twice-born, many so-called 'Brahmins' objected. Shops would refuse to sell their goods to Bhaktisiddhanta's 'brahmana' and 'sannyasi' disciples, even though according to the 'Pancaratrika' system of 'Vaisnava agamas', they were all properly initiated as 'brahmanas' and 'sannyasis'. His whole life was spent in a mood of loving devotion to the Lord. He was fully devoted to spreading the teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The numerous publications and commentaries on the works of the previous 'acaryas' establishing the Lord to be 'saccidananda vigraha' is quite evident of this fact.

In 1936, whilst residing in the holy dhama of Jagannatha Puri at the age of 62, he left this mortal world to again return to the loving pastimes of Sri Sri Radha Krsna in Brajaloka the topmost planet in the spiritual sky.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati used to "install" the printing presses that were acquired by the Gaudiya Matha for literature publication.

He gave many a heavy class on detachment from material life. Later, while writing, he observed a monkey stealing bananas from the godown, which was just next to his study. He ran out with a stick to chase the monkey away, overturning his writing table and spilling ink on the pages of his manuscript. When the cook saw this, he inquired, "Today you told that one must be detached. How to understand your behaviour just now - for two bananas you jumped from your writing to chase a monkey, and even ruined your work in the process?" Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati answered, "These bananas belong to Srimati Radharani, because they are to be used in Krishna's service."

He went to take a bath in a 'pukkur', and when he was seven steps above the surface of the water, the water rose seven steps and touched his lotus feet. Then all the 'brahmacaries' jumped in, to bath in the 'caranamrta'.

At the Yoga Pith temple was a cook who was very passionate. He fought with every devotee there except for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta himself. Then he died. After the funeral ceremony was completed, the Gaudiya Matha 'brahmacharies' were sitting together and talking about how much trouble they'd had with the cook - each was telling stories about the fights he'd had with him. Suddenly Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati appeared at the doorway and said, "He always washed his 'dhoti' nicely and was very clean." From then on nobody dared say anything negative about that cook. Although Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was renoun for his aggressive, and even 'chopping' attacks on the 'mayavadins' and other such offenders, he always showed true Vaishnava respect and appreciation for all of the devotees.

When one 'mayavadi sadhu' was preaching his oneness philosophy in the presence of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and his disciples while they were riding on a train from Calcutta to Puri, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta ordered his 'brahmacaries' to feed the 'sadhu' some rotten mangos which had been donated to his party earlier (they were ripe when donated, but got rotten because Srila Bhaktisiddhanta would not take them due to his vow, and therefore no disciple would take either). After being obliged to eat four mangos, that sadhu fell at Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's feet and swore he'd never preach the philosophy of exclusive undifferentiated oneness again.

His 'kirtana' procession (with him personally at the head) would stop all traffic wherever it went in Calcutta; in Puri even the brahmins accepted his 'nam-sankirtana' as fully authorized.

He stayed in Puri in his last days. He lectured for some days at the place known as "Goverdhana" in Puri, and before and after his talk he would recite prayers praising Goverdhana Hill and requesting shelter in some corner there. He would sometimes comment to his disciples, there's not much time left. They could see something was going to happen soon, but weren't sure what.

He got very sick ten days before he left his body. Two days later he wrote his last instruction: "Somehow we must become qualified to attain the shelter of Rupa and Raghunatha. Always chant Hare Krishna, always preach Krishna consciousness, and stay away from Vaishnava-aparadha. In this way become qualified to get the shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Raghunatha." Two days after that he wrote his letter to Srila Prabhupada (Abhaya Charan De).

All the big intellectuals of Calcutta had a memorial gathering upon hearning word of his death. One (an atheist), in eulogy, said: "Who will we argue with now?"

The full life story of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja Prabhupada can be found in one very nice book which is a compilation and summary study of many books of the time on the life of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, and is entitled "A Ray of Visnu," as was prayed for by his father before his taking birth. This book is available through ISKCON, and was published by Rupa Vilasa prabhu, a disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's father, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, had a vision one night on the other side of the River Jalanghi, opposite his house. In the open fields he saw a huge city made up of all Vaisnavas from all over the world. There would be Americans, Australians, Canadians, Africans, Chinese, Russian, English, every nation's devotees dancing together in transcendental kirtan and chanting "Jaya saci-nandana gaura hari." Astrologers predicted that a person of great saintly character, full in all Vaisnava qualities, who could build a house in which the whole world could live peacefully, would appear to set back the flow of Kali Yuga. We have seen after the passing of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada, the Gaudiya Math underwent some difficulties. Although Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura had requested his disciples to come together as a 'Governing Body' to push on the mission after his demise, a couple of prominant disciple instead took the helm against his wishes which changed some of the intrinsic foundation of the Gaudiya Matha at that time. In relation to 'siksha' (instuctions) having precedence over 'diksha' (initiation) as a means of proper succession there came a splintering of the Gaudiya Matha because of neglecting the 'gurus' instructions. Since this time major valuation set-backs have been observed (A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Adi Lila Chapter 12 text 8., The Asara son's of Advaita Acarya.......!)

Following the instructions therefore provides a strength in continuity of the overall success and chastity of the followers in the line's mission or purpose. On examination we find some intrinsic differences in the rhythm, movement and systems tha eventuated after this point in time despite 'all being disciples'. In many instances the disputes have to date remained unresolved. 'The Gaudiya Matha and Its Missions', today has many lines and sub-lbranches coming from the disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada.

At this time (the end of the 1930's) the saintly figure emerged, who was to become notably one of the great 'acaryas' in Vaisnava history, although he remained in humble circumstances, preparing himself for the mission that would not only fulfil his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada's order, but would fulfil the desire of all the great Vaisnavas in the Brahma-Madhwa-Gaudiya Sampradaya and gain the praise and amazement of other 'sampradayas', religionists and scholars alike. That person is Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, known by his loving followers as Srila Prabhupada.

We are presently awaiting a wonderful book by H.H. Bhaktivikash Maharaj which he has researched for the last ten years by speaking to the last of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswatis' disciples who are remaining in their old age on the planet, on the life of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada.

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A Ray of Vishnu http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?p=893 February 7th, 2007 Editor On the fifth day of the dark lunar fortnight of the month of Govinda [corresponding to February 6th, 1874 A.D. by the western calendar], at 3:30 in the afternoon, Bimala Prasad Datta, later to be known as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, made his appearance in Purusottama Ksetra [Jagannatha Puri] in the state of Orissa, not far from the temple of Lord Jagannatha. He was the fourth son of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Sriyukta Bhagavati Devi, and at the time of his birth all thirty-two bodily symptoms of a maha-purusa, a great personality, were pointed out by an experienced astrologer. Furthermore, the boy was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck like a Brahmin’s thread. The astrologer commented at his birth, “I have done many horoscopes in my life, but I have never before seen such a horoscope filled with all the signs of a great personality. This child will become world famous as a brilliant teacher of life’s ultimate goal.”

When the child was six months old, Lord Jagannatha’s Rathayatra Festival was in procession, and the cart stopped in front of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s house for three days. Following the instructions of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhagavati Devi brought the child before the cart and an offered garland fell from the neck of the Lord, encircling the boy. This was taken as a sign of special favor by all present. The grain ceremony was observed on the cart at this time and was done with Jagannatha prasada. When the boy’s vocational inclination was tested, he immediately embraced the Srimad-Bhagavatam, indicating his future as a preacher. Therefore, from the very beginning of his appearance, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura exhibited all the signs of an exalted, eternal associate of the Lord, who had descended in answer to Srila Bhaktivinoda’s prayer for a “ray of Visnu” to help him spread the Krsna Consciousness Movement.

Although family lineage may be ultimately irrelevant when considering the appearance of an eternally liberated associate of the Lord, still it is interesting to see what sort of family is blessed with such a transcendental personality. As history shows us, Lord Brahma himself appeared in the family of Muslims as Srila Haridasa Thakura, and there are other instances of exalted persons taking birth in humble families. Still, as a point of interest, we may hear something of the lineage of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

His family line traces back to Lord Brahma from the descendants of Chitragupta, and they are known as the Brahma kayasthas. Bharata is in the 87th generation from Chitragupta, Bharadvaja is the 88th. After him came Angira, and after him appeared Brhaspati. In the 149th generation of descendants, Purusottama, son of Sivadatta, went to Bengal upon the summons of the King of Bengal, Adisura. Purusottama’s youngest son took sannyasa and became famous as Kanaka Dandi. In the 7th and 8th generations of Purusottama’s family Binayaka and his son Narayana Datta both did ministerial work for the king of Bengal. In the 15th generation from Purusottama, Raja Krsnananda, the king of Kheturi (in Bengal), and the father of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, the great Vaisnava acarya, appeared. Raja Krsnananda was also a great devotee and was personally favored by Lord Nityananda Prabhu. The 7th generation from Raja Krsnananda saw the appearance of Madanamohana Datta, who was very famous in Bengal and Calcutta for his spiritual qualities. His great-grandson was Anandachandra Datta, and his son was Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, whose 4th son was Bimala Prasad. The name Bimala or Shri Bimala Devi refers to the para sakti (internal potency) of Lord Jagannatha, so his name literally means the mercy of the internal potency of the Lord.

Bimala Prasad stayed in Jagannatha Puri for ten months after his appearance and then journeyed to Bengal by palanquin on his mother’s lap. He grew up in his early years in Ranaghata in the District of Nadia, hearing about Krsna from his mother. When he was a small boy, perhaps two or three years old, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura brought some ripe mangoes from the market. Bimala Prasad took one to eat, saying, “This is mine.” Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura got up and said in a grave voice, “What is this? New fruit has come into the house. It has not been offered to Giridhari and you have taken it first? Remember, new fruit is to be given first to the Lord. Without giving the first share to the Lord, nothing is to be taken.” The child was very repentant and exclaimed, “Oh, what evil thoughts I have had! Throughout my whole life I shall not eat these again. This is the right punishment for one ruled by greed.” He made the promise and observed it throughout his whole life. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada comments on this incident: “Whenever we offered him mango he said, ‘No, I am an offender. I cannot take mango.’ He was thinking that I have offended [Krsna] in my childhood by taking the mango of the Deity. So this is the characteristic of the acarya. They teach by their life’s action-one should be so much determined. A child took the mango, there is no offense, but he took that vow.”

Education

When Bimala Prasad was seven years old, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was constructing the Bhakti Bhavan in Calcutta at Ramabagana. During that construction, a Deity of Lord Kurma was unearthed. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura ordered his son to begin regulated worship of that Deity.

From the very beginning the boy used to hear the preaching of his father with rapt attention. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, as well as his audience, were amazed to see how a small boy could hear the topics of Krsna consciousness with such total absorption. By the age of seven he had committed the entire Bhagavad-gita to memory and could wonderfully explain the verses as well. Later on he was trained in publishing and proof-reading at Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s printing press in connection with the Thakura’s well-known spiritual journal the Sajjana-Tosani. At the age of eleven, Bimala Prasad toured the various places of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s lilas with his father.

Bimala Prasad had an eidetic memory. Whatever he would read once he could later recall with perfect clarity. He was trained in mathematics and astrology at the Sri Ramapura School, and he achieved such astounding scholarship that he was eventually awarded the title Siddhanta Sarasvati by his tutors, Pandit Mahesh Chandra Chauramani and Pandit Sundar Lal.

During this period he used to attend the Sunday weekly meetings of Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s Visva-vaisnava-raja-sabha and hear the Thakura lecture on the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu of Srila Rupa Gosvami. He was never known to study his school assignments, and while sitting at home, would replace those assignments with studies of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura’s Prarthana, Premabhakti-candrika and other devotional literatures. However, whatever questions he was asked by his teachers, he would immediately answer, and he got excellent results on all of his examinations.

He used to debate everyone he met on all sorts of subjects. No one who argued with him was ever able to defeat him. Just as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had defeated a great scholar, Kesava Kasmiri at a young age, so similarly Bimala Prasad once, during his later college days, debated a scholar named Panchanana Sahityacharya, the disciple of Vasudeva Sastri, a very famous professor of that time on topics of astrological calculation. The debate was held in the home of Sri Rajendra Chandra Sastri and judged by him as well. After some discussion that scholar had to accept defeat. In fact, the scholar became so mortified that he could not check the calls of nature. After that, everyone was reluctant to debate him for fear of being defeated.

At the age of eleven, while in the fifth class, Bimala Prasad invented a type of short-hand writing called Bicanto, and it was during this period that he took a tour of the holy places with his father.

When the boy was in 7th class (equivalent to today’s eighth class), and about 13 years old, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura brought tulasi beads for his son from Jagannatha Puri and gave him the name of Hari and a Nrsimha mantra to chant which he executed very faithfully, along with the worship of his Kurma Deity, according to the instructions of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

At the age of sixteen, while his schooling continued, the books of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura formed the serious content of his studies. He also began writing books on astrology, and during this time he formed the Cirakumara Sabha or the August Assembly amongst his friends with whom he met regularly at Calcutta’s Beadon Square. There they used to discuss topics related to religion, and the members were required to take a vow of celibacy. The Society was formed with the purpose of giving people a chance to remain seriously engaged in worship of the Lord and detached from family life. But Bimala Prasad was the only one who observed his vows immaculately.

In 1892, at the age of eighteen, he took an entrance examination and entered Calcutta’s Sanskrit College. As before, he paid scant attention to the prescribed books, but he found the time to read all of the philosophical books contained in the library.

During his college holidays he would discuss the Vedas with the scholar Sriyukta Prithvidhara Sharma. Although Siddhanta Sarasvati had become learned in all six branches of Vedic knowledge: siksa (pronunciation), kalpa (sequences of Vedic sacrifice), vyakarana (grammar, especially the use of word roots, inflected words and sentences), nirukta (meanings of inflected words and word roots), chandah (recitation of Vedic mantras) and jyotisa (astrological and astronomical calculation), still to study the vyakarana, the grammatical branch of the Vedas, he approached the Pandit Prithvidhara Sharma. The Pandit praised him for his achievements and encouraged him to study the Siddhanta Kaumudi throughout his life. Siddhanta Sarasvati replied, “My life is for the single-minded cultivation of the teachings of Sri Caitanya, not for the cultivation of grammar. I have only studied the Vedas, the branches of the Vedas and their related parts in a secondary manner.”

In 1895 he left the college, as he was very eager to execute his worship of the Lord and to remain free from the pressure to enter family life. He stated in his autobiography:

“If I remain studying with careful attention at the College, then extreme pressure will be brought upon me to enter family life, but if I am considered to be foolish and inefficient, then no one will put such an inducement upon me for becoming so engaged. By this consideration, I left the Sanskrit College, and, in order to maintain my life for the service of Hari, I was desirous of getting an honest occupation which I could perform with the intention of earning a humble income.”

During his student days he also wrote essays on spiritual topics for various magazines and strongly condemned various religious malpractices which had become prominent in society. At the Bhakti Bhavan in 1897 he established a catuspathi (a small academy) called Saraswati Chatuspati where many learned persons from Calcutta attended his lectures and discourses on astronomy. He also published the magazines Jyotirvid and Brihaspati and other old astrological texts like the Surya-siddhanta, a famous and highly regarded Sanskrit astronomical treatise.

Here he also established and edited the Bhakti Panjika, an almanac. He was well-acquainted with both the Eastern and Western branches of astrology, but naturally favoredthe Vedic one. He was offered a chair in astronomy at the University of Calcutta by Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, but Siddhanta Sarasvati declined it, thinking it an impediment to his spiritual life. At the request of Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji he composed the Sri Navadvipa Panjika, a Krsna-ized almanac in which the months, lunar fortnights, days, lunar days, stars, etc.were all given names of Visnu. He did not spend very long in his astronomical pursuits, however, and soon dedicated himself fully to the worship and distribution of the teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

He was also employed by the royal kings of Tripura from 1895 to 1905 in various services. Initially he accepted the post of editor, under Panchasrika Maharaja Virachandra Manikya Bahadur, and he edited a history of their family entitled Raj Ratnakar. During this time he studied all of the principal books in the Royal Library. A year later, however, the Maharaja departed from this world. The succeeding king, Maharaja Radhakisore Manikya Bahadur entrusted Siddhanta Sarasvati with the instruction of the sons of the king in Bengali and Sanskrit. The king also requested him to put an end to various cheating activities of persons who were misappropriating royal wealth. Siddhanta Sarasvati quickly stopped this nonsense much to the delight of the king. He assisted the royal family in different ways until 1905. At that time he requested to be given leave, and this was granted along with a full pension, which he accepted for some time and then later discarded.

During this ten year period many other significant events took place as well. In 1897 he began to strictly observe the vows of Caturmasya, including the practice of cooking for himself one preparation daily, taking the food from the ground and lying on the earth without any bedding or pillow. In 1898 he toured Benares, Prayaga, and Gaya with Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and discussed philosophy with persons in the line of Sri Ramanujacarya. In 1899, Siddhanta Sarasvati published a number of articles on spiritual topics in the magazine called Nivedana, a Calcutta weekly.

Initiation

Siddhanta Sarasvati had been engaged in regularly chanting the maha-mantra and a Nrsimha mantra given to him by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura when he was in the Seventh Class, and he had been worshiping the Kurma Deity (discovered in laying the foundation of the Bhakti Bhavan in Calcutta) since the age of seven. Without fail, he had been executing that worship and chanting since his boyhood, and from 1885 onward he had received special training in printing, editing, etc. at the press at the Bhakti Bhavan.

Thus, the young man was a very qualified candidate for becoming the disciple of a guru. Many pseudo-gurus (mantra-peddlers) of the sahajiya category wanted to have him as their disciple to increase their false prestige. After all, Siddhanta Sarasvati was a magistrate’s son, he was a strict renunciate from birth, he was learned and deeply attached to the scriptures. But Siddhanta Sarasvati was not interested in such pretenders.

In 1898, after Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had constructed his residence in Navadvipa Dhama at Godruma Dvipa and called it Svananda-sukhada-kunja, and sometime after the discovery of Lord Caitanya’s birth site by the Thakura and Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji, Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja arrived in Navadvipa Dhama to see the site of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s birth and to hear the discourses of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. When he arrived, he was singing in ecstasy. His only possessions were the tulasi mala which he wore around his neck and another set he kept in his hand for counting. He kept a few books, such as Narottama dasa Thakura’s works: Prarthana and Prema-bhakti-candrika.

Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji had been performing bhajana for many years in Vrndavana. He was extremely renounced and was the disciple of Bhagavata dasa Babaji, the disciple of Jagannatha dasa Babaji. He was not well-educated and had been a grain-merchant in his previous existence, but it was widely known that he was a liberated paramahamsa of the highest caliber in the area of Vraja-mandala.

At the time of his arrival, he was wearing a cap made of tiger skin and was carrying a basket of various items and materials for his service. He spotted Siddhanta Sarasvati and offered him four or five pieces of knotted rope for chanting rounds, a tilaka stamp with the initials for Hare Krsna, the tiger skin cap and paraphernalia for worship. Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja had received the basket and cap from his spiritual master,

Bhagavata dasa Babaji. Siddhanta Sarasvati was very attracted to Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji’s lotus feet at first sight. He was later to comment with great humility:“I have been busy within this material world trying to bring sense gratification within the grasp of my hand. I have often thought that by obtaining the objects of sense gratification, all my short-comings will be fulfilled. I often attained different facets that were indeed very rare, but my own personal short-comings were never mitigated. In this material world I have had the association of very high-class, aristocratic persons. However, seeing their various deficiencies, I could not offer them praise. The most merciful Supreme Lord Sri Gaurasundara, seeing me in such a lamentable condition at such a time of adversity, gave permission to His two dearmost devotees Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji to grant their blessings to me. Because I was always intoxicated with a worldly false ego, wanting again and again self-appraisal, I deprived myself of my own real benefit. But because of the influence of my previous births’ activities in devotional service, I came into the association of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who was the form of my spiritual well-wisher.

“My spiritual master [Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji] would go and visit Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and many times would reside with him. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, out of his compassion for other living entities, pointed out my spiritual master, Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji. Upon seeing my spiritual master, the extent of my worldly false ego diminished. I knew that all the other living entities who have taken the human form of life were also fallen and low like myself. But by gradually observing the spiritual character of my master, I realized that only a Vaisnava could reside in this material world and be of exemplary character.”

At Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s urging, the young man approached Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji for initiation in the month of Magh of the year 1900. Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji expressed reluctance to accept him, knowing Siddhanta Sarasvati to be a great scholar. Finally, when Siddhanta Sarasvati pleaded with him for initiation, Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji replied, “Mahaprabhu will be asked. If He gives permission, your desire will be fulfilled.” On another day Siddhanta Sarasvati approached him again and asked, “What was Mahaprabhu’s order?” Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji replied, “I forgot to ask.” The third time Babaji Maharaja was requested, he replied, “I asked. I did not receive the command of Mahaprabhu.” Siddhanta Sarasvati then stood up, his heart breaking, and said, “You [Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Gaura Kisora] are both worshippers of Krsna, the Crest Jewel of Debauchees, therefore why will you take mercy on someone dedicated to ordinary morality like me? In His pastimes as the exemplary teacher, Mahaprabhu has given instructions on the worship of Krsna, the Crest Jewel of Debauchees. Therefore, why will He give the command to take mercy on me? But, karuna na haile kandiya kandiya prana na rakhibe ara-If there is no mercy, weeping and weeping, I can sustain my life no more. If I do not receive your mercy I do not see any need in holding onto life.”

After thus indicating his readiness to take his life, Siddhanta Sarasvati began to cry. Srila Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji’s heart was melted to see this, so he told him to take bath in the Sarasvati and then come back to him. At the time of initiation, he gave Siddhanta Sarasvati the name: Sri Varsabhanavi-devi-dayita dasa.

This pastime bears a striking resemblance to the relationship between Narottama dasa Thakura and Lokanatha Gosvami-[Lokanatha Gosvami was also an extremely humble and renounced paramahamsa who was reluctant to take any disciples, considering himself unqualified, but finally accepted Narottama dasa Thakura as his only disciple.] It shows how eager and determined one must be for the mercy of a pure devotee of Krsna.

In Puri

In 1898 Siddhanta Sarasvati had accompanied his father to Kasi, Prayaga and Gaya and had gathered many facts about all these holy places, which were later incorporated into his commentary on the Caitanya-caritamrta called Anubhasya. In 1900 he published a book called Bange Samajikata, which described the origin, location and philosophy of various societies, castes and religions, and he expounded the clear superiority of Lord Caitanya’s doctrine of inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference. In March he accompanied Bhaktivinoda Thakura to Orissa where they visited the temple of Ksira-cora-gopinatha at Remuna, and also saw Bhubaneswar and Puri. While in Puri, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura decided to build a place for bhajana just near the samadhi of Srila Haridasa Thakura, and so Siddhanta Sarasvati stayed and served his father in various ways, assisting him in establishing his Bhakti Kuti by the sea.

At that time the Maharaja of Kasimbazar was camped nearby, and he came regularly to hear from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Siddhanta Sarasvati. Siddhanta Sarasvati was giving regular classes from the Caitanya-caritamrta in the presence of his father, and many listeners were assembling just to hear it. The famous Radharamanacarana Dasa Babaji used to come at that time to hear the discourses.

Later relations with the Babaji were broken because of two deviations by him:

1. He introduced the chanting of Bhaja Nitai Gaura Radhe Syama Japa Hare Krsna Hare Rama. This was introduced with the idea of stopping the audible chanting of the maha-mantra. The first problem with this was that the concocted mantra had the faults of siddhanta-virodha-an opposing conclusion and rasabhasa-conflicting rasas. The second problem was that trying to suppress the audible vibration of the maha-mantra was against the desire of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as established by His activities and teaching, as well as by the teachings of the Gosvamis. Rupa Gosvami had written in the Prathama Caitanyastaka, text five: hare krsnty ucchaih-”Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chants the Hare Krsna mantra in a loud voice ?” Therefore, Rupa Gosvami, an eyewitness to the activities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and recipient of His full blessings and empowerment for establishing His mission, personally testifies here that Lord Caitanya did not confine the maha-mantra to inaudible muttering, but loudly proclaimed it to all.

2. Radharamanacarana Dasa Babaji also introduced the Sakhibheki doctrine by dressing his follower Sri Jayagopala Bhattacarya as Lalita Sakhi. This was against Mahaprabhu’s teaching as well, as an ordinary jiva was being worshipped as though he were an expansion of Srimati Radharani. Both Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Siddhanta Sarasvati instructed the Babaji to give up these fallacious practices, but he refused. Siddhanta Sarasvati began to preach publicly and strongly against these misconceived teachings, proclaiming that the maha-mantra is for both japa and kirtana, and that kirtana is ultimately superior to japa. This created quite a controversy in Puri with many taking the side of the Babaji out of misplaced sentiment and others siding with Siddhanta Sarasvati.

During this period Siddhanta Sarasvati was engaged in the compilation of a Vaisnava encyclopedia which contained an explanation of Vaisnava terminology, brief biographies of great Vaisnavas, an introduction to the books of the Vaisnava acaryas, a description of the Vaisnava tirthas, the various conclusions of Vaisnava sects. etc. He called it Vaisnava-Manjusa-Samahriti, and it was later published in four volumes. A Vaisnava scholar commented on it by saying, “This work is only possible for a supra-mortal, a great personality like Prabhupada Srila Sarasvati Thakura. Even if 25 to 30 scholars and 10 to 15 men taking the treasury of a king began the work, they would be unable to edit it.” The work of compilation was begun in Puri and continued as Siddhanta Sarasvati made his preaching rounds of Sri Mayapur-dhama, Sri Jagannatha Puri-dhama and Sri Vraja-dhama. He also studied the books of Srila Madhvacarya and Srila Ramanujacarya and published some of them in Bengali. He also published biographies of these and other Vaisnava saints in the Sajjana-Tosani magazine of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

He toured South India in 1904 and again in 1905-places like Tirupati, Srirangam, Singhachal, Raj Mahendry, Madras, Perambadur, Conjeveram, Kumbhakonam and Madurai. While on tour he collected all the information about the rites and rules of Vedic tridanda Vaisnava sannyasa from a Ramanuja tridandi swami at Perambadur. Wherever he would go in his travels he would lecture, write and debate the learned panditas of the day. He soon acquired such a reputation that his name would strike fear in the hearts of his philosophical adversaries. All bogus cults and sects were doomed in his presence.

However, in Puri, Siddhanta Sarasvati experienced such severe oppression and censure due to his preaching against the rhyming kirtana and sakhibheki doctrine of the popular Radharamanacarana Dasa Babaji that finally Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructed him to go and perform bhajana near the Yogapitha, the birthsite of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Nama-Bhajana In 1905, at the age of 31, he began his great vow, following the example of Namacarya Haridasa Thakura, of chanting three lakhs of names (192 rounds) per day. He determined that at the rate of 300,000 names daily, it would take about 9 years to complete one billion names. He resided in a grass hut at the Yogapitha for four years, and in February of 1909 he built a cottage near the Yogapitha at Vrajapattana (town of Vraja) on the site of the house of Sri Candrasekhara Acarya, the uncle of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This place is considered to be non-different from the banks of Radhakunda. There he remained,

uninterruptedly executing his chanting. He strictly followed his vow and observed Caturmasya, cooking rice (which had been dried in the sun) in ghee and eating it from the floor in the manner of a cow. He would take rest lying on the ground, never using any pillows and constantly chant and study the scriptures. Seeing his renunciation, his Gurudeva, Srila Gaura Kisora Dasa Babaji Maharaja said, “I observe that the renunciation of Sri Rupa-Raghunatha is manifest in my Prabhu.” He used to address his disciple as “my Prabhu.”

In commenting on this period Srila Prabhupada states, “From childhood he was a strict brahmacari, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja. And he underwent very severe penances for starting this movement: world-wide movement. That was his mission.”

When the roof of his kutir became broken, rather than take time away from his chanting, he would simply use an umbrella when it rained and go on chanting. Sometimes, he had to go to different places, but he continued very strictly and completed his vows always.

In 1906 Sri Rohinikumara Ghosh, (the nephew of Chandramadhava Ghosh Mahasaya, a former justice of the Calcutta High Court), had a wonderful dream, and as a result approached Siddhanta Sarasvati for initiation. The boy had gone to stay with some Bauls, a so-called guru and his consort who he was instructed to address as “Mother” and “Father”. These persons were actually sinful rascals in the guise of devotees, but while he was in Mayapur, he had the good fortune to hear from Siddhanta Sarasvati for a long time. He returned to the place of the Baul, and feeling ill, he lay down to rest. In a dream, the Baul took the form of a tiger and the consort, the form of a tigress. They were about to devour the unfortunate lad who was trying his best to take shelter of Lord Gaurasundara. At that moment Siddhanta Sarasvati arrived on the scene, chased the tigers away, and began to lead him to Mayapur. The boy awoke at daybreak and proceeded to Mayapur where he heard discourses from Siddhanta Sarasvati for several days. Finally, he begged for initiation from his savior so feelingly that Siddhanta Sarasvati took mercy on him.

Prior to this, Siddhanta Sarasvati had never given initiation to anyone. His character was such that he never regarded his disciples as his disciples, but he used to see them as being that which was received from the lotus feet of his guru. He used to address them as “Prabhu.” In his address to the Gaudiya Math’s first Vyasa-puja, he has addressed his disciples as, “My friends, rescuers from danger.” He also wrote, “If a Vaisnava does not do the work of a guru, then the spiritual Vaisnava lineage will stop. Again, if he does the work of a guru, then he becomes a non-Vaisnava. For if a guru thinks, ‘I am a guru.’ then the first ‘u’ letter in the word guru disappears (the word becomes ‘garu’ or cow). A real guru does not make disciples and thus remains a guru. Here we see Siddhanta Sarasvati giving a very strong warning about entertaining the conception of overlordship or being the master of anyone. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada observed that when he offered obeisances to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he used to return, “Daso ’smi”: “I am your servant.” And in a lecture in 1973 on the occasion of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s Disappearance Day observance, Srila Prabhupada in the same ecstatic

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) is widely regarded as the foremost Vedic scholar, translator, and teacher of the modern era. He is especially respected as the world's most prominent contemporary authority on bhakti-yoga, devotional service to the Supreme Person, Krishna, as taught by the ancient Vedic writings of India. He is also the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada, as he's known to his followers, translated and commented on over eighty volumes of the Vedas' most important sacred bhakti texts, including the Bhagavad-gita—a concise handbook for understanding the purpose and goal of human life—and the multi-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam—an epic biography of Krishna, Krishna's avatars, and His many devotees throughout the history of the universe.

Srila Prabhupada's own spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, was the leading proponent of Krishna consciousness in India during the early part of the twentieth century. He specifically taught the philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the divine avatar who revived Krishna-bhakti all over India in the 1500s. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta first met the young man later known as Srila Prabhupada - in Calcutta in 1922 - he urged him to preach Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's message of Krishna consciousness throughout the English-speaking world.

After forty years of struggling within India to carry out his guru's order, while maintaining family and business responsibilities, Srila Prabhupada boarded a steamship bound from Calcutta to New York City in 1965. At age sixty-nine, with forty rupees and a trunk of his Bhagavatam commentaries - the first ever in English - his aim was to introduce "India's message of peace and goodwill" to the western world. During the last twelve years of his life, Srila Prabhupada would inspire thousands of Westerners and Indians to devote their lives to Krishna consciousness, launching one of the fastest-growing spiritual movements in the history of the world.

Many scholars and professors who met him and became familiar with his work continue to use Srila Prabhupada's books as standard university texts, and regard him as a genuine, realized, and scholarly teacher of bhakti. His authoritative yet down-to-earth presentation of Vedas continues to inspire a worldwide audience.

With the help of his students, he founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). ISKCON is popularly known as the "Hare Krishna" movement, due to its members' widespread practice of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra in public. Srila Prabhupada intended ISKCON to facilitate the association and education of bhakti-yoga practitioners, and his followers continue to spread that mission.

Only in Vrndavana is Krsna fully manifesting his pure transcendental nature which is based only on loving exchange and nothing else. It is not based on any sense of duty. Krsna is only purchased by pure and unalloyed love. To follow a sense of duty is the lower platform of devotional service. Vaidhi-bhakti – it is the platform where one is still materially conditioned and then one takes shelter of rules and regulations.

The higher manifestation of devotional service is devotional service based on pure love, when are contemplating, when we are hearing about these unique qualities of the residents of Vrndavana and we see how much they desire to please Krsna! Everything is done to please Krsna. This awakening in us of some desire to also please Krsna is a big change because for our whole life, we have simply been trying to please ourselves! Everything we ever did was to please ourselves. So to come to that state of pleasing Krsna, is the spirit of loving devotional service.

In the beginning, we serve according to rules and regulations and then gradually, attachment to serving Krsna will develop. In this way, serving Krsna according to rules and regulations transforms as attachment to Krsna develops. To develop attachment to serving Krsna is our aim, mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu (Bhagavad-gita 7.1).

Sometimes, we see devotees who do not find a service. They try this one. They try that one but they just cannot seem to get absorbed in any service; nothing captures them. This is a misfortune. Whenever we are given service, we should take that service and wholeheartedly with dedication try to develop that service as nicely as possible by making some special effort. It is not just, “Okay, this is my service.” No, “I’ll try and do it especially nice.” This is the point where attachment will develop.

But if one simply mechanically engages in prescribed duty then the service may stay dry. So this eagerness to do service especially nicely is what will make the difference in our lives. That is where attachment to Krsna and to that service begins to develop, where one starts to feel, “This is my service. It is mine!”

Source: https://www.kksblog.com/2015/12/my-service/

The Harinama Ruci devotees are back in Australia traveling to different cities to perform their wonderful kirtans.

On Christmas day in Sydney they went with other devotees in the area to famous Bondi Beach where thousands of holiday makers celebrated by joining the kirtan on the beach.

Source: http://www.ramaiswami.com/harinama-ruci/

The following is an excerpt of the book: Yamuna Devi – Life of Unalloyed Devotion

Dinatarini Devi Dasi: Yamuna and I had spoken about the devotees of the Chowpatty RadhaGopinatha Temple so often over the years that in a sense our young friends felt they knew them already. Yet, nothing can prepare one for the actual experience of being in the company of Radhanath Swami and the sincere and dedicated devotees there. We traveled by train, with the addition of Amala Harinama and Nadia to our group, and were received with such warmth and enthusiasm in Mumbai that it was both heartwarming and overwhelming. Because of her natural humility, Yamuna did not like to be distinguished or set apart from others, and she often commented that as much as she appreciated and respected the Chowpatty devotees, it was also difficult to be there because of how much they served and honored her. Of course, they follow the example of Radhanath Swami, who regularly welcomes guests and Prabhupada disciples to the temple with lengthy encomiums. Yamuna could not exalt that quality of Radhanath Swami enough—that he exemplified the importance of respecting Vaishnavas and taught his followers by his example. Yet, when she was the object of that respect, she was uncomfortable with it. Though always reluctant to speak, Yamuna could not refuse a request of Radhanath Swami, and she eloquently expressed our appreciation to the assembled devotees.

Yamuna: It has been two years and eight months since being here with you in Radha-Gopinatha Mandir. And I can say that every day since I left, I have appreciated your company very deeply. And Radhanath Swami is so dear in our ashram. We live in a very tiny corner of Prabhupada’s legacy, called Saranagati, British Columbia. And I always say that it is one of the most inhospitable places for pilgrims to visit; we are a full, 100% no-facility zone. It is the antithesis of what this glorious place is. But nonetheless, we feel deeply connected to you on another level that doesn’t have anything to do with facility.

I don’t know how many times we have shown the film The Simple Temple to pilgrims that come into our ashram. Last year we had only a thousand who came for various kirtans and programs, and a good number of those saw that film, and we glorify you so much by our words, and are inspired by you so much. So on this pilgrimage to India, we have so much gratitude that we were able to come here again. And as Bhakti-tirtha Maharaja said, we come here for the juice, to get the juice to spread this juice more in other places in the world. And that is in the form of each and every one of you, in terms of sanga.

The love that we have for the brah­macharis is just immense. When I am outside the temple and I see the brahmachari laundry blowing in the wind, it looks like jewels to me, in the crown of Chowpatty. And the grihasthas here are like none in the world. And in the center of it all, under Srila Prabhupada’s powerful presence, is Radhanath Swami. Everything here is Radhanath Swami’s energy, his potency, his purity, and that is unique on the whole planet.

So because of our affection for him, he asked us to speak. Of course, I immediately said no, and gave many reasons why I wouldn’t. But I have attended the last three classes here, and when you have a chance to listen to this kind of Krishna Consciousness, something has to change. All of the fear I have of public speaking has to take second place to honoring Radhanath’s Swami’s request. And the fact is that I don’t speak in public. Even when I was with Srila Prabhupada, I begged him not to ask me to speak…??. So Dinatarini prabhu and I, when we were thinking about what would be appropriate to share with you, we thought of mercy. Mercy is the embodiment of this temple. This is a place of mercy.

During the visit, Radhanath Swami kindly accompanied our group to the Bhaktivedanta Hospital—something Yamuna had wanted them all to experience. As expected, the youth were awe-inspired at seeing the murti of Srila Prabhupada, hearing his lectures and bhajans over the intercom, and seeing the genuine care and service mood of the Vaishnava doctors and staff. At the time, Jayapataka Swami was recovering at the hospital, and we were invited to a kirtan and luncheon with him. It was a memorable experience.

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17875

Dear Devotees, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. 

Homemade prasadam for devotees when visiting Mayapur, delivered to your doorstep. 

*** Lunch prasadam cooked in Ayurvedic ghee. Lightly spiced, easy to digest.

Six days a week - Tuesdays off. (2 subjis, salad, daal, rice and 3 chappatis) 

Rs 150/- normal plate and Rs 200/- large plate. Ekadasi Rs 200/- normal plate and Rs 250/- large plate. 

*** Soup for dinner - delivered by 6pm. Rs 60/- 

Selection of snacks, made to order for your sangas/gatherings/weddings/special occasions. Minimum order 12 pcs. The following is a small sample. Customized menus available. 

- Samosas made with spring roll type wrappers enclosing a green pea filling - Rs 30 each
- Samosas made with spring roll type wrappers enclosing a potato filling - Rs 30 each

- Paneer tikka kebabs - Rs 50 each 
- Spring rolls - Rs 30 each 
- Dhokla garnished with fresh coconut, with a sweet tamarind chutney 
- 9' round tray - Rs 250 

*** Fresh Shrikhand in various flavours 
- Strawberry, Orange, Honey and Fig (Rs 580/kg) and Pistachio Saffron (Rs 800/kg) 

*** Carob cakes made to order. 9" round, double layered cakes with 
- caramel and almond filling, with fresh whipped cream and carob butter-icing - Rs 1350/- 
- carob buttercream filling and topping - Rs 900/- 

Kindly send me a SMS on 98319 56298, with your order details, as well as your address LATEST by 8 am on the morning prasadam is needed (or preferably the day before). Deliveries will be made by 2pm. 

Please note that your order is only confirmed when you receive a reply from me. 

Kindly DO NOT send me an email in the event that I do not receive it in time to process your order. 

Thank you. 

Your servant, 
Prema Manjari Dasi

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.10.9-11 during the morning program.

“We were new to Krishna consciousness and we were new to India at the Ardha Kumbha Mela in 1971. A man came to our camp saying that he chants Hare Krishna and follows the regulative principles and we were very impressed to meet him. He also said that he had seen Krishna. We went to Srila Prabhupada and explained what the man had said and Srila Prabhupada was appreciating him. But, when he heard that the man had said that he had seen Krishna, then he said, ‘He may be a pretender because in our mood we don’t say that we have seen Krishna. We are in the mood of separation, that, ‘Where is Krishna?’ We are searching for Krishna; he radhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-suno kutah. And that mood is very purifying.”

Source: http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=10486

Haribol, AGTSP May Lord bless you all more than He already has.

We want to start Bhakti Yoga Anonymous Twelve Step programs wherever there are devotees interested. I am in South Africa and there is some interest here and in Peurto Rico.

We have adapted the Alcoholics Anon twelve steps and have permission from their World Services Head Quarters to go ahead with our program. 

By Lords mercy we have also compiled and written some pre-amble readings, which we can print and preserve in laminate plastic and post. If you have experience in Twelve step meetings, then leading and getting invovled in Bhakti Yoga Anonymous meetings will be very easy. My book called Heal Addiction with Bhakti Yoga and Stay High forever is very relevant for meetings, reading and attracting new non-devotees to the Lords mercy as we know it. Another related book is called Godliness Love and sexuality, the Bhakti Yoga Perspective, which contains more kshatriya type of regulation than abstention philosophy, not for bramacharies.We can post copies to those who want to buy it. 

We have created a facebook group called Bhakti Yoga Anonymous, please send join requests and ask other interested people to join - this forum can help us co-ordinate better. 

Srila Prabhupadas mercy can further infiltrate the consciousness of the planet in this systematic way. 

Please pray to Lord Nrsimhadeva for success and protection for the program and ourselves. 

Yours in service 
Gouranga-das 
South African.. 
Earth Community Foundation

The yuga-dharma for this age is kirtanad eva krsnasya (Bhag. 12.3.51): kirtan of Krishna’s holy names. Thus it is important and relevant to teach people (in ISKCON and society in general) about kirtan.

Over a period of three months the course will be facilitated by qualified kirtaniyas. The course covers the history, theory and practice of kirtan (singing, harmonium, karatals and mrdanga).

Vision statement

The Kirtan Course prepares students for a genuine kirtan experience, which they can have again and again and also impart to others.

New video is online.
We are accepting registrations for 2016.

Source: http://bhaktivedantacollege.com/events/kirtan-course/