BY: ROCANA DASA
Sep 6, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's "Talks With the Sampradaya Acarya" is inspired by Srila Prabhupada's Morning Walk of February 3, 1976 in Mayapur. This was the last year Srila Prabhupada took his customary morning walks during the GBC meetings. By the following year, his health was not conducive to these morning walk pastimes. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript for this conversation here.
In the opening dialogue (not included in the audio and text versions linked above), Srila Prabhupada invited HH Jayapataka Swami to speak, and he chooses to quote the sloka wherein people in India are ordered or obliged to spread Krsna Consciousness throughout the world. In this dissertation, he says that Srila Prabhupada has gone all over the world spreading Krsna Consciousness, and he's just one person. Now if other pure devotes would come and preach as Srila Prabhupada has done, then many would benefit from Krsna Consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada doesn't respond to this particular statement by Jayapataka Swami by saying no, he's the Sampradaya Acarya and it's by his special potencies that this is taking place, regardless of what other pure devotees are preaching - but we can understand this to be the case. Instead, Srila Prabhupada launches into a critical analysis of the yogis who say they should go to the Himalayas. Srila Prabhupada says that our business, as described by Prahlada Maharaja, is to preach for everyone's salvation, not just our own.
Srila Prabhupada brings up Maharishi MaheshYogi, who at the time was seemingly very successful with his Transcendental Meditation. Srila Prabhupada said that Maharishi had the opportunity to preach Krsna Consciousness but he couldn't do it because he couldn’t control his senses. He was too attracted to sense gratification. So in order to spread Krsna Consciousness one has to be free from sense gratification, and especially not be attracted towards sex.
Jayapataka Swami again says that in India one has the best chance of becoming Krsna Conscious, but Srila Prabhupada corrects him saying no, that's not what sastra says. Everyone has a chance, and the people in Western countries are making better progress than those in India who are not taking advantage of the facility given to them there. Srila Prabhupada refers to the Gayatri mantra, wherein they're getting sufficient sunlight and good facility.
We see here that Jayapataka Swami, as a permanent resident of India and the in-charge at Mayapur, is emphasizing or promoting the concept that Indians are better off than Westerners, while Srila Prabhupada basically says that while they may have a little more facility, they're not taking it like the Westerners are because they're trying to imitate Western culture. Meanwhile, those who were born into western culture are seemingly more attracted.
At this point Bhavananda points out that Srila Prabhupada has made these controversial statements about the sun moving, while the scientists say it is stationary. Srila Prabhupada doesn't get into that particular controversy, but instead decides to focus on the fact that it's by Krsna's order that everyone is happy, not by the scientist's order. Krsna ordered the sun to come up at half past six, and the scientists cannot change that.
Interestingly, after giving his fairly long dissertation that everything's going on by Krsna's order, sun rise and set, Srila Prabhupada, calls on Jagadisa to give him an answer as to what the scientists say. Rather than giving him an answer or intelligently taking the side of the scientists in challenging what Srila Prabhupada has said, Jagadisa comes up with this rather unsatisfactory reply that there is no meaning. But Srila Prabhupada keeps asking him, what do you mean? This is a most interesting exchange, considering that in the end, after playing such a significant role in ISKCON, Jagadisa rejected Srila Prabhupada. There is a similar Morning Walk dialogue in which Jagadisa was obviously disturbed by Srila Prabhupada's sticking to the Vedic version of cosmology, which Jagadisa also had some difficulty with.
At the end of this "no meaning" exchange, Srila Prabhupada's response to Jagadisa was pretty heavy -- you're a fool and a rascal, and you should go to guru for the answers. Personally, I think Srila Prabhupada detects the future and Jagadisa's lack of commitment to him as guru, which manifested 20 years later when Jagadisa renounced. Srila Prabhupada.
Then Bhavananda asks, how will we know who's a real guru? Srila Prabhupada says that's another type of rascaldom. "You see how others are taking guru, parampara system. You are rascal. You will place so many questions. But the answers are already there. Evam parampara-praptam [Bg. 4.2]. Guru is he who knows Krsna, who explains Krsna. That is guru. Otherwise he's not guru."
There follows a very interesting dissertation wherein Srila Prabhupada explains who is a real guru. "Why don't you take lesson from Bhagavad-gita? He is guru. One who has surrendered to Krsna, one is servant of Krsna, he is guru. That is the test. If you want to select a guru, you have to see "Whether this person is fully surrendered to Krsna?" Then he is guru."
Again this is fascinating in hindsight, because one of the greatest points of debate in ISKCON since Srila Prabhupada departed is, who is a guru and how do you recognize him?
Srila Prabhupada states clearly that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said everyone should become a guru. "Why don't you see all these instructions? And you are presenting yourself as following Caitanya Mahaprabhu? Why? Answer. Why you remain fool and rascal? If you want to remain fool and rascal and question, that is not very good." He concludes by saying you take Hitler or Mussolini as guru, but you can't say you don't understand.
Now Bhavananda changes the subject and introduces the concept that Srila Prabhupada has given us one version of Bhagavad-gita, but there are so many other versions. Srila Prabhupada doesn't counter in his usual way, saying that his version is AS IT IS. Instead, he says if you can learn just one verse of Bhagavad-gita, then your life is successful. Sudama dasa mentions that Arjuna took less than 45 minutes to receive Bhavagad-gita. Srila Prabhupada said 45,000 years is what it would take us, who are mudhas. "Intelligent men can answer, understand everything, in a minute. And if he's a fool, rascal, even forty-five thousand years he cannot understand."
The devotees then go back and forth, discussing how Srila Prabhupada compares to other yogis, and has so much more success introducing Krsna Consciousness than anyone else. Bhavananda states that Srila Prabhupada is the only resident of Bharatavarsa, which harkens back to what Jayapataka Swami introduced at the beginning of the walk. Srila Prabhupada said "At least historically it be proved."
He goes on to say, "cause of envy of my Godbrothers. I was known. Although they knew that Prabhupada liked me very much, because I am grhastha, I was known as paca-grhastha. Paca-grhastha means a rotten grhastha. And now they say, "This grhastha has come out more than us? What is this?" [break] Sridhara Maharaja's chief disciple...?"
It's interesting to note that almost everyone on the walk is a sannyassi. In fact, some of those present became renowned for putting down grhastas in ISKCON, particularly Tamal Krishna Goswami. It was for this very thing that Srila Prabhupada sent him to China. On his Radha Damodar party, he had been preaching and politicking against the grhastas, so Srila Prabhupada removed him from that service.
Srila Prabhupada went on to say "He [Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati] always used to say to Sridhara Maharaja that "You are seeing Abhay Babu as grhastha, but he is more than many yogis." He was telling.
Srila Prabhupada clarifies that Sridhar Maharaja was one of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's chief disciples, and that Sridhara Maharaja had actually lived in Srila Prabhupada's house.
Tamala Krsna then affirms it, saying "He knew. He saw you in your activities.". Srila Prabhupada said, "Yes, he said that "Maharaja, you are seeing he is grhastha. He is more than many yogis." He used to say, that boy."
Srila Prabhupada mentions that when his Spiritual Master made these statements, "all big, big men, he was present." In other words, when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur acknowledged Srila Prabhupada to be greater than many yogis, all the big men in the Gaudiya Matha were present to hear him.
So in this conversation, Srila Prabhupada has twice made the statement that his Guru Maharaja said he is 'more than many yogis'. In my mind, this is evidence of Srila Prabhupada's very exalted position.
In this Morning Walk conversation we essentially have an indication of what would come in the future. In our present circumstances we find that Srila Prabhupada's Godbrothers, or descendents of them, are trying to give the impression that they always saw Srila Prabhupada as being very advanced, and always had great respect for him, recognizing his exalted spiritual potency even back then. But what Srila Prabhupada is saying here is very different. He says they were envious of him based on the principle of having just seen him as a lowly grhasta. They had a very hard time accepting the success of this "rotten grhasta".
So there you have it. Srila Prabhupada categorically states in 1976 that his Godbrothers were envious of him due to being in the bodily conception, in which they saw him as a grhasta. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, on the other hand, recognized him as being greater than many yogis. So the Godbrothers were actually disobeying Srila Bhaktisiddhanta by failing to recognize Srila Prabhupada in the same way their Spiritual Master did.
As far as I'm concerned, those Srila Prabhupada disciples who have accepted siksa initiation from one of Srila Prabhupada's Godbrothers or descendants must be prepared to explain how they reconcile the statements Srila Prabhupada is making here. I challenge my friend and Godbrother, Tripurari Swami, who became a prominent disciple of Sridhar Maharaja, to give us his explanation on this.
The subject now changes to a new topic, the purchase of the Detroit Temple, and how Srila Prabhupada was very expert at getting all the parties together and getting the best price possible for the building. The devotees reminded of how he had done the same thing in Bombay, being very expert at negotiating the Bombay temple deal. He had also gotten the best price for printing the Krsna Book by negotiating with Dai Nippon. Srila Prabhupada had even challenged the president of the printing company for eating meat when he said he was Buddhist.
Nowadays we read about the difficulty the devotees are having in Mayapura, where the government is trying to limit their land holdings and we are at risk of losing land. What can be said? Srila Prabhupada was able to acquire valuable properties by his purity, spiritual potency and preaching. Of course, we can attribute this to the fact that he was an expert businessman, but here he's counteracting that by saying he was simply following Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and preaching straightforwardly. Srila Prabhupada was very observant as to the interconnecting dynamics of every deal. He understood the interpersonal connections taking place and he managed to appeal to the right people. In other words, he was a great personalist.
There follows an interesting discussion about bulls. Srila Prabhupada brings up that Harikesa had recently been gored by a bull. At the calamity befalling Harikesa, Tamala Krishna replied "Wow. Karma".
Srila Prabhupada explained that when Harikesa was taken to hospital, the doctors said if they had been using a tractor this wouldn't have happened, but Srila Prabhupada said this is rascal, how many tractor accidents are there? This had nothing to do with bulls or tractors.
As the devotees continue walking down the road, Srila Prabhupada discusses how to develop the Mayapur property. They group came across a particular property where someone had placed a figure of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur at the gate. Srila Prabhupada immediately said this was foolish, making him a gatekeeper. Jayapataka Swami said he had challenged the person, but they had some excuse about it being a sentiment in honour of the Thakur.
Srila Prabhupada pointed out the principle that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati didn't have a statue of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur at his gate, so why did this person? He's so intelligent that he's surpassing Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati? Srila Prabhupada stays on this subject, suggesting to Jayapataka that he challenge them by asking are they intelligent or fools?
Srila Prabhupada stays on this principle of over-intelligence, and Tamal Krishna Goswami ends the discussion by bringing up the fact that when Karttikeya Maharaja was found chanting to a picture of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, Srila Prabhupada chastised him, saying his relationship was with Srila Prabhupada, not Srila Bhaktisiddhanta.
Of course, these days we find that the devotees don't understand this principle very clearly. My claim is that it's because they don't recognize Srila Prabhupada to be the Sampradaya Acarya. Interestingly enough, this principle was also overlooked right at the beginning of this morning walk, when Jayapataka Swami did not specify that he was a Sampradaya Acarya who spread Krsna Consciousness all around the world, when pure devotees of his caliber weren't available in India to do so. In hindsight, we can see that's the case. No one has been able to surpass Srila Prabhupada's success at spreading Krsna Consciousness because Srila Prabhupada was a rarified Sampradaya Acarya.
I find it interesting to note that a few years after this Morning Walk, most of those present proposed the Zonal Acarya system, and were preaching a similar line of reasoning - that now they were individually going to do more than Srila Prabhupada, and collectively you'd see tremendous results. Of course Srila Prabhupada counteracted this idea at the very beginning of the walk, saying that if you can't control your senses, you can't become successful. And basically that's exactly what happened to the Zonal Acaryas. They did just the opposite. In fact, they seriously curtailed the momentum that Srila Prabhupada had established in spreading Krsna Consciousness. As we consider our success and our failings over the last thirty years, we should carefully take into consideration the early lessons that Srila Prabhupada gave us, all of which have tremendous meaning to our deliberations today.
