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Since Prabhupada's visit to New Zealand in 1973, Tusta Krsna Swami had left ISKCON and was heading up his own group outside the jurisdiction of the local temple. Adamant that he would neither move back in the temple nor work co-operatively with ISKCON, he had given up the sannyasa dress and grown his hair.

However, Tusta Krsna had recently arrived in Melbourne and had visited Prabhupada a couple of times. Srila Prabhupada had expressed his appreciation for Tusta Krsna's service, especially his time spent in Bombay and his opening of the Auckland centre. Prabhupada had been kind and encouraging to him, gently coaxing him to again take up the role, and dress, of a sannyasi.

In the evening, Tusta Krsna again visited. He had been making genuine attempts to take Prabhupada's instructions to heart and had cut his hair short. Prabhupada appreciated Tusta's attempts but didn't let up in his preaching to bring Tusta back to full spiritual health. Tusta Krsna sat with a few other devotees as Prabhupada spoke about the need for following rules and regulations.

Spiritual purity and strength, he explained, were the results of surrendering to the order of the spiritual master. If one did not surrender, and did not strictly adhere to the rules and regulations, then the chanting would take a long time to bring him to the perfectional stage. Prabhupada recommended that although in all circumstances the chanting should continue, proper conditions should also be there. He gave an example: If one ignited a fire from dry wood, the fire would blaze immediately. If the wood was moist, however, it would only produce troublesome smoke.

"So pure devotional service is the flame. All other things are smoke. You must get the flame. Otherwise your business will not get done. So, naturally, we fan when there is smoke, phat-phat-phat. As soon as flame comes, there is no smoke. So again fan it, let the flame come. Then everything will be all right. Otherwise be satisfied with the smoke. You are cooking with smoke for three hundred years." The devotees laughed at the humourous exchange.

Srila Prabhupada proceeded to tell an amusing story.

"People are generally inquisitive to see some yogic magic, so one day a rich man approached a yogi and asked him: 'What have you learned about yogic perfection?' The yogi replied that he could, in the severest winter season, dip himself into the water at night and practise his yoga. The rich man asked him how long he could remain in the water and he answered, 'All night'.

"The rich man said to the yogi, 'If you can remain in the water overnight in the severest cold, then I shall give you such and such presentation'. So the yogi agreed and he did it, and in the morning when the rich man came back, (either he had no money or he did not want to honour the agreement), he declined to pay the yogi. The rich man said to his one adviser, 'What shall I do?' His adviser agreed, 'No, no sir. You cannot give the money.' The rich man asked why, and his adviser answered that the yogi had actually warmed himself from a lamp on the roof of a temple some distance away from the lake."

Prabhupada explained that in India, during the Karttika month, one of the Vaisnava principles is to mount one akasa-pradipa on the top of the temple. A bamboo tripod is placed on top of the temple roof and on the top of the tripod is a lamp.

At this point, Prabhupada explained, the rich man and his adviser told the yogi that he was not eligible to claim his prize because he had used the heat of the lamp to tolerate the cold, even though it was three miles away. "The yogi was a poor man," said Srila Prabhupada, "so what can be said?" Prabhupada continued his story.

"The rich man had a second servant. So the yogi appealed to him, 'See, I took so much trouble and he [the rich man] did not pay me anything.' The servant of the man told the yogi: 'So don't worry. I shall see that you are paid.'

"Next morning, the second servant was asked by the rich man to accompany him on an important business mission. The rich man had already advised the servant that he should be ready to go at ten. So at nine o'clock, a question came from the rich man via a message as to whether the servant was ready. The servant sent a message back to the rich man, 'No, just now I am cooking. Then I shall finish my cooking, take my meals and then we shall go.'

"After some time, another messenger came and inquired, but the answer was still the same, 'I am cooking and the cooking is not yet done.' More time passed. Eventually the rich man himself came in a very angry mood. 'So why are you making me late? Why did you not come?' The servant answered: 'I am just cooking. As soon as my rice is finished, I will take and then come."

"The rich man was furious: 'Where are you cooking?'

'Here,' answered the servant, indicating a pot of rice on top of three tall bamboos with a fire a very large distance from the pot. 'What kind of cooking is this?' the rich man asked. The servant answered, 'No, there is heat. It is going on'."

The devotees laughed along with Srila Prabhupada. "The rich man was very angry: 'How have you done this? Such nonsense!' The servant answered, 'No, if the temperature from the lamp on the roof of the temple could protect that man who was in the water all night, why won't it be cooking my rice?'"

Prabhupada summed up the story: "Then the rich man could understand that this is the reply. So that man [the yogi] was paid. So this kind of progress, cooking, three miles above a pot on a little fire, it will not act. There must be proper adjustment of cooking. Then you can cook food and eat. A little smoke or a little fire, and three miles away the cooking pot -- in this way cooking is a useless attempt. One must be serious to cook. There is a method how to cook. If you don't adopt that method and you cook in your whimsical way, you will never be able to eat. If you say 'I shall cook in my way', and if you adopt that process, will it help? Na sa siddhim avapnoti na sukham na param gatim."

It was clear that the story was particularly directed to Tusta Krsna Swami. The man "cooking with smoke three miles away from the pot" could not expect to enjoy a meal in the near future. Similarly, Prabhupada was clearly reminding Tusta Krsna Swami that if he chanted without following the standard rules and regulations, then the result, the ultimate goal of the chanting, pure love of God, would be a long time coming.


- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu