BY: ROCANA DASA
Aug 8, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's Talks is inspired by Srila Prabhupada's class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.09.33, given on March 11, 1976 in Mayapur. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript here.
There's a brief introduction found on the audio that isn't included in the text transcription, as follows:
Srila Prabhupada: First of all we must welcome all the devotees. There may be so many inconveniences at Caitanya Mahaprabhu's place, and be joyful of it. Thank you.
Devotees: Jai!!
This comment of Srila Prabhupada's meant a lot to the devotees at the time. It was even mentioned by Hauri-sauri dasa in his Transcendental Diary. Unfortunately, the beginning of the Srimad-Bhagavatam class was also edited, cutting out the sloka that was read by Pusta Krsna prabhu.
We understand that one of the reasons put forth by the BBT for the editing of these lectures and conversations was that they cut them down to fit onto standard format audio cassettes for the Tape Ministry. While it may have seemed a practical way to save money at the time, it was a decision that resulted in the devotees, to this very day, not having access to all of the Sampradaya Acarya's instructions. Can you imagine the Christians, if they had audio of Jesus Christ, deciding to chop portions of it out so it would fit onto a tape? What if we had taped conversation with Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu? Would we consider clipping sections out in order to save money? Of course not! Yet that's precisely what was done with Srila Prabhupada's audio instruction. While we can understand how such decisions were made at the time by neophyte devotees, it is incomprehensible that the BBT and GBC authorities have not seen fit to correct the problem to this very day, some thirty years later. What to speak of the fact that they haven't yet released some 40% of Srila Prabhupada's sound vibration that has never been made available to the community of devotees.
One should understand some context before we comment on Srila Prabhupada's lecture on this date. As was his program at that time, he would sometimes go for his morning walk on the roof, accompanied mostly by GBC members. Yasomatinandana from Gujarat was there on the walk this day, and he reported that he had talked to one of Srila Prabhupada's godbrother. This godbrother had spoken in a demeaning way about Srila Prabhupada, calling him a "businessman", and insinuating that he was superior to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada just chuckled at this report and stated that business means four things: land, labour, capital, and organization, and that ordinary men can't get all that together. If you can get it together, then you can be a millionaire. So in order to get this land at Sridham Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada had to go and get the capital from America, then organize things. Those around him were the ones that were in the upper echelons of this organization. Understandably, some of his godbrothers were envious.
Srila Prabhupada was enjoying the whole atmosphere in Mayapur. It was a great success for him, seeing devotees from all around the world arriving, this being the first day of the festival. I was there at the time and it brings back all sorts of memories.
Srila Prabhupada was approving of the shenai band that was placed at the entrance of the complex. A 'shenai' is a reed instrument very similar to a clarinet, and it can be heard for great distances. Srila Prabhupada had been greeted by a Shenai band at the Raghunatha Temple two months previous to this, and he liked the arrangement.
As he often did, following the morning walk that immediately preceded this Srimad-Bhagavatam class, Srila Prabhupada came down off the roof and into the temple room, where there was a huge kirtana and guru puja. Afterwards he would give the Srimad-Bhagavatam class. What is memorable about the morning walk on this day is that it was one of the last days anyone ever saw Visnujana Maharaja, who at that time was a bigger than life hero to all the devotees. He ran the Radha Damodar Party and was a very renowned kirtana leader. Since then, a whole myth has been promoted surrounding his disappearance, and Hari-sauri plays into this, to a degree, in his Dairy.
The story is that Visnujana Swami followed Chota Haridasa, a close associate of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who drowned himself in the Ganges on account of the fact that Lord Caitanya wouldn't associate with him because he had associated with a woman. Visnujana had apparently met and talked with his wife and daughter for an hour at a Ratha Yatra, after he had taken sannyasa. He later learned that this was considered a falldown.
Sometime later, Visnujana asked Srila Prabhupada on the morning walk about this pastime of Chota Haridasa. Srila Prabhupada responded to him by saying that this was a pastime of Lord Caitanya so that he could show, for all those who followed in his Sampradaya, that even a very close associate like Chota Haridasa could fall down if not extremely careful, because we're very small jivatmas. It was appropriate for him and of course, the entire pastime is that Chota Haridasa came back in his subtle body and continued his pastime with Lord Caitanya, which is not for ordinary people.
Gurudasa said laughingly that if everyone in ISKCON who fell down committed suicide then there wouldn't be much left of the movement. Srila Prabhupada corrected him and said if you fall down and you leave Krsna consciousness, then it's equivalent to suicide, but he's not recommending or suggesting that you follow Chota Haridasa's example, and actually physically commit suicide. Some say that Visnujana only heard the beginning of Srila Prabhupada's answer, and he acted on that, taking his own life.
Personally, I don't believe Visnujana did commit suicide, nor was his body ever found. Not only was his disappearance timed to the very significant and traumatic event of Tamal Krishna pirating his beloved Radha Damodar party, but there were also isolated incidences where people said they have seen Visnujana at various locations in California after his supposed suicide. Given the absence of evidence about what really happened to him, I think it sets a dangerous precedent that we as a movement shouldn't promote, lest others take their own lives out of misguided devotional sentiment, and suffer the reaction of having a ghost body.
Another interesting event that happened on this day was that Jagannatha Suta dasa, who was then the production manager at the BBT, taped an interview with Srila Prabhupada. At the time of this festival, he and I had completed a report for Srila Prabhupada on the women's program, but it was not presented to him by the GBC. In fact, if you listen to the room conversation, they glossed over it completely, lying to Srila Prabhupada and saying they had taken care of it, and it was totally under control. In fact, they kept these women's programs going for at least another year, with no change. As a result, Jagannatha Suta dasa left the movement in disgust. Interestingly, he went on to encourage Robin George, a woman who was recruited and hidden while she was underage, to file a lawsuit against ISKCON. This resulted in the loss of a tremendous amount of money - more money, I suspect, then was ever made by the women's parties. This just goes to show that for all such concoctions and bogus programs, whatever short-term gain you enjoy is always 'adjusted' by the Lord.
Considering the fact that at this Srimad-Bhagavatam class Srila Prabhupada had the largest audience of the year of his disciples in one place, it's very interesting that he chose to focus on the very basics of Krsna consciousness. This gives us an indication that that's how he saw us, as very neophyte devotees. He was choosing to make sure that we got the basic philosohy. First of all, he said that we should make an effort to chant the Sanskrit mantras during the classes, or practice, and that this was purifying and was a form of kirtana.
Because the actual sloka was about the three Visnu forms, Srila Prabhupada mentions that and clarifies what it means. He goes on to explain the difference between purusa, the Lord, the Supreme Controller, and prakrti, the Supreme Energy, and explains that all prakrti is under the control of the purusa. There's two types of prakrti - material energy and the jiva tattva energy, and of course in both cases, they're completely controlled by Krsna. Maya means, very simply, that you get this concept mixed up and you want to be the purusa although you are not, by nature, a purusa, thus creating the illusion. And the only way you can come out of this illusion is to develop the concept that you're a servant of Krsna. Krsna consciousness means getting you out of this false ego concept.
Srila Prabhupada gives the practical example that if you come from America and at the same time say you are the President of America, then obviously you're considered crazy. So in the same way, all these people who think that they're God, or who are acting like God, can be called crazy fellows - fools and rascals. Srila Prabhupada says this is the beginning of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings, and that even someone as advanced as Sanatana Goswami asked the question, "Who am I?", which was his first question to Lord Caitanya
Then Srila Prabhupada gives a Bhagavad-gita example of Arjuna, and that everything he said from an external point of view looked good, but it was all based on the bodily conception of life: that I'm a Kuru, I belong to this family, the way I'm thinking is for the benefit of the family, etc. Srila Prabhupada says this is all foolishness. Of course, the debate today can be considered somewhat along the same lines, in the sense that people are saying 'I am an ISKCON member', or a Gaudiya Matha member, or a Rtvik member… all this is just bodily conception. Ultimately we all should be thinking of ourselves as a servant of Krsna, and in our particular circumstance, as a servant of Srila Prabhupada. But that means understanding clearly what Srila Prabhupada wants, thus the contention.
Srila Prabhupada goes on to tell us that we have the authority through the Vedas, and we know what are the Vedic injunctions. If we speak precisely as representatives of the Vedas, then we have the authority to call everyone a fool and a rascal, even the exalted members of the United Nations, because they're in the bodily conception. Srila Prabhupada quotes a pamphlet, stating that: "Krsna Consciousness Movement Is Authorized." It is not a sentiment, fanaticism. No. It is scientific, authorized."
He goes on to say it doesn't matter which Vedic literature you go to, and he lists off the main ones that we follow. He says the conclusion is always that the Absolute Truth is the origin, and everything emanates from the Absolute Truth. So we just have to train ourselves to see it in that way. Then he warns us about how the Mayavadis misinterpret this, what to speak of the materialists.
Srila Prabhupada ends the lecture by saying that once you start to see everything as part of Krsna, that He's the source of everything and the controller of everything and the proprietor of everything, then you will spontaneously want to use everything in Krsna's service, for His benefit.
This is a power-packaged lecture, as usual. It is to the point and relatively short, which is a policy that we followed back in those days. Unfortunately, that is not the standard being followed today. Today's leaders, especially under these kinds of festival gathering circumstances, sometimes go on for hours, getting people to ask questions after an already long lecture under the guise of the intention of giving everyone the blessings of their association. But Srila Prabhupada didn't follow that program or set that example. His lectures were typically no more than 45 minutes -- even at the beginning of a festival like this. So we should all take a lesson from that.
