Prabhupada: I will never die

[kailasa 0]

He, 1896, Bhaktivinoda Thakura wanted to introduce this Krsna consciousness movement by sending this book, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, His Life and Precepts. Fortunately, that year was my birth year, and by Krsna's arrangement, we came in contact.

 

Prabhupada: ...in 1896. Bhaktivinoda Thakura was the first origin of this movement. But he simply thought of it. And he was expecting some others that willing to take up the work. Well, somebody says that I am the same man. And I was born in 1896. So he wanted to combine the whole civilized nations under this Caitanya Mahaprabhu's cult, Hare Krsna movement. I think I have given this hint in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

 

Reporter (2): How many members in the United States? I'm told two thousand. Is that correct approximately?

Prabhupada: That they can say.

Jayatirtha: Well, our published figure is that worldwide membership is ten thousand. How much of that is in the United States isn't exactly broken down.

Reporter (2): I did a story on this movement five years ago and the figure at that time was two thousand in the United States also.

Prabhupada: It is increasing.

Reporter (2): It is increasing?

Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Definitely.

Jayatirtha: I said that the worldwide figure is ten thousand.

Reporter (2): Yes, I understood. Could you tell me how old you are?

Jayatirtha: He wants to know your age, Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: After one month I will be eighty.

Reporter (1): Eighty?

Prabhupada: Eighty years old.

Reporter (2): What will happen...

Prabhupada: I was born in 1896, now you can calculate.

Reporter (2): What will happen to the movement in the United States when you die?

Prabhupada: I will never die.

Devotees: Jaya! Hari bol! (laughter)

Prabhupada: I shall live for my books, and you will utilize.

[yasodanandana 0]

jaya...

jayA...

jaYA...

jAYA...

JAYA...

J A Y A . . .

J A Y A . . . pRabHupADa !!!

[Guest guest]

In our Hearts of Hearts

The All Perfect Supreme Being Caitya Guru

expands and takes a human form as Sri Guru for oue benefit and deliverance

 

The Spiritual Master ,

although human looking is in fact

an eternal immortal being ,not at all a jiva soul like me

who is conditioned by the 3 gunas

but an expansion of Godhead Himself

How can a jiva soul possibly deliver another jiva soul?

 

The Sri Guru is a very dear confidential girl companion of Sri Radhika

and at the same time an associate of Sri Balarama Nityananda,

who is Lord Gouranga's own personality,a gaura-priya jana.

[anadi 0]

Nice siddhanta!

Perfect!

It could be most perfect!

[Guest guest]

Srila Prabhuapada acariya He is not ordinary guru.

 

Srila Prabhupada devotee Lord Caitanya, He is sakhya in Krisna lila and madhurya rasa in Gaura lila. It is HIS deities in Vrindavan.

 

In madhurya Gaura lila not sambhoga, Srimati Radha in Gaura lila it is mood vipralambha.

[ShegavichaRana 0]

after dropping their mortal coil, maintain their Sukshma Sharira in order to shower mercy and help on to their devotees and struggling souls. So what he said, it is definitely true.

[Guest guest]

Virabhadra: You said in your lecture that everybody... I think that's what you said, that everybody in the material world is...in maya. But you can't be in maya.

Prabhupada: How do you think?

Virabhadra: You're spiritual, so you can't be in maya. So how does that work?

Prabhupada: How do you think that I am not in maya?

Virabhadra: Because you’re a pure devotee. You see Krsna in everybody.

Prabhupada: (laughs) Yes. Then a pure devotee is not in maya. Do you agree to that?

Virabhadra: Uh huh.

[Guest guest]

This last post makes you think about what a guru is.

 

I think Prabhupada is very humble here.

 

I also think many devotees think a guru can make no mistakes… and there's almost an empirical approach they take to successful activities. A guru can never be wrong, etc.

 

Personally, I think gurus can make mistakes. There's is only one Krsna who has absolute controlling power (Now perhaps He can't make a mistake).

 

A mistake means mistaking something for something else. No? Now we have to have competency, but we should not expect perfect material affairs to be evidence of prowess.

 

The guru's perfection lies in his constitutional position with Krsna. That's why he's perfect. The guru's perfection is his ability to introduce Krsna to you.

 

I'm a fool and hope I didn't offend "anyone"! I take this philosophical position. But I could be wrong.

 

ancient paztriot

[Guest guest]

"Personally, I think gurus can make mistakes"

a guru must be chastised by his guru and in contrast with the opinions of his godbrothers.. but for the disciple he's absolute

[Guest guest]

Can the guru make mistakes? If were talking about a pure devotee guru in such a case maybe Krishna can tell him he made a mistake, but I never will.

 

If we get to decide what mistake a guru has made, then anything we dislike can be called a mistake.

 

Now that Prabhupada has left the planet we are taking liberties we never would have considered to his face.

[Guest guest]

I'll have to use some kind of examples I guess:

 

Prabhupada was sometimes criticized for his "mistakes" in book publication… or whatever. The examples are there in his biography.

 

My point is that these mistakes do not belay his perfection.

 

Some would question the competency of the guru simply on the basis of these mistakes. This seems to me to be foolish.

 

The jiva will always make mistakes. He does not have the knowledge or insight that Godhead does. Even the gopis were subject to pride.

 

So we as tiny servants are always dealing with these contrary forces of ego and such - even in a liberated state. We always have our free will to do something else… right or wrong. And our senses can always be fooled! We can always change our position. It is dynamic.

 

So we have to see the results. If a guru misses his prayers before a lecture - for example - that may be indicative of problems. It may not. Mistakes due to the limitations of body and mind have nothing to do with the eternal platform.

 

If one is "pleasing" Krsna, that's all that matters. And this is the standard of perfection… not how well we can perform some physical arrangement. Krsna even advised Yudhisthira to lie, etc.

 

A guru who has achieved samadhi or liberation is certainly free, regardless of the imperfections percieved.

 

ancient paztriot

[Guest guest]

"Some would question the competency of the guru simply on the basis of these mistakes. This seems to me to be foolish."

...because a guru has to be judged mainly on the ability to bring people back to godhead, so if an apparent error in translating a scripture brings people back to krsna, this is the exact translation... the purpose of the book is fulfilled.

 

"Even the gopis were subject to pride."

.....this is a lila... not a mistake, in goloka there's no mistakes (CIT)

 

"So we have to see the results. If a guru misses his prayers before a lecture - for example - that may be indicative of problems. It may not."

....eeh??????? who is finding faults in this stupid way?

 

 

[Guest guest]

I love this post! Really!

 

But it's hard for us to see how this will now come true - empirically.

 

Did anyone think those words back then would now be a cry in the dark?

 

Prabhupada did not personally or physically accomplish so much. It was done with the help of OTHERS: The BBT, the artists, the sankirtana devotees: Hari Bol!

 

In fact it was the books - representative of the colllaborative effort - that became the big drum: Prabhupada reached so many through this technology. Take a book home and read it and you're hooked: You have the shortcut!

 

We can still do what sankirtana devotees accomplished then… purpose and fulfillment by distributing his books (or his knowledge in other ways).

 

To give up sankirtana… (how do you fill it in?)

[Guest guest]

 

Prabhupada did not personally or physically accomplish so much. It was done with the help of OTHERS: The BBT, the artists, the sankirtana devotees: Hari Bol!

 

 

What illusion we are in if we think we did much of anything. We were given mercy, we were given opportunity, but the pure devotee didn't need us to get anything acomplished. He didn't 'need' us, he allowed us mlechas to do something, anything, for purification. Like a child colors a picture with his crayons and proudly shows it to ihs father. The father says, "Yes, what a first class picture you have colored." The father knows it is simply a childs ability, but he tells him its first class out of love. So we took out our crayons, our colored penciles, our magic markers, and our building blocks. We painted pictures, built the BBT, distrubuted books, started temples, plugged our machines into electric circuits to do this or that service, and now we think Prabhupada couldn't have done it without us.

[Guest guest]

 

Prabhupada was sometimes criticized for his "mistakes" in book publication… or whatever.

 

 

The books are perfect. Suddenly we think we know Sanskrit better then Prabhupada and can 'correct' his 'mistakes.' Or his imperfect English, which is nothing short of endearing.

 

 

The examples are there in his biography.

 

 

A book that 70% of the information collected was omitted. A book that is not perfect itself and has inaccuracies.

 

 

The jiva will always make mistakes. He does not have the knowledge or insight that Godhead does. Even the gopis were subject to pride.

 

 

"Guru is never ordinary. Guru... That I have explained. Never we should consider guru as ordinary human being. BG 2.2.26, Ahmedabad, Dec 11, 72

 

 

"acaryam mam vijaniyat navamanyeta karhicit: "Acarya should be known as good as God." SB 6.3.16 Gorakhpur, Feb 10, 71

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Guest, I agree with all you have said.

 

But it is a world of duality and dualistic perspectives. What you have said is certainly not the last word.

 

But I don't care to debate it.

 

The Other One, To say a guru has the symptoms of life is not to say he is imperfect.

 

ancient paztriot

[Guest guest]

Visnujana: Srila Prabhupada, what did Bhaktivinoda Thakura mean when he said, "I am going, my work unfinished"?

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Visnujana: When Bhaktivinoda Thakura stated that he was leaving this planet with his work unfinished.

Prabhupada: Then let us finish. We are descendant of Bhaktivinoda Thakura. So he kept unfinished so that we shall get the chance to finish it. That is his mercy.

[Guest guest]

 

To say a guru has the symptoms of life is not to say he is imperfect.

 

 

If he is imperfect, why do you bother taking instruction from him? One should only take instruction from one who has achieved perfection.

[Guest guest]

Acarya perfect why imperfect? Im do not know any imperfection.

[Guest guest]

you are not perfect, how can you judge perfection?

[Guest guest]

I am not perfect, but me guru perfect.

 

Thancs.

[Guest guest]

how do you know?you can't see the perfection

[Guest guest]

 

you are not perfect, how can you judge perfection?

 

 

That's right, the human being, having fallen under the illusion of material energy, cannot from their own limited understading, judge perfection. Only one who makes a serious, SERIOUS study of Srila Prabhupada's books and lectures can understand the requriements for perfection. The Vedas make it clear what is perfection. One must be learned in Veda or they will not be able to recognized a fully enlightned, perfect, flawless guru. If they see flaws in an established pure devotee, that is material vision and lack of Vedic knowledge.

[yasodanandana 0]

i agree.. but there's imho something to add

 

"Only one who makes a serious, SERIOUS study of Srila Prabhupada's books and lectures can understand the requriements for perfection. "

••••the serious study of the book of the acharyas requires the guidance and the "spiritual linking" to the parampara' (siksa and diksa) from a bona fide spiritual master, otherwise we, being eternally conditionated, cannot really enter the world of the spiritual scriptures

 

i have read many time in this forum how srila gaura govinda maharaja say that we can find a guru only: "crying before krsna"

 

so to understand an acharya (prabhupada) is required the guidance(siksa) and benedition(diksa) of an acharya (gurudeva) and to find this last acharya (the "present" gurudeva) it is required much "crying".. sincerity and intense desire to "call" the krsna's mercy.

To study intensely the scriptures, i believe (please correct me if it is wrong), is showing more the symptom of the intense desire and sincerity than being in itself the cause of our capacity to find a pure vaishnava and surrender to him

 

how do you think? am i wrong?

[Guest guest]

{quote]how do you think? am i wrong?