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Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

By  His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given one line of Vaishnava behavior: asat-sanga tyāga ei vaishnava ācāra [Cc. Madhya 22.87]. Simply give up these rascals’ association. Rascal means the Māyāvādī, karmī, jnānī, yogi – they are all rascals. It is our open declaration. So we have to give up the company of these rascals. If we are actually serious about advancing in Krishna consciousness, we should not mix with them. We should not even invite them. Neither we shall take their foodstuff or accept their foodstuff.

Dadāti pratigrhnāti bhunkte bhojayate ca… guhyam ākhyāti prcchati ca; bhunkte bhojayate caiva sad-vidhah prīti-laksanam. If you want to make friends (prīti), then these six kinds of dealings must be there. Dadāti means one must give something to the other, a friend. Just like I am friend – you are friend. I give you something – in return you give me something. dadāti pratigrhnāti; guhyam ākhyāti prcchati ca. I open my mind to you – you also inquire confidential things from me. And then bhunkte bhojayate. Whatever you give me, I eat. And whatever I give – you eat. By these six kinds of dealing, prīti, love increases.

So in our Krishna consciousness movement, we practice this. As far as possible, we are giving and taking. We have made this life membership program whereby we are giving our books, knowledge. Whatever little knowledge we possess, we have written in our books and we are giving them, “Take it.” And they are also giving, “Take these eleven hundred rupees.” So this is dadāti pratigrhnāti. And they also come here to inquire, “Swamiji, your movement is very nice. What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of that?” Guhyam ākhyāti, they express their mind. Prcchati. They explain, “This is my position. I cannot do it. How can I do it?” And the Vaishnavas reply them. Then we invite them in our love feast. In all our centers, we have got this arrangement. We invite everyone: “Come on, take prasādam.”

And if somebody gives us something to eat, we also eat, provided he’s not aMāyāvādī, karmī, jnānī. Otherwise, we should not take. We cannot accept anything from this class of men, the atheist class. Sangāt sanjāyate kāmah. If we associate with these Māyāvādī atheist class, karmī, jnānī, yogi, then we will infect their quality. So if we infect the Māyāvādī quality, karmīquality, jnānī quality, yogi quality… I see some of the students, they still practice some yoga āsana. That quality is not yet free. But this is nonsense. By promise, we should not associate with any of their qualities.

 [Cc. Madhya 22.87]

“asat” means bad element, bad association. So asat-sanga. We have to give up asat.

“So who is asat, Sir?”

Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the next line gives: “asat eka strī-sangī.” One asatis strī-sangī. Strī-sangī means attached to women. He’s asat.

And another is krishna-abhakta—one who is not a devotee of Krishna.  So these Māyāvādīs, karmī, jnānī, yogi, they are not krishna-bhaktas. They say, “Krishna is not God. I am God.” This is their version. Therefore they’re rascals. They declare, “I am God. You are God. But Krishna is not God.”

“Except Krishna, everyone is God.” This is their version.

[An excerpt from a Srimad Bhagavatam 1.10.13 lecture delivered on June 26, 1973 in Mayapur, West Bengal]