BHAKTI IS NOT INERTNESS – IT IS ACTIVE SERVICE

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Devotees Serving Prasadam

Bhakti, devotional service, does not mean inertness – not simply sitting down or meditating. It is activity, engaging all the senses. Hrisīkena hrisīkeśa-sevanam. Hrisīka means these senses—not these senses, but purified senses. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. Just like everyone is using pranair arthair dhiyah vācā. Prana – life; artha – riches, money; dhiya – intelligence; and vācā – speech. Just like for national cause people are engaging life – they are sacrificing their lives. So many Indians, for the attainment of independence in India, gave up their life. Pranaih. So many people gave up everything. During the national movement, Mr. C. R. Das, a great leader of the Congress Party sacrificed everything. He was a very big lawyer, a barrister. He sacrificed his

DONATION TO DURGĀ IS A BRIBE

By Niraj Bidawatka

I have been regularly visiting the local Police Station since the last couple of months in connection with my complaint against the high-handed functioning of the Office Bearers of my housing society. On one occasion, when I went there to take stock of the action that they are taking, I was informed that the work is temporarily stalled due some snag in the computer hardware. “The computer has stopped working,” said the official. I thought that it was just an excuse to procrastinate the action on my complaint.

However, after two days, I found that the computer was genuinely not working. When I re-visited after four or five days, the police official who was supposed to make the report, was frantic. I asked him about the cause of his being so upset. He said the computer, which was nearly fifteen years old, has completely broken down and has to be replaced by a new one. I quipped that this was not a big concern and that he should buy a new one immediately. He said that he is looking for a donor, who could pay for the new computer. I was surprised and asked him as to why should he look for a donor, when the government will pay for it. He said that the police department doesn’t have money. Well I didn’t discuss the matter further with him because I was focused on the execution of action on my complaint. He informed that my work would be done only when the new computer arrives.

Somehow after a week or so, when I went back to him, they were enthusiastically unpacking the new computer. I was informed that it would take a couple of days to install all the requisite software and only then, can my work be taken up. I then started asking about the configuration and price of the new machine. He replied that the engineer knows about the technical side and that his main concern at the moment was to look for a donor, so that he could pay the vendor. He averred that if they went by the routine procedure, it would take a long time to get the funds released for the new computer but since they did not want citizens’ pending complaints to get delayed, they had arranged the computer on credit. I wished him best of luck in his pursuit to find a donor and left.

The point to ponder is, “Who will give donation to the police?” The answer is

READING TOO MANY SCRIPTURES WILL MISLEAD YOU FROM THE REAL GOAL OF LIFE

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

In Srimad-Bhāgavatam (7.13.8) it is said, granthān naivābhyased bahūn na vyākhyām upayunjīta: “One should not read many books, nor should one try to make a profession of reciting many books, especially if one is a devotee.” One must give up the ambition to be a learned scholar and in this way earn a worldly reputation and financial facilities. If one diverts his attention to studying many books, he cannot fix his mind in devotional service, nor can he understand many scriptures, for they are full of grave statements and meanings. In this connection Srila Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thākura gives his opinion that those who are attracted to studying many kinds of literature concerning various subject matters, especially fruitive activities and philosophical speculation, are deprived of unalloyed devotional service because of their splayed attention.

Man has a general tendency toward fruitive activities, religious ritualistic ceremonies and philosophical speculation. A living entity thus bewildered since time immemorial does not understand the real goal of life, and thus his activities in life are wasted. Innocent persons misled in this way are deprived of unalloyed krishna-bhakti, devotional service to the Lord. Tapana Mishra is a vivid example of such a person. He was a learned scholar, but he could not ascertain what the goal of life is. Therefore he was given a chance to hear Lord Chaitanya Mahāprabhu instructing Sanātana Gosvāmī. Lord Chaitanya’s instruction to Tapana Mishra is especially significant for persons who loiter here and there collecting books and reading none of them, thus becoming bewildered regarding the aim of life. [CC Adi 16.11 Purport]

In East Bengal there was a brāhmana named Tapana Mishra, who could not ascertain the

AVOID READING KRISHNA-LĪLA DESCRIBED BY SOME ORDINARY MUNDANE PERSON

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Our sampradāya (sect), the Gaudīya-sampradāya belongs to the Brahma-sampradāya, which begins from Lord Brahmā. Similarly, there are other sampradāyas like Rudra-sampradāya, Kumāra-sampradāya, and Laksmī-sampradāya. Thus there are four sampradāyas: Brahma, Rudra, Kumāra and Laksmī sampradāyas. If we do not take shelter of any one of these sampradāyas in disciplic succession, then our attempt to advance in spiritual life will be a failure. Sampradāya-vihīnā ye mantrās te nisphalā matāh. You cannot manufacture your own prayers unless you follow the footprints of mahājanas (great souls). Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and the Kumāras are mahājanas, whereas Laksmīdevī is the spiritual potency of Lord Vishnu. She is Nārāyana’s potency, and she is always engaged in massaging the lotus feet of Nārāyana. Śrī-sampradāya. She is also known as Śrī, which means opulence, fortune and beauty. So she is the reservoir of all these things. So she has got her own sect and it is called Śrī-sampradāya. The Rāmānuja-sampradāya is called Śrī-sampradāya. They worship Laksmī-Nārāyana. Everyone worships the Lord and His spiritual potency. Just like we worship Rādhā-Krishna, similarly, the Rāmānuja-sampradāya worships Laksmī-Nārāyana or Sītā-Rāma. So we should follow the sampradāya.

Prahlāda Mahārāja, who is also a mahājana, says, “I will enjoy and relish the narration of Your pastimes (tava līlā-kathah).” But it is not that sort of narration, which is written by some mundane melodramatic drama writer or novel writer. No, not that. That is useless. If some ordinary person has written something about Krishna’s līlā (pastime), then you should not even touch that. It must be in the sampradāya and must be narrated by an authorized person. Therefore Prahlada Maharaja especially mentioned līlā-kathās tava nrsimha virinca-gītāh [SB 7.9.18]: “that which is narrated by mahājanas like Brahmā.”

Just as we offer prayers from Brahma-samhitā, a book containing prayers composed by Brahmā. We cannot offer prayer from any other nonsense person. No, that is not possible. If you recite the prayers composed by a mahājana, it has got spiritual power.

In your country, Mr. Max Mueller is very famous as the translator of Vedas. Many scholars have read the translation of Max Mueller but

Can’t We Enjoy in this Life and Serve Krishna in Our Next Life?

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Can’t we enjoy in this life and engage ourselves in Krishna’s service in our next life? Prahlāda Mahārāja answers, “We are now in material entanglement. Now I have this body, but I will quit this body after a few years and then have to accept another body. Once you take up one body and enjoy as your body’s senses dictate, you prepare another body by such sense enjoyment, and you get another body as you want it.” There is no guarantee that you will get a human body. That will depend on your work. If you work like a demigod, you will get a demigod’s body. And if you work like a dog, you will get a dog’s body. At the time of death, your destiny is not in your hands—it is in the hands of nature. It is not our duty to speculate on what material body we are going to get next. At the present moment let us simply understand that this human body is a great opportunity to develop our spiritual consciousness, our Krishna consciousness. Therefore we should at once engage ourselves in Krishna’s service. Then we will make progress.

“How long should we do it?” As long as this body keeps working. We do not know when it will stop functioning. The great saint Parikshit Mahārāja got seven days notice: “Your body will fall in a week.” But we do not know when our body will fall. Whenever we are on the road, there may suddenly be some accident. We should always be prepared. Death is always there. We should not optimistically think, “Everyone is dying, but I shall live.” Why will you live if everyone is dying? Your grandfather has died, your great-grandfather has died, other relatives of yours have died—why should you live? You will also die. And your children will also die. Therefore, before death comes, as long as we have this human intelligence, let us engage in Krishna consciousness. This is the prescription of Prahlāda Mahārāja.

We do not know when this body will stop, so let us immediately engage in Krishna consciousness and act accordingly. “But if I immediately engage myself in Krishna consciousness, what about my means of livelihood?” That is arranged for. I am very happy to inform you of the confidence of a student in one of our branches. There was a disagreement. Another student said, “You are not looking after how to maintain the establishment,” and he replied, “Oh,

HOW DO THE HARE KRISHNAS EAT?

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Everyone is eating. We are also eating. But we don’t eat directly. Whatever we prepare and whatever we collect, we first of all offer to Krishna. Because we think —and it is a fact—that everything belongs to Krishna. Krishna has given. You cannot manufacture rice, dhal or wheat in your factory, neither fruit, nor milk. It is given by Krishna. Eko bahūnām vidadhāti kāmān. He is giving and one has to acknowledge that, “Yes, it is given by Krishna. It is Krishna’s. So let me first offer it to Krishna, and then take the prasādam.” This is Krishna consciousness. Where is the difficulty? Everyone can do it. But they will not do it. They will satisfy the tongue. That is forbidden. Ye pacanty ātma-kāranāt, bhunjate te agham pāpām: “Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.” [Bg. 3.13]. So if we are eating sin, how can we be happy? We have to suffer.

So who is cooking for Krishna? Nobody is cooking. Except for a devotee of Krishna’s, nobody is cooking for Him. Everyone is cooking for himself (pacanty ātma-kāranāt). He’s thinking, “Now I shall very voraciously eat this sandeśa, rasagullā, purī and meat and chicken.” So he is eating sins, all sins. Agham pāpā. And he has to suffer. Therefore people are suffering. Without Krishna consciousness, everyone must suffer. That is the law of nature. Daivī hy esā gunamayī mama māyā duratyayā [Bg. 7.14]. You cannot avoid it. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etām taranti te [Bg. 7.14]. You can be happy only when you are a surrendered soul to Krishna. That is the only way. Harim vinā na mrtim taranti.

So this offering of foodstuff to the Deity, Krishna or God, is very nice. “My Lord, You have given me such nice foodstuffs to eat; so first of all You taste, and then I shall take.” It is a gesture of gratitude. So, you haven’t got even any gratitude to express. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, stena eva sa ucyate:  Anyone who does not offer foodstuff to the Personality of Godhead is a

WHY DO THE HARE KRISHNAS NOT EAT ONIONS AND GARLIC?

By Niraj Bidawatka

Last month, I had gone to the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, accompanied by my co-complainant in connection with my pending complaint with him against the Office bearers of our housing society. After completing our formal discussion, I presented him a copy of “The Hare Krishna Revolution” newspaper. It was a gesture of soothing the strained ties between us that had reached a nadir because he was not taking any concrete steps to resolve my complaint. As a result I approached the State Government’s Principal Secretary of the Cooperative Department. He was a little miffed off at me because I had complained about his misconduct right up to the Chief Minister. But since he was under pressure from the higher governmental authorities, he was now expediently acting on my complaint. He started browsing the newspaper and as it usually happens, the photographs of Krishna brought a smile to his face and he remarked that the photos were indeed very attractive. “No doubt about it”, I thought, “After all Krishna means ‘the all-attractive one’”. He further said that he reads a śloka of Bhagavad Gita every day, which he receives via SMS on his cellphone.

After a short discussion on Hare Krishna with him, we took leave of the Registrar and came out of his chamber to collect a letter from the clerk. We were requested to take a seat in the visitors’ lounge because the letter that was not yet ready. When we were sitting there, my co-complainant became curious about the newspaper and desired to have a look at it. I gave her a copy. I knew that she was not spiritually inclined and therefore, when she was putting the newspaper in her bag, I remarked that I sell them for Rs.3.oo INR a copy. She immediately gave me back the copy. I could make out that she felt offended on being asked to pay for it. So I immediately responded, “But for

TROUBLE & SUFFERING are the Results of Forgetting God

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

yadā na paśyaty ayathā gunehām

svārthe pramattah sahasā vipaścit

gata-smrtir vindati tatra tāpān

āsādya maithunyam agāram ajnah

“Even though one may be very learned and wise, he is mad if he does not understand that the endeavor for sense gratification is a useless waste of time. Being forgetful of his own interest, he tries to be happy in the material world, centering his interests around his home, which is based on sexual intercourse and which brings him all kinds of material miseries. In this way one is no better than a foolish animal.” [SB 5.5.7]

One has to be vipaścit, or learned, to understand the interest of life (self-interest). Everyone, especially the karmīs, the jnānīs, the yogis, and mixed devotees, is working for self-interest. For the devotees also, so long there is the self, self-interest is also there. But there is a little difference – the devotees work for Superself-interest. Self is there, but it is Superself-interest. Whereas, the karmīs, the jnānīs and the yogis work for individual self-interest. Self-interest there must be!

That is the difference between lust and prema, or love. The Caitanya-caritāmrta defines the difference between lust and love. It appears almost the same but Krishnadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī has given a very clear definition, ātmendriya-prīti-vānchā-tāre bali ‘kāma’ [Cc. Ādi 4.165]. When one is interested for his personal sense gratification, that is called kāma or lust, and krsnendriya-prīti-icchā dhare ‘prema’ nāma, and when one is interested for satisfying the senses of Krishna, that is prema. And the concrete example is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, that in the beginning Arjuna was thinking in terms of his family interest. How can I kill my brother, my nephews, my master, teacher, and my grandfather?

There are, for the materialistic person, there are two varieties of self-interest. One is concentrated interest and other is expanded interest. Just like a child, if you give him some foodstuff, a cake, he will immediately eat it himself, and if he is little liberal, then he will give it to his other friends also. So, this is called extended interest but the beginning is self-interest. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. So in our ordinary activities we find the same thing. Suppose a big political leader, in the beginning he is interested with his family members, but sometimes he takes to national interest, for all members of the country, or the society, community. And then there is fight between one community and another community, one family and another family, one nation and another nation, because that extended self-interest does not make things perfect. That extended self-interest must be up to Vishnu. Then it will be perfect. But that they do not know, because they have no idea that there is Vishnu, the Supreme Lord, or Krishna. na te viduh svārtha-gatim hi visnum [SB 7.5.31]. They do not know. They think that, “Since I have extended my self-interest to my country and to my family, I have

RAGHUNATHA BHATTA GOSVAMI

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

The Six Gosvamis of Vrindavana

Raghunātha Bhattācārya, or Raghunātha Bhatta Gosvāmī, one of the six Gosvāmīs, was the son of Tapana Miśra. Born in approximately 1425 Śakābda (A.D. 1503), he was expert in reciting Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and in Antya-līlā, Chapter Thirteen, it is stated that he was also expert in cooking; whatever he cooked would be nectarean. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was greatly pleased to accept the food that he cooked, and Raghunātha Bhatta used to take the remnants of food left by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Raghunātha Bhattācārya lived for eight months in Jagannātha Purī, after which Lord Caitanya ordered him to go to Vrindāvana to join Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked Raghunātha Bhattācārya not to marry but to remain a brahmacārī (celibate), and He also ordered him to

THE SIMPLE YOGA SYSTEM

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Here is the secret of training the mind. The whole yoga system, i.e. the astānga-yoga system comprising of dhyāna, dhāranā, āsana, prānāyāma, etc., is meant for only controlling the mind. Mind is the centre of sensual activities. The purpose of astānga-yoga is to train up the mind because the mind is very restless. Even Arjuna, five hundred years ago, admitted that the mind is very restless. So he declined to practice the hatha-yoga system. He clearly said that, “Krishna, it is not possible for me to control the mind.” At another place in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, “The mind is the dearmost friend as well as the bitterest enemy.” Everyone’s bitterest enemy and dearest friend is there. That is the mind. It requires a little training.

For training the mind, the yoga system is recommended. For those who are too much engrossed in the bodily concept of life, the astānga-yoga system, is recommended wherein one practices a certain type of āsana and various breathing exercises. In this way, it comprises of āsana, prānāyāma, dhyāna, dhāranā, etc. But there is another simple method that is recommended in the śāstra. You can train up your mind if you simply keep your mind on the lotus feet of Krishna. Krishna is here and you see Krishna’s lotus feet. And if you practice to meditate upon Krishna’s lotus feet or Krishna’s bodily features, then immediately your mind becomes controlled.

Sa vai manah krishna-padāravindayoh [SB 9.4.18]. Ambarīsa Mahārāja was the emperor of the whole world. He had to manage many political affairs. But he was one of the topmost devotees at the same time. Why? Because… sa vai manah krishna-padāravindayoh: “He kept always his mind at the lotus feet of Krishna.” And his legs engaged for going to the temple. Since he was an emperor, he had no business to go anywhere, but still, he was using his legs to go to the temple. This is the yoga system. You employ your senses. Instead of going to the cinema and standing there for three hours for a ticket, if you engage your legs to come to this temple, then it is yoga system. Such a simple thing! Sa vai manah krishna-padāravindayoh. Instead of thinking some beautiful woman or a handsome man, if you think