BY: ROCANA DASA
Sep 12, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's Talks was inspired by Srila Prabhupada's class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.36 from March 14, 1976 in Mayapur. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript here.
This particular year the GBC meetings and the Mayapur Festival were significant, for many reasons. Today's Srimad-Bhagavatam class is no exception. To understand its purport, it's good to understand what was happening on this date. As I discussed in an earlier segment, the whole atmosphere was surcharged with the controversy surrounding the Radha Damodar Party vs. the temples. This conflict was essentially the sannyasis and brahmacaries vs. the householders. At that time I was actively involved in the discussions on the Temple President's side, and I was a grihasta. I was also experiencing what was going on throughout the movement that year in regards to this issue. The problem centered primarily around the fact that Tamal Krishna Goswami had instilled in the minds of all his men the idea that the grihastas were a great burden on the society, that their association was bad for the sannyasis and especially the brahmacaries, and that if the brahmacaries didn't 'escape' the temple influence of the grihastas, then they would become married and entangled and thus lose their potency and ability to preach.
The reality as we saw it was that the actual recruiting of new people and their training was taking place on the temple level, not on the Radha Damodar Party level. Granted they were doing lots of books and had a good cash flow, but they didn't have any program for recruiting or training. It was for that very reason that they had to staff their buses with brahmacaries who they spirited away from the temples. In many cases this meant a Temple President woke up in the morning to discover that the brahmacaries had packed their bags and snuck out the back door in the middle of the night, having been convinced to do so by someone from the Radha Damodar Party who had been "visiting". "Visiting" meant that the Party members stayed in their bus and went out on Sankirtana, then came to the temple in order to recruit from the brahmacari asrama. I personally lost our number one brahmacari and the head of the Sankirtana party to the Radha Damodar Party. These devotees left the temple without any permission, discussion or cooperation.
As the story unfolded, the GBC under the influence of Tamal Krishna had passed Resolutions that essentially ordered all the grihastas to go out and make a living. Even the Temple Presidents were expected to 'get a job'. Of course, this met with very strong resistance.
On this particular day all the GBC had met with Srila Prabhupada, and Tamal Krishna was very insistent and uncompromising on the matter, even though a lot of the GBC's who were sannyasis and brahmacaries didn't agree with him. After hearing all the arguments from both sides, Srila Prabhupada told the GBC that they had to take these Resolutions out and that his main concern was that there would be no factions formed within the society. He said that would be the worst thing that could happen. Krsna consciousness was open to everyone -- grihastas, women, and children… this is the essence of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings.
We get a little more inside perspective from Hari-sauri dasa, who in his Diary notes that he asked Srila Prabhupada about Tamal Krishna's position in regards to women. Tamal Krishna claimed that he never ever preached to women, and Hari-sauri wanted to know if this was material. Srila Prabhupada agreed that it is material. Of course, Tamal Krishna was essentially a hypocrite in the sense that he also lived like a king, far more opulently than any householder. Although he never fell down in association with women, he was obviously very attached to money and power. According to Hari-sauri, Srila Prabhupada stated that although Tamal Krishna is very intelligent, the problem with intelligent people is that they want to control everything, and Tamal wants to control the whole society and be the Supreme Controller. Of course, Tamal Krishna was the architect of the Zonal Acarya system too, which he helped implement as soon as Srila Prabhupada left.
The Bhagavatam class itself is very interesting, particularly when we take all these circumstances into account. The class is all about bhava, and Srila Prabhupada uses the term " bhava " to describe the kind of ecstasy that the materialist feels in regards to the material nature. They become very ecstatic about their position in the material world - their family, their nation, their power. But the whole Krsna consciousness movement is to purify that bhava and change the material bhava to spiritual bhava.
Srila Prabhupada makes the comparison to the fact that there are so many big, big buildings in the world and this big building, the one that was just built to house the devotees, is a building that can change people's bhava.
The sloka itself is about Lord Brahma being in ecstasy, or bhava, on account of seeing the Visnu form. Srila Prabhupada states that the highest form of Krsna is to see Krsna in His Vrindavan Form, the original Form, but that it's very difficult to understand Krsna in this Form. We have to be very, very careful to understand Krsna' pastimes in Vrindavan, especially with the gopis. This requires a certain type of bhava, which is a real understanding of Krsna.
Srila Prabhupada gives the example of how Lord Brahma couldn't understand this Form until he took the cows and the cowherd boys away, then observed how immediately they were replaced. In this way he understood that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead even though it didn't appear that He was, and the inhabitants of Vrindavan didn't treat Him as if He was the Supreme Personality. The same test was applied by Lord Indra when he inundated Vrindavan with rain, causing Krsna to lift Govardhan Hill.
Srila Prabhupada essentially outlines the dilemma that devotees have where on one hand, we're not spiritually qualified enough to really understand Krsna in His Vrindavan lila Form, but the pure devotees (like himself) teach us who is God and this is His original Form.
At the end of the lecture Srila Prabhupada sums up his points by saying that the symptom of a really pure Vaisnava is that they're not hankering to see Krsna. Of course, he's just such a pure devotee, although of course he doesn't say that. He explains that the real Vaisnava is just satisfied with service to Krsna. Srila Prabhupada says here:
"When that time will come, Krsna will be pleased to accept me?" Otherwise he is not very hasty. But he is interested with the service. That is pure Vaisnava."
Of course, one can see that the mood Srila Prabhupada is expressing and practically demonstrating is essentially the main philosophical point that distinguishes him from many of his godbrothers. This is evident to us today in the way we can see the difference between the followers of B.V. Narayana and the followers of Srila Prabhupada.
Srila Prabhupada says that we have to render this service in a very humble way, then our life will be successful. Of course, he was concerned about what he described in the Mayapur meetings, which was applied to the sannyasis: the attitude of puffed up prestige. He was very concerned about this.
We can make very similar comparisons about Srila Prabhupada's position as Sampradaya Acarya in the sense that like Krsna in Vrindaban, it's very hard to understand. In the same way that we find a Sampradaya Acarya like Srila Prabhupada preaching outside of India in a global scenario, and the way that his lila unfolded makes it extremely difficult for those who don't have the proper degree of advancement to appreciate who Srila Prabhupada really is. In this way it's also dangerous, just as Srila Prabhupada said it's dangerous for us to try and understand Krsna in Vrindaban with the gopis without having the proper degree of instruction or advancement from a pure devotee such as himself - what to speak of trying to pretend to be on that level. This is why we have to develop the same mood towards Srila Prabhupada - that we just have to serve Srila Prabhupada and be satisfied like that. Then it will be revealed to us who Srila Prabhupada is.
This particular incident on this day was only resolved because Srila Prabhupada was personally present to counteract the contaminated influence. Right after the class Srila Prabhupada displayed bhava himself. The memory of this experience is extremely vivid to me. Everyone there was in ecstasy because Srila Prabhupada circumambulated the temple with a huge kirtana party. Everyone was chanting and dancing, and he was dancing himself. When he'd come to the bell he would stand there ringing it, then he went in front of the Deities and started to dance with both hands in the air. He personally demonstrated for the devotees that this is the real bhava -- chanting Hare Krsna and dancing together in that mood with grihastas, sannyasis, women, children alike, all led by the maha-bhagavata.
So humble service to Krsna and chanting in ecstasy together in kirtana -- that's Srila Prabhupada's understanding of what Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtana Movement is all about.
