Remembering Srila Prabhupada - First of all guru-puja - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree

First of all guru-puja

When we returned to the temple Prabhupada greeted Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Partha-sarathi and then mounted the vyasasana for guru-puja and class. He noted the absence of Pradyumna and inquired where he was. When we informed him that he was doing his puja, worshiping his newly-acquired salagrama-sila, Prabhupada was not at all happy. "First of all guru-puja," he said with annoyance. "Tell the nonsense. First of all guru-puja."

For class, which was short, he spoke from the first verse of Bhagavad-gita. Because most of Lokanatha's men are not fluent in English, he spoke in Hindi. First, Prabhupada condemned the foolish commentary that portrays Kuruksetra as a symbolic representation of the body. He said Kuruksetra is still there, just a few hours from Delhi.

He gave a nice example to explain why Kuruksetra, a holy place of pilgrimage, was chosen for the fight. "In our villages, if there is an argument, everyone says to go to the temple because previously no one would tell a lie in a temple. Therefore dharmaksetra. They have gone there to fight; they went there to dharmaksetra. So before Bhagavan, how they can speak any lie?" Dhrtarastra knew that the Pandavas were the real kings but due to some politics there was now a dispute, but the fighting was to be held at the dharmaksetra.

Srila Prabhupada ended the class with a reminder that we should not interpret the text but we should take it as it is spoken in order to get the full benefit.

- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu

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