ancient_paztriot
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Posts posted by ancient_paztriot
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SB 10.10.13
Atheistic fools and rascals who are very much proud of wealth fail to see things as they are. Therefore, returning them to poverty is the proper ointment for their eyes so they may see things as they are. At least a poverty-stricken man can realize how painful poverty is, and therefore he will not want others to be in a painful condition like his own.
PURPORT
Even today, if a man who was formerly poverty-stricken gets money, he is inclined to utilize his money to perform many philanthropic activities, like opening schools for uneducated men and hospitals for the diseased. In this connection there is an instructive story called punar musiko bhava, “Again Become a Mouse.” A mouse was very much harassed by a cat, and therefore the mouse approached a saintly person to request to become a cat. When the mouse became a cat, he was harassed by a dog, and then when he became a dog, he was harassed by a tiger. But when he became a tiger, he stared at the saintly person, and when the saintly person asked him, “What do you want?” the tiger said, “I want to eat you.” Then the saintly person cursed him, saying, “May you again become a mouse.” A similar thing is going on all over the universe. One is going up and down, sometimes becoming a mouse, sometimes a tiger, and so on. sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said:
brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
(Cc. Madhya 19.151)
The living entities are promoted and degraded by the laws of nature, but if one is very, very fortunate, by association with saintly persons he gets the seed of devotional service, and his life becomes successful. Narada Muni wanted to bring Nalakuvara and Manigriva to the platform of devotional service through poverty, and thus he cursed them. Such is the mercy of a Vaisnava. Unless one is brought to the Vaisnava platform, one cannot be a good man. Harav abhaktasya kuto mahad-gunah (Bhag. 5.18.12). An avaisnava never becomes a good man, however severely he is punished.
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SB 10.4.30
After hearing their master’s statement, the envious asuras, who were enemies of the demigods and were not very expert in their dealings, advised Kamsa as follows.
PURPORT
There are two different types of men—the asuras and the suras.
dvau bhuta-sargau loke ’smin
daiva asura eva ca
visnu-bhaktah smrto daiva
asuras tad-viparyayah
(Padma Purana)
Those who are devotees of Lord Visnu, Krsna, are suras, or devas, whereas those who are opposed to the devotees are called asuras. Devotees are expert in all transactions (yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah). Therefore they are called kovida, which means “expert.” Asuras, however, although superficially showing expertise in passionate activities, are actually all fools. They are neither sober nor expert. Whatever they do is imperfect. Moghasa mogha-karmanah. According to this description of the asuras given in Bhagavad-gita (9.12), whatever they do will ultimately be baffled. It was such persons who advised Kamsa because they were his chief friends and ministers.
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Hey, the trolls on this board don't even deserve this complement. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
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SB 10.2.19
Devaki then kept within herself the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the foundation of the entire cosmos, but because she was under arrest in the house of Kamsa, she was like the flames of a fire covered by the walls of a pot, or like a person who has knowledge but cannot distribute it to the world for the benefit of human society.
PURPORT
In this verse the word jnana-khala is most significant. Knowledge is meant for distribution. Although there is already much scientific knowledge, whenever scientists or philosophers awaken to a particular type of knowledge, they try to distribute it throughout the world, for otherwise the knowledge gradually dries up and no one benefits from it. India has the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, but unfortunately, for some reason or other, this sublime knowledge of the science of God was not distributed throughout the world, although it is meant for all of human society. Therefore Krsna Himself appeared as sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and ordered all Indians to take up the cause of distributing the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita throughout the entire world.
yare dekha, tare kaha ’krsna’-upadesa
amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa
“Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord sri Krsna as they are given in Bhagavad-gita and srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.” (Cc. Madhya 7.128) Although India has the sublime knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, Indians have not done their proper duty of distributing it. Now, therefore, the Krsna consciousness movement has been set up to distribute this knowledge as it is, without distortion. Although previously there were attempts to distribute the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, these attempts involved distortion and compromise with mundane knowledge. But now the Krsna consciousness movement, without mundane compromises, is distributing Bhagavad-gita as it is, and people are deriving the benefits of awakening to Krsna consciousness and becoming devotees of Lord Krsna. Therefore the proper distribution of knowledge has begun by which not only will the whole world benefit, but India’s glory will be magnified in human society. Kamsa tried to arrest Krsna consciousness within his house (bhojendra-gehe), with the result that Kamsa, with all his opulences, was later vanquished. Similarly, the real knowledge of Bhagavad-gita was being choked by unscrupulous Indian leaders, with the result that India’s culture, and knowledge of the Supreme were being lost. Now, however, because Krsna consciousness is spreading, the proper use of Bhagavad-gita is being attempted.
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Here's one for you theist.
SB 10.1.41
Having experienced a situation by seeing or hearing about it, one contemplates and speculates about that situation, and thus one surrenders to it, not considering his present body. Similarly, by mental adjustments one dreams at night of living under different circumstances, in different bodies, and forgets his actual position. Under this same process, one gives up his present body and accepts another [tatha dehantara-praptih].
PURPORT
Transmigration of the soul is very clearly explained in this verse. One sometimes forgets his present body and thinks of his childhood body, a body of the past, and of how one was playing, jumping, talking and so on. When the material body is no long workable, it becomes dust: “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” But when the body again mixes with the five material elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—the mind continues to work. The mind is the subtle substance in which the body is created, as we actually experience in our dreams and also when we are awake in contemplation. One must understand that the process of mental speculation develops a new type of body that does not actually exist. If one can understand the nature of the mind (manorathena) and its thinking, feeling and willing, one can very easily understand how from the mind different types of bodies develop.
The Krsna consciousness movement, therefore, offers a process of transcendental activities wherein the mind is fully absorbed in affairs pertaining to Krsna. The presence of the soul is perceived by consciousness, and one must purify his consciousness from material to spiritual, or, in other words, to Krsna consciousness. That which is spiritual is eternal, and that which is material is temporary. Without Krsna consciousness, one’s consciousness is always absorbed in temporary things. (more to purport)
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I hear there are no spies. You say public opinion poll?
Ok. Will all the spies or trolls or other uninterested parties please sign in?
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No reply? Oh, I guess there are no such things here.
Thanks for the advice. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
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Seeing your success with that rather controversial post (for this board), I feel inspired to post another moving confession I recently came across.
I don't believe with his views on scripture or a couple other points, but in fairness to him I post the whole thing. (No hard feelings if the moderators pull it).
On Leaving ISKCON
by Steven J. Gelberg (Subhananda das)
Editor's Note: Steve Gelberg (Subhananda das) was a devotee for 17 years, and most of that time he was a staff writer for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the publishing arm of ISKCON. After leaving ISKCON in 1986, Steve went on to earn his master's degree in comparitive religions at Harvard. He wrote this essay in 1992, in order to share his insights with others who left, or were thinking of leaving the organization. The essay is presented here in its complete, unedited form.
When Prabhupada predicted, once, that ninety percent of his disciples would eventually leave his movement, we, his disciples, were shocked that such a thing could be possible. In time, the overwhelming majority of his followers did indeed leave ISKCON, and it now appears the same will hold true for his grand-disciples. The effect of this on-going exodus is that the number of ex-members of ISKCON vastly exceeds that of current members, and the gap will only widen as the years pass. There exists, therefore, a substantial and growing body of people who share what can only be described as a traumatic experience.
It's hard to imagine an experience more wrenching, more potentially disorienting, than leaving a spiritual community or tradition to which one has devoted years of one's life. To lose faith in a comprehensive system of ideas that have shaped one's consciousness and guided one's actions, to leave a community that has constituted one's social world and defined one's social identity, to renounce a way of life that is an entire mode of being, is an experience of momentous implications.
Especially when the community/tradition one is leaving defines itself as the repository and bastion of all goodness, all meaning, all truth, all decency, all meaningful human attainment, it may require a major psychological effort to reorient oneself both to one's own self and to the wider world. Internally, one must work to rediscover and reclaim one's own unique, personal sources of meaning, truth, and spirituality and to live authentically from out of those inner depths. Externally, one must learn how to deal with the outer world, the vast territory laying beyond the gates of the spiritual enclave -- that place that has for so long been viewed as a dark and evil abode unfit for human habitation. It's a fact that very often devotees no longer happy living in ISKCON prolong their stay simply out of fear of the demonized world.
This re-orientation to self and re-entry into the world is no small task, and it's more easily finessed when one has the support of others who've travelled a similar path. In my own journey I've received such support, and wish now to offer it to others.
Though I've had little to do with ISKCON for nearly six years now, I still feel a certain kinship with devotees, both past and present. How could I not? I devoted fully seventeen years of my life (ages eighteen to thirty-five -- my youth!) to a life of Krishna consciousness in the association of similarly committed devotees. Virtually all my friends and acquaintances were devotees. For most of those seventeen years I had not the slightest doubt that I'd die while still in ISKCON (and rate a half-page obituary in BTG). I absorbed Prabhupada's teachings into the depths of my being and preached them with an enthusiasm born of serene confidence in their absolute truth and efficacy. I dedicated myself both to encouraging a deeper immersion in Vaishnava spirituality on the part of my fellow devotees (through editing such books as The Spiritual Master and the Disciple and Namamrta: The Nectar of the Holy Name), and to cultivating respect and appreciation for ISKCON among intellectuals and scholars (such as with my book of interviews, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna).
Though my way of thinking and mode of being have changed considerably since leaving the movement, I cannot forget all my brothers and sisters who have shared the ISKCON/Krishna consciousness experience: aging pioneers, subsequent joiners, and expatriates alike. I embrace all of you, both friends and strangers, sisters and brothers, as fellow travelers on the path. There must be something in our respective temperaments that drew us all to the path of Krishna consciousness -- some similar karmic history, some particular spiritual orientation, some certain degree of sincerity -- something or other that landed both you and I on a path traversed by so few.
I, like you, entered the movement because I desperately wanted to know what in the world is going on in the universe, to find order in this madness, to be touched and transformed by Truth, to experience peace and joy, to crawl out of my rotting skin and confused mind and rise into some sublime Transcendence. I, like you, felt an inexplicable attraction to the supernally beautiful, blue-skinned boy Krishna, to the strangely beautiful music (how rarely heard!) of the mahamantra, to a felt sense of progression toward liberation from this highly imperfect material world (not to mention cauliflower pakoras and sweet-rice). I, like you, was blessed with tastes, now and then, of spiritual bliss -- feelings not easily expressed in words. I cannot help, therefore, but feel a special kinship with you, and I offer you my sincere respects and affection, whomever you are.
I am writing this because I know that some of you, or many of you, perhaps most of you, have doubts, at times, about the truth of Krishna consciousness, or at least its relevance to your life -- to your own personal spiritual and psychological growth. In my last few years in the movement I certainly did. And I know that, in spite of claims to the contrary, there are powerful disincentives to openly expressing one's doubts in the company of devotees (loss of prestige, to name one), and even to admitting them to oneself (loss of self-respect, acknowledgement of grave personal failure, fear of falling apart, etc.).
Doubts, however, may be the voice of one's own inner self, the self that doesn't always exactly jive with the exterior "system" of Krishna consciousness, the self that protests being shaped and molded into something it is not. No matter how much one's external mind assents to the authority of ISKCON (and the spiritual tradition from which it emerged), if the inner self is not being addressed, respected, honored, given expression, allowed to grow, it is, sooner or later, going to raise a protest. When that little inner voice first begins to speak, it can be quieted with regimental thinking, louder chanting, increased outer busy-ness, or simple denial. But sometime down the road it is bound to return, a little louder, a little more insistent, and at some point you'll have no other choice than to acknowledge it.
I would like, now, to address that little inner voice (or that voice of growing volume) and answer it with my own. I have, by the way, no malicious intent in doing so. I'm no anti-cultist or any other species of crusading ideologue. I don't wish to start a club, an organization, a revolution, or any other exciting enterprise. I've nothing to gain personally from this exercise except the pleasure of speaking words that I think need to be spoken to old friends and friends yet unknown. I hope that you'll listen to me with an open mind.
What I wish to do, now, is relate to you some of the reasons why I (and my then wife, Sitarani) left ISKCON after so many years of committed service (twenty-five between us). I've divided my reflections into several categories:
Where are the Pure Devotees?
As I think back, it seems to me that the factor that initially set in motion my gradual disillusionment with ISKCON was my growing awareness that, judging by its own criteria for success, ISKCON had, quite simply, failed as a spiritual movement. It became increasingly and inescapably obvious that the movement was simply not fulfilling its own stated primary goal: to create "pure devotees" -- to skillfully and successfully guide serious practitioners to those sublime states of spiritual consciousness elaborately described in the scriptures and talked about endlessly in Gita and Bhagavatam classes.
One does, of course, encounter devotees who seem peaceful, content, full of sincere purpose and conviction, high-spirited, enthusiastic, and so on. And it is true that most devotees have experienced, at one time or another, uplifting feelings from chanting, seeing the deity, etc. But what of the more developed and sustained spiritual states described by such terms as bhava and prema? What of the love of Krishna that flows from the depths of one's being, overwhelms the mind and heart, utterly transforms one, and makes of one a saint whose very presence inspires sanctity in others? Is ISKCON actually producing such manifestly Krishna conscious persons? Take a look around and decide for yourself.
To account for this embarrassing lack of pure devotees in ISKCON, one is forced to enact a version of "The King's New Clothes": do the best one can to convince oneself and others that certain high-profile devotees are, indeed, pure devotees, and proclaim that those who don't acknowledge their status are either not yet advanced enough for such discernment or are envious fools. Or, alternatively, redefine the term "pure devotee" in such a broad, generous manner as to include the greatest number of devotees possible (e.g., all gurus, all those aspiring to be pure devotees, all those following the regulative principles, etc.)
Some few, highly self-motivated, highly disciplined, spiritually gifted devotees do apply themselves to the principles of bhakti-yoga and taste the fruits of their efforts. But for the overwhelming majority of devotees, spiritual life in ISKCON is little more than a perpetual struggle against base attachment, pride, greed, and lust. One goes on, year after year, hoping against hope that, "One day, yes, one day, a day far off in the future, one magic and wonderful day, I shall become a pure devotee."
After many years in the movement I came to the conclusion that whatever other success the movement may enjoy -- whatever the proliferation of sikhas and saris, numbers of temples opened, books distributed, celebrity endorsements procured -- in the absence of the creation of highly evolved Krishna conscious persons, it's all an empty show.
Ethical Failure and Intellectual Dishonesty
Over the course of my years in ISKCON I became alarmed at the extent to which people (myself included) who joined the movement in part as a reaction against the pervasive dishonesty in interpersonal dealings in mundane society, permitted themselves to become clever, sneaky and two-faced in the name of promulgating Truth. However much it may be hard for us to admit, The-Ends-Justifies-the-Means has long been a defining and controlling ethic in the movement. Based on the presumption that tricking, deceiving and cajoling illusioned souls to financially subsidize, and otherwise support ISKCON represents a "higher" morality, devotees are taught to say and do almost anything if it can be justified in the name of preaching. From the new devotee in the street extracting money from karmis through blatant dissimulation, to the most intellectually and socially sophisticated devotee skillfully packaging ISKCON in such a way as to most effectively win friends and undermine enemies, the ethic of pulling the wool over the benighted karmis' eyes in order to save their souls is the same.
Though this attitude may appear justified from the point of view of a certain self-serving, contrived "spiritual" ethic, in practice it encourages a fundamental disrespect and superior attitude toward those for whom it claims feelings of compassion, and a manipulative, controlling attitude towards those it claims to liberate. Though some of the grosser manifestations of that cheating ethic have been tempered in recent years, the basic attitude, as far as I can see, hasn't changed, because it's rooted in ISKCON's necessary presumption of moral superiority.
Another kind of dishonesty fundamental to the movement is an intellectual one: a learned orientation by which one's chief philosophical project ceases to be the sincere and disciplined effort to open oneself to Truth, but instead to study, memorize, internalize, preach and defend an already defined, pre-digested, pre-packaged "Truth." Instead of dedicating one's faculties of awareness to the fearless quest for truth through reflective openness to all that presents itself to experience and scrutiny, one simply waves the banner of received "Truth," come what may, however much that "Truth" may or may not address itself to the reality or facts at hand.
This loyal and tenacious defense of received "Truth" in the face of potentially disconfirming realities represents, I suggest, not a courageous fending off of Illusion in protection of divine Truth, but a cowardly hiding away from unexpected and disarming truths in hopes of defending a fragile existential security masquerading as enlightened certainty. I am continually amazed, and in retrospect somewhat embarrassed, by my own and other ISKCON intellectuals' easy willingness to jettison any sort of intellectual/philosophical/existential honesty in order to fortify our own and others' insecure faith -- to wave our tattered little banner of Truth in the face of the wealth of ideas and multi-textured realities surrounding us.
Hard Hearts
I can recall, throughout my years in ISKCON, often being disappointed with the behavior of high- and low-level leaders in the movement who seemed to care little for the personhood of the devotees under their authority. (I might have turned out the same way had I opted for a management position. Fortunately, I have an aversion for being "in charge" of other people.) I think the lesson to be learned from ISKCON is that there's a certain hardness of heart that comes from subordinating people to principles, to defining the institution itself as pre-eminent and its members as merely its humble servants.
This rhetoric of submission has, of course, a certain ring of loftiness to it: the idea of devotees striving together, pooling their energies and skills, sacrificing personal independence and comforts in order to serve the Glorious Mission. The trouble is, in effect it creates a social/ interpersonal environment in which the particular needs of individuals are downplayed, devalued, postponed indefinitely and generally ignored -- leaving the individual devotee sooner or later feeling neglected, not listened to, not taken seriously, taken advantage of.
Because of the nature of my service in the movement, the fact that I enjoyed a high degree of personal autonomy in my work (I was not closely monitored and directed by overlings), I have little to complain personally on this account. But through seventeen years of observation, as well as speaking with and counseling devotees on numerous occasions, I became more and more aware, painfully and sadly aware, of the ways in which, in the name of "engaging devotees in Krishna's service," leaders and administrators at all levels deal with the devotees "under" them in a patronizing, condescending, heavy-handed and authoritarian manner -- viewing and dealing with their subordinates not as unique individuals possessing rich and complex inner lives, as having particular emotional needs, unique perspectives and opinions, but as units of human energy to be matched to the necessary tasks at hand. I recall leaders criticizing, even ridiculing the very notion that special attention should be paid to the individual psyches and needs of devotees -- who dismissed such concerns as mere sentimentality, unnecessary coddling, a lack of tough-mindedness, and opposed to the principles of humility and surrender.
This hard-nosed, hard-hearted attitude, this unfeeling instrumentality, this insensitive disregard for the individual, this almost cynical exalting of the principles of humility and surrender to ensure that the floors get swept and the bills paid, leaves many devotees, especially those low on the institutional totem-pole, feeling used and abused. Many of these devotees, when the frustration, sadness and anxiety reach a high enough level, simply leave -- and become, understandably, bitter and vindictive ex-members.
To the degree that I allowed myself to participate in this system -- at least by enjoying its fruits -- I feel ashamed. I sincerely apologize to any persons I might have offended.
Sexy Celibacy
Most devotees will acknowledge that ISKCON's prohibition against "illicit sex" (any sex other than to conceive children in marriage) is the hardest of ISKCON's rules to follow, the cause of the greatest difficulty among devotees, and (with the possible exception of disillusionment with ISKCON per se) the most common cause of "fall-down" from Krishna consciousness.
Without debating the merits of celibacy in spiritual life, it's fair to say that the typical devotee, over time, is going to violate the celibacy rule at least once, if not multiple times. Desire for sex appears in every devotee's life sooner or later, to one degree or another, in one form or another. From the guru lecturing from his asana down to Bhakta Bruce cleaning the bathroom, devotees think about sex, fanaticize about it, relieve themselves in secret and, as is often the case, indulge in sex (with other willing devotees, old girlfriends or boyfriends, outside contacts, whomever) if they think they can get away with it. This rather obvious fact isn't openly acknowledged in the movement because it's a source of significant embarrassment to devotees, who view indulgence in sex as disgusting, disgraceful, and a sign of personal failure -- and, further, because they're forever boasting to non-devotees that their enjoyment of a "higher taste" is evidenced most conclusively by their disinterest in mundane sense gratification.
To be frank, there is something very sad, tragic even, in the spectacle of sincere spiritual aspirants endlessly struggling against and denying sexual feelings (which are, after all, perfectly natural if you're embodied), continually berating themselves for their lack of heroic detachment from the body, seeking dark corners in which to masturbate or, finding themselves "attached to" another devotee, planning and scheming "illicit" encounters. All this unavoidable cheating and hypocrisy, guilt and shame, denial and cover-up, make a pathetic sham of ISKCON's ascetical conceit. Granted, there are some devotees, small in number, who have a gift (if that is what it is) for serene, contented celibacy. But the mass of devotees simply do not.
After many years of monitoring my own and other's (through conversation and counseling) ambivalence about and mixed-success in following the standards, the whole celibacy fetish began to look a bit suspect. Why the abysmal failure of most devotees to be uncompromisingly celibate? Why the pervasive inability to perform an act of renunciation that ISKCON defines as a precondition not only of serious spiritual practice but of civilized human life? Why that fundamental failure?
Some devotees feel it's due to some innate deficit in the consciousness of Westerners (we're too lusty); others blame it on devotees' chronically flawed performance of bhakti-yoga (offensive chanting, etc.); a few contend that Prabhupada passed on Gaudiya Vaishnava practice imperfectly (by omitting certain necessary mystical elements in the diksha); some say it's a natural consequence of co-ed ashrams (and periodically suggest that the temples be rid of women); others blame it on the Kali-yuga. Whatever the cause, the fact remains that most devotees are nowhere near free from sex desire.
The result of the imposition of absolute celibacy upon those not sufficiently disassociated from their bodies is, as we've seen, the generation of great amounts of guilt, self-loathing, dishonesty and denial. "One day," we assure ourselves, "I shall be sufficiently Krishna conscious to be free from sex desire." Meanwhile, we remain within a physical body which, by its very nature, and in spite of chanting and the rest, desires to touch and be touched, to physically nurture and be nurtured, to feel the soothing embrace of a lover.
So strong is the natural human desire for physical touch that in order to avoid it, to successfully repress the desire for it (temporarily), one must paint the most exaggeratedly negative picture of it possible: one that envisions sex as a purely wild, disgusting animal act -- one of total, chaotic abandon, or of regression into panting, drooling, general disgustingness.
But think back to your own past, my dear devotee friend: when you made love with your girlfriend or boyfriend, husband or wife, was it all really just bestial humping and grunting? Did it have no connection at all to feelings of love, caring, respect, appreciation, affection? Certainly, like any other human activity, sex can be beautiful or ugly. It can be an act of gross, selfish, piggish abandon, or (as you will recall from your own past or envision in your imagination) an act of gentle, loving self-expression, of affectionate mutual pleasuring, even a source of profound feelings of emotional and spiritual oneness. It is only through deliberate denial of personal experience, or of intuition, that one can obliterate such memories, or pre-empt such capacity for imagining.
My purpose here is not to advertise the glories of sex (glorious though it can be), but to remind you of the problems associated with outlawing it -- and also to make the radical suggestion that perhaps it is possible to be a spiritual person, a God-conscious or cosmos-loving person, a person of goodness and compassion, of wisdom, sensitivity and awareness -- under whatever spiritual banner -- without denying and repressing one's natural sexuality.
Disrespect for Women
If ISKCON had fully been the glorious spiritual movement it advertises itself to be, with its only defect being its offensive attitudes and discriminatory policies toward women, Sitarani and I still would have felt fully justified in abandoning the organization to which we'd devoted so much of our lives. It became increasingly difficult for us to tolerate (and to defend among the scholars and students it was our service to "cultivate") the raw, unreflective, juvenile, boys-club mentality of the movement -- the official, insulting view of women as childlike, irrational, irresponsible, emotional, and wild-unless-controlled-by-a-man.
It's not at all surprising that ISKCON would be a woman-fearing, woman-hating, woman-exploiting institution. A male-centered religion that defines sex as the enemy of spirituality naturally is going to define the objects of men's sexual desire as the Enemy Personified: Woman as Chief Antagonist in the holy drama of Man Transcending. Women, thus stigmatized, are, at best, to be tolerated -- allowed to exist on the fringe in an officially reduced status, their wanton energies mercifully channelled into the service of men -- and, at worst, to be officially and systematically denigrated, shunned and, not infrequently, abused emotionally and sexually.
A movement that can allow a brand new male recruit, still stinking of the street, to feel utterly comfortable in viewing himself as superior -- by the sheer fact that he's got a penis -- to a seasoned woman devotee who's been refining her consciousness for decades; a movement that can allow a husband to feel perfectly at ease bossing his wife around as if he were a Maharaja and she a coolie, as if she were put on Earth simply to serve and satisfy him -- as if Krishna must be pleased by such a display of proper hierarchical dealings between humans -- is going to invite the ridicule of outsiders, as well as incite pangs of conscience in its own thoughtful members. It's a wonder that self-respecting women can tolerate such attitudes and treatment, and it's to their credit, I suppose, that they tolerate such insult and abuse so as to remain connected to a spiritual tradition that they feel, or hope, is wiser and grander than that.
For a time, Sitarani and I felt content with being "liberal" on the issue -- with lending our weight, for example, to efforts to allow the occasional woman to give a lecture, lead a kirtan, or have a vote on the temple board. But we grew tired of struggling to put the best possible spin on the issue when questioned by discerning college students and others -- with having to employ our intelligence and savvy in the noble quest of covering up for an organization that was hopelessly and ridiculously out of touch with the contemporary world and with common decency.
When we finally left the movement we felt greatly relieved to have removed ourselves from a social and political environment that so determinedly denigrated women and positive feminine principles. ISKCON is, after all, such a positively male institution: all that obsessing over power, control, order, hierarchy, protocol, and competition. Not to mention all the chest-pounding martial rhetoric: conquering the senses, destroying illusion, defeating enemies, smashing demons.
What of the beautiful "feminine" qualities of Sri Chaitanya and his followers? What of gentleness, humility, empathy, love, compassion, spiritual protection and nurturance, delicacy of emotion and of interpersonal dealings? While devotees pay occasional lip-service to these acknowledged Vaishnava qualities, in practice it's the cherished male qualities of tough-mindedness, aggressiveness and the power to dominate and manipulate others that the ISKCON establishment promotes and rewards. ISKCON is, clearly, an institutional environment that is innately hostile to women and to the spiritual attributes and principles that they, in particular, embody and exemplify.
I invite my sisters in the movement to contemplate these facts and to ask yourselves whether or not you truly feel at home in such an environment -- whether it is possible for you to live in such a place without sacrificing your basic self-respect and resorting to painful denial. I encourage you, as many of you apparently now are doing, to discuss these matters among yourselves and come to your own conclusions.
Spiritual Depersonalization
A final factor in my decision to leave ISKCON was a philosophical one: a growing awareness that however much wisdom and beauty may be found in a particular religious tradition, no one tradition, no one system, can speak fully for any one individual. Whatever the possible transcendent origins of a spiritual path, it is passed down through human persons: wise, insightful, saintly persons perhaps, but distinct, individual persons nonetheless -- having their own distinctive life histories, experiences, temperaments, ways of thinking, feeling and communicating. Though there was much in Krishna consciousness that I found deeply meaningful and appealing, I began to realize (subtly, slowly, over a long period of time) that, short of simply obliterating my own thoughts and feelings, I could not blindly, automatically accept every word of the scriptures (e.g., women are inferior to men, thunder and lightening come from Lord Indra, the sun is closer to the Earth than the Moon, etc.)
More important than difficulties with particular passages of scripture, however, was my growing sense that there was something unnatural, something artificial and forced, about the very idea of my having to completely supplant my own thoughts, reflections, insights, and intuitions about myself, the world, and my own experience, with a pre-packaged, pre-approved system of ideas and doctrines which, whatever its origins, has evolved through countless hands and been refracted through many minds and sensibilities through the centuries. I began to feel (though it took a long time to admit it to myself) that this is an unrealistic and unfair demand to be made upon any of us, however "imperfect" we may be, because it dishonors the integrity and particularity of who we are.
I came to feel that there is something ultimately impersonal about the notion that we are something utterly different from what we presently feel ourselves to be, and that the differences between us all (qualities of mind, behavioral style, etc.) are simply products of an unnatural, illusioned state -- that when we become who we are meant to be, we'll all conform to a particular, precise check-list of personality traits. And, further, that to evolve into this perfected state we must submit to the authority of certain authorized persons for radical re-education -- cutting ourselves off, more or less, from any ideas, influences or persons that might possibly remind us of the selves we mistakenly felt we were.
Now, whatever the beauties of the spiritual path, there is something slightly ominous about a spiritual system that so utterly and uncompromisingly devalues me as I know and experience myself, that would make me (if I'm a loyal and diligent practitioner) doubt and question my every perception, my every inner sense of the ways things are, and that would render me so utterly dependent (even for my very sense of reality) upon others about whom I have no conclusive evidence of perfection (and whose spiritual status is tenuous at best, in light of the periodic scandals involving those promoted in ISKCON as "pure" and "perfect").
Consider, again, the essential insult to the self that this kind of thinking entails. The Voice of Authority proclaims: "Whatever you think you are, is not you. The person you feel yourself to be, this complex accumulation of personal, idiosyncratic experience, thought and emotion, is but an illusion. You must not trust your own deepest instincts and intuitions about who and what you are, what your needs are, what your ideas are, what your ways of conceptualizing and dealing with the world are, what your purpose in life is. You are fallen, ignorant, in illusion, and incapable of knowing what is best for you. Your only hope lies in submitting yourself to the absolute guidance of certain individuals, living and dead, whose wisdom you must acknowledge as far superior to yours, as affirmed by themselves and their representatives."
Must spiritual life depend upon such an act of extreme self-abnegation, such an uncompromising rejection of personal experience? Are Truth and Wisdom to be so radically abstracted from my own consciousness, my own life, the depth of my own being? Is such turning of a blind eye and deaf ear to my own inner sense of "the way things are" really in my best interest? Is that kind of self-denial really "humility" -- a wise recognition of personal limitations -- or is it ultimately little more than a form of self-shaming leading to blind adherence to the dictates of others who may or may not possess a firm, unadulterated grasp on Truth?
I began to feel strongly that religion is not a corporate matter -- that of gathering in all manner of minds and hearts into a common, undifferentiated, regimented view of immediate and ultimate reality -- but rather of honoring and trusting the individual spirit enough to allow it to seek its own path, make its own mistakes, find its own way by listening, intently and conscientiously, to its own inner knowledge and to whatever voices of wisdom present themselves on one's journey through life.
I realized, ultimately, that for all ISKCON's talk of freedom, of liberation, of escaping conditioned modes of being, the prevailing mentality in ISKCON is, in fact, characterized by a distinct fear of freedom: fear of personal quest, of trusting the moment, of openness to the unexpected -- a self-defeating distrust of all those glimmerings of truth that present themselves to us in various forms and in various places (like gold within garbage), and that have the power to guide, instruct and enlighten.
Being outside ISKCON and the ISKCON mind-set, becoming intellectually and spiritually open-minded and adventurous, has been, for me, an exhilarating liberation: a far more genuine freedom than that promised by the commanding, disembodied Voice of "Vedic Authority" -- the smoke-and-mirrors Wizards of Ozkon.
Is There Life After ISKCON?
That such a question might even occur to a devotee is itself a telling comment on the ISKCON mind-set. In seventeen years of Krishna consciousness I sat through literally thousands of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam classes (a great many of them my own!) in which I was regaled with nightmarish images of the world looming outside the walls of ISKCON -- warned repeatedly of the miseries to come should I foolishly wander outside our fortifications. In a place where higher spiritual experience is in short supply it is necessary, indeed, to create powerful disincentives to leaving -- even if they need be based on exaggeration and fear.
But the world, as it turns out, is not the unrelieved chamber of horrors described in Bhagavatam classes. It's a mixed bag, just like ISKCON. Yes, there are all manner of terrible things in this world: war, poverty, disease, madness, sexual abuse, racism, and all the rest. A thoughtful and sensitive person has to acknowledge that the world is a place pervaded by suffering and illusion. But in the midst of all that craziness and suffering there is good as well. There are people whose hearts contain benevolence and compassion and who try to relieve others of their pain, who sincerely come to the aid of those who are misunderstood, disadvantaged, persecuted and mistreated.
There are many who seek truth, meaning and beauty through artistic self-expression in music, art, dance, creative writing. There are many who devote themselves to spiritual practices of various sorts, who seek to become more aware, more sensitive, more enlightened, and who try to apply the truths they experience within their hearts in their daily lives. And there are people who are not focused on ambitious spiritual goals but who have a basic decency about them and who try, in the course of their lives, to be kind to their fellow humans.
Out here, beyond the gates of ISKCON, one encounters good people and bad (just as in ISKCON), generous and selfish people (just like ISKCON), sensitive and insensitive people (ditto), geniuses and fools (ditto), spiritual and unspiritual people (likewise) -- and, of course, all combinations of the above. Seek and you will find people who are good and decent, who share your values, whose friendship will nourish and deepen you.
Once you step outside the gates of ISKCON you'll discover that you are, simply, who you are. Whether you reside in a temple, at home or in a ditch, it's the quality of your own consciousness that determines what sort of person you're going to be and what sort of life you're going to live. When you leave the temple, you will not suddenly fall to pieces and find yourself transformed into a wanton debauchee (unless you really wish to be so, in which case you'll tire of that soon enough). You'll neither become a demon or go crazy. Nor will you need assume an attitude of uncritical acceptance of the world. It's quite possible (believe me) to remain acutely aware of the limitations and imperfections of the world and maintain a creatively ambivalent relationship with it, while constructing a safe, sane, and meaningful space for yourself within it. It's a project, to be sure, but quite do-able.
You will most likely not, by the way, end up pumping gas (in keeping with the oft-cited case, enthusiastically repeated in innumerable Bhagavatam classes, of one former sannyasi). Ex-ISKCON people are doing anything and everything, vocationally speaking, from collecting unemployment checks to running companies. Some are "successful" in life, materially speaking, and some aren't. It runs the gamut.
Often, because Krishna consciousness provided a powerful and consuming sense of meaning and purpose, one may feel depressed when one leaves -- temporarily let down from the considerable excitement entailed in attaining perfection and saving the world. But one finds reasons to get up in the morning other than to attend mangala-arti and sell Bhagavad-gitas or bumper stickers to uninterested karmis. One finds meaning and purpose (or many meanings and many purposes) in life, sooner or later, through alternative spiritual practices, through pursuit of personal interests, through career, through helping people, and through friendship and love (strange, isn't it, how "friendship and love" is practically an obscene term in ISKCON?). Ex-devotees often find profound satisfaction in developing the kinds of deep, intimate, loving relationships that they missed as brahmacaris and brahmacarinis, or as married persons caught in unsatisfying, hierarchical, sexless (or sexually abusive) relationships.
There are also, by the way, parks to wander, trees to climb, sunsets to watch, friends to be made, lovers to love, places to visit, authors to read. There are films, concerts, art museums, lectures, camping trips, parties -- and a myriad other interesting, engaging, edifying and enjoyable experiences to be had. A life to be lived.
So, I've said what I've wanted to say. Thanks for hearing me out. Let ISKCON, if it wishes, commission one of its intellectual or literary lights to respond to these reflections of mine with some impressively philosophical defense of the status quo. I really don't care. I only wish that sincere devotees honestly consider what I've said here and decide for themselves whether or not it speaks to their own minds and hearts.
Though I've canceled my subscription to ISKCON's view of reality, I am deeply and sincerely interested in Truth/truth, and feel confident that I have common ground with people in ISKCON who's love of truth supersedes any automatic allegiance to doctrines and lines of authority. Whatever the sorry state of ISKCON, whatever dimness with which it reflects its potential glory, there are many good and decent people in the movement who seek answers to life's most profound questions and who are serious about discovering and fulfilling their highest purpose in life. To all of them, I offer my respects and my friendship.
If any of what I've written here has meaning for you, makes sense to you, touches you in some way, then I hope you'll feel free to write to me. I'd love to hear from you, to hear your thoughts, and I promise I'll do my best to respond. You can reach me at the following address: Steve Gelberg, [address temporarily unavailable, send comments to Krishna Today ed.]. I look forward to hearing from you.
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I thought the guru letter was spoken by an empathizer who sees alot. Written by a restless noble soul. And filled with moral duty for a devotee. Dandavatas!
My mind is thinking conspiracy now.
This author has found a way to benefit others with his experience. He is telling the painful truth about his self and an institution. There are obviously alot of very deep existential lessons here between the lines.
A wonderful peace. Powerful… Reminds me of prayer.
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Didn't people think they'd be purified by now? /images/graemlins/smile.gif
I know what you mean and I agree wholeheartedly. Maybe ISKCON will be around awhile. I jest.
Seriously, you're right as always… "There will be results."
I don't feel too right about my comments, you probably don't either. My apologies.
I'm dropping out of the thread. (Hopefully, no damage done).
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Prabhupada wanted us to present his books which are widely considered to be a pure medium for spiritual reality. His success is built on properly presenting his authorities without adulteration and following the order to do so. Preaching and hearing are the basis. Obviously, Prabhupada took it much farther in his personal behavior and lifestyle, but this preaching and hearing are most fundamental and dear to the whole process… like service to love.
Considering these points and the many words of Prabhupada, a pure preacher is one who simply preaches without adulteration. Is that so hard to do? That is the most important quality of his work as he himself confesses. We get Krsna's direct words that way.
We expect to scrutinize public figures because of their claims and authority and responsibility. One might easily criticize some authority just as one would critisize president bush for not justifying his attack on Iraq. And rightly so. Are they what they claim to be? Are they consistent with accepted behavior? Is it exemplarary?
But if someone is just humbly doing service without any claim to position or power or qualities or anything… no one is in a position to criticize unless he is doing better.
I can tell you, a critic is often a bigger hypocrite than you.
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Humble opinion from an unregistered guest who does not stand accountable for his actions? I don't read you guys. I think you know that. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
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Prabhuada doubted his disciples as he said many times. He told them to seek counsel with his (Prabhupada's) godbrothers because of this.
Yet, he did not give autonomy to his godbrothers either.
I don't think he had a successor in mind. I don't think he liked his choices. I don't blame him.
I just read something about qualified disciples somewhere… Babhru, I understood that you meant "those that have the intelligence to straighten things out… are working on it.
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Some of those notable acarayas have had the advantage of brahmana birth, or culture or some circumstance which developed them. I would dare to say that alot of them had advantages far exceeeding our own. …That's not undermining them in any way.
Becoming qualified. Who's more responsible to the process? The leaders and older godbrothers? Or the bhaktas? If things are a mess, it's the leaders faults… they have the authority AND the responsibility. What are they transmitting to you? (Seems they just have the perks). Theist is right… alot of lip service! This is a political statement if I ever heard one…
"Some of us took for granted that some insitutional position certified them as qualified, and some of us are working on this."
Let's not loose fact of circumstance and other variables when debating a situation or point of contention. It is not a pristene or theoretical world.
Seems ISKCON dealt with your points with a zonal acaraya system. I think it's seriously wrong to offend the parampara with conditioned gurus. What is the priority here? Again… you talk about qualifications… what about someone presenting themselves as a "traditional" spiritual master and not be liberated? Is he gonna advertise himself as much?
What happens to disciples and their faith after the truth is known? Will that experience keep them from being cheated again… what to speak of knowing their guru just "fornicates" like anyone else.
Prabhupada's STANDARD of gurus included the beauty of liberation… PERIOD. If you cannot recommend someone who is liberated or something that somehow satisfies this liberated criteria, then you are promising something you can't provide. You should be more honest about what you can deliver. I suggest this means not making impossible demands of people on either their effort or faith.
Actually, Prabhupada's books do meet this criterion.
For lack of a better example…
To describe to someone what the best car would be is one thing. To say they must go out and get one is something else. There should at least be a possibility before you make such demands. Otherwise you're giving failure, not hope (like alot of these guests do). Prabhupada could make absolute statements honestly.
If I sounded angry, I'm not. I was just being very frank about your diplomacy. Not intended to offend, but it does, I don't take it back either. Hare Krsna.
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"Regarding who's a student, Srila Prabhupad often said that one cannot become a qualified surgeon simply by reading books, but that one must enroll in the medical college and study under qualified professors--other surgeons--to those professors' satisfaction."
Great theory and practice… IF you can do it. We're not talking about mundane knowledge and processes here where you just go through the motions. We're now talking surrender to transcendence beyond immediate perception in a totally unfavorable atmosphere… gotta work 8 hours a day? Very hard for us in Kali-yuga with our constitution.
Most of the examples one might look to here have failed. You have to be able to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Your arguments would be so much stronger if there were more success stories.
Still, it is the way and the light. But it is sooo hard for most people to find this qualified guru you suggest. Hard to find competent people period.
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I have no problem with what you said. I'd just like to add 'my own' (and maybe Theist's) temperance…
The flip side of having a guru is that many people think that they're 'linked' just by that formality.
Hearing is certainly the basis… The book of the person IS the person expressing himself. Reading Prabhupada where you can really study his words without interruption or a demand on your time has no comparison. For serious understanding, it probably surpasses be present at one of Prabhupada's lectures.
Prabhupada's mood and expressions are certainly telling of transcendence, but it's his words that say so much more.
Whether someone is continuing his knowledge from a different life or just appreciating the many professional and emotional qualities of Prabhupada's books, different people will react differently.
Some will see more. Some will act more.
There is certainly the hope that there are pure devotees out there waiting to be made. A guru should be catching them.
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SB 10.1.4
Glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is performed in the parampara system; that is, it is conveyed from spiritual master to disciple. Such glorification is relished by those no longer interested in the false, temporary glorification of this cosmic manifestation. Descriptions of the Lord are the right medicine for the conditioned soul undergoing repeated birth and death. Therefore, who will cease hearing such glorification of the Lord except a butcher or one who is killing his own self?
PURPORT
In India it is the practice among the general populace to hear about Krsna, either from Bhagavad-gita or from srimad-Bhagavatam, in order to gain relief from the disease of repeated birth and death. Although India is now fallen, when there is a message that someone will speak about Bhagavad-gita or srimad-Bhagavatam, thousands of people still gather to hear. This verse indicates, however, that such recitation of Bhagavad-gita and srimad-Bhagavatam must be done by persons completely freed from material desires (nivrtta-tarsaih). Everyone within this material world, beginning from Brahma down to the insignificant ant, is full of material desires for sense enjoyment, and everyone is busy in sense gratification, but when thus engaged one cannot fully understand the value of krsna-katha, either in the form of Bhagavad-gita or in srimad-Bhagavatam.
If we hear the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead from liberated persons, this hearing will certainly free us from the bondage of material activities, but hearing srimad-Bhagavatam spoken by a professional reciter cannot actually help us achieve liberation. Krsna-katha is very simple. In Bhagavad-gita it is said that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As He Himself explains, mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya: “O Arjuna, there is no truth superior to Me.” (Bg. 7.7) Simply by understanding this fact—that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead—one can become a liberated person. But, especially in this age, because people are interested in hearing Bhagavad-gita from unscrupulous persons who depart from the simple presentation of Bhagavad-gita and distort it for their personal satisfaction, they fail to derive the real benefit. There are big scholars, politicians, philosophers and scientists who speak on Bhagavad-gita in their own polluted way, and people in general hear from them, being uninterested in hearing the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead from a devotee. A devotee is one who has no other motive for reciting Bhagavad-gita and srimad-Bhagavatam than to serve the Lord. sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has therefore advised us to hear the glories of the Lord from a realized person (bhagavata paro diya bhagavata sthane). Unless one is personally a realized soul in the science of Krsna consciousness, a neophyte should not approach him to hear about the Lord, for this is strictly forbidden by srila Sanatana Gosvami, who quotes from the Padma Purana:
avaisnava-mukhodgirnam
putam hari-kathamrtam
sravanam naiva kartavyam
sarpocchistam yatha payah
One should avoid hearing from a person not situated in Vaisnava behavior. A Vaisnava is nivrtta-trsna; that is, he has no material purpose, for his only purpose is to preach Krsna consciousness. So-called scholars, philosophers and politicians exploit the importance of Bhagavad-gita by distorting its meaning for their own purposes. Therefore this verse warns that krsna-katha should be recited by a person who is nivrtta-trsna. sukadeva Gosvami epitomizes the proper reciter for srimad-Bhagavatam, and Pariksit Maharaja, who purposefully left his kingdom and family prior to meeting death, epitomizes the person fit to hear it. A qualified reciter of srimad-Bhagavatam gives the right medicine (bhavausadhi) for the conditioned souls. The Krsna consciousness movement is therefore trying to train qualified preachers to recite srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita throughout the entire world, so that people in general in all parts of the world may take advantage of this movement and thus be relieved of the threefold miseries of material existence.
The instructions of Bhagavad-gita and the descriptions of srimad-Bhagavatam are so pleasing that almost anyone suffering from the threefold miseries of material existence will desire to hear the glories of the Lord from these books and thus benefit on the path of liberation. Two classes of men, however, will never be interested in hearing the message of Bhagavad-gita and srimad-Bhagavatam—those who are determined to commit suicide and those determined to kill cows and other animals for the satisfaction of their own tongues. Although such persons may make a show of hearing srimad-Bhagavatam at a Bhagavata-saptaha, this is but another creation of the karmis, who cannot derive any benefit from such a performance. The word pasu-ghnat is important in this connection. pasu-ghna means “butcher.” Persons fond of performing ritualistic ceremonies for elevation to the higher planetary systems must offer sacrifices (yajnas) by killing animals. Lord Buddhadeva therefore rejected the authority of the Vedas because his mission was to stop animal sacrifices, which are recommended in Vedic ritualistic ceremonies.
nindasi yajna-vidher ahaha sruti-jatam
sa-daya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-ghatam
kesava dhrta-buddha-sarira jaya jagadisa hare
(Gita-govinda)
Even though animal sacrifices are sanctioned in Vedic ceremonies, men who kill animals for such ceremonies are considered butchers. Butchers cannot be interested in Krsna consciousness, for they are already materially allured. Their only interest lies in developing comforts for the temporary body.
bhogaisvarya-prasaktanam
tayapahrta-cetasam
vyavasayatmika buddhih
samadhau na vidhiyate
“In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination of devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.” (Bg. 2.44) srila Narottama dasa thakura says:
manusya-janama paiya, radha-krsna na bhajiya,
janiya suniya visa khainu
Anyone who is not Krsna conscious and who therefore does not engage in the service of the Lord is also pasu-ghna, for he is willingly drinking poison. Such a person cannot be interested in krsna-katha because he still has a desire for material sense gratification; he is not nivrtta-trsna. As it is said, traivargikas te purusa vimukha hari-medhasah. Those interested in trivarga—that is, in dharma, artha and kama—are religious for the sake of achieving a material position with which to gain better facilities for sense gratification. Such persons are killing themselves by willingly keeping themselves in the cycle of birth and death. They cannot be interested in Krsna consciousness.
For krsna-katha, topics about Krsna consciousness, there must be a speaker and a hearer, both of whom can be interested in Krsna consciousness if they are no longer interested in material topics. One can actually see how this attitude automatically develops in persons who are Krsna conscious. Although the devotees of the Krsna consciousness movement are quite young men, they no longer read materialistic newspapers, magazines and so on, for they are no longer interested in such topics (nivrtta-tarsaih). They completely give up the bodily understanding of life. For topics concerning Uttamasloka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master speaks, and the disciple hears with attention. Unless both of them are free from material desires, they cannot be interested in topics of Krsna consciousness. The spiritual master and disciple do not need to understand anything more than Krsna because simply by understanding Krsna and talking about Krsna, one becomes a perfectly learned person (yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati). The Lord sits within everyone’s heart, and by the grace of the Lord the devotee receives instructions directly from the Lord Himself, who says in Bhagavad-gita (15.15):
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham
“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known; indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” Krsna consciousness is so exalted that one who is perfectly situated in Krsna consciousness, under the direction of the spiritual master, is fully satisfied by reading krsna-katha as found in srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and similar Vedic literatures. Since merely talking about Krsna is so pleasing, we can simply imagine how pleasing it is to render service to Krsna.
When discourses on krsna-katha take place between a liberated spiritual master and his disciple, others also sometimes take advantage of hearing these topics and also benefit. These topics are the medicine to stop the repetition of birth and death. The cycle of repeated birth and death, by which one takes on different bodies again and again, is called bhava or bhava-roga. If anyone, willingly or unwillingly, hears krsna-katha, his bhava-roga, the disease of birth and death, will certainly stop. Therefore krsna-katha is called bhavausadha, the remedy to stop the repetition of birth and death. Karmis, or persons attached to material sense enjoyment, generally cannot give up their material desires, but krsna-katha is such a potent medicine that if one is induced to hear krsna-kirtana, he will certainly be freed from this disease. A practical example is Dhruva Maharaja, who at the end of his tapasya was fully satisfied. When the Lord wanted to give Dhruva a benediction, Dhruva refused it. Svamin krtartho’smi varam na yace. “My dear Lord,” he said, “I am fully satisfied. I do not ask for any benediction for material sense gratification.” We actually see that even young boys and girls in the Krsna consciousness movement have given up their long practice of bad habits like illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. Because Krsna consciousness is so potent that it gives them full satisfaction, they are no longer interested in material sense gratification.
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The strong conviction that one will certainly receive the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called in Sanskrit asa-bandha. Asa-bandha means to continue to think, "Because I'm trying my best to follow the routine principles of devotional service, I am sure that I will go back to Godhead, back to home."
In this connection, one prayer by Rüpa Gosvami is sufficient to exemplify this hopefulness. He says,
"I have no love for Krsna, nor for the causes of developing love of Krsna-namely, hearing and chanting. And the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one is always thinking of Krsna and fixing His lotus feet in the heart, is also lacking in me. As far as philosophical knowledge or pious works are concerned, I don't see any opportunity for me to execute such activities. But above all, I am not even born of a nice family. Therefore I must simply pray to You, Gopi-jana-vallabha [Krsna, maintainer and beloved of the gopis]. I simply wish and hope that some way or other I may be able to approach Your lotus feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because I think myself quite incompetent to approach that transcendental goal of life."
The purport is that under this heading of asa-bandha, one should continue to hope against hope that some way or other he will be able to approach the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.
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Why Goats? 'Cause they eat anything?
SB 9.19.2
My dearly beloved wife, daughter of sukracarya, in this world there was someone exactly like me. Please listen as I narrate the history of his life. By hearing about the life of such a householder, those who have retired from householder life always lament.
SB 9.19.3
While wandering in the forest, eating to satisfy his senses, a he-goat by chance approached a well, in which he saw a she-goat standing helplessly, having fallen into it by the influence of the results of fruitive activities.
SB 9.19.4
After planning how to get the she-goat out of the well, the lusty he-goat dug up the earth on the well’s edge with the point of his horns in such a way that she was able to come out very easily.
SB 9.19.5-6
When the she-goat, who had very nice hips, got out of the well and saw the very handsome he-goat, she desired to accept him as her husband. When she did so, many other she-goats also desired him as their husband because he had a very beautiful bodily structure and a nice mustache and beard and was expert in discharging semen and in the art of sexual intercourse. Therefore, just as a person haunted by a ghost exhibits madness, the best of the he-goats, attracted by the many she-goats, engaged in erotic activities and naturally forgot his real business of self-realization.
SB 9.19.7
When the she-goat who had fallen into the well saw her beloved goat engaged in sexual affairs with another she-goat, she could not tolerate the goat’s activities.
SB 9.19.8
Aggrieved by her husband’s behavior with another, the she-goat thought that the he-goat was not actually her friend but was hardhearted and was her friend only for the time being. Therefore, because her husband was lusty, she left him and returned to her former maintainer.
PURPORT
The word svaminam is significant. Svami means “caretaker” or “master.” Devayani was cared for by sukracarya before her marriage, and after her marriage she was cared for by Yayati, but here the word svaminam indicates that Devayani left the protection of her husband, Yayati, and returned to her former protector, sukracarya. Vedic civilization recommends that a woman stay under the protection of a man. During childhood she should be cared for by her father, in youth by her husband, and in old age by a grown son. In any stage of life, a woman should not have independence.
SB 9.19.9
Being very sorry, the he-goat, who was subservient to his wife, followed the she-goat on the road and tried his best to flatter her, but he could not pacify her.
SB 9.19.10
The she-goat went to the residence of a brahmana who was the maintainer of another she-goat, and that brahmana angrily cut off the he-goat’s dangling testicles. But at the he-goat’s request, the brahmana later rejoined them by the power of mystic yoga.
PURPORT
Here sukracarya is figuratively described as the husband of another she-goat. This indicates that the relationship between husband and wife in any society, whether higher or lower than human society, is nothing but the same relationship between he-goat and she-goat, for the material relationship between man and woman is one of sex. Yan maithunadi-grhamedhi-sukham hi tuccham [sB 7.9.45]. sukracarya was an acarya, or expert, in family affairs, which involve the transfer of semen from he-goat to she-goat, The words kascid aja-svami expressly indicate herein that sukracarya was no better than Yayati, for both of them were interested in family affairs generated by sukra, or semen. sukracarya first cursed Yayati to become old so that he could no longer indulge in sex, but when sukracarya saw that Yayati’s emasculation would make his own daughter a victim of punishment, he used his mystic power to restore Yayati’s masculinity. Because he used his power of mystic yoga for family affairs and not to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this exercise in the magic of yoga was no better than the affairs of he-goats and she-goats. Yogic power should properly be used to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As the Lord Himself recommends in Bhagavad-gita (6.47):
yoginam api sarvesam
mad-gatenantaratmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam
sa me yuktatamo matah
“Of all yogis, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.”
SB 9.19.11
My dear wife, when the he-goat had his testicles restored, he enjoyed the she-goat he had gotten from the well, but although he continued to enjoy for many, many years, even now he has not been fully satisfied.
PURPORT
When one is bound by affection for one’s wife, one is attached to sexual desires that are very difficult to overcome. Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, one must voluntarily leave his so-called home and go to the forest. Pancasordhvam vanam vrajet. Human life is meant for such tapasya, or austerity. By the austerity of voluntarily stopping sex life at home and going to the forest to engage in spiritual activities in the association of devotees, one achieves the actual purpose of human life.
SB 9.19.12
O my dear wife with beautiful eyebrows, I am exactly like that he-goat, for I am so poor in intelligence that I am captivated by your beauty and have forgotten the real task of self-realization.
SB 9.19.13
A person who is lusty cannot satisfy his mind even if he has enough of everything in this world, including rice, barley and other food grains, gold, animals and women. Nothing can satisfy him.
PURPORT
Improvement of one’s economic condition is the aim and object of a materialist, but there is no end to this material advancement, for if one cannot control his lusty desires, he will never be pleased, even if he gets all the material wealth of the world. In this age we see much material improvement, but still people are struggling to get more and more material opulence. Manah sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati [bg. 15.7]. Although every living entity is a part of the Supreme Being, because of lusty desires one continuously struggles for so-called betterment of one’s economic condition. To have a satisfied mind, one must give up his heart disease of lusty desires. This can be done only when one is Krsna conscious.
bhaktim param bhagavati pratilabhya kamam
hrd-rogam asv apahinoty acirena dhirah
(Bhag. 10.33.39)
If one becomes Krsna conscious, then he can give up this heart disease; otherwise this disease of lusty desires will continue, and one cannot have peace in his mind.
SB 9.19.14
As supplying butter to a fire does not diminish the fire but instead increases it more and more, the endeavor to stop lusty desires by continual enjoyment can never be successful. [in fact, one must voluntarily cease from material desires.]
PURPORT
One may have enough money and enough resources to satisfy the senses but still not be satisfied, for the endeavor to stop lusty desires by enjoying can never be successful. The example given here is very appropriate. One cannot stop a blazing fire by trying to extinguish it with butter.
SB 9.19.15
When a man is nonenvious and does not desire ill fortune for anyone, he is equipoised. For such a person, all directions appear happy.
SB 9.19.16
For those who are too attached to material enjoyment, sense gratification is very difficult to give up. Even when one is an invalid because of old age, one cannot give up such desires for sense gratification. Therefore, one who actually desires happiness must give up such unsatisfied desires, which are the cause of all tribulations.
PURPORT
We have actually seen, especially in the Western countries, that men who have reached more than eighty years of age still go to nightclubs and pay heavy fees to drink wine and associate with women. Although such men are too old to enjoy anything, their desires have not ceased. Time deteriorates even the body itself, which is the medium for all sensual satisfaction, but even when a man becomes old and invalid, his desires are strong enough to dictate that he go here and there to satisfy the desires of his senses. Therefore, by the practice of bhakti-yoga, one should give up his lusty desires. As explained by sri Yamunacarya:
yadavadhi mama cetah krsna-padaravinde
nava-nava-rasa-dhamany udyatam rantum asit
tadavadhi bata nari-sangame smaryamane
bhavati mukha-vikarah susthu-nisthivanam ca
When one is Krsna conscious, he gets more and more happiness by discharging duties for Krsna. Such a person spits on sense gratification, especially that of sexual enjoyment. An experienced, advanced devotee is no longer interested in sex life. The strong desire for sex can be subdued only by advancement in Krsna consciousness.
SB 9.19.17
One should not allow oneself to sit on the same seat even with one’s own mother, sister or daughter, for the senses are so strong that even though one is very advanced in knowledge, he may be attracted by sex.
PURPORT
Learning the etiquette of how to deal with women does not free one from sexual attraction. As specifically mentioned herewith, such attraction is possible even with one’s mother, sister or daughter. Generally, of course, one is not sexually attracted to his mother, sister or daughter, but if one allows himself to sit very close to such a woman, one may be attracted. This is a psychological fact. It may be said that one is liable to be attracted if he is not very advanced in civilized life; however, as specifically mentioned here, vidvamsam api karsati: even if one is highly advanced, materially or spiritually, he may be attracted by lusty desires. The object of attraction may even be one’s mother, sister or daughter. Therefore, one should be extremely careful in dealings with women. sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was most strict in such dealings, especially after He accepted the sannyasa order. Indeed, no woman could come near Him to offer Him respect. Again, one is warned herewith that one should be extremely careful in dealings with women. A brahmacari is forbidden even to see the wife of his spiritual master if she happens to be young. The wife of the spiritual master may sometimes take some service from the disciple of her husband, as she would from a son, but if the wife of the spiritual master is young, a brahmacari is forbidden to render service to her.
SB 9.19.18
I have spent a full one thousand years enjoying sense gratification, yet my desire to enjoy such pleasure increases daily.
SB 9.19.19
Therefore, I shall now give up all these desires and meditate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Free from the dualities of mental concoction and free from false prestige, I shall wander in the forest with the animals.
SB 9.19.20
One who knows that material happiness, whether good or bad, in this life or in the next, on this planet or on the heavenly planets, is temporary and useless, and that an intelligent person should not try to enjoy or even think of such things, is the knower of the self. Such a self-realized person knows quite well that material happiness is the very cause of continued material existence and forgetfulness of one’s own constitutional position.
PURPORT
The living entity is a spiritual soul, and the material body is his encagement. This is the beginning of spiritual understanding.
dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati
“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Bg. 2.13) The real mission of human life is to get free from encagement in the material body. Therefore Krsna descends to teach the conditioned soul about spiritual realization and how to become free from material bondage. Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata [bg. 4.7]. The words dharmasya glanih mean “pollution of one’s existence.” Our existence is now polluted, and it must be purified (sattvam suddhyet). The human life is meant for this purification, not for thinking of happiness in terms of the external body, which is the cause of material bondage. Therefore, in this verse, Maharaja Yayati advises that whatever material happiness we see and whatever is promised for enjoyment is all merely flickering and temporary. abrahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino ’rjuna [bg. 8.16]. Even if one is promoted to Brahmaloka, if one is not freed from material bondage one must return to this planet earth and continue in the miserable condition of material existence (bhutva bhutva praliyate). One should always keep this understanding in mind so as not to be allured by any kind of sense enjoyment, in this life or in the next. One who is fully aware of this truth is self-realized (sa atma-drk), but aside from him, everyone suffers in the cycle of birth and death (mrtyu-samsara-vartmani). This understanding is one of true intelligence, and anything contrary to this is but a cause of unhappiness. Krsna-bhakta—niskama, ataeva ‘santa.’ Only a Krsna conscious person, who knows the aim and object of life, is peaceful. All others, whether karmis, jnanis or yogis, are restless and cannot enjoy real peace.
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SB 9.18.23
sukadeva Gosvami continued: Because such a marriage is not sanctioned by regular scriptures, King Yayati did not like it, but because it was arranged by providence and because he was attracted by Devayani’s beauty, he accepted her request.
PURPORT
According to the Vedic system, the parents would consider the horoscopes of the boy and girl who were to be married. If according to astrological calculations the boy and girl were compatible in every respect, the match was called yotaka and the marriage would be accepted. Even fifty years ago, this system was current in Hindu society. Regardless of the affluence of the boy or the personal beauty of the girl, without this astrological compatibility the marriage would not take place. A person is born in one of three categories, known as deva-gana, manusya-gana and raksasa-gana. In different parts of the universe there are demigods and demons, and in human society also some people resemble demigods whereas others resemble demons. If according to astrological calculations there was conflict between a godly and a demoniac nature, the marriage would not take place. Similarly, there were calculations of pratiloma and anuloma. The central idea is that if the boy and girl were on an equal level the marriage would be happy, whereas inequality would lead to unhappiness. Because care is no longer taken in marriage, we now find many divorces. Indeed, divorce has now become a common affair, although formerly one’s marriage would continue lifelong, and the affection between husband and wife was so great that the wife would voluntarily die when her husband died or would remain a faithful widow throughout her entire life. Now, of course, this is no longer possible, for human society has fallen to the level of animal society. Marriage now takes place simply by agreement. Dampatye ’bhirucir hetuh (Bhag. 12.2.3). The word abhiruci means “agreement.” If the boy and girl simply agree to marry, the marriage takes place. But when the Vedic system is not rigidly observed, marriage frequently ends in divorce.
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SB 9.15.40
The duty of a brahmana is to culture the quality of forgiveness, which is illuminating like the sun. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is pleased with those who are forgiving.
PURPORT
Different personalities become beautiful by possessing different qualities. Canakya Pandita says that the cuckoo bird, although very black, is beautiful because of its sweet voice. Similarly, a woman becomes beautiful by her chastity and faithfulness to her husband, and an ugly person becomes beautiful when he becomes a learned scholar. In the same way, brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras become beautiful by their qualities. Brahmanas are beautiful when they are forgiving, ksatriyas when they are heroic and never retreat from fighting, vaisyas when they enrich cultural activities and protect cows, and sudras when they are faithful in the discharge of duties pleasing to their masters. Thus everyone becomes beautiful by his special qualities. And the special quality of the brahmana, as described here, is forgiveness.
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Today we just have the business class. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
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How do you risk what is not yours to risk?
(I know the rich dogs have an answer).
If you're not living with some service, you're already dead.
Theoretically, the so-called risk for Krsna is much more desireable than say, getting drafted and put in the firing line on foreign soil for the rich. No mercy there. Or working in a sweat shop to afford the bare necessities that enable you to work there… alot of these jobs are like working a prison job… is death preferable to a life behind bars? …or a million other things (seems alot of people think a miserable life is better than no life at all)…
But the reality is most satisfying… irresistable!
Coming Back to Life
Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
Where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun
Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the waiting had begun
And headed straight...into the shining sun – Pink Floyd
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You gonna preserve this body at all cost, training it to be a sheep or dog and then take birth in that species? Better die for Krsna instead.
Me thinks the rich wants to say who lives and dies… no health insurance claims accepted? no retirement 'cause it was embezzeled by the company? gotta be a soldier? gotta lick butt just to survive? Me thinks the rich elite are just the LOWEST SUDRAS who will destroy the world if they can't have it all on their terms.
ANYONE can stop someone else IF they are willing. You don't have to be rich - or a sudra - to do that.
I'm responding like this because I've seen alot of similar type post - judging by the title - and I've been warned several times on the street. But I know it's a coincidence. If I didn't know better, I'd think the rich and powerful are SCARED OF POOR little 'ole ME. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
I'll finnish with this… their options are less than mine. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Theist, sometimes I use the older known devotees as a sounding board… since I don't read or talk to many others here. Thanks.
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So many foolish whiners here who pick over all discrepancies… dammn hypocrites too.
But they haven't got the sense to complain about their leaders slowly putting the chains on them.
"Nothing personal. It's just business." Forget that. "It's the law!"
If the government men are simply creating laws for and defending the rich, then they obviously don't believe those high ideals they tell you and they promised to defend… Just another salesman?
You can sell anything to people these days… Just promise them satisfaction.
"You will be sooo pleased with us. We know how to serve you better."
I don't vote, but if I did I would vote for the richest sudra. /images/graemlins/smile.gif (I could get alot from him).
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SB 9.15.15
When the royal dynasty, being excessively proud because of the material modes of passion and ignorance, became irreligious and ceased to care for the laws enacted by the brahmanas, Parasurama killed them. Although their offense was not very severe, he killed them to lessen the burden of the world.
PURPORT
The ksatriyas, or the ruling class, must govern the world in accordance with the rules and regulations enacted by great brahmanas and saintly persons. As soon as the ruling class becomes irresponsible in regard to the religious principles, it becomes a burden on the earth. As stated here, rajas-tamo-vrtam, bharam abrahmanyam: when the ruling class is influenced by the lower modes of nature, namely ignorance and passion, it becomes a burden to the world and must then be annihilated by superior power. We actually see from modern history that monarchies have been abolished by various revolutions, but unfortunately the monarchies have been abolished to establish the supremacy of third-class and fourth-class men. Although monarchies overpowered by the modes of passion and ignorance have been abolished in the world, the inhabitants of the world are still unhappy, for although the qualities of the former monarchs were degraded by taints of ignorance, these monarchs have been replaced by men of the mercantile and worker classes whose qualities are even more degraded. When the government is actually guided by brahmanas, or God conscious men, then there can be real happiness for the people. Therefore in previous times, when the ruling class was degraded to the modes of passion and ignorance, the brahmanas, headed by such a ksatriya-spirited brahmana as Parasurama, killed them twenty-one consecutive times.
In Kali-yuga, as stated in srimad-Bhagavatam (12.2.13), dasyu-prayesu rajasu: the ruling class (rajanya) will be no better than plunderers (dasyus) because the third-class and fourth-class men will monopolize the affairs of the government. Ignoring the religious principles and brahminical rules and regulations, they will certainly try to plunder the riches of the citizens without consideration. As stated elsewhere in srimad-Bhagavatam (12.1.40):
asamskrtah kriya-hina
rajasa tamasavrtah
prajas te bhaksayisyanti
mleccha rajanya-rupinah
Being unpurified, neglecting to discharge human duties properly, and being influenced by the modes of passion (rajas) and ignorance (tamas), unclean people (mlecchas), posing as members of the government (rajanya-rupinah), will swallow the citizens (prajas te bhaksayisyanti). And in still another place, srimad-Bhagavatam (12.2.7–8) says:
evam prajabhir dustabhir
akirne ksiti-mandale
brahma-vit-ksatra-sudranam
yo bali bhavita nrpah
praja hi lubdhai rajanyair
nirghrnair dasyu-dharmabhih
acchinna-dara-dravina
yasyanti giri-kananam
Human society is naturally grouped into four divisions, as stated in Bhagavad-gita (catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [bg. 4.13]). But if this system is neglected and the qualities and divisions of society are not considered, the result will be brahma-vit-ksatra-sudranam yo bali bhavita nrpah: the so-called caste system of brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya and sudra will be meaningless. As a result, whoever somehow or other becomes powerful will be the king or president, and thus the prajas, or citizens, will be so harassed that they will give up hearth and home and will go to the forest (yasyanti giri-kananam) to escape harassment by government officials who have no mercy and are addicted to the ways of plunderers. Therefore the prajas, or the people in general, must take to the Krsna consciousness movement, the Hare Krsna movement, which is the sound incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara: Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has now appeared as an incarnation by His holy name. Therefore, when the prajas become Krsna conscious, they can then expect a good government and good society, a perfect life, and liberation from the bondage of material existence.
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Hard for me to think along those lines right now. Might help to know what I'm talking about first.
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I'm not sure how your title relates so much to your content.
"But yet it persists today. It is also the source of some big big aparadha's."
I agree. It's hard to cheat fellow devotees who witnessed the truth of Prabhupada. Leaders tend to think themselves qualified. Are you gonna advertise you aren't qualified? But I don't understand the show of it all after so much failure and exposure to your peers… Seems a great offense to Krsna.
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"I have no need trying to hear the intricaies of higher and more intimate rasa from where I am but that doesn't mean that is true for everyone."
Well, I tend to agree with you here. I think just about all of us can speak authoritatively on choosing Krsna. Beyond that? Well, how many years to liberation? Seems you have to see what you're describing. You're not liberated, you can't describe the existential psychology of that… what to speak of the finer circumstantial particulars.
But then we only know about ourselves and a few others for sure. What we 'hear' or assume someone else may know outside our direct experience is more problamtic.
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"I tried reading Govinda-lilamrta once and found myself shocked and bewildered upon reading Radha and Krsna's awakening pastimes. I couldn't go on. The few verses from that work that are in CC are enough for me."
Pretty much my position at the moment. If we can't determine whether one is a charlatan or not, best not assume anything… give the benefit of the doubt until it exceeds your limitations.
I also think you cannot jump ahead. I learned that from Prabhupada.
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I don't know what you're saying about reading other people's books or your reaction to them.
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"But what of others who want more awe and reverance in their rasa?"
Awe and reverence is the first transcendental primary relationship. Are you asking if conditioned souls should be positioned in awe and reverence or higher liberated souls seeking lower tastes?
"Must they read this work(Govinda-lilamrta)… ?"
I'm not familiar with the book. I'm only familiar with Prabhupada's volumes.
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"I hope we can grow into a mood that allows for respecting others choices and not feeling needlessly threatened by them."
That depends on the available social KC.
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The previous acaryas have passed the test, they have attained the goal we seek and they show the way. Who else you gonna learn from?
How can a bona-fide acarya upsurp the authority of his acaryas? If he does so, the 'reality' is immediately lost along with his authorization.
The Srimad-Bhagavatam is filled with examples of different authorities… and they have a hierarchy and structure just like anything else.
How are you gonna deny a suprerior except on the authority of a higher superior? Why does this stuff even come up?
Transcendental happiness & Freedom from Misery
in Spiritual Discussions
Posted
SB 10.11.58
In this way all the cowherd men, headed by Nanda Maharaja, enjoyed topics about the pastimes of Krsna and Balarama with great transcendental pleasure, and they could not even perceive material tribulations.
PURPORT
Here is an instruction about the result of studying or discussing the krsna-lilas that appear in srimad-Bhagavatam. Sadyo hrdy avarudhyate ’tra krtibhih susrusubhis tat-ksanat (Bhag. 1.1.2). Nanda Maharaja and Yasoda in Vrndavana appeared like ordinary persons of this material world, but they never felt the tribulations of this world, although they sometimes met many dangerous situations created by the demons. This is a practical example. If we follow in the footsteps of Nanda Maharaja and the gopas, we can all be happy simply by discussing the activities of Krsna.
anarthopasamam saksad
bhakti-yogam adhoksaje
lokasyajanato vidvams
cakre satvata-samhitam
(Bhag. 1.7.6)
Vyasadeva has given this literature so that everyone may understand one’s transcendental position simply by discussing bhagavata-katha. Even at the present moment, everyone everywhere can be happy and free from material tribulations by following srimad-Bhagavatam. There is no need of austerities and penances, which in this age are very difficult to perform. sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has therefore declared, sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. By our Krsna consciousness movement, we are trying to distribute srimad-Bhagavatam so that anyone in any part of the world can be absorbed in the Krsna consciousness movement by chanting and hearing about the activities of Krsna and be free from all material tribulations.