From: Bhakti Vikasa Swami
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya
bhutale srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine.
I offer my humble obeisances unto His Divine Grace Prabhupada A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami, who is very dear to Lord Krsna on this earth, having
taken shelter of the lotus feet of that ever-youthful, beautiful,
transcendental Lord,
who, alone, in his seventieth year, threw family, society, friendship, love
to the wind, left mother India and set sail around the earth to foreign,
unknown shores because his spiritual master spoke to him in a dream,
who carried the glorious message of the munificent Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu
to a nation plagued with the leprosy of voidism and impersonalism, who
brought an ageless message of love of Godhead,
who landed in Manhattan with saffron robes, a suitcase and seven dollars and
wondered at maya's skyscrapers and empty, noisy dreams,
who, with white, pointed holyman shoes, walked through the snow to Times
Square and laughed at Kali's cinema ads,
who accepted residence with hashish-yogis who believed they were moving the
sun and moon,
who played cymbals and chanted Govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami, "I
worship Govinda the Primeval Lord," explaining to void-meditators that
Krsna's transcendental body is unlimited, that He can extend His hand to all
parts of His creation, that any one part of His body can perform all the
actions of all the other parts, and that simply by glancing at nature He
impregnated her with countless living entities and set the cosmic systems
spinning and struck up the song of the universe,
who journeyed downtown, out of compassion, and set up quarters in Lower East
Side narrow mice-ridden storefront and trusted Krsna to bring next month's
rent,
who opened the storefront doors even to Bowery derelicts and clashed cymbals
and chanted Sanskrit hymns to God, whose vibrations caught the ears of young
psychedelic middle class renegades searching for alternatives to their
legacy of lies and materialism,
who had and everlastingly has infinite mercy, delivering it free of charge,
a matchless gift, to whomever stops to hear,
who never, to my knowledge, turned one soul away, who effused them all with
kindness, affection, truth,
who had mercy on my soul one bright July morning amidst the roaring
Manhattan traffic of Houston and Bowery (Most holy spot! Transformed to
Vaikuntha by his feet! Bowery transformed to Vaikuntha!),
who lectured every morning on Second Avenue and as the gold of dawn lit his
face played cymbals and chanted softly, careful not to awake the neighbors
lest they pour hot water through the floorboards,
who opened Bhagavad-gita and explained Sri Krsna's message verse by verse
and set His names -- Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare
Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare -- on the lips of the young,
who, by contact only, warmed their hearts and lit the fires of love of God
in their souls and smeared their eyes with the ointment of devotion,
who defied cheap popular adoration by truthfully telling the youth of
America that to have Krsna the soul must be pure, free of everything,
who supplanted the old white-bearded Judaic-Christian God with a beautiful,
blue adolescent Boy and evoked gopi tears from the eyes of men,
who led his flock to Washington Square to chant, was invited off the grass
by the cops, sat complacently anyway on the asphalt and Hare Krsna'd as
nervous sailors flicked their cigarets,
who initiated his first dozen disciples with a fire sacrifice in his
apartment, told them their real, spiritual names, chanted their beads, threw
rice and ghee in the flames (Svaha!) and sat smiling amidst the smoke as
they coughed and ran to open the windows,
who listened, tolerant, to the threats of Jewish, Catholic and Protestant
mothers accusing him of stealing their sons, and offered them bananas,
apples, dates and tangerines and charmed them with his smile,
who every Sunday afternoon for a month sat down on the ground in Tompkins
Square Park, pounded a bongo and chanted Hare Krsna three hours straight
while dancing angels dropped exhausted and Lower East Side Ukranians and
Poles stared uncomprehendingly and grumbled,
who delivered a beautiful lecture on the spiritualization of energy to a
thousand empty seats in midtown's Judson Hall while across the street
hundreds flocked to hear the Boston Pops at Carnegie,
who patiently endured the red tape visa harassment of immigration offices
and allayed the fears of his children as they swore to follow him to India,
who, on a sudden invitation, jumped a jet to Frisco, telling his New York
disciples he'd return in a fortnight, and after four months' absence
laughed, "You have not reckoned a day of Brahma."
who lectured a thousand Hell's Angels, hippies and teenieboppers in the
strobe-flashing Avalon ballroom on the glories of Lord Caitanya's sankirtan
movement and, hands upraised, danced with poet Ginsberg, Moby Grape,
Grateful Dead and Big Brother to Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna as Tim
Leary looked on benevolently,
who chanted and danced in a ring with longhair boys, girls, beads, beards
and headbands below the shadow of Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park on bright
March and April afternoons,
who lectured at Frisco Christian Yoga societies, to hippies in the
Panhandle, to pacifists at Berkeley, to yellow, red, white and black
nationalists, to anyone, everyone and no one in the streets and parks of
Saint Francis,
who taught the students of Palo Alto a new dance -- the "swami" -- which in
fervor surpassed the frug and watusi,
who led a nighttime firelit kirtan at Frisco beach, roasted potatoes and
sang starlit hymns to Narada Muni,
who sauntered through Muir woods contemplating the redwoods and reflecting
how tired their souls must be for having to stand so long without Krsna,
who, back in Manhattan, wore his body down chanting and glorifying the
transcendental blue body of Krsna, cooking and writing for Krsna, and
suffered a stroke that would have killed a mere man, left his body and then
returned with the names of his love on his lips,
who sang to Yamaraj, Death, as he stood before him, sang songs of love to
the lotus-eyed Boy with pink bottom'd feet,
who, in Beth-Israel Hospital, sat like a helpless child as demonic needles
came at him, tolerated them and listened to the Western diagnosis: "Tell him
to take it easy. The old man prays too much,"
who, after five days, baffled obscene doctors by walking out the sickward's
pea-green walls to recuperate across country in the dazzling Pacific sands
of Stinson beach,
who sat amidst a labyrinth of kelp horns and sea shells proclaiming that
there are only devotees and demons, naught between,
who composed Sanskrit odes to the Primeval Spirit whose eternal teenage lips
play a flute,
who wept in a Frisco storefront -- "Take to this process. I may be with you
or not, but it is eternal." -- and bade farewell to his students who thought
he was going to India to die,
who bathed in the sun wearing a turban and flying on a carpet as the Pacific
crashed in his ears -- "All glories to the assembled devotees! All glories
to the Pacific Ocean!" -- and finally, following the sun, whizzed to Delhi,
Vrndavana and Calcutta to Ayur-Vedic physicians,
who bathed in the Yamuna, where Lord Krsna played His water games, and lived
in Radha-Damodar Temple, where repose the samadhis of Rupa and Jiva Gosvami,
who traveled through India, defying pneumonia, looking for a house for his
American children,
who returned to the U.S. via Japan, trying to see the mayor of Tokyo to
institute the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in a glass
American-made skyscraper,
who finally proclaimed the Japanese "not ready," and returned to a deluge of
tears and flowers in Frisco airport,
who, surpassing the Chinese, instituted a yearly festival of Jagannatha love
down Haight Street through Golden Gate to the beach, nine miles, and led
twenty thousand before the cart of Krsna, Subhadra and Balarama,
who bowed to Radha and Krsna in Seattle and sat in new glory on the New York
Vyasasana, the floating dais of praise, as his children fell at his feet,
who forgave his renegade disciples in Montreal with a garland of roses and a
shower of tears,
who told golden beachboys in Honolulu and Kaaawa, Oahu that sun, beach and
palm worship is all maya, that golden flesh, after all, is just a bag
covering blood, bone, stool, puss, bile, urine and guts, all rotting moment
by moment,
who danced to Krsna beneath the sun in L.A. and beneath the red, white and
blue flashing neon illusions of Hollywood Blvd., Kali-yuga plastic America,
and beneath the moon danced to Govinda and Radharani in a Manhattan alley,
searching for a possible temple,
who proclaimed natural vegetarian prasadamism to the nation's hamburger
stands, the cow-eaters of America, the pig-eaters, bird-eaters, fish-eaters,
lamb-eaters, threatening them with endless rebirths as tigers,
who declared that Colonel Sanders of the Fried Chickens of Kentucky would
have to undergo a chicken-birth-life-and-death for every chicken smeared
with his recipe making its saucy way into the all-devouring mouths of the
American karmavores,
who burst two thousand Ohio State students out their skins and jumped for
joy on his dais in the All-American City,
who, lauding the "big mrdangam," bought a press, said, "This is my heart,"
and printed his own books in Boston,
who, having chanted six years in temples of Vrndavana, India, where Lord
Krsna's lotus feet danced, walked two miles up a West Virginia dirt road,
stopping only once briefly for breath, and founded New Vrndavana in the
locust-flower'd hills,
who lived there in a shack, sauntered on morning walks through the locusts
and maples and blessed the dandelions, blackberries and pokeweed with his
gaze,
who sat quietly beneath a persimmon tree reading Srimad-Bhagavatam and
musing over the Appalachians,
who boarded the jet age from New York to Hamburg, carrying over the Atlantic
real Aryan Vedic civilization in his head and magic mantras on his lips, the
Paramhansa on Lufthansa, descending on Europe on his silver swan, singing
songs of Krsna-love for fractured Germany,
who, not knowing one word of German, lectured on ecstasy in a little
storefront temple on Eppendorfer Weg, chanting Hare Krsna uber alles,
who defined real Aryanism -- life according to spirit, not to flesh -- to
rapt disciples following him on a vigorous morning walk amidst cold,
implacable North German beer consciousness, sausages and Volkswagens,
who sat before an Elbe sunset, holding up a picture of Radha-Krsna dancing
on the lotus shaped Vaikuntha planet, and who smiled and transformed the
Elbe into the Yamuna,
who descended on London reporters like a thundercloud and deluged them with
the Absolute Truth -- "I have come to teach what you have forgot." "Which
is?" "God."
who sang "Bhaja Govindam" to this century's British bards, the Beatles --
"What are you doing? Your philosophical speculation and grammatical word
jugglery will not save you at the moment of death, so bhaja Govinda, just
worship Krsna," and struck up a new song in George's heart,
who shouted down the new crows in London's Conway Hall and continued playing
cymbals as their wings fluttered,
who founded a six-story Radha-Krsna temple a block away from a storehouse of
ravaged Indian treasures, the British Museum, and despite a Gandhi
exhibition began the Vaisnava colonization of England,
who buried his head in flowers and danced in ecstasy before the Lord,
who saw Arjuna throw down his bow at Kuruksetra and Lord Krsna and Balarama
pass through Mathura with Their cows and boy friends as the city girls
showered Them with flowers from their balconies,
and who at this moment deluges the blazing fire of the soul trapped in
materials and drowns the conflagration of even the most obdurant (my own!)
soul entangled in the great chain fire of action and reaction,
who even now insists on wishing me well despite my pigheaded gnawing at
o'erchewed stool,
who knows the innate sweetness of the soul in love with Krsna and who
delivers that love with truth, who draws it out the timid soul with truth
and who demands its flourishing and wishes it well,
who resides at the lotus feet of Krsna eternally, who is His ambassador on
earth, transmitting His message infallibly,
who views this universe to be no more significant than water in a calf's
hoofprint,
who floats upon the tossing ocean of material and looks with compassion upon
the countless dynasties of suffering souls struggling below,
who hears the discordant sounds of Kali's millennia and blends them in
harmony to one song that anyone can sing,
who must play in the starry sandbox of the universe like a child with his
toys,
who must laugh at the maya karmaval, the vast play of illusion, of America,
of the world,
who must talk to Krsna alone at night, sitting on his bed, conferring,
listening carefully to His advice,
who perpetually receives the waters of benediction from the ocean of mercy
and who pours them forth in torrents to extinguish the flames of
materialism,
who, always engaged in chanting and celebrating the message of Lord
Caitanya, sometimes dances in ecstasy and trembles and quivers in his
trance,
who, with his disciples, untiringly worships Sri Sri Radha and Krsna in
Their temple,
who is always offering food to Krsna and who derives great satisfaction in
seeing his disciples eat bhagavat-prasadam, the delicious mercy of the Lord,
who is eternally eager to chant and preach the glories of the loving
exchanges between Lord Krsna and Radharani and who aspires to relish these
pastimes at every moment,
who expertly assists the gopis, Lord Krsna's transcendental cowherd girl
friends engaged in the perfection of Radha-Krsna conjugal love affairs, who
makes various tasteful arrangements for Them,
who, as all scriptures reveal, should be honored as highly as the Supreme
and Almighty Lord, for he is the Great God's most confidential servitor,
whose mercy enables me to receive the benediction of the mercy of Krsna and
without whose mercy I cannot advance on the spiritual path, and who is
therefore worthy of my perpetual obeisances and my worship.
------------------------------
by Hayagriva Prabhu, From BTG #36
--
Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna
Gopis performing Devotional Service to the Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna
Don't be mechanical in worshipping Krsna!
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 22 December 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Disciple Meeting)
Comment: You were saying how the altar is actually the spiritual world. However, I experience how personal worship of the deity can become mechanical, like a routine ten minute puja.
It can be but if every day, you try to do something special then it does not become mechanical. That is the trick. See, if you just do the standard way every day, then it becomes mechanical but if you go a little bit beyond and try to do something extra – that is what keeps the freshness. We should get on the platform of trying to do something extraordinary and that is the way to get out of any mechanical relationship, not only with the deity but also any other relationship.
In a marriage as well, it becomes mechanical after a while, 'Here is your brekky!' and then, one day you go out of your way and prepare a special breakfast and he goes like, 'Whoa! What's that!? Mmmmm! May I have more of that, please!' Then there is some magic and it comes from making a special endeavor. That is the nature of relationships and deity worship is all about relationship – to do something special for our deity. It is then that the relationship comes to life.
We have to be careful also because the deity may go away. What if Krsna comes in your dreams and says that he now wants to go away somewhere else? Therefore we must be very careful not to become mechanic
--
Beyond philosophy
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 05 June 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 25.57)
A verse from the Mahabharat points out that logic alone remains inconclusive. One philosopher has one interpretation while another philosopher has another interpretation and sometimes there is no end to an argument. It just goes on and on and on, if one tries to establish the truth on basis of argument.
Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya said, tarka-śāstre jaḍa āmi, yaiche lauha-piṇḍa (CC Madhya 6.214) that, "As a result of preoccupying myself with the study of these arguments of logic from various scriptures, my heart became hard like an iron bar." So this is the result, when everything is based on logic there is no room for the heart.
Later when Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya became a vaisnava, he is quoted in the Padyavali, in the book which is compiled by Srila Rupa Goswami, "We are not logicians. We are not great philosphers who have crossed the ocean of Vedanta. We are not expert debaters. We are simply the servants of a rascal cowherd boy."
So the whole spirit had changed. It is not that the vaisnavas are NOT expert in philosophy but their main interest is not only tattva (philosophy) but there is also rasa (relationship). Without the combination of tattva and rasa, how can transcendental knowledge ever be complete!? If there is only tattva, only philosophy, then where is the heart? Just like it says in the Caitanya Caritamrta, "What is the use of the words of a poet? What is the use of the arrow of a hunter, if it does not pierce the heart and make the head spin?"
So in this way, what is the use of the truth if ultimately the heart is not involved…
--
Improving our spiritual life
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 10 April 2016, Durban, South Africa, Sunday Program Lecture)
Let us dedicate our whole life to Krsna. Let us gradually get rid of interruptions. It is said that pure devotional service is that which is uninterrupted. But what we do is a little service and then we think we deserve some sense gratification, "Okay, I did some service at the temple, so now I can watch TV." In this way we are interrupting our service but gradually, we have to un-interrupt it. There should be no more time in between. Everything should be service. Every place should be a holy place. Your home should be a temple, your car should be a temple and even at work something sacred should be there. Somehow or the other, every place should be dedicated to Krsna, every action should be dedicated to Krsna. In this way, we can improve our spiritual life.
--
The magic of Krsna consciousness
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2016, Durban, South Africa, Sunday Program Lecture)
'Sixteen rounds done! It's over! The happiest moment of the day!' Is this our spiritual life? Is this how we are practicing every day? Was there any attentive round? Can you remember one moment today when chanting was attentive? Can you then remember any moment, while chanting was attentive, that you actually felt something for Krsna?
Rupa Goswami said, 'Give me millions of ears and millions of tongues while chanting Hare Krsna!' This is when everything becomes magic; when Krsna consciousness becomes magic. Things become magic when we love it. Everything you do out of duty is not magic; it is only when we love it that it is magic. And the more we love it, the more magic there is!
When we encounter the limit of our love for Krsna, then what do we do? Sooner or later, no matter who we are, we all will encounter the limit of our love for Krsna then what do we do?
Then we turn to Lord Caitanya and take up his magic, the magic of touching other people, the magic of giving people Krsna consciousness. And when we see that they are transformed, then it is amazing. When you actually change someone's life and they start to take to Krsna as a result, something happens in your heart! There is something that really goes deep and touches the heart. You get so excited and you feel like you never felt before and you just carry on in your own Krsna consciousness. So this is the magic that Srila Prabhupada gave us because when it comes to love for Krsna during our chanting, it is not too much!
Therefore if we can see the magic in giving out this mercy then a change of heart will come. When we are busy serving Krsna, when we are busy giving out mercy of Krsna then naturally we cut the tree of samsara (material existence). In this way everything happens automatically. In this way the ancient example of the Upanisads, example of the banyan tree, the asvathama, meaning 'the tree of no tomorrow' is easily cut down by the devotees of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by the followers of Srila Prabhupada. This is the amazing grace that rests upon this Krsna consciousness movement!
--
A short story about how Krishna and Balaram Arrived in vrindavan!
The deities of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram, Radhe Shyam and Nitai Gaura were being transported from Jaipur to Vrindavan to be installed in their new temple on Ramnavmi day. It was the middle of the night, very quiet. Suddenly, just as the transport vehicle was coming close to the temple, hundreds of peacocks started to loudly ke-ka, all around the temple area. Sometimes the peacocks will crow when there are clouds in the sky or when they know clouds are forming. But this time there were no clouds. It was a transcendental call of happiness from the peacocks. They were experiencing great bliss as if they knew that Lord Krishna was coming to stay in Vrindavan.
Just like, just before the monsoon season in Vrindavan, there may be some small thunderstorms with thunder and lightning. You can hear the peacocks jubilantly crowing because they know the rain will start soon. So this is that season, and the peacocks and brijwasis are very happy the hot summer was end soon.
In pauganda age Krishna wears clothes of different colors, but when He gets a little older he wears clothes the color of lightning. So when we see the lightning in the sky at the onset of the monsoon season and the dark clouds, we can immediately think of beautiful Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada wrote that full absorption in thought of Krishna is the highest platform of bhakti-yoga. (SB 7.1.27p)
--
The cloud of illusion
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 May 2016, Vrndavana, India, Bhagavad-gita 3.34)
We may not be fully Krsna conscious, our love for Krsna may not be so deep and there may be other desires. But this is just restlessness. How much faith do we have in these other desires? Which devotee can claim to have full faith in sex life? We may be attracted to sex life but do we have full faith that it will make us happy? After having heard transcendental knowledge, it is hard to have full faith in material enjoyment. Still, we may have a flirtation with these desires here and there sometimes. For a moment we may be in the pink cloud of illusion, but then we come back to the hard reality of suffering and again, we endeavour more seriously to get out of the material world.
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