Association of Devotees is the Greatest Benediction By Radhanath Swami

8/7/2019 Association of Devotees is the Greatest Benediction By Radhanath Swami

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Association of Devotees is the Greatest Benediction By Radhanath Swami

asty eva rajan bhavato madhudvisahpadaravindasya gunanuvadaneratir durapa vidhunoti naisthiki

kamam kasayam malam antar-atmanah

TRANSLATION:

Sanat-kumara continued: My dear King, you already have an inclination to glorify the lotus feetof the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such attachment is very difficult to achieve, but whenone has attained such unflinching faith in the Lord, it automatically cleanses lusty desires fromthe core of the heart.

PURPORT:

satam prasangan mama virya-samvidobhavanti hrt-karna-rasayanah kathahtaj-josanad asv apavarga-vartmanisraddha ratir bhaktir anukramisyati

(SB 3.25.25)

By association with devotees, dirty things within the heart of a materialistic man are graduallywashed away by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As silver becomes shiny bybeing polished, the heart of a materialistic person is cleansed of lusty desires by the goodassociation of devotees. Actually the living being has no connection with this material enjoymentnor with lusty desires. He is simply imagining or dreaming while asleep. But by the association

of pure devotees, he is awakened, and immediately the spirit soul is situated in his own glory byunderstanding his constitutional position as the eternal servant of the Lord. Prthu Maharaja wasalready a self-realized soul; therefore he had a natural inclination to glorify the activities of theSupreme Personality of Godhead, and the Kumaras assured him that there was no chance of hisfalling victim to the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. In other words, the process of hearingand chanting about the glories of the Lord is the only means to clarify the heart of materialcontamination. By the process of karma, jnana and yoga, no one will succeed in driving awaycontamination from the heart, but once a person takes to the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lordby devotional service, automatically all dirty things in the heart are removed without difficulty.

HH Radhanath Swami:

Sanat Kumar along with his brothers was previously immersed in Brahaman realization of theAbsolute Truth. As four year old children they were in such a state of transcendentalism that theywere completely aloof to all desires in this material world, no greed, no envy, no pride, not atinge of lust. They did not even recognize the dualities that keep everyone utterly captivated withmaterial desires.



Compared to the vast

unlimited ocean of thehappiness one derivesfrom pure devotionalservice the ananda, theecstasy of Brahmanrealization is not even asingle tiny drop of happiness- Rupa Goswami

To have the desire toenjoy anything is asymptom of envy.Because everything ismeant for Krishna¶senjoyment

When their own father Lord Brahma ordered them to marry to assist him in creating progenywithin this universe they refused. It is not so easy refusing Lord Brahma. He happens to be themost powerful person in the entire universe. They are children, they were completely fearless,they were above material energy but when they experienced the sweetness of devotional servicethey considered their Brahman realization to be insignificant, of no

relevance Here Sanat Kumar is revealing his own heart to Maharaj Prthu. Whatyou have King is the most priceless treasure that is the most difficultthing to achieve within this world, an attraction to hear about andglorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Out of the 8400 000species of life within material existence everyone is seeking subtle or gross sense gratification. It is a place where, everyone is shackled bypassionate desires selfish egoism. Actually any selfish desire wehave is a symptom on envy because everything is meant for Krishna¶s enjoyment.

Envy is pollution; it is an unnatural foreign element to the soul. Inessence it is disease, the root of all disease. Our constitutional nature isto be enjoyed, to serve, to want Krishna to enjoy us, to assist Krishna inenjoying His creation. That is the consciousness of every living being inthe spiritual world. You cannot be there unless you have this pure stateof selfless devotion.In the spiritual world all walking is dancing, allspeaking is singing. Everyone is twenty-four hours for all of eternity in

bliss, united with one function ± to just give pleasure to Sri Sri Radha Gopinath, such awonderful world! There is only love. Any propensity other than love cannot exists in the spiritualworld. There is unlimited variegatedness but they are all extraordinarily wonderful ways of expressing love. Even anger in the spiritual world is just a very, very pleasing way of expressinglove. Nothing exists except love. Our bodies are made out of love, our minds are made out of love, every tree, every plant, every person, the sky, it is all made out of love. It is all pervadinglove and love is reciprocated because everything is personal in the spiritual world and the natureof the soul in its pure state is to love Krishna so there can be nothing but love.

Love it not selfish, love is always selfless, love is always with the concern of the welfare and thehappiness of the beloved, love is a state of complete, inhibited, unconditional giving of everyaspect of our very existence for the pleasure of the object of our love within and without. Thereis not even the slightest inclination except to please Radha Gopinath for those who have love. Inthat ecstatic trance everyone is in complete unity. The diversity of the unity is something very,very pleasing and extraordinary but everyone is in complete unity because they know that¶s theway to please Krishna.

This material world is like a prison house for those who have any other desire than to loveKrishna. It is also considered to be like a hospital. The Vaisnavas are like the doctors in thehospital. They are here to heal us but all the patients are suffering from various aspects of thedisease of selfishness and suffering terribly. Even the innocent little animals are somehow or theother trying to be the enjoyer. Human society is just developed on this principle of being theenjoyer.



Attraction to hear the glories

of the Lord is the naturalresult of associating withsincere devotees. That is thebasis of our bhakti. - Srila Prabhupada

Krishna manifests Himself through the hearts of Hisdevotees; there is no other way.

To be attracted to hear and glorify Krishna is actually an expression of our desire to love God.Krishna only reciprocates with love, bhakti nothing else! Krishna does not personally care for our austerities or our knowledge or our wealth or our material capabilities or our acquisitions andattainments within this world of death but even the simplest devotee even that little spider thatkicked the sand on the rocks between Ramesvaram and Sri Lanka, even that little spider

conquered the heart of Rama. Krishna is attracted by love.srnvatam sva-kathah krsnahpunya-sravana-kirtanah (SB 1.2.17)

When Krishna within our hearts sees that we are developing an attraction, an attachment tohearing and chanting His glories He sees that as an expression of love and He responds byfulfilling the desire of that love that our heart becomes completely pure, cleansed of all egoisticselfish desire. How is that possible? Sanat Kumar is telling Prthu Maharaj here that howfortunate he is. This attraction to hear about Krishna to chant the glories of the Lord is so rare it

is so precious.

There are many millions of people in this land of India whogather together to hear the teachings, the pastimes and theglories of the Lord but their hearts are not being cleansedbecause they are not hearing from the devotees. This is a very,very subtle but critical scientific understanding that we must

have. Those who do not believe in eternal personality of Godhead, in the eternal principle of devotional service in the spiritual world cannot actually have attraction for the Lord. Their attraction is misplaced. When you hear the glories of Rama, when you hear the glories of Krishna and His avataras from Srimad Bhagavatam form who believes that ultimately the formand the pastimes of the Lord are in the state of pure goodness but they are temporarily

manifested within this material world but ultimately the highest state of liberation is to enter intothe impersonal Brahman where there is no personality, were there is no qualities, were there is nopastimes, were there is no name, were there is no you and me there is only the oneness.

That state of consciousness is permeating whatever they speak and people who become veryattracted to that message they are not actually becoming attracted to the personality of Godhead.They are being attracted to the misconception of the Supreme Personality of Godhead ± like ashadow. The shadow appears to have the same form as the substance but there is not reallyanything in the shadow. Therefore it is very, very important that the value of the association of devotees is carefully understood. In that association all of these misconceptions can be eradicatedotherwise it is simply impossible.

In Jagannath Puri when that very, very learned scholarly brahmana came from Varanasi,Bhagavanacarya heard his writings about Lord Jagannath, so beautiful, such wonderful praise of

the Lord that he wanted Lord Caitanya to hear it but LordCaitanya will listen only to that which is spoken with sincere andsimple devotion. Anything else creates pain to His heart. So as aservice Srila Svarup Damodar Goswami would screen allliteratures or any speaker before they could approach the Lord. So



In the association of devoteesthe eternal nature of the soulis awakened

One can never understand the essence &conclusions of the Vedas or life itself justby study, in fact by anyway because theVedas are Krishna and Krishna revealsHimself according to His own sweet willin reciprocation to our particular intention. The only way to reallyunderstand what is really bhakti isthrough the examples of the Vaisnavas.

this devotee spoke in such a way it sounded just like he was glorifying Lord Caitanya and LordJagannath. However Svarup Damodar Goswami could understand his intention. He wasn¶tattracted by his poetic glorification at all. In fact he told the person, ³Because you have writtenthis you are going to hell.´ Hare Krishna! Strong! Because he had the impersonal misconception.He did not understand who the Lord ultimately and truly is.

In mahaprakash lila of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Twenty-one continuous hours He fulfilled allof His devotee¶s desires. Why is that pastime so special? Especially because the prayers thatthose devotees offered are the very essence, the conclusion and the way of achieving the highestgoal, it is a fact! You can read all the Vedic literatures, you can study Srimad Bhagavatam andread it over a hundred times and not understand what SukadevGoswami is really trying to tell you. Therefore Sri CaitanyaMahaprabhu when He was personally glorifying SripadaMadhavendra Puri He explained this principle that one can never understand the essence and conclusions of the Vedas or life itself just by study, in fact byanyway because the Vedas are Krishna and Krishna reveals Himself according to His own sweet

will in reciprocation to our particular intention. The only way to really understand what is reallybhakti is through the examples of the Vaisnavas. What do the devotees pray for? What do thedevotees value? All of our spiritual advancement isbased on how we please Krishna. These devotees inLord Caitanya Mahaprabhu¶s lilas, they thought ushow to please Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Withoutpleasing him we can make no spiritual advancement.He is pleased by our attitude, by our inclinations, byour desires. So the lord personally through Hisassociates is revealing the hearts of His devotees justto teach us what pleases Him.

When Haridas Thakur is praying, ³Let me become a dog somewhere in the proximity of thehouse of Your devotee so that I can attain they remnants of their food. Let that food that hasfallen from the mouth of Your devotee be my worshipable object birth after birth after birth.´How can anyone think like that unless they are is such an exalted state of consciousness? Sohumble, so pure! And then he claimed that, ³I am ashamed of myself. I am so low, so fallen, sosinful. Who am I to ask for such an exalted benediction as that?´ It is like a simple diseasedbeggar comes to someone and says, ³Make me the Prime Minister of India. Give me a beautifulpalace and all the power over all other beings.´ How could someone ask for that? They usuallyask for a few piasa or a few rupees.

So Haridas Thakur, he is thinking, ³I am asking for the most exalted, most precious all pervadingtreasure in all of creation! Who am I to ask for such a thing? I am asking for the remnants thathave fallen from the mouth of a Vaisnava. Please forgive me Lord. I have no right to ask for sucha thing.´ That is how much he valued service to the devotees and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhuwas crying. He said, ³Haridas I have become a prisoner within your heart. Your love hasshackled Me forever. I have no freedom, I have no independence.´ Just like this beautifulpainting of our Srila Haridas Thakur Prabhu. Yasodha Mayi is binding Lord Damodara, the



Where there is Krishna there

cannot be fear. Fear is due toignorance, ignorance is darkness.If you look away from the sun(Krishna) only then is there

There is no greater power than love. It is the onlypower that can actuallyconquer the sufferings andmiseries of this world.

Supreme Absolute Truth. Kuntidevi when she remembered this scene she was astounded. Fear personified is fearful of Krishna and this is a fact!

bhajahure manasri-nanda-nandana-abhaya-caranaravinda re

(by Govinda Dasa Kaviraja)

When we worship the Supreme Lord Krishna then Krishnaappears within our heart. As soon as Krishna appearswithin our heart then fear has to fly away. It cannot remain

there. Where there is Krishna there cannot be fear. Fear is due to ignorance, ignorance isdarkness.

krsna -- surya-sama; maya haya andhakara (CCMadhya 22.31)

When there is the presence of sun there cannot be darkness, impossible. When you look at the

sun and it is directly in front of your eyes there is no darkness. If you look away from the sunonly then is there darkness. You see shadow. Fear cannot exist where there is actual Krishnaconsciousness because the presence of the sun of Krishna naturally manifests within a devoteewho worships Him with love. This is Krishna¶s power. How much fear is there in this world?People are so much motivated by fear, fear for their health, wealth, future, fear of their past, fear of the present.

padam padam yad vipadam na tesam (SB 10.14.58)

Danger at every step! Fearful situation. Therefore so much anxiety but fear who has conqueredthe whole universal creation, as soon as Krishna is present just disappears, cannot stand before

Him. That is the power of Krishna; He is feared by fear personified. The controlling nature of theentire material existence is fear. Why? Where there is lust there is fear. Kama ± material desire islike the other side of the coin with fear. You cannot have one side of the coin without the other.You may like the one side and not like the other but if you take one the other comes. That is afact. As long as we have these selfish desires based on the bodily conception of life we areplagued with eminent fear. Therefore the whole world is fearful of death and suffering for themselves and for others but simply by remembering Krishna one time with true devotion fear disappears, cannot stand before Krishna. So Kunti is meditating in this way that fear personifiedhas to escape wherever Krishna is manifesting and yet Krishna is trembling and weeping withlips quivering in fear of Yasodha Mayi.

Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Ladden even Obama cannot puteven a particle of fear in Krishna¶s heart. Even if all 250 000soldiers were lined up ready to attack Goloka there would be nofear in anyone¶s heart for themselves. Out of love they may fear for Krishna but not for themselves. Krishna is not afraid of anything but here is Yasodha Mayi, simple gopi and Krishna istrembling in fear, weeping in fear, begging for mercy from

Mother Yasodha. That is the power of love. There is no greater power than love. It is the only



Because Krishna is imprisoned within the heart of His devotee there is nowhere else that we can findHim. Through no other means can we actually understand what is the Srimad Bhagavatam, what dothese pastimes really mean, what is the teachings of Bhagavad-gita actually saying, what is the power of the holy name. These things are only understood when Krishna who is within the heart of Hisdevotee reveals it to us. Therefore association of devotees is the reatest benediction in all of creation

power that can actually conquer the sufferings and miseries of this world. This is Kuntidevi¶sglorification. This is the most beautiful and intimate feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How He is imprisoned in the heart of His devotee, how He gives up His independentfree will by His own choice to be the prisoner in the heart of His devotee to be conquered bylove. Impersonalist can never understand this principle in truth because this is not just a

temporary reality, this is just not a concept which is like a step on a ladder that brings you higher and higher and ultimately from the top step you just jump up exist in the sky forever, it is not asteeping stone! It is the eternal highest reality, a reality of personal love between the jivatma andthe Supreme, Sri Krishna.

Therefore association of devotees is the greatest benediction in all of creation. That was Murari

Guptas¶ benediction also. He did not want anything from the Lord but the Lord, ³One time Murari Gupta by his lila appeared to be engaged in some scholarly pursuits and he wasvery, very learned scholar but Lord Caitanya sensed and He puts His devotees in certain states toteach the world some inclination to karma and jnana. Karma means we perform our religiousactivities for some pleasurable material result and jnana is through our power of discrimination we try to discriminate between matter and spirit and by cultivation of higher and higher and moreintricate forms of philosophical knowledge we can actually become liberated from suffering.

So Nimai Pandit was just a small boy following behind Murari Gupta and everything MurariGupta was speaking to his students He was imitating. When a child does that it is very irritating.

Just like sometimes without even knowing I move my eyebrows and do certain strange thingsand my brothers little son, just a small boy he just starts imitating exactly when I do these things.It is Krishna through him testing how transcendental I am! So Nimai was just imitating. MurariGupta would say that this verse can be understood in this way and Nimai would imitate repeatingwhat he said in an exaggerated way - everything he said, the exact same words, the exact sameexpressions and motions! Murari Gupta was becoming very annoyed in front of everybody elseHe was just ridiculing him. So Nimai said, ³I will reveal everything to you and you will see.´

Murari went home, his wife brought him some prasad and he sat down to take prasad then Nimaiactually disguised Himself. He was dressed up so beautifully, He had nice jewelries andgarments, some nice cloth and His hair was tied up ± so sweet. Murari was just eating his riceand Nimai came a little close, little closer, Murari did not see Him. Then all of a sudden Nimaipassed urine right in his rice prasad! Murari Gupta was shocked! He could not say anything hejust watched Him. No one does this! And then He smiled and ran away. He said, ³Now I amteaching that you cannot mix this karma and jnana with bhakti. It is like mixing urine withprasad!´

During the sata-prahariya bhava Murai asked for a benediction. He is saying, ³My Lord I do notwant anything but if You will be unhappy that I do not ask anything then I must ask something.´



gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasahCC Madh a 13.80

Understand this concept, this is very subtle but sublime. He felt ashamed to ask something fromthe Lord. Just like Prahlad Maharaj said, ³I cannot do business with You. I do not wantanything.´ But it made the Lord unhappy so they were actually willing to experience what theyconsider a very, very shameful condition because it pleases the Lord. Murari Gupta refused toask for anything but he saw it was making Lord Caitanya unhappy and, ³His happiness is my

happiness.´ So he asked but what did he ask for? ³Let me always associate with You devoteesbirth after birth after birth but only that devotee who accepts You as his eternal master, only thatperson who accepts the role of Your eternal service.´ That means not the Mayavadis, not theimpersonalists, not the materialist but those who accept the Supreme Personality of Godheadwho lives in His eternal abode in His beautiful form of Syamsundar constantly immersed in therasas of love with Sri Radhika and all of His devotees.

Murari Gupta, Haridas Thakur, Koleveca Sriddhar they all asked birth after birth after birth, thisbenediction. Koleveca Sriddhar says, ³In every consecutive birth I take let me be the servant of Your servants. Let me always remember that beautiful form of Nimai coming to take awayeverything I have.´ Haribol! Nimai was putting him in great poverty by taking away his plantain

cups. ³Let everything go to You birth after birth after birth. Let me remember You.´ HaridasThakur, ³Birth after birth after birth let me get the remnants of You devotees.´ Murari Gupta,³Birth after birth after birth after birth after birth my Lord, every birth I may take let meassociate and serve those who consider You the master and who are Your eternal servants.´

It is this consciousness that pleases the Lord because this is actually the real expression of love.Lord Caitanya in His own words prayed,

This statement is so meaningful. It is absolutelycontrary to material consciousness. In this world everyone wants to become bigger and bigger and bigger. Is that not true? We want more prestige, we want more beautiful body, we want

bigger wealth, bigger influence, bigger enjoyments, etc. Everyone wants to become bigger andbigger. There is so much competition. Why do dogs fight? Did you ever examine the behavior of dogs? Haribol! Dogs fight because they want proprietorship. They will bark and they will bite,howl over a female dog or over a bone or a piece of food or over the illusory sense of control or over a certain area. ³This is my house don¶t you come, I am in controller. You have no right tocome here.´

Srila Prabhupada when he went through immigrations in some of these countries he said, ³Whatis immigrations? It is just barking dogs that¶s all.´ If there are any immigration officers here youshould be complimented because Haridas Thakur wanted to be a dog in a Vaisnavas house! Butnot that kind of dog! tumi to' thakur, tomara kukur, Bhaktivinode says, ³Let me be a dog for youmy Lord. You always be my master but the perverted reflection of that consciousness is wethink, ³I am the controller, this is my property. Who are you? Let me see your visa, let me seeyour passport. Why have you come here? Woof-woof!´ Actually everything is the property of Krishna. So when dogs fight they are fighting over proprietorship, over something or some placeand in the whole world, individually and collectively so much fighting either for the subtledesires or ego influence, appreciation, control or for the gross facilities.



Mahajans are those advanced pure personalities who the lord revealsthe path of perfection ³Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah´.

bhoktaram yajna-tapasamsarva-loka-mahesvaram

suhrdam sarva-bhutanamjnatva mam santim rcchati (Bg 5.29)

Real peace can only come when we accept Krishna as the proprietor and enjoyer of everything.We have nothing to fight about. So this is the devotee! Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wants toreveals to the world what pleases Him through the prayers of His devotees. They were willing tostay in this material world, that was their humility, ³But just let me be with Your devotees andchant Your names with them,´ That is the beauty of the association of devotees. It is the placewhere people actually believe in the supreme eternal form and pastimes of the Lord. It is peoplewho want to please the Lord eternally as His servants.

In the association of devotees the glories of the Lord are being discussed. The teachings of theLord are being promoted and everyone is united finding the ultimate happiness in loudlyglorifying His holy names - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare

Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. When we chant the holy names and glories of theLord as well as hear them Krishna is pleased, when Krishna is pleased within our heart Hedispels all of the dirtiness of our hearts. It is not just a mechanical process. It is not that we arejust chanting and therefore we are getting purified. We should understand how I am gettingpurified and why we are getting purified because Krishna is non different than His name.Krishna¶s name has sweet will. It is not just a sound vibration. It is God who has incarnated insound vibration.

namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-saktis (CC Antya 20.16)

The devotee whose heart has been completely cleansed by the process of devotional service and

who is favored by Bhaktidev does not become bewildered by the external energy, which is justlike a dark well. Being completely cleansed of all material contamination in this way, a devoteeis able to understand very happily Your name, fame, form, activities, etc. Simply by theassociation of pure devotees one can understand the transcendental name, fame, quality andactivities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. r Caitanya Mahprabhu has repeatedly said:

'sdhu-saga', 'sdhu-saga' ² sarva-stre kayalava-mtra sdhu-sage sarva-siddhi haya

Simply by associating with a pure devotee, one becomes wonderfully advanced in K aconsciousness. Sdhu-saga, or association with a devotee, means always engaging in K a

consciousness by chanting the Hare K

a maha mantra and by acting for K

a.Specifically, chanting the Hare K a mantra purifies one, and this chanting is thereforerecommended by r CaitanyaMahprabhu.



All the powers of Krishna are within His name and what is the greatest of all saktis of Krishna?His Hladini-sakti, His pleasure potency! Everything is within the name of Krishna, Krishna isHis name! Therefore the holy name has a sweet will. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu graphically

described that, ³If someone is disrespecting and offending My devotees and chanting the holynames then My name will destroy him.´ Because the name is Krishna! We are not controlling thename, the name is the supreme controller of all controllers. So when we are chanting in such away that Krishna is pleased then the holy name, Hare ± Srimati Radhika, Krishna ± the supremeson of Nanda Maharaj, that personality by Their sweet will cleanses our hearts form within. Thisis how we become cleansed by the chanting, by the sweet will of the holy name but if we do nothave the proper disposition, the proper understanding of who is Krishna and who is His name, if we are not chanting in a spirit of actual devotion as His eternal servants if we are chanting withthe desire to become God does that please Krishna? Krishna may give us impersonal liberationbut He will not give us Himself, He will not give us what the soul is longing for ± pure love. Sothe lord wants to reveal the essence of what pleases Him through His devotees and there is one

consistent theme amongst all the associates of SriC

aitanya Mahaprabhu ± their incrediblehumility.

Examine how Lord Caitanya reveals these truths through His devotees.

There is Raghunath das Goswami our prayojana acarya, the acarya of the highest siddhanta of the rasas of Goloka. He was the only heir of the vast wealth of his father and uncle. His father,Govardhana Majumdara only had one son. His uncle had no children, Hiranya. They had a vastempire of property. They married him into a beautiful, faithful loving wife. He had everything.As they say he had that golden spoon in his mouth but everyday he was running away from it.They had to drag him back, twelve guards at all times just making sure he didn¶t escape. He

considers the wealth, the luxuries of the world to be like a prison and the amazing thing is thathis father and uncle were devotees. They weren¶t just atheistic people. They were devotees. Infact they used their wealth so much in the service of the Vaisnavas. That is why when Raghunathdas went to Santipura after Lord Caitanya took sannyasa Advaitacarya brought him in to seeLord Caitanya personally because of everyone Govardhan and Hiranya Majumdara, the father and uncle of Raghunath das Goswami were the main people giving contributions for thedevotional activities of the Vaisnavas. They were supporting Advaitacarya¶s devotional service;they were supporting Jagannath Misra¶s devotional service. They were giving donations to all theVaisnavas without expecting anything in return. They were very charitable and they had faith inKrishna, in bhakti and Vaisnavas but they were karma misra bhaktas. They were devotees butthey also were very much getting some satisfaction being proprietors and having control over others. Something like the demigod bhava! They were doing it for Krishna but they were alsoenjoying nicely themselves. Raghunath escaped when he finally did escape Lord CaitanyaMahaprabhu jokingly gave him that example which I am always found of speaking about. Hesaid, ³Raghunath Goswami to give up the material attachments that were given to you isimpossible, it is simply impossible! Such wealth, such facilities for enjoyment, such comfort, noone can give that up. Only by the mercy of Krishna is that possible. Your father and unclealthough they are devotees and they are friends of my father and grandfather therefore I willspeak jokingly towards them because among family members we can speak intimately. Their



material wealth is like a pit that people go to pass stool and your father and uncle are like twoworms living in stool. How much realization you are speaking this, the Lord in the heart knows.

Raghunath das Goswami did not think that he has any qualification to get Krishna¶s mercy. Hesaid, ³My Lord I don¶t know what is Krishna¶s mercy. I only know that You have saved me.´

The way he approached LordC

aitanya was never directly. He approached Raghava Pandit. Hewas so humble even though he was such a big person by material standards. When NityanandaPrabhu was at Pannihati sitting under that banyan tree on the bank of Ganga Raghunath felthimself so contaminated, so fallen, so sinful, ³How can I even come near Lord Nityananda.´ Hekept a distance away offering his obeisances, that was his humility. Nityananda Prabhu said,³Raghunath come!´ And he just, ³How can I come before You?´ Nityananda Prabhu had tochase after him and grab him and capture him. This is actually the process of bhakti. We can¶tjust by our own knowledge or memory or austerities just enter into the spiritual lila of the Lordbut if we really have humility then the Lord will come and take us to Him. Then LordNityananda Prabhu and all the Vaisnavas blessed him and on that basis he was actually broughtdirectly before Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Caitanya taught the world by taking the person

who was teaching the highest realms of devotion and making him the servant of the servant.³You be the servant of Svarup Damodar Goswami.´ Raghunath would not even ask LordCaitanya any questions. He felt, ³How can I approach the Lord directly.´ The Lord would justkeep coming to him. After renouncing all of that and becoming the very crest jewel of renunciates when Sivananda Sen came back from Puri, back to Bengal the messengers of Raghunath¶s father asked Sivananda Sen, ³Did you see our son Raghunath das?´ He said, ³Yes Ihave seen. He is the very crest jewel of tapasya. He doesn¶t eat practically anything. He justwears the rags from the street. He is so very, very dear to all the devotees.

When someone is proud that person may impress people¶s minds but usually that pride does notlet you go too deeply into the affection of peoples hearts. Humility actually wins peoples hearts.Raghunath das was so dear to all the Vaisnavas and yet he presented this question to LordCaitanya through Svarup Damodar Goswami. He said, ³Raghunath das wants to know that I haverenounced everything of this world and I do not even understand why I did it so what am Isupposed to do?´ He was presenting himself as being completely ignorant, no pride, totalhumility! He did not say, ³Lord Caitanya, can I have You Govardhana sila?´ He was just servingthe servants with such humility Lord Caitanya¶s heart melted at seeing his humility. Hepersonally gave him what was the most dear possession of His life, the Giriraj sila that He kepthanging from His neck, that was bathed with His tears of love, He offered that to Raghunath andgujal mala representing Srimati Radharani¶s mercy. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally hadSvarup Damodara and His servants supplying all the articles for him to worship his Govardhanasila to his full satisfaction. Lord Caitanya gave him Himself and gave him all the means toworship Himself and he never asked for anything. What was his state of consciousness when hewas living in Vrindavan? At one point he was only eating a little amount of buttermilk a day inthe palm of his hand and some days he forgot about it. Now if some of us were performing sometapasya we would probably become quite proud thinking, ³Look at that person, he is eating rotis,dhal, subjis, laddhus, hallava, gulab jamuns and I am eating buttermilk!´ Hare Krishna! He hadno pride in doing that, just the opposite. When he would spend that two or three seconds eatinghis buttermilk, the only thing he put in his mouth all day, he was actually crying in shamethinking, ³I am so addicted to sense gratification that I am taking all this time away from Krishna



just to enjoy my senses.´ That was Raghunath das Goswami, that was why Lord CaitanyaMahaprabhu, Sri Sri Radha Gopinath are eternally the prisoners within his heart.

Rupa and Sanatan Goswamis, what was their quality that attracted Lord Caitanya¶s mercy somuch upon them? Yes they were great scholars, yes they renounced the vast wealth of ministers

under the king but there were other people with vast wealth and other people vastly learned butthey put straw between their teeth, they fell down at the feet of the Lord and they offered suchprayers, ³We have no qualification for Your mercy, nothing like a dwarf trying to touch themoon, how can we possibly expect Your mercy. We are lower than Jagai and Madhai. We aremost abominable. We are just the servants of mlechhas, sinful egoistic persons.´ SanatanGoswami said, ³People say that I am learned but I am such an ignorant fool I believe them.´Time and again Lord Caitanya said, ³Stop speaking. Your humility is breaking My heart.´ Someflowery words do not break the heart of the Lord but their words were the genuine expression of what they felt within the core of their heart. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu empowered them tounderstand the innermost secrets of His own heart, which is the actual conclusion of allknowledge. He empowered them to disseminate this knowledge to the whole world.

Thakur Haridas when he chanted 300 000 names everyday without the slightest deviation fromhis vow. 192 attentive offenceless rounds everyday! He did this his whole life. He was already anelderly man when he came to Puri to meet Lord Caitanya. Mahaprabhu was in His Gambhira, thehouse of Kasi Misra, He was calling all the devotees, ³Come, come!´ He was welcoming them,He was embracing them. He was praising each one individually, He was praising their qualitieswith such love, He was asking, ³Where is Haridas? Where is he? I must see him.´ The Lord waslonging for His devotee. It is not that by getting in the front of the line that you are going to seethe Lord. The Lord when He is pleased to see you, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur said,³Don¶t try to see Krishna but try to serve Krishna in a way that He wants to see you.¶ That isHaridas Thakur. The devotees said, ³There he is down the road laying in the dust offering hisobeisances.´ ³Bring him here, bring him here!´ Devotees ran out and Haridas said, ³How can Icome at Lord Caitanya¶s house I am so fallen, I am so sinful, I am so degraded, I have no right.´Lord Caitanya understood his heart and He ultimately came out to Haridas and picked him upand embraced him and personally arranged his residence at Siddha-bakula.

Haridas considered himself so fallen he would never even consider going into Jagannath¶stemple. The social norms were that if somebody was outcaste by birth they are not allowed in.He was praised by Advaitacarya, the best of all brahmanas to be the best of all brahmanas but heactually felt so fallen he would never go in. Therefore Lord Jagannath would come out of Histemple everyday and in the form of Lord Caitanya to bring him mahaprasad with His own hands.This is an incredible story. He was so humble that he would never go in. It is not that he wouldnever go in because he wasn¶t allowed. He didn¶t go in because he was just too humble to eventhink about it. The Lord would come out every single day to personally deliver His mahaprasadto him and speak about Krishna to him for hours everyday.

One day when the Lord saw him chanting under the sunlight He brought Lord Jagannath¶smahaprasad toothbrush and out it in the ground and by the Lord¶s will that toothbrush becameSiddha-bakula tree to give shade to Haridas Thakur. That is the love of the Lord for His devotee.



That is how the Lord maintains His devotee. These are the qualities that please the SupremePersonality of Godhead.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu revealed to the world why He was going to empower SrilaPrabhupada to do what no other acarya has ever done before he even began his mission. Just as

Haridas Thakur, Mukunda Dutt, Koleveca Sriddhar, Murari Gupta offered their prayers to theLord and the Lord revealed His will through the hearts of His devotees. Similarly Prabhupadaoffered his prayer on board Jaladuta, ³I do not know how to speak, I have no qualification. Onlyif You empower me my Lord, only if You make me like Your dancing puppet, I have noknowledge, I have no devotion but You have given me the name Bhaktivedanta now it is up toYou Lord to fulfill the real meaning of Bhaktivedanta.´ Real spiritual empowerment comes bythe sweet will of the Lord when He is pleased by our attitude. Performing service with our bodyand our words is an important function, essential function to purify he heart but essentially whatthe Lord accepts is our attitude. The Lord sees from within what is our motivation what is our purpose. In that one beautiful purport, Srila Prabhupada explains this and I will end class becauseit is becoming late and you are all hungry and tired and I am always doing like this to you. I am

sorry. Srila Prabhupada explains in SriC

aitanyaC

aritamrta that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna accepts the purpose in which everything is offered to Him. This is in referenceto Raghava Pandit and Damayanti at Pannihati, on the bank of Ganga. They would prepare somany wonderful foodstuffs, bhoga to be brought to Lord Caitanya and he would pack them sewthem in a little bag in their hands. So painstakingly they would do their service and she wouldmake just what Lord Caitanya wanted to eat. Then in the next bag there were bitter thingsbecause she knew that Lord Caitanya would get some indigestion from the previous thing. Sothis doesn¶t taste good but it is good for His digestion. So Lord Caitanya when He would eat thatitem that was bitter and not tasty at all He would taste such incredible nectar because Heunderstood the purpose of Damayanti and Raghava Pandit. The purpose was to please Him, toserve Him. So we cannot judge by our eyes necessarily, we cannot always judge things by our senses of what a devotee is actually doing for the Lord. If somebody is doing big, big things,everyone is bowing down, but what is that person¶s purpose? It maybe egoistic and the Lord¶ssatisfaction maybe a lesser priority and another devotee maybe doing something very, verysimple! No one knew who was Kolevecca Sridhar. To the world he was just a very, very simple,poor, useless person. People used to just chastise him because he appeared so useless, such afailure in life but his purpose was so pure to please the Lord that the Supreme Personality of Godhead would come every single day for two hours and perform pastimes with him. So theLord accepts the purpose in which everything is offered. What is our attitude? This must becultivated. We must perform the services that we are assigned, we must chant our japa accordingto our vows everyday, we must read Bhagavatam and come to the classes regularly, we musthonor and worship the Deities with sincerity, only eat the Lord¶s prasad, we must perform our work offering the fruits of our actions for the welfare of others by serving Krishna. We cannot besentimental and say, ³My attitude is good, I don¶t have to do these things.´ Why should you goto the temple, God is within your heart! Why should you chant the holy names, God alreadyknows that I know His names. Actually if you love someone you must show your love. To thedegree we become attached to hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord to that degree webecome detached from material aspirations. So we must perform our duties but we must alsovery carefully cultivate and nourish the proper attitude, the right purpose. It is essential; it is thedifference between a devotee who is superficial and a devotee with real spiritual substance. What



is our attitude, what is our purpose, that is what Krishna sees, that is what Krishna accepts! It iswith that attitude that Krishna reciprocates. How do we understand the attitude of the devotee?So many people speaking Bhagavatam but what is actually the attitude that pleases Krishna whenwe speak or hear Bhagavatam! That the Lord reveals through His devotees. It is for that reasonthat the association of devotees is the very sustaining force of our spiritual lives because in that

association we can actually develop the proper attitude to hear Srimad Bhagavatam. Really whatis bhakti? In one sense bhakti means our attitude, our purpose. Duryodhan was fighting andArjuna was fighting, one was with bhakti and the other wasn¶t. Physically they were doing thesame thing, but the attitude, the purpose of Arjuna was simply to please Krishna and Duryodhan,his purpose and attitude was his ego. That is the heart, the very essence of devotion.

trnad api su-nicena

taror iva sahisnuna

amanina mana-dena

kirtaniyah sada harih (CC Adi 17.31)

Humble like the grass laying on the street, tolerant like the tree, offering all respect to others withno expectation for one¶s self. With this attitude, with this purpose, which is revealed in all of theintimate associates of the Lord, Krishna becomes a prisoner within our heart. Lord Kapiladevexplains to us that if one has this proper attitude in the association of devotees becoming moreand more attracted and attached to hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord, Krishna becomesconquered in this very life. Srila Prabhupada told us that the powers of maya from without cannot disturb the progress of our mission. But when maya comes within, when maya tampers withdevotee¶s purpose, with their motives, with their attitudes towards each other, towards Krishna¶s

property then maya can create havoc. So we must be very, very diligent to cultivate and developthe proper devotional spirit and in this light Krishna becomes present as a prisoner of love andwhen we open our mouths to speak His glories Krishna manifests Himself as He does when wechant His holy names - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama,Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Associate with Devotees Striving for Devotional Service By

Radhanath Swami

na yasya citta bahir-artha-vibhrama

tamo-guhy

ca viuddham viatyad-bhakti-yognughtam añjasmunir vicae nanu tatra te gatim

The devotee whose heart has been completely cleansed by the process of devotional service andwho is favored by Bhaktidev does not become bewildered by the external energy, which is justlike a dark well. Being completely cleansed of all material contamination in this way, a devoteeis able to understand very happily Your name, fame, form, activities, etc.



PURPORT by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad

As stated in rmad-Bhgavatam (3.25.25):

sat prasagn mama vrya-savido

bhavanti ht-kar a-rasyan kath

taj-joad v apavarga-vartmani

raddh ratir bhaktir anukramiyati

Simply by the association of pure devotees one can understand the transcendental name, fame,quality and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. r Caitanya Mahprabhu hasrepeatedly said:

'sdhu-saga', 'sdhu-saga' ² sarva-stre kaya

lava-mtra sdhu-sage sarva-siddhi haya

Simply by associating with a pure devotee, one becomes wonderfully advanced in K aconsciousness. Sdhu-saga, or association with a devotee, means always engaging in K aconsciousness by chanting the Hare K a maha mantra and by acting for K a.Specifically, chanting the Hare K a mantra purifies one, and this chanting is thereforerecommended by r Caitanya Mahprabhu.

Ceto-darpaa-mrjanam: [Cc. Antya 20.12] by chanting the names of K a, the mirror of

the heart is cleansed, and the devotee loses interest in everything external. When one isinfluenced by the external energy of the Lord, his heart is impure. When one's heart is not pure,he cannot see how things are related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ida hi viva bhagavn ivetara (Bhg. 1.5.20). He whose heart is purified can see that the whole cosmicmanifestation is but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but he whose heart is contaminatedsees things differently. Therefore by sat-saga, or association with devotees, one becomesperfectly pure in heart.

One who is pure in heart is never attracted by the external energy, which urges the individualsoul to try to dominate material nature. The pure heart of a devotee is never disturbed when heexecutes devotional service in the form of hearing, chanting, remembering, etc. In all, there are

nine processes one can follow in the execution of devotional service. In any case, a pure-hearteddevotee is never disturbed. The bhakti-yoga process must be carried out by avoiding the tenoffenses one can commit while chanting the mah-mantra and the sixty-four offenses one cancommit while worshiping the Deity. When a devotee strictly follows the rules and regulations,Bhaktidev becomes very much satisfied with him, and at the time he is never disturbed, thattime he is never disturbed by anything external. A devotee is also called a muni. The word munimeans "thoughtful." A devotee is as thoughtful as a nondevotee is speculative. The nondevotee'sspeculation is impure, but a devotee's thoughts are pure. Lord Kapila and ukadeva Gosvm are



also called muni, and Vysadeva is addressed as Mahmuni. A devotee is addressed as muni, or thoughtful, when he purely understands the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The conclusion isthat when one's heart is purified by the association of devotees and by the avoidance of theoffenses committed when chanting and worshiping the Lord, the transcendental name, form andactivities of the Lord are revealed by the Lord.

The devotee whose heart has been completely cleansed by the process of devotional service andwho is favored by Bhaktidev does not become bewildered by the external energy, which is justlike a dark well. Being completely cleansed of all material contamination in this way, a devoteeis able to understand very happily Your name, fame, form, activities, etc.

We are reading from Canto-4 of Srimad Bhagavatam, Ch-24, entitled ± ³The chanting of thesong sung by Lord Shiva´ Text-59.

In the previous slokas, Lord Shiva is praising the importance of the association of devotees. Inthe previous verse, concludes, I think that your real benediction would be to allow me to

associate with such devotees. Lord Shiva is one of the great mahajans. Mahajans are thoseadvanced pure personalities who the lord reveals the path of perfection ³Mahajano yena gatah sapanthah´.

The path of perfection is to follow in the footsteps of the mahajans. Lord Caitanya declared inrelation to Madhavendra Puri, that one cannot understand the true essence of spiritual perfectionby austerities, by meditation, even by studying all of the scriptures scrutinizingly. Because thereare so many ways to interpret anything within this world. The real path of perfection is to followin the footsteps of pure devotee. Their life and their words represent the essence of allknowledge. Thus ³Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah´ How do the great souls speak, how do thegreat soul eat, how do the great souls walk, how do they sit, what do they live for, what is their

ideal and purpose in life, these are the questions that Arjuna ask Krishna in Bhagavat Gita. Veryimportant. As it has been explained many times, Bhagavad Gita is one of the most commonbooks in the world, in India as well as abroad. Yet hardly anyone had understood this simplepurpose of Bhagavad Gita.

sarva-dharman parityajya

mam ekam saranam vraja

man-mana bhava mad-bhaktomad-yaji mam namaskuru

To surrender to Krsna, to become His devotee, to worship Him. This is clearly Krishna tells asour duty. I am the source of everything, all material and spiritual worlds. There is no truthsuperior to me. Every thing rests upon me as a rope strung on a thread. But yet in practically inall the commentaries of Bhagavad Gita, there is minimal significance to Krsna. He just happensto be a person's, a great person speaking. But is He the goal? Is He the source? Very few peopleeven in this land of India understand this. Why? ³Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah´, becauseunless you hear from the proper source, unless you hear from someone in the parampara who is



actually dedicating his life according to the teachings of Gita, the true understanding does notawaken in our heart. Lord Shiva is herein on longing for the association of devotees. Heconsiders the ultimate benediction of Supreme Personality of God head, to be the opportunity toassociate with the pure devotees. He is Mahadev. The greatest of the Devatas. He is speakingthese words for everyone¶s benefit. He is also speaking his own heart.

Just like in Brndavan there are many very important temples of Lord Shiva. In fact the the greatgrandson of Krsna Vajranab, he installed several very very historical Lingams of Lord Shiva thatare presiding in various sectors of Vraj dham. There is Booteswar Mahadev in Mathura. Kamsa,Kamsa worshipped Lord Shiva in that place for the benediction to kill Krishna. Hare Krsna!Kamsa was devotee of Lord Shiva. He gained the power of 10,000 elephants by the grace of Lord Shiva. But he was threatened by the omen that came in the sky that the eighth son of Devaki would be the cause of his death. So, he lived, he breathed, with the ideal of killingKrishna. Even though he was the king, he couldn't enjoy anything because, prominent within hismind was that this this personality kills me then every thing will be gone.

Actually in material world there can be no real enjoyment. Real enjoyment means, wholehearted, complete, saturated in enjoyment. That can only come from the level of the soul.Because the soul is the real person the soul is longing for that which is eternal. Because the soulis eternal. Within every pleasure of this world, there is dangers, there is the imminent end of thispleasure either through the power of time or ³adibhautika, adhi devika, adhyatmika´. Soalthough Kamsa was such a demoniac person, he imprisoned his own father, he killed his ownrelatives, nephews, just to enjoy and he had the palace, he had the armies, he had the treasury, hehad everything but he couldn't enjoy because he knew within his mind that this personality, theeighth son of the Devaki is going to kill me. Therefore all this that I am trying to enjoy would bedragged away from me. In fact Narada muni told him that you have a position of a very greatking by name kalanemi and Krsna killed you then , He took everything and come back to killyou again. So he couldn¶t enjoy. Because fear, dukhalayam asashvatam...this material worldcannot be a happy place. It is essentially is a miserable place because every thing is temporary.So Kamsa worshipped Lord Shiva. Bhuteshwar mahadev. He worshipped Lord Shiva why?Because he wanted the power to kill Krsna. and Lord Shiva must simultaneously pleased anddispleased. He was displeased because Mahadev's worship able Diety is Krsna. He is GopeswaraMahadev. Previous to Kamsa's demise, Lord Shiva had already come to Brndavan wanting toenter into Rasa lila. He approached Lalitha Sakhi and other Gopis, knowingly that he had to gettheir blessings to enter. Only female can enter into the eternal leela of the lord. So with, after performing some tapasya, you receive the instructions, go to Manasarovar, and at Manasarovar,he entered into the sacred waters which was created by Smt Radharani's tears of separation fromKrsna and coming there was waters was so potent with her love that one who bathes in andbecomes in influenced, saturated with her love. So he came out in the form of the Gopi. Reallythe perfection of all his desires. Now he is Gopeswar and he returned to the rasa sthali and brajgopis said, your service is to gaurd, gaurd this Vamsibhat area, only those who have completelypure hearts following in the foot steps of Gopis of Vrndavan are allowed to enter. His desireswere fulfilled. So therefore Gopeswar Mahadev, Lord Shiva is ultimate meditation is mediatingon the beautiful pastimes of Krsna with His Gopis and Sri Radharani. And here across the river Jamuna is Kamsa who is worshipping Lord Shiva with sacrifices, with wealth, with great greatdetermination.



A type of devotion and he is begging Lord Shiva to give him the power to kill Krsna, his Istadev.So by Lord Shiva's causeless mercy on Kamsa, Krsna killed him. Hare Krsna! Very nice. He is³ashutosh´, he is satisfied. Kamsa asked for something which is impossible. So Lord Shivaactually gave him the benediction by which he would get liberated. That is his mercy. A type of mercy Kamsa could not understand at that time. Similarly at Kamyavan, there is a murthy of

Lord, Lord Shiva, Kameshwar Mahadev and that murthy in that place it is explained aah..Kirtidaand Vrshabanu used to go to worship Lord Shiva that the supreme Goddess of fortune wouldbecome their daughter, Smt Radharani and then then nan, nandaGaon, Nanadeshwar Mahadev.Arjanya, the father of Nanda Maharaj, he worshipped that deity everyday with great great greatpure devotion with all that his son Nanda Maharaj would have the Son - Krishna. In fact LordShiva is such a devotee that he wanted to participate in Krsna's leela, so he begged for thebenediction that he could support, facilitate all the devotees enjoying wonderful pastimes of LordSri Krishna and Balaram. Therefore the benediction he asked for from Krsna was he wouldbecome a mountain, Nandeshwar, the five headed mountain of Nandeshwar in which Krsna toreciprocate with the love of His devotee put his house on top of Lord Shiva's head. And Krsnaand Balaram, Gopas and Radharani and Gopis would come each day and they would perform

their pastimes, dancing and singing and herding the cows and calves all on top of Lord Shiva'sheads. That is his devotion. Always eager to serve the servants of the Lord and manasa Ganga, inBadrinath installed the deity of Chakaleshwar Mahadev. This is very important deity. Soimportant that Sanatana Goswami personally did his Bhajan right by it side. Sanatana Goswamiwas chanting the holy names with such pure devotion, scrutinizingly studying the BhaktiShastras, writing such books as Brhad Bhagavatamritam. Always absorbed in Kirtan and prayer.Everyday performing the parikrama of the Giriraj Govardha. This is his life.

Why did he choose that place on the banks of Manasa Ganga would perform his boardingpastimes of Sri Radharani. Specially because Sanatana Goswami has very very deep love for Lord Shiva, a greatest Vaisnava and that love was reciprocal. At that time, many mosquitoes,they were harassing Sanatana Goswami. Now Sanatana Goswami, a pure vaisnava, they are notdisturb simply because of their personal interest. They are considering their service. That thesemosquitoes were disturbing Sanatana Goswami's devotional service. They were swarmingaround him, biting him constantly. So he decided this is not a suitable place to write myliteratures. This is not a suitable place to fix, to fix my mind and my devotional service to SriCaitanya Mahaprabhu. So he decided he would leave that place. Now Lord Shiva as he isrevealing in these verses, he loves the devotees so much, he considers the ultimate benediction isto have the association of pure devotee and here he is in the association almost constantly withthis great intimate associate of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Sanatana Goswami. So whenSanatana Goswami decided to leave, this was very very very painful to lord Shiva. He had tosomehow or the other devise a means of keeping him there. So he appeared in the form of aBrahman in disguise. Goswamiji, you are going? Yes. Too many mosquitoes, mosquitoes createdisturbance, just like Srila Prabhupad we heard from Khulaji Prabhu that he was massagingPrabhupad under mosquito net and there was one mosquito in that net net. Prabhupad said, thereis mosquito in the net, don't kill him but take him out. aah! Now there was a problem. The roomwas pitch dark and he was massaging prabhupad under the mosquito net. He didn¶t want to turnon the net then how do you see a little mosquito under the net when there is no light? Somehowor the other he was listening like this. So Prabhupad simply lived to serve and somebody iscreating disturbance to devotional service then we have to try to resolve that situation. So



Sanatana Goswami was like that. Just as Prabhupad was writing books, Sanata Goswami waswriting books. Something more disturbing them is mosquitoes. So Sanatana Goswami is told bythat Brahman, just stay here one more night, just one more night, any mosquito disturb you thenyou go. There will be no mosquitoes tonight, I promise. So Sanata Goswami was so soft hearted.To satisfy that mysterious unknown Brahman, he said, Yes. I will stay tonight. Devotees are

willing to extend themselves so much to serve. So Lord Shiva called the demigod who supervisesthe affairs of all insects and ordered them because he is Mahadev he is the greatest of theDevatas. He ordered that no mosquito come to this part of Manasi Ganaga. So that night therewasn't a single mosquito. Not even a single sound of the mosquito. Sanatana Goswami couldvery very comfortably do his translations, do his chanting, do his Bhajan throughout the nightevery night. So this is practical practical understanding of how Lord Shiva loves the associationof the devotees. And great souls they love the association of devotees and pray in this way for two reasons. One is because it is their heart and two they are revealing their heart so that weunderstand what is truly a value. According to the values that we hold sacred in our lives thatwill determine what is our destiny, how we will develop our consciousness. Therefore reading of Srimad Bhagavatam is very important. Srila Prabhupad ordered every morning, Srimad

Bhagavatam class in every temple. Every temple in the world almost 400 temples, we all havesomething in common, many things but one thing is after Prabhupad's Guru Puja, everyone willsit down to hear the nectarian verses of Srimad Bhagavatam and discuss its significance. ³SrimadBhagavatam amalam puranam´. It is spotless puranam. Because it deals only with pureunalloyed devotion. Story after story after story of pure devotees who even in the phase of themost difficult impediments never deviates from their faithful service to Krsna. Never holdanything more sacred and valuable than pure unalloyed devotion to Krsna. They live for love.That's all. That¶s the Bhagavatam is all about. So if we hears this in the association of peoplewho believe it, people who are striving to leave this principle then it influences us with thisvalue. Now we are listening to Srimad Bhagavatam from from a professional reciter or fromsomeone who is ultimate conclusion is impersonalist, then the effect might not be there. SanatanaGoswami said, milk touch by the lips of the serpent has poisonous effect. That means whom wehear from their consciousness affect the message that they speak, if a Karma kandi , a personwho is desiring by worshipping Krsna or the demigods , if a person like that is desiring, materialbenedictions, then when we hear from them even if they are discussing the past times of Prahlador the past times of Druva or the Rasa Leela, their consciousness is very much like the poison of a snake goes into the milk. Srimad Bhagavatam is pure milk. It is nectar. But whoever speaks,whatever they speak, their consciousness is also mixed into it. So therefore when we hear fromsuch persons that influence of their consciousness are pierced into our heart. Similarly if someone is a mayavadi, many speakers of Bhagavatams ultimate conclusion is Mayavadi. Their ideal is to become God. So when we hear from them, even if we are devotees, we understand theproper conclusions but when we hear from them, the effect of their consciousness is entering intoout heart. Therefore it¶s so very important to hear from pure devotees, Srila Prabhupad definespure devotees in various ways in various times, one explanation of a pure devotee is a personwho has attain Prema Bhakti, a person who has achieved love of Krsna, whose consciousness isno longer affected by the three modes of material nature. Pure means without adulteration thatmeans the natural state of the soul is not in anyway contaminated. That is pure. Prabhupadexplains to be purified means to be brought back to its natural state just like pure water meansthere is no contaminates into it. To purify water, you don't put any thing in the water, you justtake everything else out of the water. Yes! So pure love, you don't put love into your heart. You



just take everything else, out then there is pure love. Because that is essence, the nature of theconsciousness,

³nitya-siddha krsna-prema sadhya kabhu naya´

Prabhupad said this chanting of ±

³Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Rama Rama Hare Hare´

It is not an artificial imposition of the mind. It is invoking our original consciousness, our consciousness is so pure. It is to love Krsna but now that consciousness has become so polluted,so polluted by material designations, material attachments, material conceptions. So who is apure devotee? That person who is in his natural state to love Krsna. Like the lotus flower. Evenin this material world, whether there are so many pollutants, there is so much envy and

competition, so much immorality, so much selfishness, a pure devotee because he is empoweredby Krsna, because he is part and parcel of Krsna, he is manifesting Krishna's mercy in this world.Just like the sun is in contact with dirty things, but the sun never becomes contaminated, the sunpurifies the dirty things. That is the power of the Sun. That is the power of God. He is Pavitra.He is all pure. That when a devotee becomes purified in his ideals or her motivations, then Krsnamanifests his mercy through that devotee to purify the world. But Srila Prabhupad also explainsthat a pure devotee is a person who is ideal is pure devotional service. That personality may notyet be completely free from the modes of material nature, that devotee still may have materialcontaminations, but that devotee understands what I want in my life is pure unalloyed devotion.

"anyabilashita sunyam jnana karmadi anavritam

anukulyena krishna anusilanam bhaktir uttama´

I want to serve Krishna favorably, I want to kick out of frutive desires and I want to even kick out the desire of liberation and mystic powers. I do not want these. I want pure unalloyed love. Iwant to follow in the footsteps of the residents of Brndavan and completely absorb myself in theloving service of Krsna. That is my single exclusive goal in life. I may not be there but that's myideal and I am willing to follow the regulative principles of spiritual master's instructions and Iam willing to strive to attain that platform. To such a person, the only difference between hisstate or her state now in pure devotional service is just time because the right ideal, and the rightendeavor, with the right consciousness. So that is also a pure devotee one who is striving for pure

devotional service. Therefore sometimes Srila Prabhupad would say to his disciples, you are allpure devotees. From the point of you of a Maha Bhgatavat, he is seeing everyone; he is seeingthe soul in everyone. He is not concerned with the material desires, attachments, he is onlylooking at maha maya, he is only looking at the soul and sees in essence everyone is puredevotee, in essence everyone is serving Krsna. But Srila Prabhupad was speaking from aphilosophical point of view, not just Maha Bhagavat point of view. Because when devoteeschallenged him, Prabhupad I am not a pure devotee, Prabhupad said, your ideal is puredevotional service, you are following the regulative principles, you are chanting the holy names



of Krsna according to your vows and you are engaging throughout the day in Krsna¶s service,there fore you are living like a pure devotee although you haven¶t realized pure devotion. Soassociation of devotees is to strive to hear from and to give pleasure to those who have the greattreasure of love of God. Narottam Das Thakur in his prayers to the departed Vaisnavas, he praysin this way - he is beating his head against the rock in separation. Longing for the association of

those devotees who have who have that great treasure of Prema Bhakti within their hearts, withintheir lives and who are distributing the contents of that treasure to the world. He is longing for such association. Great souls are different than the impersonalists in the sense, impersonalistoften times their heart ultimately becomes hard. Some body dies, ³aham brahmasmi". They havemerged. Very good. aah! But a devotee because he is always in consciousness of Krsna'spersonality, he is also always conscious of Krsna's associates, and the mercy flow thenbenediction of such association. So here is Narottam Das Thakur who is Narottam, he is thesupreme best among all men. Lord Caitanya gave him that name. Knowing that he would be thebest among the human beings. Narottam Thakur when he was just a little boy, he had a darshanof Nitayananda prabhu, he had darshan of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he was given the love andcomplexion of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya personally personally appeared to him, told him

leave home and come to Brndavan. Such a great soul. And yet he is weeping and beating hishead against rocks figuratively in separation from the devotees. Where is Sanatana Goswami,where is Rupa Goswami where is Raghunath Das can be found, where is Krsna Das KavirajGoswami, where is Lokanath Goswami, where is Srinivas Acarya? It is said that he wrote thissong upon on the disappearance of Srinivasa Acarya who was his dear friend, a Vaisnava. After Srivnivasa Acharya and Ramacandra Kaviraj left this world, Narottam Das Thakur, he couldn'tbear being in this material universe without such great souls. It¶s unbearable. That is how muchthe great personalities value the association of Vaisnavas. And this is the mood of Lord Shiva.He is always eager for the association of devotees. He is teaching the <44:21:3> and he isteaching all of aspiring devotees that this is the benediction we must pray for. Those persons wholove Krsna, and also those persons who honestly and earnestly have made their goal of life tolove Krsna, even they are so rare. Just a devotee who takes to Krishna Consciousness with theproper mental disposition, that I accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality of God Head, and Iknow the ultimate goal, the only purpose of the life is to love Him and to serve Him as Hisservant of the servant of the servant. And I know the only means in the age of Kali of attainingsuch perfection is to chanting of the holy names of the lords so I have taken this is my life andsoul. Anyone who has that value in their lives, those persons are worshipable. Therefore KrishnaDas Kaviraj Goswami, he prays that I take the dust of the feet of every devotee, not only thegreat mahans but also the new devotees who is just coming to the path of devotion. That personwho understood that the mercy of the lord is the ultimate goal of life, I worship that to take thedust of the feet someone to worship that person. It¶s not just a custom to take the dust of the feet.To take the dust of the feet means you put yourself below the dust of the feet. You are putting iton your head. That means you are putting yourself below the feet of that person, not only belowthe feet, but you are putting your head below what is below the feet of that person which is dust.This is amazing. Devotees are so humble, they will not even approach the feet of a devoteedirectly what to speak of approaching Krsna directly. What to speak of a devotee cannot eventhink of approaching a devotee directly. They won¶t even approach the feet of a devotee directly.But they approach the dust of the feet. That means that which is below the feet is where my headwould be. This is worship. This is true worship. So Krsna Das Kaviraj Goswami, he is prayingeven a new neophyte devotee who has accepted the process of Krsna Consciousness within the



heart, I take the dust of his feet on my head. I long for his association also. Because in theassociation of devotees, we will be chanting of the holy names, would be the discussion of the of the teachings and the past times of the supreme Lord Sri Krishna. In the association of thedevotees, its the love, the enthusiasm, enthusiasm to serve the deity, enthusiasm to dance and tochant, enthusiasm to go to the holy dham of Vrndavan, Mayapur, Jagannath Puri to worship that

place and the association of devotees, we find Krsna. Real association is that, where devoteeswho have an understanding of Krishna¶s personal supreme feature, who value bhakthi is theultimate goal of life, they chant the holy names to achieve that Bhakti, they hear about Krsna anddiscuss the past times of Krsna to achieve that Bhakti. They engage their body, their mind, their words, their life in executing the service of the spiritual Master to achieve that Bhakti. They loveto come to see the beautiful form of the Deity to achieve that Bhakti, to offer wonderful things tothe Deities. Just serve one another, that is association of devotees. Association of devotees is notpeople with Kanti mala and Tilak doing Prajalpa. That is not Sadhu Sanga. That is simplymaterial association. What makes sadhu sanga is not just a people, what is the medium in whichwe are relating to those people. Sadhu Sanga means to be hearing and chanting the glories of thelord, to be serving the lord in the association of the people who are genuinely trying to please

Krsna. That is Sadhu Sanga. A few days ago we are at Kumba mela. Govinda Prabhu,Shishtashtakam prabhu, Paramhamsa prabhu, together we were talking around for few minutesand we came into one camp of sadhus and there was about six or seven people gathered thesadhu we saw the group of people. They were really look intense. They were gathered aroundand leaning forward. I was telling, they must be doing nice katha. Remember? They must bedoing nice katha so I was I wanted to appreciate because it was a, it was within the Vaisnavacamps of sadhus. So here these people are gathered around the sadhu, leaning forward, leaningforward, very excited enthusiastic, I came closer and the sadhu was smoking Ganja in chillumand they were leaning forward because they wanted to get it next after him because he waspassing it around. This is not sadhu sangam. The man had shaved head, he had Shika. Yes? Hehas big, big Kanti mala and Tilaks all over his body. That is not Sadhu Sanga. Not at all. Andsometimes we see people very much and they criticizing other devotees prajalpa even Vaisnavaaparadh. That is not the association of the devotees. Association of Sadhu is those persons wholove Krsna or whose goal in life is to love Krishna and who are acting and speaking favorably for that purpose.

Sukadev Goswami speaking Bhagavatam, everybody all the sages, all the Rishis's they all cameto hear from him. That is Sadhu sangam. When Srila Prabhupad came here to Bombay, he gaveSadhu Sangam to these people. 30,000 people gathered in that tent. Prabhupad wasn't speakingpolitics, Prabhupad wasn't passing chillums around. Prabhupad was speaking SrimadBhagavatam. Prabhupad was inducing his devotees to chant and dance and inviting everyone tojoin the sankirtan of the holy names.

³Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare

Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama´

Mahatasevam<53:20:0>.....this is bhagavat. By associating with Mahan, by serving , by servingthe great souls, we are always speaking and singing the glories of Krsna. The doors to liberationare open. But to associate with people who have another purpose, another ideal, to associate with



people even if they have right ideal but doing wrong things that are unfavorable then the doors tothe lower modes of bondage open in our life. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu when he was asked,how to be Krishna Consciousness, he said you associate with devotees, you associate withVaisnavas and he was avoiding the association of two kinds of people. One is non-devotees andtwo is those who are too much attached to material sense gratification. This indicates even a

person who wants to be a devotee but there is too much attached to sense gratification. If wewant to make spiritual progress, we should respect every living being, we should seek, we shouldlong for the association of good devotees. Devotees who have make Krsna as loving service;there all in all in life, or who devotees who want to make that all in all in life, that is the path of perfection. We should long for that. When we are not in the association of the devotees weshould cultivate the feeling of separation from them. We should be eager, eagerness is anexpression of the desire of our heart for Krsna. Krsna loves His devotees. When Krsna sees thatyou are eager to be with His devotees, eager to share your heart with His devotees, eager to serveHis devotees, how much pleasure that eagerness is giving to Krsna. Prabhupad would say loveme, love my Dog. Prabhupad said that is American parlance. Krsna ³Mad-bhakta-pujabhyadhika...´ He spoke, those who serve my devotees, those who love my devotees, they

worship me the best, because I love my devotees. Our spiritual advancement takes placeaccording to the aspirations of our heart. As we have spoken many times before quoting SrilaPrabhupad, Krsna accepts the purpose in which everything is offered. If we really want to pleasethe devotees, if we really want to hear from the devotees, if we really want to serve the devotees,chant and dance with the devotees, if that is the eagerness of our heart, how pleasing thatsentiment is to Krsna and he will reciprocate. Coming to the temple, seeing the deities, servingthe deities, serving the Vaisnavas, that is devotional service. But even if you are home and youare longing in your heart to be you are doing that, that is also devotional service. Why? Becauseit¶s pleasing to Krishna. Krishna is ³Bhava Grahi´. He accepts the sentiments of the devotee.Srila Prabhupad told the story of two people. One went to the sat-sang and was thinking abouthis friend being with a beautiful woman and the friend with the beautiful woman thinking, hownonsense I am. I should be at the sat-sang. Hare Krishna! So one is at the sat-sang and his mindis sitting at there, the katha is going on but he is not hearing to the word of it. He is thinking Imissed my chance. I could have been with that beautiful woman and the other at the beautifulwoman thinking I have missed my chance, how abominable, disgraceful I am. I should have beenat the sat-sang with the Vaisnavas. So who is at the sat-sang? It¶s mystery. [Laughter...] Ideallywe should be at the sat sang and listening. But the moral of the story is that it¶s a state of our consciousness and of course our consciousness must be expressed through our actions. If wewere at the temple and we thinking it terms of this person is non-sense, this person is rascal, I ambetter than everybody else, then we are not at the temple. Your body is, but your consciousness isin the material world. But even if we are at work, and you are thinking God I have to do this?How I long to see the beautiful form of the Sri Radha Gopinath. They appear within the eye of your mind. How I long to be with devotees, how I am eager to the sat-sang tonight, Govindaprabhu is going to be speaking about the glories about the holy name, how I wish to be theretonight? Krishna's is in your heart. He sees your desire. That pleases Him. So here Lord Shiva isrevealing his heart full of love. How those who love Krsna love his devotees and consider it asthe greatest benediction to serve the devotees.

Is there any questions?



Yes.

Devotee: Maharaj. In regards to association of devotees, sometime we are in this confusion,when we are practicing devotional service, we see that other devotees if they aren't followingcertain standards and we are falling certain standards, we usually rather than accommodating

their behavior, we try to criticize them. They are not doing as much as I am doing. Then in thename of accommodating, we compromise, we minimize our standard. So both way we we are atwe lose in a way either criticize or we minimize in the name of accommodating. So how to seethat we don't minimize our standard and don't be critical.

Maharaj: The service attitude. If you have the service attitude that will automatically harmonizeall of our contradictions. If you have an enjoying attitude and egoistic attitude, that will createdisunity. You will corrupt the proper attitude. So if you have a service attitude, you are living byhigh standards. Its your service to the Vaisnavas to maintain the highest possible standards and if somebody else is not maintaining such a high standard, to criticize them, your your your standards gone. Give up your false nonsense ego. As soon as we criticize we are no longer in a

high standard. You just a rascal. I am high standard, I am chanting 6 rounds, I am following the 4regulative principle¶s I am 24 hrs engaged in the service of Guru and Krsna. But this person, thisperson works at job, has a wife, as soon as you think you lost your standard. As soon as youthink ill of a Vasianva, your standard is gone. aah! That¶s the reality. Krsna sees your intentions.

"Trinad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna amanina manadena kirtaniya sada hari"

This is what Krsna is looking. How are you offering respect to others and not ex expecting for oneself. How are you humble and tolerant? If you are in a mood of service, you will judgepeople, you will try to help people, by the grace of Guru and Krsna, somehow or the other I amallowed to live on this standard, I could fall down at any moment but some how or the other, I

am allowed to live on this standard. How many stories there are? Innumerable stories of peoplewho are very strict, very surrendered and they make judgments and criticize others for certainthings and what happens ultimately they end up in the same position of what they criticize. Whyis he doing like this? If you say in a judgmental way, its just a matter of time, you are also doinglike that. uh...we have seen it so many times. Its very easy to point out the defects in others butgenerally when you point out the defects in others, if you do it in a service mood to help theperson with humility then you will make spiritual advancement by that process but if you say itin a judgmental mood, the reaction will be, you will be doing the same thing that you arecriticizing. Hare Krishna! Now I never forget when I have the whole community of I must takeSanyas and I said I refuse and they were all in a meeting trying to preach me, to convince me andone devotee was so happy so happy he said, if you don¶t take Sanyas, then you are fallen, worsethan if you take Sanyas and fall, you will be more fallen if you don¶t take Sanyas. I never readthis in the scriptures. This is very stunned. So I said, well why don¶t you take Sanyas then. Hesaid because I am not being ordered to take Sanyas. You are. Hare Krsna! Very judgmental way,anyways ultimately I tried to take Sanyas, surrendered to the will of the Vaisnavas. But in acouple of years later, he was ordered to take Sanyas and he left Krishna Consciousness and never came back. Hare Krsna! It is a fact. When you make a judgment to someone else, you fallingdown from your standards to that process, and you are going to be put in a same situationbecause Krsna is going to live up to your words. That is the fact. So, see the good in the



devotees, see that somehow or other by Krsna's blessing and mercy I am given this wonderfulopportunity to serve in so many ways and try to be good example and try to preach to thatdevotee to uplift them, that service attitude, to those who are in a superior position to you, youserve them by listening to them, by hearing from them, by carrying out their desires for thosewho are your peers you serve them, by developing intimate affection and relationships in your

service to protect one and another from Maya and for those who are in a lesser position, of activedevotional service, you serve them by lovingly being the good example for them, by speakingand acting in such a way that they will be uplifted . If you compromise your standards for them,you are not serving them that is disservice, and if criticize them or judge them that is adisservice. So we actually understand what it means to serve you never make offenses. If youactually understand what it means to serve if you have a proper service attitude.

"Gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasa"

then you will always be making spiritual advancement then you will be always be doing the best.Service to others. Is that answer your question?

Maharaj: Thank you

Maharaj: Yes Prabhu

Devotee: When we try to extend ourselves to serve devotees, sometimes our health goes down or sometimes Sadhana goes down? How can we extend ourselves and yet maintain our sadhana andhealth?

Maharaj: Say louder, say in the microphone

Devotee: When we want to extend ourselves to serve devotees, our Sadhana would goes down or health goes down? How can we extend in such a way that our health also remains quite fit toserve devotees more, more and our Sadhana also remains?

Maharaj: You must utilize the intelligence that Lord Krishna gives you. Real service is not onlynow but in the future. We want to serve them today and we want to serve the Vaisnavas for therest of our lives. So therefore we have to balance. If your sadhana goes down then you are notreally going to able to give quality service to them. So it¶s a disservice to them, by extendingyourself if you are not performing your sadhana properly. It¶s a disservice because the quality of the service that you are giving will be less and your future of serving the Vaisnavas becomesvery much uncertain. Yes? If people are drowning you have to learn to swim. If you go on any

aero plane, they have the same announcement in every aero plane internationally that if there is areduction of oxygen, the oxygen mask fall out of some compartment, if you have a small child,first put it on yourself then your child. That¶s the law. You have to put in on your self first andthen the child. Why? If you go to put it on to your child, you may die before even you reach your child. If you put it on yourself, you will have strength to save your child. That is the fact. If weare not getting enough rest, the mind becomes disturbed, we are not able to qualitatively servethe Vaisnavas, so we must orchestrate our lives so we get enough rest. That¶s a service to them.May be a little less today but it will be better quality today and it will be it will ensure high



quality for all your life to come. If you compromise your sadhana over a period of time, then thequality of your service service will reduce and you may even may not be around. Everybody willbe having to look, searching and looking in the dark corners of the material existence to try tofind you. Is that a service? What do you say? If you don't perform your sadhana, perform your sadhana, you will fall down. In a fallen state how will you serve others? We want to be

spiritually strong not only for our own salvation; we want to be spiritually strong because thestronger we are, the more we can do for others. That is intelligence. Certian emergencysituations, you may have to give up some rest and our sadhana may not be good, if that is theorder of the spiritual master, if it is emergency need, we are willing to do it. If that becomessomething regular, then we are in very very very dangerous situation. Emergencies are rare.

Yes? Hare Krishna!

Actually I must go because it is Giriraj's Swami 's Vyasa puja in Juhu and I go, I have to gothere. One more question and then...

Devotee: Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna Maharaj,Maharaj: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna!

Devotee: If we go to Brndavan, can we visit Lord Shiva temples? Bhuteswar, Kamsa, Gopeswar,Nandeswar mahadev, with these to get devotional for the getting bhakti from Krsna, asking fromthem?

Maharaj: Please...Please

Devotee: Thank you very much. Similarly if we went to Badrinath, there we wanted to go to

this..Kedarnath, so people say that you are in Iskcon, you cannot go there? Is it so?Maharaj: Kedarnath? The Madhava Sampradaya...they will not go to Kedarnath but many peopleof Gaudiya sampradaya which is a branch of Madhava sampradaya go to Kedarnath. I am justtelling you the facts.

Devotee: Vrndavan, we can go to Lord Shiva's temples?

Maharaj: Yes, Yes, the madhava sampradaya will go to every Shiva temple in India to worshipexcept Kedarnath.

Devotee: Thank you.Maharaj: The Reason is esoteric [laughter..]. Because they believe, they believe that is the placewhere Bhima was minimized. aah! It¶s not that they are against Shiva. They worship Shiva, theywill go to Kasi Viswanath, they will go to Shiva Kanchi, they will go to Gopeswar Mahadev,they won't go to Kedarnath. Why? Because Bhima was minimized in that place andmadhavacharya people they believe that Madhavacharya is a avatar of Bhima. Haribol! They areon the same tattva but many Gaudiya vaisnavass, they go. So you have your freewill



[Laughter...]. But Brndavan, everyone goes. Please. That is our ultimate destination, Vrndavan!and all of our acharyas, worshipped Gopeswar Mahadev, Bhuteswar Mahadev, Kameshwar Mahadev, Chakaleshwar Mahadev, and how do we worship? We beg Lord Shiva for pureunalloyed devotional service to Lord Krsna. We beg Lord Krsna to be the servant of the servantof the servant of Smt Radharani and Lord Shiva there is no benediction; he likes to give better

than that. Every one else they ask for benedictions and he gives it as a business policy. Hedoesn¶t like to give it. But when we ask for the eternal loving service of Sri Radha Gopinath andfrom the inner most core of his heart, he is pleased to give you that benediction.

Srila Prabhupad Ki Jay!

Thank you very Much!

H.H.Radhanath Swami Maharaj ki Jay!!

Radhanath Swami On-Tolerating the Provoking Situation

Manasa deho gheo.....

Translation:-..

Hare Krishna! I wish to sincerely offer my gratitude to all of you for so kindly utilizing thisprecious time to come to Shri Radha Gopinath Temple to perceive the purification of the heartand true perfection of life. We have sung this deeply meaningful song of Shrila Thakur Bhaktivinod where in he is teaching us the practical application of true surrender to the mercy of

the Lord, He is offering his body mind home wealth life family everything in the service of theLord, he is not concerned either good fortune or bad fortune or even life or death, for alldifficulties disappeared by choosing to take shelter of the Lord's lotus feet. Slay me or protect meas you wish for You are the master and I am your eternal servant. Shrila Prabhupada writes in theKrishna book that once greatness has to be estimated by how one tolerates provoking situations,this is a very very profound statement of Shrila Prabhupada that gives us a specific perspective of who is great, not one who is beautiful bodily features, not one who can perform excellentdramatic performances, or sing melodiously with a very enchanting voice. Greatness is not to be



estimated by ones money influence or power, ones greatness is not estimated by ones physicalstrength or athletic abilities, ones greatness has to be estimated according to how one is able totolerate provoking situations.

Provoking means very difficult situations, it was by this criteria that Brighu Muni came to the

conclusion that Krishna or Vishnu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Shrimad Bhagvatamexplains this story that on the banks of the river Saraswati great self realized learned and ostier sages were meeting together disscussing the puranas, some of the puranas discribed Brahma isthe great others Shiva is the greatest and others says Vishnu is the greatest because differentpuranas of the different level of consciousness according to the particular types of peoplesconditioning's (28:28 shloka) Krishna describes vedas mainly deals with the three modes of material nature the vedic literatures for that matter the most all scriptures throughout the world inhistory are dealing with people who are deeply entranched in the modes of material nature andtrying to elevate their consciousness to the higher level but ultimately what is the essences whatis the perfection what is the goal that all the scriptures are describing, very few peopleunderstand or perceive that. So is actually the greatest Brahma Vishnu or Shiva amongst them

they decided the most qualified of all the mind born son of Brahma Brighu Muni should testthem and bring to them his final conclusion. Brighu Muni he knew how to test someone'sgreatness by provoking them to see if they are angry Hare Krishna! So first he went to LordBrahma, in Brahma loka now Brighu muni is the son of Brahma, it is the etiquette in anycivilized society that when a son comes before the father or specially after being away for a longtime he offers respect and speak words of praise so Brahma was so happy to see Brighu muniand He explained how happy He was to see my son who have come, Brighu muni stood their likea statue did not offer any respect did not speak a single word, Lord Brahma seeing the offensivementality of His son who He trained so well He became overcome with anger He was fuminginside but because of the power of the Brahma's discrimination He some how or other justified,this is my son whatever offense he makes I should, must tolerate it but he was very angry, it isexplained by the acharay's how Brahma was able to some how or other control Himself fromattacking Brighu muni that just as water evolves from the element of fire that same water is whatis used to extinguish fire so similarly Brighu muni was His son and just as His son who hadignited such fire that same son who was born from that fire who was born of him who was bymeditating on his relationship with his able to somehow extinguish his fire. So as far as Brighumuni was concerned his father Brahma failed the test, visibly angry as anything. Then he went tohis elder brother Lord Shiva at Kailash when Shiva saw his brother Brighu muni coming after long time He was so happy He got up from His seat, Parvati was with Him and He said ³Brighumy dear brother I am so happy to see you welcome welcome!´ and He came to embrace him andBrighu muni with his lips in his distaste in a disgusted expression he

said ³Don't you touch me you heretic, your body is filthy, you rubbed it with ashes, you associatewith gosts and all lowly beings, your snakes, your are filthy, do not contaminate me unless I haveto jump in the Ganges to take bath for purification´ Lord Shiva heard this insulting words rightin front of His wife He became very upset His eyes became like coals he picked up His trident topunish Brighu, but some how Parvati fell at Lord Shiva's feet and said ³ He is your brother forgive him, excuse him please please! He is a brahman´ So Shiva cooled down, he failed thetest. Then he went to Sweta deep the abode of Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu was lying with is headon the lap of Lakshmi devi relaxing very nicely, Brighu muni just ran right into the room, ran



right in with no announcement and with his foot kicked Vishnu right in the chest, Lord Vishnuimmediately got up and offer Brighu muni His own throne to sit on and he washed his feet andhe said Brighu I am very sorry, due to my neglect I did not properly stand up to receive you I amso honored, your lotus feet the feet of a celebrated brahman like you can purify even the holyplaces therefore now my chest has become a holy place because your lotus feet has touched my

chest now I believe that Lakshmi devi will now live there for ever and never leave me, such agood fortune you have bestowed upon me but I regreat that your feet are so soft so tender and mychest is hard like a thunderbolt perhaps I have committed the offense that not only not welcomeyou properly but hurting your feet so please let me massage them to make them feel nice, Hemassaged the lotus feet of Brighu muni Brighu muni was stunned literally he was practicallyparalyzed in ecstasy he couldn't move he couldn't speak, tears of ecstatic love was flowingflowing from his eyes for a long time. According to Shri Caitanya Bhagvat after a long timebeing stunned in ecstasy he began to dance in that ecstasy couldn't say a word he left that placereturned to the banks of Saraswati to tell the great sages that he committed a mental offense toLord Brahma an He became angry, worse than a mental offense is an offense with words, hecommitted such an offense to Lord Sankar, He became angry but the worst of all offenses is the

physical offense, he literally he didn't slapped Vishnu with his hand but worst than that heliterally kicked him with his foot that the most humiliating insulting thing you can do to a personand Lord Vishnu with great humility and forbearance excepted that He was the one who made anoffense, after hearing this all the great sages unanimously agreed that Vishnu is supreme that if one takes shelter of Vishnu one can find supreme peace because Vishnu is the reservoir of supreme peace, the essence of all religions is to take shelter of Supreme Personality of Godhead.Bhogtaram the Bhagwat Gita verse describes how one who surrenders to the SupremePersonality of Godhead knowning Him to be the supreme proprietor of everything the supremegoal of all sacrifices the supreme enjoyer and the best friend of everyone, he alone attains truepeace, Prabhupada this the peace formula surrendering to God and those who take shelter of Krishna they become great because the great manifest through them, this the meaning of takingshelter, to submit oneself to be the instrument of ones great, one who is the devotee of the greatmanifest the quality of greatness and what is greatness the ability to tolerate provokingsituations. Shrila Prabhupada gives the example that a small fire can be blown out by even asmall lite gentle breeze but the supreme of all fire the sun even the most powerful hurricanecannot even slightly move the sun from its position therefore the sun is great the candle is not. Itis provoking situations that not only test our realizations in Krishna consciousness but is thosesame provoking situations that give us the opportunity to become great and we find in the holyscriptures this is a continues theme that graphic difference between a great person and a personwho is not great a specially in regard to the enemy of anger (40:51 sloka) Krishna explains inBhagwat Gita that the great symbol of sin is lust when there is lust within the heart it istransformed into rafts, lust means the desire to enjoy, there is gross enjoyment and subtleenjoyment when a provoking situations is that really interferes with our desires to enjoy either enjoy the facilities of this world through our senses or enjoy profit adoration or distinction.Shrimad Bhagwatam describes so many stories, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Puranas, the ShriCaitanya Caritamrita which revealed how great personalities are able to tolerate their anger, nowhow did Shrila Prabhupada define tolerance ? In many cases Prabhupada just describes toleranceas the ability to forgive even when we are offended. Lets take the example of Maharaj Parikshit,when he was in the embryo of his womb of his mother Ashvatthama try to kill him withBrahmastra but Parikshit Maharaj he was able to see the lord coming unto his womb to protect



him, why did the Lord entered his womb ? Because his mother Uttara knowing that she was in atotally helpless condition cried out to Krishna please save my child and Krishna always hears theprayers of His sincere devotees and actually for that reason any of us have been a loud to haveKrishna in our life's because great personalities have prayed for our salvation when the greatsouls pray for us Krishna makes Himself accessible and then it our free will how we receive His

mercy. From that time Parikshit Maharaj knew that Krishna is my protector, Suta goswamidescribed to the sages of Naimisharanya how incredibly compassionate Parikshit Maharaj was asthe king of the world and his super glorious deads, they wanted to know more and more andmore about this great king so suta goswami explains the greatness that how he left this world.One day king Parikshit was on an exertion in the forest and something happened to him thatnever happened before he was attacked with unbearable thirst, some of you may know what it islike! When you have unbearable thirst you give anything for little water nothing else can satisfy,if someone gives you ornaments nice car beautiful garments a throne to sit on beautiful people toassociate with it cannot touched your heart as long as you are just suffering thirst you must havewater you cant enjoy anything else until you attain water so Parikshit Maharaj was hunting for water he came to the hermitage of the great sage Shaumik rishi who is sitting in a state of

samadhi meditating on the Lord, Parikshit Maharaj asked him for water, now Shaumik rishi wasa brahman and Parikshit Maharaj is the emperor of the entire planet earth there should have beenby natural etiquette that an offering place and water but Shaumik rishi was so much in theanother world of meditation that he did not take a note that the king had come. So king Parikshitwas overcome by the yoga maya potency of the Lord, although he was such a tolerant and greatperson he could control his all of his mind and senses to a prefect degree some how or other theLord covered him over and put a little bit of desire within his heart to avenged the rishi as he wasleaving the house with his bow he picked up a dead serpent and placed it on the shoulder of Shaumik rishi, very very tiny offense and he left but because he was a great king as the yogamaya potency of the Lord kind of wharf king Parikshit felt terribly guilty what I have done? Whyhave I done this, mean while the son of shaumik rishi he was inexperienced, immature and veryvery puffed up because he was brahman he was a son of a powerful Brahman and he was trainedin such a way that he had brahmanical powers because he had this opulences of knowledge andpower he became proud, kali had already been punished and subdued by Maharaj Parikshit hewas looking for some way to overcome the earth but there was no possibility the only place isParikshit Maharaj gave him to rule was whether was illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meateating or whether was too much hording of wealth but Parikshit Maharaj was such a puredevotee, he sets a wonderful example he was the father of all human society therefore there wasno such illicit activities therefore kali was stranded without any powers to affect anyone but hesaw in this little boy Shringi false pride, proud of his knowledge and his powers, kali understoodthis is the way I will enter into this little crack and through this crack I will conquer the world.He influenced Shringi to become so angry so out raged he spoke to his playmates that this rascalperson he has offended a brahman since when does the crows and the watch dogs have right toenter into the homes of their masters and offend them what to speak of eat of the same plate asthem, the kshatriyas are simply like watch dogs they are suppose to stay outside of the house of the brahmans and protect them but this king due to his impudence has lost all proper behaviour and he has offended my father now watch what I will do. He sip water from the Koshik river andthen he pronounced a curse ³ On seven days from today this low class person and the guys of aking would meet his death by the snake bird Dakshaka, I proclaimed this curse ³ then the childwent back to his father and he was crying he was a victim of kali he was crying because he really



didn't know whether he did the right thing or not but it was done, his father hearing his little soncrying came out of samadhi and saw the snake on his shoulder didn't think anything of it justpushed it of and asked his son what is causing pain to your heart, his son told what hadhappened, Shaumik rishi was overwhelmed with grief such a little offense didn't mean anythingputting a snake on someone shoulder, he told his son do you not know the king Parikshit is a

pure devotee of Lord Krishna, it is due to him that religiosity and spirituality is promiating thewhole earth, without him decoits thieves would plunder the common people, he knew what wasin store in the age of kali he grieved piteously and then he prayed he prayed to the SupremePersonality of Godhead to forgive his son for this horrible offense mean while King Parikshitwas within his palace and he was thinking in his mind that I have committed an offense let whatever reaction is meant for me come now whatever Krishna sees fit to do to punish me I amwilling to accept then he got the message for Shaumik rishi that he was cursed to die on seventhday, Maharaj Parakshit accepted this as good news he saw this is the mercy of the SupremePersonality of Godhead and opportunity to detach himself from all the entanglements of allsocial and domestic affairs in this and to completely surrender to the shelter of the lord. AsThakur Bhaktivinod prays ³ slay me protect me as you wish, for you are the master of your

eternal servant´ this truly was the practical example of Maharaj Parikshit he left his home and saton the banks of the Ganges to meditate on the Supreme Personality of Godhead fasting untildeath, seeing the great king with such a great for heart, actually king Parikshit was thinking of going back to Shaumik rishi to beg forgiveness but he knew Shaumik rishi was suffering somuch due to his activities of his son if he would have face him it would have only caused morepain to the great sage so out of etiquette he went directly to the Ganges. Great sages and rishisfrom all over they all came to assemble there they wanted to be there to serve the king until thelast movement, King Parikshit humbly bowed down to each of the sages and brahmans as theyappeared and to each one he presented what was his decision, I have vowed to fast till deathsimply hearing the glories of the supreme personality of Godhead, do I have your blessing? Isthis the right thing to me to do ? Although he was king of the world he had no pride he knew anydecision is not auspicious without the conformation and blessing of great souls he would not actindependently. All the great souls who were assembled they bestowed their full blessing uponhim they confirmed that yes this the glories thing you are about to do and we will be there withyou until you leave this world. Then Parikshit Maharaj with folded palms and lowered head of humility ask to question of the great sages, what is the highest occupation for people leaving inthis world for all classes of people leaving in this world and what is the prime duty of a personwho is about to die ? It was on that time the great son of Vyas dev Sukadev goswami appearedand spoke Shrimad Bhagvatam to answer these two question of Maharaj Parikshit. An exampleShringi because of his false pride although brahmans with great powers a little offense and hebecame so raffled he cursed a man to die and King Parikshit he didn't deserve that by all socialethical or moral standards but he did not become angry, Parikshit Maharaj had the power tocounter curse Shringi and Shaumik rishi and kill them he had the power to send his armies todestroy them but he forgive them, he considered he deserve it for his offense and he took shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therfore Parikshit Maharaj is celebrated even 5thousand years later as a great personality because how he tolerated a provoking situation. Thestory of Ambrish Maharaj he didn't even committed offense to Durvas muni at Madhuban on thebank of Yamuna in Braj bhumi Ambrish Maharaj was performing a whole year Ekadasi fast andit was just the time to break the fast, this is in a previous yuga for all this technicalities was veryvery important to observe so just at that movement when he had to break the fast Durvas muni



came to his house and he receives him with so much affection, Durvas muni says I want to takefast and then I will take prasad while he was in bath the brahmans told Ambrish if you don'tbreak your fast now all the good affects for yourself and for the whole world will be nullified sowith their permission he just have little charnamrita a drop of water that washed the feet of thelord because according to the scriptures drinking charnamrita is simultaneously breaking fast and

not breaking fast, he took a drop of charnamrita, Durvas muni so powerful he knew it how did heknow he was such an accomplished yogi but due to some pride in his heart he was out raged, hedrank charnamrita before feeding me! directly with thunderous anger he approached Ambrishand he enter blaspheming him with horrible words than created a fiery monstrous demon to killAmbrish. Ambrish Maharaj did not even tried to defend himself he just offered the respectfulobeisances to the supreme personality of godhead, slay me or protect me as you wish, you are themaster and I am your eternal servant and in that spirit Ambrish Maharaj simply accepted theLords mercy in what ever way it came, thus the lord who always protect His devotees sendsSudharshan to kill the fiery demon and attack Durvas muni who fled, he ran he flew he went toIndra loka he went to Barhma loka, Barhma said it is Vishnu's chakra I cannot help you he wentto Shiva loka, he's an expansion of Siva, Siva said it is Vishnu's chakra I cannot help you he went

to Vaikuntha loka that was his power and Vishnu said you offended my devotee, my devoteeshave given their lives to me therefore I give my life to my devotees, my devotee is alwaysthinking of me I am always thinking of my devotee, my devotee sacrifices everything for me andI will sacrifice everything for my devotee, the only salvation is to fall on the feet and get themercy of Ambrish. Durvas muni came back to Madhubhan where Ambrish was still standingwaiting for serve his guest prasad, one full year was passed he did not eat anything that wholeyear because his guest had not yet eaten his prasad. Durvas muni came falling at his feet whileSudarshan chakra was right behind him begging forgiveness, Ambrish Maharaj prayed toSudarshan chakra the all auspicious servant of the lord to be merciful he prayed to the lord toforgive Durvas muni. Ambrish maharaj considered due to his offense Durvas muni didn't eat for one year and sat him down and serve him with such a love and respect. Another example a slightoffense to Durvas and he was victim of anger a horrible terrible offense to Ambrish and hesimply took shelter of the Lord tolerated his mind and senses and gave forgiveness to Durvas.The story of Gopal Chapala, he tried to ruin the reputation of Shrivaas Thakur by putting alltantrik paraphernalia in front of his house so that the whole Nava deep would think Shrivaas wasactually a tantrik a materialistic person therefore all this kirtans going on in his house must be obseen sinful immoral. Srivaas Thakur came out of his house and saw all this, called all the peopleof Navadeep and said it is been exposed that I am actually a tantrik worshiper of Durga butnobody believed him rather the cleaned with cowdung and made everything nice he did not seek revenge he saw as the mercy of the lord (1:06:17) Shrila Prabhupada explains what it means toexperience the higher taste to see within the material world the mercy for hand of Krishnanothing happens by chance if we look for the spiritual energy if we look for the mercy of theLord that is what we will find everywhere in all circumstances but the only way we could do thatis therefore actually sincerely trying to be humble. Haridas Thakur is the another prime example,they beat him in 22 market places and how did he react to the people blaspheming him andbeating him and entrancing him to torcheting death, he was praying to the lord to forgive them.A another example is Prahlad, what was Prahlad's offense to Hirankashipu he was respectful tohis father he honored his father he offered his obeisances, spoke sweet polite words, he wasperfect obidient son in every respect except he was honest that he love Krishna that's all and for that slight offense his father wanted to kill his 5 years old son, Hiranyakashipu was out raged for



something small and how did Prahlad Maharaj respond to be throne into pits of snakes, beingstrobed with tridents, throne in ocean, throne under mountains into fire fed deadly poison under massive boulder's, he was never angry with his father he was humble he accepts every situationsas an opportunity to simply remember Krishna to take shelter of Krishna and in the end the onlything he asked of Lord Narshima dev is please forgive my father give him liberation this is

greatness. Throughout our vaishnav history, throughout our vaishnav scriptures this is constanttheme why ? Because it is absolutely necessary for every aspiring devotee to understand thisprinciple and apply it to their life. You cannot really make proper spiritual advancement unlessyou are able to forgive people who offend you, mundane egoistic consciousness is to holdgrudges to avenged people to wish bad for people. Certainly if someone offends the lord or hisdevotees we should protect but if one offenses come to us our greatness has to be estimatedaccording to how we tolerate those provoking situations and Krishna He is as the paramathmathe Supreme professor who is grading us every times he sends a test and our spiritualadvancement is going to be determined how show Krishna our sincerity to live by His principle.³ tåëäd api su-nécena, taror iva sahiñëunä, amäninä mäna-dena, kértanéyaù sadä hariù´ whenLord Caitanya Mahaprabhu composed this beautiful sloka which many of our acharaya's

considered the crest jewel of all proposes of life to live by this principle, it was for this reasonunless we are trying to practice humility tolerance, the offering of respect and not expectingrespect we cannot really take shelter of the holy name. Therefore we should estimate greatnessaccording to this principle not simply external appearances. Lust is also a provoking situation,Haridas Thakur was presented all the enjoyment of this world by maya devi herself in the formof a beautiful women but he tolerated that provoking situation he maintained the saintity of hisvows took shelter of Krishna in His holy name therefore he is considered a great personality. Inmarriage there is provoking situations, I have never been married but I heard and read somethingalso that there is many many provoking situations as may be at every movement, too egos a manand a women putting in the same house very difficult and then children and every parents wantto be the controller of their children but every parents realizes I cannot controlled them its veryhumiliating its very insulting to the ego, when the wife doesn't listen to the husband when thehusband doesn't properly appreciate the wife and when the children act completely contrarywhatever the mother and father are telling them, very humiliating situations very provoking,what is your greatness how you can tolerate those provoking situations and today there is nogreatness on any level of this world what to speak of spiritually but even moral. Previously nomatter what difficulty was there in between husband and wife some how or other they some howtolerated and adjust and maintained the saintity of their vows but in this age when thinks are notconducive to our enjoyment provoking situations creates such a network or chain reaction of violent reactions, in the western world 60,70 % marriage end in divorce because they just canttolerate provoking situations. Tolerance means to be forbearing and to be forgiving, tolerancemeans to maintain the saintity of our vows, to maintain the saintity of our morality, to maintainthe saintity of our faith under any situations and the more we tested greater the opportunity is tomake spiritual progress. Sometime we become expert at anything we become proud and thatpride built a certain estimation of our selves within our own mind, people do not respect usaccording to what we expect our mind burns like fire when that happens that should simply bethe evidence that I am really a neophyte, I haven't understood I must really really work hard topurify myself. A great personality himself or herself to be the servant of the servant of theservant and sees every opportunity as his every situations as an opportunity to take shelter of thelord not take shelter of material solutions to our problems. Durvas Muni, Shringi, Gopal Capala



all these personalities Hiranyakashipu they tried to find material solution to what they considereda provoking situation but the vaishnavas took shelter of the Supreme personality of godhead, thistheme I will repeat it again because the theme is repeated again and again and again, itspractically everywhere in Shrimad Bhagvatam and Caitanya Caritamrita, the most important of the vaishnavs scriptures, why? Because its all important to understand. Making spiritual progress

is like fighting a battle against maya and there is going to be so many battles that comes beforeus in this world and we must learn to be prepared for each battle and wining the battle meansacting with integrity and taking shelter of Krishna, loosing the battle means for staking our integrity and taking shelter of our mind and senses, taking shelter of lower tendencies. Thematerialistic people they would think their victory is conquering over another person getting thebest above someone else but the devotee understand that is nothing to do with victory, victory ispleasing Krishna and that means preserving faith and the integrity of our ideals and acting withself controlled forgiveness and tolerance. Therefore we must arm ourselves with Krishna's mercyso that the storms come upon us we can find shelter and comes by associating with devotees whoare sincerely aspiring for these virtues, by reading the holy scriptures about the personalities,how they act? How they react ? How they pray ? How they take shelter ? That is my aspiration

and then when situations comes upon our life we fallow in the food steps of great souls becausewe know who is great and what is great, we must learn to take shelter of the Lord that comes tochanting the holy names regularly and offering prayers. The story of Gajendra, he was big bigpowerful king of the jungle, he was put in a provoking situation, this insignificant little crocodile,if it was in the land stumped the head of that crocodile and killed it within a second, Ah! Yes hesaw that crocodile finished, beaten him with one leg and crushed it with the other but in thewater he couldn't do that. The water is the crocodiles abode and in the water crocodile is kingand the land Gajendra was king, oh even though he was so big and strong, the lions and tigerswould run away from him in fear when he looked at them in disapproval but he was in a situationwhere he tried everything to save himself, it was a terrible provoking situation and ultimatelywhat did he do, he lifted a lotus flower and offered it to the supreme personality of godhead andoffered beautiful prayers of complete surrender. In essence what did he pray ³ slay me or protectme as you wish, for you are the master and I am your eternal servant ³ Every day we sit down tochant japa, every day we come and worship the deities, we are practicing to take shelter of thelord, we are practicing to take the name of the lord. Bhaktivinod Thakur in his another prayer hetells us, I have seen and considered all the worlds and my conclusion is Krishna your name is myonly salvation, so we must practice taking shelter of the holy name, practice hearing about thegreat souls and their devotion to the lord and sincerely honestly try to follow in the footsteps of the great souls in our every day life, even in the most ordinary typical situations that come for usin life we should be trying to follow in the footsteps of great souls that is how we become greatin the eyes of God and then when the test come and they will come, when we are provoke withgreed, we want to accumulate more and more and more and more and more, we want to use thatgreed according to our own whimsical independent desires thats provocation of maya, weunderstand that this money belong to God, its a test that my mind and senses are telling me to useit for some other purpose, it should be used in harmony with the will of God with the blessing of great souls. Greed is the provocation, anger is one of the most provocation, lust, envy, prideillusion these six enemies within the mind will provoke us in every situation of our life (1:24:13)we must learn to tolerate them without being disturb, without letting them disturb the integrity of the ideals we are living for and is possible (1:24:32), when the test come in our life with foldedhands we gratefully accepts them as the mercy of the Lord and thank Krishna, offer obeisances



to Krishna. Recently I was in Italy and one nice lady she was there, she is dying of severe cancer already spread all over her body and yet she just comes to the program smiling chantingwhatever possibility she can she dances, she looks happy in anyone else in the room and all thedevotees are happy, shes so happy looking, shes so great full, devotees are praying for her, Ispoke to her, she said how luck how fortunate I am, there are people praying for me, if I wouldn't

have this disease they wouldn't be praying for, what a great fortune, what a great blessing, shewasn't attach to living her dying , she was attached to accepting Krishna's mercy from her heart,this is the reality of a person following in the footstep of great souls, living examples so let us tryto follow in the footsteps of those who are great and remember Prabhupada's definition of greatness, please repeat after me ³ Ones greatness has to be estimated by ones ability to tolerateprovoking situations ³ much louder form the core of your heart ³ Ones greatness has to beestimated by ones ability to tolerate provoking situations ³ much louder please ³´ much louder please and emphasis on provoking ³´ Thank you very much. Is there any questions

Thank you Maharaj for your wonderful class , at a practical level when we are engaging in someservice and we have to organize or conduct some event and many things have to be done at a

short time and many devotees have to engaged in service and so in such cases because thepressure is very high and considering the consequences that what will happen if there is amistake so sometimes one may flare up when something doesn't happen we have told someone todo and so many other devotees would be affected by that so in such cases what is the practicaladvice, how to keep ones cool?

Maharaj said:- Your question is a provoking situation and when we trying to serve thevaishnavas and we become exited sometimes over exited under the pressure of our service that isnot a serious offense, if we are intensionally trying to harm someone, if we are intensionallytrying to ridicule or minimize the person's positions in the eyes of others, that is offensive but if you simply ³ no no no you do like that not like that ³ that is not offensive however if you havehurt somebody's heart then you should ask forgiveness but the provoking situations is when weare offended when we are insulted or when lust, anger , greed , pride or illusion comes upon us,sometime in the service of others we may act in an exited way and but we should be careful to doit in such a way that we do not hurt the hearts of others and if we do we should ask forgivenessbut that is not offensive. Offenses is when you deliberately avenged someone for what they havedone to you or when we give to our lower and lower nature. Is that answer your question?

We will have sankirtan at this time please everyone dance very blissfully and chant the holynames for the pleasure of Shri Radha Gopinath.

What is Real Greatness By Radhanath Swami

I sincerely thank all of the assembled devotees for so sincerely coming to Sri Radha VrindavanCandra¶s Sunday festival. Today I would like to speak on the subject of a particular sentencespoken by Srila Prabhupada because I feel that this subject although not often discussed is one of the most frequent and essential themes within all the spiritual literatures of the world, especiallySrimad Bhagavatam and the Purana¶s. Prabhupada gives his definition of greatness, ³One¶sgreatness has to be estimated by one¶s ability to tolerate provoking situations.´ Please repeatafter me.



³One¶s greatness has to be estimated by one¶s ability to tolerate provoking situations,´(Krishna Book Volume Two 1970-2-34 / The Superexcellent Power of Krishna)

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that a small flame can be blown out by even a slight breeze.However the greatest of all luminaries, the sun does not even slightly move from its position in

the face of the most powerful cyclones, tornados or hurricanes. That is why the sun is greater than the flame. Srimad Bhagavatam on the banks of the River Sarasvati a group of great saintsand saintly persons were gathered together. They were discussing the topic of greatness and theywanted to come to some understanding of who the greatest personality in the universe was. Therewere three opinions. Some said Lord Brahma others said Lord Visnu and others Lord Siva. Eachof them had their reasons but they couldn¶t come to a conclusion. So they deputed Bhrgu Muni, ason of Lord Brahma to make a test and evaluate of the three murtis, Brahma, Visnu andMahesvara who is the greatest.

So first he went to the abode of Lord Brahma, his father and according to etiquette a son issupposed to offer respects to the father but he didn¶t offer any respect at all. In fact he did not do

anything. He didn¶t say anything but just stood there. And Brahma welcomed him, ³Oh my son. Iam so happy you have come.´ He just stood there. Brahma became so angry about thistransgression and he was about to punish him but because Bhrgu was his son he controlled hisanger and did not do anything. Bhrgu Muni could see that Brahma was visibly upset, angry.

Then he went to the planet of Kailash were Lord Siva resides. Lord Siva is his brother. WhenLord Siva was with his consort Parvati and saw that Bhrgu has come he was so happy, he wasoverjoyed, ³My brother you have come.´ He came to embrace him with a big smile welcominghim and Bhrgu Muni spoke. He said, ³Don¶t you touch me you filthy person. Look at you; your body is covered with ashes from the crematorium. You have snakes on your body with all badassociation. You are filthy, don¶t touch me!´ Hare Krishna! Lord Siva became so angry he

picked up his trident and was about to kill Bhrgu Muni but Parvati pacified him, ³He is your brother, he is your brother, let it be!´ So Lord Siva cooled down.

The first offence was a mental offence to Lord Brahma. He did not offer proper respects. To Sivahe committed a verbal offence. Then he went to Svetadvip were Lord Visnu is sitting on aflowered bed with Laxmidevi. As soon as Lord Visnu saw Bhrgu Muni come in He got up andsaid, ³Oh My friend, O great brahmana you have come let me welcome you.´ And Bhrgu Munijust ran up to Him and in a very angry disposition kicked Visnu in the chest with his foot. Hewanted to see how Visnu would respond to this provoking situation. Lord Visnu sat him downand said, ³Please accept this seat. I am so honored and so grateful that you have come. You havesanctified My abode by your presence. You are a brahmana. The water that washes your feet canpurify even the holiest places. By you coming here you have sanctified Vaikuntha. I am verysorry. I beg forgiveness of you that I did not welcome you properly. I did not offer you proper respect so you duly punished me by kicking Me on the chest but I am feeling pain in My heartbecause your foot is so sacred, it is so holy, so soft and My chest is so hard that it must havecaused you pain. Please let me massage your lotus feet.´ And Visnu massaged the feet of BhrguMuni.



Bhrugu Muni was standing there seeing the quality of Lord Visnu was paralyzed by respect,choked up. The only movement from his body was tears flowing from his eyes. He just had toleave. He went back to the bank of Sarasvati and explained to all the saints and sages there abouthow the three great souls responded to his various tests. They all came to the conclusion thatVisnu is the supreme of all the greatest. His greatness was estimated by His ability to tolerate

provoking situations. Amongst themselves they came to the conclusion that if someone is not of that transcendental stage of peace within their heart how could they give anyone else peace in aprovoking situation therefore Visnu is the supremely worshipable Deity of all.

In Sri Caitanya Bhagavat is a very interesting item that Vrindavan das Thakur explains. ActuallyLord Caitanya tells this. That in this particular story Brahma and Siva are very great souls, theyare not actually angry with Bhrgu Muni, they just pretended to feel angry because they knew thatVisnu is the greatest and they are His servants and they wanted the whole world to know thatVisnu is the greatest so they purposefully failed the test just to glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the quality of God. Within human society greatness means to be godly, to liveby this example and we find this a continuous theme of how different people react to provoking

situations. Should we name a few?Srimad Bhagavatam, how the Bhagavatam was spoken ± Maharaj Pariksit was such a great kingthat when in was in the womb of his mother he was seeing Lord Krishna, taking shelter of theLord. Such a great devotee so compassionate! When he was the king he was willing to give hislife his complete energy to protect even the most insignificant of his citizens if they were beingplundered or abused by another. He declared war against Kali personified because he wascausing harm to innocent cow and bull. That was the character of Maharaj Pariksit. One day hewas roaming through the forest and suddenly something happened that was completely out of hischaracter. He became completely overcome with thirst. That is a provoking situation. He was soovercome with thirst that he was thinking of nothing but getting water. Actually this is thequality a devotee should have, this type of eagerness for Krishna like a person in the desert whocan find no shelter anywhere except in water. In the desert of this material existence we shouldbe longing, striving for Krishna. So he went to the hermitage of Samika Rsi. He was a very greatbrahmana sage who was sitting in samadhi, meditation and was oblivious to the external world.Pariksit Maharaj after offering his respects to this brahmana requested, ³Please give me somewater I am dying of thirst. Give me a little water.´ But Samika Rsi was not in this world; he wasinternally in his meditation. He did not even recognize that anyone had come to his house so hejust sat there and Pariksit Maharaj was temporarily overcome by the illusory energy, by the willof the Lord obviously and he became disturbed. He did not do much. He saw as he was leavingthe hermitage. He said, ³You are a brahmana and because you are in such a high position you arenot even greeting a guest who happens to be the king of the world who comes to your house.´ Hecame under the delusion that the brahmana was purposely neglecting him out of pride so he sawa dead snake and lifted it with his bow and put it on the brahmanas shoulder and walked out. Notmuch of an offence! Very slight ridicule, that is all! Samika Rsis son Srngi heard about this. Hewas a young boy but he had tremendous brahminical powers. In those days if you were born in afamily you would inherit the great powers of your families opulence and in this case withbrahmanas, brahminical power. When he heard that his father was insulted in this small way hewas so outraged that he lost control of his anger and to show off to his young friends he broughtthem all together, sipped water and proclaimed a curse. ³Because this king has insulted a



brahmana he has no right to be in his position. I curse that on the seventh day form today he willbe killed by the snake bird Taraka.´ Hare Krishna! Now this is how he responded to a provokingsituation and what was the result? The result of Srngi¶s inability to tolerate a provoking situationis the whole brahmana caste became very much compromised and full of degradation and notonly that. Pariksit was the only person powerful enough to keep Kali out of the world. It was due

to his cursing the king that Kali-yuga began and all the qualities of quarrel and hypocrisyattacked this planet and is still attacking. That is the result of one person¶s inexperienced abilityto tolerate a provoking situation.

In contrast King Pariksit was cursed to die in seven days that is a very provoking situation, whenhe heard about it he was happy. He accepted it as the will of the Lord. ³Nothing happens bychance. This is a message of the Lord to me. It is time for me to become very serious aboutpreparing for the purpose of life.

ante narayana-smrti

The goal of life is that at the time of death we remember the Supreme Lord.anta-kale ca mam evasmaran muktva kalevaram (Bg 8.5)

Krishna tells, ³If you remember Me at the time of death you will come to Me without fail.´ It isthe final exam of life.

padam padam yad vipadam na tesam (SB 10.14.58)

And in this world that final exam or any other type of preliminary exam can come upon anyone

at any time, anywhere. There is danger at every step in this world even if we are most careful.Pariksit Maharaj understood atatho brahma-jijnasa, human life is meant for self-realization, it isnot meant to be a king, it is not meant to be a family man, it is meant for self realization and allof the other aspects, socially, occupationally, they are all meant to facilitate our self realization.So Pariksit Maharaj considered this, the Lord¶s mercy. He considered Srngi to simply be aninstrument of Krishna¶s blessings upon him to become very serious in his life. And that lastseven days he decided to utilize exclusively to cultivate bhakti or love of God!

When I was young in the sixties, the television show, µRun for Your Life¶ was the number oneshow. She is so transcendental she didn¶t even know what is television! It was about a wealthy

man and he was told he was going to die in one year so he wanted to utilize his life for theultimate purpose ± sense gratification! It was a weekly series, so every week for one hour yousaw him with a beautiful French girl, skiing in the French Alps doing all kind of excitingadventures. Another time he was with a Jamaican girl scuba diving in the Caribbean. Every week he was doing some wonderful adventure with another beautiful women, enjoying like anythingand people were thinking that this man is really together. He knows how to utilize lifequalitatively to the maximum degree. That is why it was the number one show! He became thehero the idol he is the best enjoyer! He wanted to pack in seventy-five years of enjoyment in that



one year. In fact the show was so popular. It made so much money with the sponsors and thecommercials that they had to extend his life to another year. They expanded his life to another year, I think it went on for four years until the rating was going down, then they let him die.

Here is Pariksit Maharaj he has seven days. He vowed that he would fast to death, no eating, no

drinking, and no sleeping. ³I will leave all my royal garments behind and just put on the robes of a mendicant and I will be continuously in the association of saintly people hearing aboutKrishna.´ With this vow he went to the bank of the Ganges with a humble heart. He was the kingof the world. He could have sent massive armies to imprison, torture and execute this littlebrahmana boy he had that power! He was also a mystic. He could have pronounced a curse toSamika Rsi and his son and did something to them. He didn¶t retaliate but he accepted it as themercy of God. In fact Samika Rsi when he heard about this, he was broken hearted. He came outof his meditation he saw the snake, he didn¶t think anything of it and then his son came and toldhim, ³This is what I have done.´ ³You have just destroyed the brahminical class, you havedestroyed the morality, the ethics of the world. This king was the representative of God. Whyhave you done!!!! Shame, shame, shame on us!´ He couldn¶t even look at the face of Pariksit

Maharaj because of what had been done through the minor little thing of a snake. It was justnothing! ³You have killed the man.´ He sent a messenger and when Pariksit Maharaj got thatnews he welcomed it as Krishna¶s signal that he must become very, very serious about hisspiritual life.

Srila Prabhupada explains that Pariksit Maharaj knew as a fact that he would have at least sevendays to live. There is not a single person is this entire world that knows with guarantee that hewill have seven minutes to live. We take it for granted but we do not know. How we utilize our time is a sign of our intelligence and our sincerity. To waste time means to waste our life. Our human existence is so precious and every moment as a human being is the most precious thing inthe entire creation because when you loose a moment you cannot buy it back for any amount of wealth.

So Pariksit Maharaj sat on the bank of the Ganges and there he met his Guru Maharaj SukadevGoswami and with all humility, with eagerness to hear about Krishna he enquired from him.³What is the essence of all religions? What is the purpose of human life and what is the mainduty of a person about to die?´ In provoking situation one person responded with ego and anger and he is condemned today even five thousand years later and Pariksit Maharaj is everyone¶sgreat hero. It was because of his consciousness that the Srimad Bhagavatam took birth in thisworld because he responded without anger. In a provoking situation he responded withforgiveness, with patience, with tolerance and with faith in God.

Another example is Ambarish Maharaj. Ambarish was also a king. He was fasting for the benefitof the world and according to the particular rules he had to break his fast by a particular time. Hewas just about to break his fast, the time was just about coming and Durvasa Muni came in. HareKrishna! Durvasa Muni came with many others too and Ambarish Maharaj offered him prasad.He said, ³I will accept prasad but first I want to take my bath in the river Yamuna.´ This took place in Madhuvan in Vrindavan, Brjabhumi. So he went to take his bath and the brahmanapriest came to Ambarish Maharaj and said, ³The deadline to break your fast is now. You have tobreak it now.´ Ambarish said, ³But it is the law of hospitality that a host never eats before he



feeds his guest.´ ³But you have to do something. You fasted for a whole year. It will all benullified.´ So with the permission of the brahmanas and with their blessings he took a littlecaranamrta, a little drop of water and drank it. Durvasa Muni was such a mystic he actuallyunderstood it through his mystic vision. This outraged him ± ³Ambarish drank a drop of water before he fed me a full meal. This is outrageous.´ So he went running to that place. His eyes

were red with anger, he started blaspheming Abarish, ³You have no control over your senses,you have no morality, you have no ethic, no respect and you deserve to die. Today you will meetthe court of Yamaraj.´ Then he took a hair from his head and smashed it on the ground and byhis mystic power chanting a mantra a gigantic fiery demon emanated from his hair. It is a goodstory to act? Then he told the demon, ³Kill him!´ Ambarish Maharaj was completely composed.He just stood there with his palms folded sincerely praying within the core of his heart to LordKrishna, ³If You want to kill me, take me! Through whatever agency if You want to kill me I amYours, take me. If You want to protect me I have nothing to fear from this gigantic monster.´That was his faith that was his tolerance. Because he was praying to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in a mood of complete surrender,

kaunteya pratijanihina me bhaktah pranasyati (Bg 9.31)

Krishna protects His devotees, Krishna sent Sudarsana-cakra. Sudarsana-cakra came andannihilated that fiery monster but that is not all, it attacked Durvasa Muni and Durvasa Muni, hedidn¶t stand there with folded palms and say, ³Krishna if you want to take me please take.´ Heran for his life and the cakra was running right behind him. He could feel the heat right justinches behind his back and the his running was not working so by his mystic powers he started tofly from one planet to another. He went to Indra¶s abode and Indra said, ³Visnu¶s cakra, I cannothelp you.´ He went to Brahma¶s abode, ³Visnu¶s cakra, nothing I can do to help you.´ He wentto Siva¶s abode, ³Visnu¶s cakra, nothing I can do for you my friend even though you are myplenary expansion!´ Ultimately he went to Vaikunta ± Visnu¶s abode and he fell at Visnu¶s feetbegging, ³Please save me. Take Your cakra away. No one else can save me except You.´ Visnusaid, ³I can¶t save you. You have offended My devotee.´

sadhavo hrdayam mahyamsadhunam hrdayam tv aham (SB 9.4.68)

³The sadhu has given his life to Me, his heart to Me therefore I give My heart to My devotee. Mydevotee knows no one but Me and I know no one but My devotee. That is love. I have no power to call back My cakra because you offended My devotee. The only person who can save you isAmbarish. Fall at his feet with genuine sincerity; beg forgiveness and then you will be saved.´So he went all the way back to Madhuvan and he fell at Ambarish Maharaja¶s feet and AmbarishMaharaj of course fell at his feet and he begged forgiveness. And Ambarish Maharaj, ³Forgivefor what? You haven¶t eaten yet. You have been away for a year.´ Ambarish fasted that wholeyear because he wouldn¶t eat anything except that drop of water until he fed his guest and hisguest still hadn¶t eaten yet. That was his forgiveness that was his respectability. Ambarish was apowerful ksatriya, he was not just some little skinny sadhu of the bank of a river, he was apowerful ksatriya with armies and everything, but tolerating an offense against himself with



forgiveness, with respect he honored and welcomed Durvasa Muni back and he personallyprayed to Sudarsana cakra to spare him and then fed him prasad.

Provoking situation, a slight offence to Durvasa Muni and he flared up, he couldn¶t control hismind and a major horrible offence to Ambarish Maharaj and he was tolerant, patient, forgiving,

he was concerned with another persons welfare. That is greatness. Greatness is not how muchmoney you have, greatness is not how much fame and prestige you have in this world, greatnessis not how much knowledge you have in academic learning, greatness is not in how much youknow about in spiritual subject matters intellectually, greatness is not in bodily strength, inphysical beauty. These are the things that people of the world consider great but they aresuperficial, real greatness is one¶s character, one¶s integrity, ³real greatness is to be estimated byone¶s ability to tolerate provoking situations.´

We can speak about Prahlad and Hiranyakasipu, how Hiranyakasipu was so angered becausePrahlad just didn¶t obey him, how Prahlad even though his father tried to murder him inthousands of ways with cruelty but ultimately he was always the well wisher, he was always

offering his respects to his father, praying for his father. His father finally met his own end by thegrace of Nrsimhadev. Prahlad didn¶t ask anything from the Lord as a benediction except to giveliberation to his father.

In the Christian religion what is the sign of Christianity? They could have chosen so many signsbecause Lord Jesus Christ did so many wonderful miracles in his life and he spoke so manywonderful lessons in his life but what is so prominent about his greatness, the cross! It is on thetop of almost every church, it is over the heart of almost every Christian. Why the cross? Hedisplayed his greatness by how he tolerated very, very provoking situation and we worship himeven two thousand years later for that. He did some things that technically were not accepted bysome people and he was politically a threat. So unjustly they tried him, sentenced him, they

tortured him. While he was on that cross by his mystic powers he could have done anything tothose people. He already showed his miracles. Why didn¶t he do it then? He wanted to show agreater miracle than creating or destroying or healing ± tolerance, forgiveness. The same menwho were blaspheming him, they tortured him killing him, he prayed to God, ³Forgive them for they know not what they do.´ He had love for them, forgiveness for them. That is greatness andit is that greatness and forgiveness that is the very basis of the whole Christian religion.

Our beloved Srila Prabhupada what kind of provoking situation he had to tolerate! Why didKrishna put him through that? We were discussing the other day he wanted to go to America topreach Krishna consciousness out of total compassion for the suffering souls who were thinkingthey were happy in this material civilization without Krishna, spiritually poverty stricken societypractically. He wanted to give love of God to them. He had such a burning desire. It was theorder of his Guru, it was the order of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda why did Krishna notreciprocate and send him a ticket on Air India to New York City? He didn¶t. He had to suffer abuse in Bombay. He had to sit on the steps of Sumati Moraji like a beggar begging for a ticketon a cargo ship. He took approximately one month. He had heart attacks, seasickness, paralysis,he was seventy years old! He arrived in Butler, Pennsylvania and there he was living with justtotally materialistic people who really didn¶t care anything for his message but he charmed their hearts because he was so respectful and kind to them. Then he went to New York City was living



in places like the Bowrie, he was homeless, just from one place to another wherever he couldsomehow or the other survive. He had a ticket to go back, why did he stay? Krishna put him inthat situation to show the power of his compassion, to show his greatness, his willingness totolerate so many provoking situations. His life was threatened, he was ridiculed, he wascriticized, even people of India would give him no support or even appreciation because they

thought it was simply a hopeless cause and he could never succeed. Krishna revealed hisgreatness and we honor, worship and love Prabhupada with such gratitude because he did thatnot for himself, he did that for us, for you and me, that is greatness. No there are many provokingsituations that come controlling anger is very, very essential them of all of our scriptures ± to notrespond to difficult situations and become offensive but to be forgiving and patient. That isespecially necessary in Kali-yuga because the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. In order to remainunited spiritually there must be greatness in this sense.

These great souls when they were in difficulty they turned to Krishna for shelter. They didn¶ttake shelter of material reactions but they took shelter of their faith. They took shelter of God andespecially they took shelter of Gods holy names - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,

Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Krishna is making his shelter available to every living being. We all have our free will whether we want to take shelter of Krishna or whether we want to take shelter of our own mind and all of it¶s ideas, that is greatness± to take shelter of the greatest is greatness! The most opportune time to take shelter is inprovoking situations. That is when our sincerity is tested and examined by Krishna very carefullyfrom within the heart and if we past these tests we are promoted to higher realms of spiritualrealization. That is the great gift Srila Prabhupada gave us. He is truly a great saint and Krishnarevealed it in so many extraordinary ways. How he really lived for the welfare of others lived for the pleasure of God at every moment! We cannot imitate these persons.

mahajano yena gatah sa panthah (CCMadhya 17.186)

The path of perfection is not to imitate great souls, the path of perfection is not to try to becomegreat but to try to emulate the spirit and serve those who are great.

trinad api sunicena, taror api sahishnunaamanina manadena, kirtaniya sada hari

To be humble like a blade of grass, tolerant like the tree, offer all respect to others and devoid of self-prestige not expect any respect for oneself. That is greatness. However much you learned,however many other characteristics you have, without that spiritually you are not really living ingreatness. Without humility, without genuine respect for service attitude spiritual knowledge isnot digestible to our heart. We can memorize it with our intelligence. That any academic personcan do! But humility and sincerity, simplicity, these are the qualities that are like enzymes thattake transcendental knowledge and make it digestible to be assimilated in realized within theheart and that is what Krishna is looking for. When He sees that we want to follow in thefootsteps of great souls in this way that He gives us Himself, He reveals Himself in His holynames.



nama cintamanih krsnascaitanya-rasa-vigrahah ( CCMadhya 17.133)

When we have this spirit of following in the footsteps of the truly great souls

trnad api sunicena taror iva sahisnuna,

Then Krishna reveals through His name His form, His qualities, His characteristics, His abode,His pastimes, He reveals our eternal relationship with Him in the spiritual world. It is all withinthe name. Therefore Lord Caitanya proclaimed that take this verse, trnad api sunicena and put iton the string of the holy name and keep it always over your heart.Thank you very much! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!

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Association of Devotees is the Greatest Benediction By Radhanath Swami

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