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Speaker: HH Bhakti Vinoda Swami
SB: 5.5.18
Date: 11 Feb 2018
Mayapur Dhama
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam today Canto 5 Chapter 5 text 18

Verse

gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt
pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt
daivaṁ na tat syān na patiś ca sa syān
na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum

Translation: 

One who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a father, a husband, a mother or a worshipable demigod.

Purport: 

There are many spiritual masters, but Ṛṣabhadeva advises that one should not become a spiritual master if he is unable to save his disciple from the path of birth and death. Unless one is a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he cannot save himself from the path of repeated birth and death. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna. One can stop birth and death only by returning home, back to Godhead. However, who can go back to Godhead unless he understands the Supreme Lord in truth? Janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ.

We have many instances in history illustrating Ṛṣabhadeva’s instructions. Śukrācārya was rejected by Bali Mahārāja due to his inability to save Bali Mahārāja from the path of repeated birth and death. Śukrācārya was not a pure devotee, he was more or less inclined to fruitive activity, and he objected when Bali Mahārāja promised to give everything to Lord Viṣṇu. Actually one is supposed to give everything to the Lord because everything belongs to the Lord. Consequently, the Supreme Lord advises in Bhagavad-gītā (9.27):

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi
 yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
 tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam 

“O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me.” This is bhakti. Unless one is devoted, he cannot give everything to the Supreme Lord. Unless one can do so, he cannot become a spiritual master, husband, father or mother. Similarly, the wives of the brāhmaṇas who were performing sacrifices gave up their relatives just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. This is an example of a wife rejecting a husband who cannot deliver her from the impending dangers of birth and death. Similarly, Prahlāda Mahārāja rejected his father, and Bharata Mahārāja rejected his mother (jananī na sā syāt). The word daivam indicates a demigod or one who accepts worship from a dependent. Ordinarily, the spiritual master, husband, father, mother or superior relative accepts worship from an inferior relative, but here Ṛṣabhadeva forbids this. First the father, spiritual master or husband must be able to release the dependent from repeated birth and death. If he cannot do this, he plunges himself into the ocean of reproachment for his unlawful activities. Everyone should be very responsible and take charge of his dependents just as a spiritual master takes charge of his disciple or a father takes charge of his son. All these responsibilities cannot be discharged honestly unless one can save the dependent from repeated birth and death.

Lecture:

Hare Krishna! I have been charged with the responsibility to sum the leadership sessions and also to give the final cap on the Bhagavatam, on this very wonderful day, the last day of the ILS. I may not necessarily be the most qualified person to do that. I have many seniors, elders, my gurus all are present here so I seek their blessings so that I may be able to be a nice medium to transfer the wonderful realisation in the purports of Bhakti Vedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada ki jay!

Interesting sloka that I have been given, where there is a waring been given do not occupy any of these positions, don’t become a spiritual master, don’t become a father, don’t become a husband, don’t become a mother or worshipable demigod, if you cannot take your dependents back home back to Godhead, direct them back to Godhead. This is the real leadership sutra from the Bhagavatam. Here very clearly it is mentioned that unless you are devotee you cannot be a leader. We can’t say this outside in this secular world but that’s what real meaning here. Take somebody back home back to Godhead is the real meaning of leadership. Leading means taking somebody from a start point or of a some point by taking them to another destination. Point A, Point B destination to B from A, leading everybody from here to there. But leadership is a hot topic. Everybody is talking about leadership and in the world outside everybody is leading people to material success, sense gratification wealth, power, name, fame this is what leadership is all about in the world outside. But we know from the pages of the Bhagavatam that these all are temporary and they are not really going to sustain you. So Bhagavatam is saying, really leadership means opening up a person to the possibility of him being reinstated to the original position back to Godhead.

ayi nanda-tanuja kiṅkaraṁ
patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau
kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-
sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya

This is the destination, “na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ” people don’t know that this is the destination, this is the end going back to the Godhead. So in other words, Srila Prabhupada crafted the society to actually do no small jobs, do no small accomplishment, like leading a country or going up to the moon and putting a flag there or any of these things. His whole vision was to take everybody to Godhead, a very very lofty vision.

We must just understand what leadership in ISKCON means. Guiding everybody back to the Supreme destination past everything else that everybody achieved in the past, in the history of the world. Going back to godhead that is what this movement offers. Back in India, in South India we have many places where people tell you, you can go to US and study, you can go to UK and study you can go to Europe and study here it is I will give you the visa, I’ll teach you how to do that, we’ll take you to another place, education. But here Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada has set up an amazing educational institution, you get inside there you don’t need visa fee, you don’t need any fee, entry is free, entry is free and on the outside the exit portion of it, you go back to Godhead. This is his mission and he keeps repeatedly saying that if you chant Hare Krishna, if you observe the regulative principles if you listen to these instructions given, then you go back to Godhead that is the guarantee. So this is a very lofty mission. Leaders, it is mentioned here should be devotees and devotees should become leaders and world needs these types of leaders.

So the point is that everybody in ISKCON has got a great opportunity to lead anybody and everybody else who is there in their domain, and bring them in touch with this great society this great educational institution. Not only that, even if you are dud you don’t know anything, you don’t have money, you are not wealthy, you  don’t have any type of possessions, if you can walk into the international society for Krishna Consciousness with a little faith “adau Shraddha” and you can become the most fortunate. “dadami bhuddi yogam tam yena mam upayante te” even intelligence is given to you but we don’t test your IQ when you come, in we don’t check your certificates when we come in. In India back there even for the small kids to get into the Kindergarten and they have got an IQ test and they are shivering, the mother is trembling, the parents are trembling, a hope he makes it and the child has to go through all sorts of tests, psychological tests and then he is, the person says that I think your son has got a little attention disorder, we don’t want to take him. We want to take students who have got very good IQ because the success of our institution depends on your iQ, we don’t teach anything much, we don’t want teach anything much so we want to get the guys who have best IQ and we can publish that 100% passes, placements like this, etc. and we get name and fame based on your IQ.

But in iskcon you can walk through, you can be the biggest dud who doesn’t know anything and you can come out of other side most intelligent, go back to Godhead. This is the educational institution of Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada. What a great offer to the whole world, making you intelligence, “dadami bhakti yogam tam” so this institution delivers people back to Godhead and we can see that happening every day. People are leaving their body surrounded by devotees chanting “Hare Krishna” and they themselves chant “Hare Krishna” and leave their body, what a glorious institution, doing the highest welfare to humanity. This is Prabhupada’s institution. So being leaders in that institution is great prestigious position, not everybody is getting that opportunity.

Caintanya Mahaprabhu and all the great acharyas down the line are waiting for you to lead people into chanting the holy name, to lead people into reading Srila Prabhupada books, to lead people into the association of devotees and make them very fortunate. People tell me that I am a preacher, I am preaching. I tell them, no, I am in the business of making people fortunate, that’s our business. We give people the greatest fortune when Prabhupada’s disciple once asked Prabhupada, how is it Srila Prabhupada that just a year back I was in the gutter completely drugged, drunk and I didn’t know anything what a life I was leading. Look at the transformation in me now, just can’t believe it I come  up for Mangala artai, I chant hare Krishna and I eat only  prasadam, associate with devotees, I distribute books, I read sastra, amazing transformation. He was himself thinking about it, how is this possible. He went up to Prabhupada and said how? Srila Prabhupada looked at him with eyes wet and told him, I brought you good fortune, it’s me who brought you good fortune.

So we become fortunate by associating with Bhakti Vedanta swami Prabhupada, his institution and its followers. So to be leading in that institution is a great privilege. Therefore we should take these instructions very seriously. These are not labels, they are not titles to become a guru, to become a father, or become a mother, they are not just ordinary titles. May be somebody would have wanted to read this sloka, “GBc na sa syat TP na sa syat zonal secretary na sas syat, sankirtan leader na sa syat”.

Titles, are not what we should be after. We should simply be interested in actually deriving and getting those qualifications simply by an attitude of service sincerely serving Krishna and then the title will automatically come and sit on you. We don’t try to fit inside the title and fill up the title, that is the material world.

“prasaha sikarasto pi kakaha kim garudaya  te”, the crow also sits on the “Garuda stamba” and “kaw kaws” but it doesn’t become Garuda, because it sits on the Garuda stamba and makes a sound. To be Garuda takes something else, it takes years of devotional service, yugas of devotional service, purification and then gradually you render that particular service of chosen by the Lord.

See, although there are positions these positions have occupied bear with a very solid responsibility. The question of responsibility and authority, somebody is simply after some authority, so that he can have control, that’s what happens in the material world. But responsibility and authority go hand in hand. You get authority because you are a responsible person and you will responsibly render your duties in that position of control.

Control is giving to you and you need it so that you can control somebody from his diversions and give him good instructions and lead him back to Godhead. Control those persons who actually affects society wrongly, detrimentally, you need control, you need power, but you have to use it carefully, responsibly. Therefore tyring to have authority without responsibility is what is the modern trend. Trying to do certain things,, occupying certain positions, but don’t render the job description that comes out of it. So Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada by his example has taught us how to be very responsible in rendering our duties.

Everybody is naturally a leader. First of all we should lead ourselves deeply inside we should be leaders of ourselves, controlling the mind, performing our sadhana very scrutinisingly, reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, taking these instructions and following these instructions, they are not ordinary instructions. These are great life sutras we should not just be giving lip service to them, we should actually be performing according to his instructions.

You see, there is a history in India of the great king Vikramaditya. Vikramaditya was a very great king in the history you can see, and all of a sudden in his palace as he was sitting down in his palace with his ministers and subjects and discussing something, a huge rakshasa, man eating rakshasa turned up there, dripping with blood holding skulls in his neck and hands and huge deadly weapons. He said my dear king I have come here with a particular request from you, since you are the king. He threw a bunch of skulls that randomly hit the base of his asana. I wanted you to tell me how to choose a good skull and if you didn’t I will come and ravage this whole place and you will have a heaps of skulls to contend with. Then he just walked off.

 Vikramaditya was puzzled, known to be a very wise king and what should I do? What should I do? Now the ministers were all stunned, the subjects were all stunned, what’s going on? Rakshasa disappeared, I will come back tomorrow. One of the ministers said. Don’t worry my dear king, I think I know how to do this. You know how to do this? Tell me what it is? I’ll think about it and tell you tomorrow. But tomorrow this rakshasa is coming, I don’t want to hear tomorrow, want to hear it now. No king you take rest, I can assure you, don’t need to worry. He was one of the smart ministers. So the king passed a sleepless night wondering, wondering, Oh my Gosh I have to put all my faith in this minister of mine, but something tells me I can’t put my faith in him. He passed a sleepless night.

In the morning he came to the palace, to the hall and all the ministers assembled and behold the Rakshasa appeared there. He said, have you got my answer? The king just looked at the ministers. That minister rose up and said, he told the rakshasa, that skull through which the ears of that skull through which you can pass your rod through and it comes out through other ear, as a useless skull, you can throw that away, if you pass a stick through this and comes out through this you can throw that skull away, and that skull you can drive the stich through the ears and into the mouth and out that about second level, Ok if you want you can take that. But that skull, my dear king and rakshasa, you can drive through the ears down the throat into the heart that is the best of the skulls, you should choose that O’ rakshasa. Rakshasa, just bend down took his skulls and left. He didn’t do anything.

And the king said what’s the meaning of that? What did you tell him? What language did you use? How did you send the rakshasa away? Then the minister said my dear king, you give the instructions and those instructions if they are followed through the ears and let out through the other ear, then that’s the useless person. You know in North India if you know Hindi there is a joke that Bhakti Vinod prabhu says that iskcon means “Iskcon se sunkar iskcon ke bahar nikala” as a joke. Instruction given by Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada is in his books, the bhagavatam’s instructions, they are not meant for us to hear and then it’s Ok and walk off dusting your backside, we are supposed to internalise it.

And the second one, he said that instructions that goes through the ears and comes out through the mouth, just as lip service, I read a lot of things, I get to know a lot of things, so that I can blah blah, speak a lot. “veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥ.” They know the scriptures fully, they know the vedas fully, they can chant to glorify till your face turns black and blue. But nothing goes inside at the end of it they are back to normal, just a conditioned soul. That’s ok at least you paidd respect to the scriptures you speak it a little bit, but we are supposed to do more than that.

When those instructions actually go through your ears, they reach your heart “hrdaya granti” is broken, the knot in the heart, attachment is dissolved and Krishna bhakti is embedded inside and then you render devotional service to Krishna out of the great feeling of love, that, is the right way to take instructions. That’s the right way to hear bhagavatam, that is the right way to hear the instructions of the founder Acharya, internalise them, think about that experience that.

uttamaś cintitaṁ kuryāt

prokta-kārī tu madhyamaḥ

adhamo ’śraddhayā kuryād

akartoccaritaṁ pituḥ

[SB:9.18.44]

Bhagavatam mentions “uttamaś cintitaṁ kuryāt” that disciple, that person, that son, who listens to the instructions of the father and knows it even before he talks about it. “uttamaś cintitaṁ kuryāt, thinking about it, my father wants this, my guru wants this Prabhupada would have wanted this, and he does it, without being told, he is the topmost. “prokta-kārī tu madhyamaḥ“, that person who is doing after he is told he is second level. “adhamo śraddhayā kuryād”  tje lowest is that person without  interest Oh Gosh he is asking me to do this,  book distribution, go out in the hot sun. I joined the Hare Krishna movement, what to do, I got to do this. Ashraddhata without any interest, without any faith. Then don’t talk about the person who fails to do it “akartoccaritaṁ pituḥ”, he is a stool. Donta even talk about them who refuses is stool. These are the instructions of Bhagavatam. So these are books that gives us these instructions, we should read them, we should practice them, we should associate with devotees and hear from them, we should watch them performing, this is the instruction of Krishna. 

iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ
guhyād guhya-taraṁ mayā
vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa
yathecchasi tathā kuru

[BG:18.63]

Krishna, told Arjuna at the end, you asked me questions, I have given you answers jnana “guhyād guhya-taraṁ maya” secret of secrets I have told you. “vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa” now deliberate on that, look at it in different angles understand it nicely then, “yathecchasi tathā kuru”, you must do, you must perform. That’s what Srila Prabhupada wants us to do, he wants us to perform. So, we are supposed to perform and then we will be able to ask others to perform. This is very important.

While we are in those positions, there are great dangers. It is not an easy thing to be an leader in iskcon you see, there is little dialogue between satan and a little demon going hand in hand watching religious people and people who have faith progressing in their love for God. So satan is moving ahead and this demon is moving behind him and satan is watching and both of them are discussing that one person is slowly realising the truth, Krishna is the Supreme Absolute truth, heis realising. “Janma di asya yatah”, “om namoh bhagavate vasudevaya”. So the demon is nudging Satan and saying, come on do something about it, the guy is progressing in his Krishna consciousness, do something about it. Satan is just not doing anything about it, kali, you can call, and you can say Maya. He is not doing anything about it. But after sometime when he becomes self-realized he comes to know the truth, Krishna is everything. Then the demon can’t do anything. What are you doing, you are watching him understanding the truth fully?  With cunning smile, Satan looked at him and said I am waiting for him to organise the truth. Set up an organisation that’s when I can really attack him and everyone else who follows together.

So preaching the absolute truth, pure bhakti, is not an easy thing. We are all charged with the responsibility of giving pure devotional service. Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he appeared for teaching us the essence, the real distilled essence, “Prema pumarto mahan”, love of God, love of Krishna, Krishna Prema, you see. At the same time while he was doing that he did not mince any words when the conduct of some of these devotees were not up to the mark, materially, in material life.

In the deliverance of Gopinath Bhattnayaka you can see. Brilliant analysis of what leadership should do, and how we should accepts faults, and what we should look at. Prabhupada says in Caitanya Caritamrita, Lord is the leader of his devotees. We should follow what Lord Caitanya did in spirit. Here, Gopinath Bhattanayak, he is one of the son of Bhavananda Rai who is Pandu himself.  Ramandanda Rai is Arjuna you know, and all of them were the Pandavas. Vaninath Rai, Gopinath Bhattanayak and Ramananda Rai are all sons of Bhavananda they are all the 5 Pandavas. In this very special lila with Ramananda Rai, Lord Caitanya discussed wonderful mellows of, you know, Madhurya rasa with him.

But Gopinath Bhattanayak was the collector for the government under Prathaparudra, and he was collecting money and remitting in his treasury and once he didn’t remit the whole amount. He used some of it for himself. Therefore the Bhattajana, the eldest brother, the prince, he was charged with the responsibility of having extracting money from the collectors. He found that Gopinath Bhattnayaka has not remitted the money, though he told him to remit it So Gopinath Bhattanayak said I’m going to remit it but if you want it immediately why don’t you take some horses that I have, fine very good breed, thorough breed, the horses I have, you can take them for a price, and the balance I will pay.

So he got special permission from the king as he was closed to the king. So the king said Okay, he can sort it out and he told the Bhattajana, the prince to sort it out. But the prince had a little something going with Gopinath Bhattanayak.  Gopinath Bhattanayak was very close to his father and his father didn’t think much about him as a prince. So when he brought the horses, he priced them lower than the real worth and said this is what I can take it for. Then Gopinath Bhattanayaka said obviously my horses, everybody in the kingdom knows are the best I collect them and I take the best of horses from different places. They cost much more than what you are saying. He said no, and this Bhattajana had a funny nervous twitch or something he will talk to you and then he will look here and there and shake his head and look at the sky, little strange.

So defect, physical defect he had. Gopinath Bhattanayak was fuming and raging that my horses cost much more than what you are pricing it at. so when he repeatedly kept saying this and he didn’t listen he told him a slant comment, at least my horses don’t look like this and this and look at the sky, they are pure breed. He just made this comment. Sometimes we do these things, when we meet with people, we may pass a strong critic and you are a materialist, who are you. He made this very big mistake. Bhattajana said, you making a comment about my physical deformity, my congenital deformity you are making fun of me? You know who I am? I am the Prince. So he went and misrepresented Gopinath Bhattanayaka to the king then spoke all sorts of things to him and the king said you do anything you require to extract the money from him. I am going to put him on the changa, he said, Ok do what you want, the king was very busy.

So he put him on the change, he got him arrested, Gopinath Bhattanayaka was arrested used his authority put him on the changa and the changa is the platform, raised platform where the swords can go through, something like impaling you. As you lower the change the swords just go through you and you are tied up & you can’t do anything about it. All you can do is to scream and you lower him slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. So he has been raised on the changa and he is going to go into the swords. The news went to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Everybody ran to Mahaprabhu and said Gopinath Bhattnayaka is in the changa, he is the son of Bhavananda Rai, Bhavananda Rai is very dear to you, all of his sons are very dear to you, do something.

Lord Caitanya was very cool, why is he on the changa? He asked, why he is on the changa, there must be something he has done. Why would that king want to punish him? What did he do?. Then they told him the whole story, this is what he did. Then Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, what can a sanyasi like me can do? What have I got to do with all this government, politician and everybody? I can’t do anything about it. Swarup Damodar Goswami fell at his feet, do something, because they knew this Bhattajana is behind Gopinath Bhattanayaka, he is going to finish him. Please do something. Then he said you people are disturbing me too much, you want me, and you are ordering me to beg the king spread my cloth and ask him for money? How much money will he give for a sanyasi? He will give a little dakshina, the amount of money you have to get paid for releasing Gopinath Bhattanayaka is huge. Why would the king give a sanyasi this much money?  And you are asking me to go and beg for releasing him? He took the money and spend it on dancing with girls and everything and I should go and get this money for him and get him released? Very sharp words he used. I am leaving this place I am going to Allanath all of you are troubling me you are asking to do things which a sanyasi should not do.

Talk about iskcon what all sanyasis need to do.  This is one aspect of Lord Caitanya you must not follow, may be, but he said you shouldn’t ask me to do this it became very agitated and they all came again and asked please do something only you can do something. The Lord Caitanya said if at all anybody who can do something it is the Lord Jagannath, go and pray to Jagannath if he wants, he can do anything.

At that moment when he said, there the devotees meditated on Jagannath and they tried to go to the sanctum of Jagannath. By the time one of the assistants of the king came to know about this, and his name is Harichandan.  Harichandan is a person during ratha yatra got slapped by Srivas Thakur and Prataparudra told him, good you got mercy don’t do anything relax, I wish I had that mercy.  Harichandan heard about it went to Prataparudra and said do you know Gopinath Bhattanayaka has been put on the changa and he is going to die, your son is doing this? Just for some money? I don’t know about that, I don’t want Gopinath Bhattanayaka’s life, I just want the money back, it’s the government’s money he should give the money back. You go and release Bhattanayaka immediately take him off the changa. I don’t want Lord Caitanya to think anything like this about me and tell him I excuse him for all that he has done and I can pay the money.

Harichandan went back told the Bhattajana that this is what the king mentioned got him off the change. By that time Bhattajana had already arrested Vaninath Rai and his family members, Bhavanada Rai and everybody arrested. So this was mentioned to Lord Caitanya, Vaninath ray is arrested? So Lord Caitanya asked, I want to know what Vaninath Rai was doing there while why he was arrested in front of the changa? Vaninath ray gave a report saying that I was simply chanting “Hare Krishna hare Krishna Krishna  Krishna Hare Hare hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” and the Lord became very pleased.

Gopinath Bhattnayaka came out of the changa, he went and met the king, and the king said all your money I will pay it, don’t worry. I give you a promotion in your job you will get double the salary. Here is the special silk cloth offering to you, I recognise you as a very special person, go now and meet Lord Caitanya and tell him and don’t want him to think anything about me. So he went to Lord Caitanya and then when he appeared before Lord Caitanya, Lord Caitanya asked him what did you do on the changa? What were you doing on the changa?  When you were getting ready to get impaled what were you doing? He said my dear Lord it’s all your mercy I was simply mediating on your lotus feet and chanting the holy names, you see?

Leaders get into difficult situations. May be something came out of your mouth in anger and somebody else will multiply that quadruple it and then take revenge on you. They get hurt and they get in a very awkward situation, sometimes we do that. But if we always remain Krishna Conscious, if we continuously remember, you see

kathancana smrte yasmin
duskaram sukaram bhavet
vismrte viparitam syat
sri-caitanyam namami tam

A beautiful sloka in the Bhagavatam said if you can somehow or the other think of Lord Caitanya and His lotus feet, “duskaram sukaram bhavet” everything that is horribly pursuing you as karma,as a result of your actions and difficult situations they will turn into wonderful situations. But if you did not, “vismrte viparitam syat” even your good things will turn out to be bad if you didn’t do that, remembrance of the Lord.

A lot in Prabhupada’s life you can see all the time Prabhupada was consistently on the platform of Krishna consciousness everything else was superficially happening around but he was solidly situated in remembrance and love of Krishna. The worst things could happen and Srila Prabhupada was able to stand up to it, Krishna has a plan, you see.

So as leaders we get to do so many different things but we should be knowing that we are under the radar of Maya and kali. You are the leader who is going to take people out of the world and send them to Godhead, you are working for Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada’s organisation you are a dangerous guy for me. I am going to attack you and definitely iskcon leaders who are proponents of pure bhakti are going to be attacked more and more in their leadership positions. But we should remember what Gopinath Bhattanayaka did and how material benefit and spiritual benefit. This is the external lila of Lord Caitanya and he knew Gopinath Bhattnayaka. He knew, how he will survive changa by thinking of him, and he wanted to just show the world. So the same way Prabhupada ask us to be sticking to the regulations be exemplary and do those things that he has instructed us to do. There is no doubt that every difficult situation that comes whether we are father, mother, husband. Guru, GBC, sanyasi, I am not saying demigod here may there are some demigods sitting in disguise, I don’t know, my obeisances to them but in real life, anyone of these you will be able to tide over them.

mac-cittaḥ sarva-durgāṇi
mat-prasādāt tariṣyasi
atha cet tvam ahaṅkārān
na śroṣyasi vinaṅkṣyasi\

[BG:18.58]

If you did not listen to My instruction, be conscious of Me then you will be overcome by a deluge of those things. So it is a great challenge, and that’s leadership in iskcon. But Srila Prabhupada asked us to do it, he showed us by the life example how to perform it. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has shown us how to perform it and then this way we should take these instructions very seriously to heart and dive into it and perform it. We need everybody to be taking leadership positions, we have a huge mandate of sending the whole world back to Godhead. Om tat sad. Hare Krishna! Srila Prabhupada ki Jay

Since it is one min past 9 and since there is no time for questions, I’ll just take one question.

Question; Hare Krishna Maharaj thank you very much for such an enlightening class. What lessons a Sadhaka should learn from changa incident, what is Mahaprabhu’s view?

Maharaj: Several things there one thing is, don’t play around with iskcon’s assets. Lord Caitanya told that you cannot touch the government’s assets. The government’s assets are more hot than the Brahmana’s assets. He said, tell him to give that money back, he has done wrong, and let him give the money back. So iskcon, you become a iskcon leader, you  have assets, you have the subtle asset, intangible assets of being a sadhu with tilak and a saffron dress and people bow down to you and worship you and then you have access to money. People give you donations, they give you properties, they give you so many things in the name of iskcon. Don’t think they are yours and don’t utilize them. You are simply a custodian of the name the fame the title the asset the gross tangible and the intangible assets are all belonging to Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. You simply become an instrument.

You know about the donkey, the donkey carrying the deity and one villages to the other the donkey was going and the donkey was carrying the deity and everybody is paying obeisances to the deity, he was taking it for sale. And then the donkey thought, Oh! my gosh, why is everybody paying obeisances to me man, this is the great situation. So from village to village as donkey went with deities and the two of them holding and as soon as the deity was sold out somewhere and then the donkey came back and why have people not paying obeisances now it was a deity what people were watching not you donkey. So we are getting our name, getting our position, getting our respect because of belonging to Bhaktivedanta Swami’s ISKCON movement. Don’t be a donkey don’t expect it. Om tat sat Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!