F rom Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir
Date: February 13, 2017
Speaker: HG Kalakantha Das
Subject: Srimad Bhagavatam 7.10.6
TEXT
ahaṁ tv akāmas tvad-bhaktas
tvaṁ ca svāmy anapāśrayaḥ
nānyathehāvayor artho
rāja-sevakayor iva
TRANSLATION
O my Lord, I am Your unmotivated servant, and You are my eternal master. There is no need of our being anything other than master and servant. You are naturally my master, and I am naturally Your servant. We have no other relationship.
PURPORT
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya—kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’: [Cc. Madhya 20.108] every living being is eternally a servant of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), bhoktāraṁ yajña–tapasāṁ sarva–loka–maheśvaram: “I am the proprietor of all planets, and I am the supreme enjoyer.” This is the natural position of the Lord, and the natural position of the living being is to surrender unto Him (sarva–dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja [Bg. 18.66]). If this relationship continues, then real happiness exists eternally between the master and servant. Unfortunately, when this eternal relationship is disturbed, the living entity wants to become separately happy and thinks that the master is his order supplier. In this way there cannot be happiness. Nor should the master cater to the desires of the servant. If he does, he is not the real master. The real master commands, “You must do this,” and the real servant immediately obeys the order. Unless this relationship between the Supreme Lord and the subordinate living entity is established, there can be no real happiness. The living entity is āśraya, always subordinate, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is viṣaya, the supreme objective, the goal of life. Unfortunate persons trapped in this material world do not know this. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum: [SB 7.5.31] illusioned by the material energy, everyone in this material world is unaware that the only aim of life is to approach Lord Viṣṇu.
In the Padma Purāṇa Lord Śiva explains to his wife, Parvatī, the goddess Durgā, that the highest goal of life is to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu, who can be satisfied only when His servant is satisfied. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore teaches, gopī–bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. One must become a servant of the servant. Prahlāda Mahārāja also prayed to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that he might be engaged as the servant of the Lord’s servant. This is the prescribed method of devotional service. As soon as a devotee wants the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be his order supplier, the Lord immediately refuses to become the master of such a motivated devotee. In Bhagavad-gītā (4.11) the Lord says, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. “As one surrenders unto Me, I reward him accordingly.” Materialistic persons are generally inclined to material profits. As long as one continues in such an adulterated position, he does not receive the benefit of returning home, back to Godhead.
HG Kalakantha Das
Pranam Mantras
It is a real pleasure to hear these verses on more or less the same subjects again and again with slightly different shades of meaning presented by different wonderful devotees coming different angles of vision. It is a real wonderful section of Bhagavatam, all about the subject of service.
I serve as a chaplain at a university in America and part of my service is to meet and interact with other religious leaders on campus. They are very nice, sincere, good hearted, mode of goodness types of people. At one of our gatherings they were asking what do we need to do to increase the religious awareness of among students on campus. I see this, when they get real fired up they always come to this same idea – let’s go out and feed the homeless. One of them said yes, we’ll make them pb&j’s, the peanut butter and jesus.
So this service rasa is the second of five. The first one is shanta, neutrality. In that relationship there is admiration for the Lord, like my friends have at this interfaith gathering. They sincerely believe in God, but they do not understand how to connect with Him through service. Therefore they remain stuck on that platform.
The devotees have this wonderful opportunity from the very beginning to take up service. Service means this intimate relationship. Srila Prabhupada calls it the most congenial form of intimacy, therelationship between the servant and the served. This is because when our desires become focused on serving Krishna, then we want to give Krishna more and more of our lives, consciousness, and our energy. When we give Krishna more, He wants to give us more. When Krishna gives us more, then we want to give Him more. When we give Him more, He wants to give us more. This is how the living entity is meant to exist – in this endless loving exchange with the Lord.
This is the position of the servant. It’s the most auspicious position and the foundation of all of the higher rasas. Service means, as Srila Prabhupada said in the purport here, that the Lord is the supreme objective and that the devotee is the subordinate. Understanding this position of subordination appears to the materialist to be a horrible thing. But the devotee understands counter intuitively that this is how I become happy. If Krishna is happy then I am happy. We are all seeking pleasure.
The great secret that the Hare Krishna devotees own is how to enjoy pleasure on the highest platform. It’s a platform that is never interrupted, never contaminated, is fully satisfying to the deepest part of our being. This kind of pleasure is unknown to the non-devotee. Unfortunately they have no interest.
The devotees try very sincerely to please the Lord by bringing other people onto this sublime platform of devotional service. It is a thankless task. Because it is the desire of the vishaya, then it becomes the desire of the ashaya, the subordinate.
Srila Prabhupada quotes this verse from the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). The other day in the morning announcements the devotee read this excerpt from Srila Prabhupada about this quote. In that short quote Prabhupada quoted this verse and then he said that Krishna demands surrender, but Lord Caitanya is so kind that he does not demand it. So take shelter of Lord Caitanya and be happy.
That quote was the entire arrival address that Srila Prabhupada gave in Atlanta in 1975. Tears were coming from his eyes as he was looking at Gaura Nitai. That was all that he said. Lord Caitanya is so kind.
So Lord Caitanya does not demand, but He derives unique ways to induce the living entities into performing devotional service. Srila Prabhupada said that it is a process of recreation only.
At the begining of that process is chanting – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. When we teach somebody to chant and we give them their beads and beadbags, they think that we are teaching them how to do something very gentle and mellow and nice. Just chant Hare Krishna. But we are actually giving them a gun.
It’s like on the front lines of a battlefield where there is always some live action going on. You take the new recruit and you give them a gun, take them to the front lines and you say, you see that tree overthere? Just shoot at that tree. Very simple. They say ok, but where are you going? Oh, nevermind. You just shoot. So they shoot, and then what happens? So many shots come back.Chanting Hare Krishna means you are declaring war on the illusory energy. As soon as we take that shot, Hare Krishna, so many shots come back.
Being a servant, to actually pray Hare Krishna, please engage me in your service, that means that we are going to expect so many opposing force in this world. That’s what I’d like to talk about this morning. How we can execute our service in three levels, in relation to the institution, in relation to interpersonal actions or relationships, and in our own personal lives as devotees.
Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport that one can only serve Krishna by serving His servant. Prabhupada said that this is the prescribed method. To serve the servant is the only way that we can approach Krishna. How do we please Krishna’s servant, His dear servant Srila Prabhupada and thus be able to please the Lord and obtain that nitya yukta position?
In terms of the institution of ISKCON, this is so much a part of our devotional service. This is the institution that Srila Prabhupada created to give us all the opportunity to perform devotional service.
When I first met the devotees they were out on harinam. I was working, passing by downtown in Portland, Oregon. There were the devotees out doing harinam. It was shocking just to see people making such a strong spiritual statement. I stood and watched for a while and Deena Bandhu Prabhu came over and gave me a book, Isopanisad. I took it home and I couldn’t understand a word of it. But then I went to the little ISKCON temple and there were all of the devotees. They gave me strawberry malpuras and I said, how do I join? If it weren’t for this institution of ISKCON I would have never have had this opportunity.
What does it mean to have an appropriate service relationship with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness? Devotional service is ecstatic. It’s always alive and fresh everyday. So becoming a part of ISKCON is not like a cataclysm where you say some vows and you are officially a member. This is now my religion. It’s not at all like that.
Over the years I’ve come to understand that ISKCON is our daily offering to Srila Prabhupada, collectively made by loving devotees all over the world. This is our pile of books distributed, this is our kirtan, these are our offerings that we have done for the deities. These are all the services that we offer. When we are working together in that cooperative way, it makes such a lovely offering for Srila Prabhupada. He’s so pleased.
But it’s difficult to be part of an institution sometimes, to be institutionalized. To make this cooperative offering to Srila Prabhupada means that we have to compromise our own views sometimes about how to serve Krishna. It means that we have to half a loaf. Sometimes we do not get the whole loaf, we only get half of a chapati. We have to share and acknowledge others.
I know an elderly woman who I met some years ago. She said that when she retired maybe twenty years earlier she had a modest amount of money. She just put it into mutual funds. Does everybody know what mutual funds are? It’s a very conservative and safe investment in the stock market. She just put her money there and left it. The market goes up and the market goes down. The value of her estate goes up and goes down. But she just leaves it there. At twenty years later she is worth three million dollars, just leaving it alone.
Now the opposite of the mutual fund is the day trader. The trader is one who watches the market every day and says oh, this looks like a chance to take my money and make a bunch real quick. So they are putting it here and there.
Sometimes people come along to devotees in ISKCON and say, Srila Prabhupada just gave the introductory, we can give you the higher – no. This is like the day trader. Or, the books, they are not the originals. If you really want to be pure, read the originals, then you’ll get higher knowledge. This is another day trader invitation. There are so many out there.
But I just remember that old lady – just leave our money in the mutual funds. Then it grows, whatever the highs or the lows of the market are. One of my mentors, Satsvarupa Maharaj, used to say that ISKCON with all thy faults, I love thee still.
There are so many challenges, so many problems, whenever human beings come together in a cooperative effort. They do all of the things that human beings do.
Institutionally, just to show you the first time I came here to Sri Dham Mayapur was 1975. Jananivas and Pankajangrhi Prabhu’s were here, the Lotus building, the boundary walls, and not much else. On the way over to this fledgling institution ISKCON, we rented a Boeing 737. The devotees filled up in New York and stopped in London to pick up a few devotees, then stopped in Frankfurt to pick up a few devotees, and finally landed in Calcutta – Dum Dum International Airport.
It was six in the morning and it was the first time that a 737 had ever landed in Calcutta. There are a thousand people are the tarmac just waiting to see the plane. There were just about all devotees on this plane. It was chartered Air India flight. In flight devotees were standing up and having kirtan, the plane was rocking back and forth while the captain was making emergency announcements to sit down. It was thirty hours in flight and transit.
Finally we got there and people were amazed at all of the Western devotees in saris and dhotis coming off of the flight. They were just shocked. We staggered to our bus, exhausted. Someone asked my dear departed godbrother Urjaswat Prabhu, Urjaswat, tell us a pastime of Lord Caitanya. He said, Lord Caitanya got tired and took rest.At that time there were maybe two hundred or so devotees at the festival and eighty-five or ninety percent of them were Americans. Last year Mayapur Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama there were nine thousand participants and there were three Americans. What’s happened?
ISKCON has been through so much struggle in America. Some of us just stayed with it and it continues to be such a source of satisfaction. All of this has gone up and down but we have stayed and kept serving. We kept trying to make it work. Gradually it gets better and better.This is one of the problems, we’re not reaching the Americans the way that we used to. The Indian diaspora, diaspora means the ex patriots, the people of Indian origin who live elsewhere in the world, is the largest diaspora in the world. Twenty million people. These twenty million are concentrated, in the middle east there is about four million, in America there is two million, that’s the next largest concentration. And in America it’s the best educated and wealthiest minority in the whole country. It’s natural that we would appeal to such people. They have been so helpful and have saved our Temples many times.
But stil, Srila Prabhupada wanted to reach the local people, whether it was China or Africa or America. Wherever the diaspora was there they would come and help automatically. They are our natural allies, Prabhupada said. But to reach the locals is more difficult.
These cultural practices that we learned in coming to India for the first time in the seventies, we brought them back to America. But they haven’t worked very well in America. Prabhupada writes in the Caitanya Caritamrita that you cannot suddenly impose cultural values from one society to another.
Before devotees started coming to India, ISKCON had more of a family atmosphere. The Temples were constantly filing up with young western devotees, capable young devotees in the late sixties and early seventies. In Gainesville, where I’m serving, we try to recreate that atmosphere where there are less cultural barriers. It makes it easier for people to come and at least get started. Here’s your beadbag, here’s your gun. Just chant Hare Krishna.
This has brought us to the level of interpersonal service. Serving in the institution, coming to the point where we can expand the institution, a very dear service to Krishna. Krishna says that this is the most dear service to me, one who shares the message of Bhagavad Gita with the devotees.
In sharing with the devotees, when there aren’t many, it means you have to make your own devotees to share with. That takes a lot of effort. In the course of doing that you have to be very intelligent in your interpersonal dealings. How do we get people interested?
The first thing is, this is an old adage from my Christian friends, they don’t care what you know until they know that you care. We don’t interest people by a lot of Vedanta, they are really interested in the Bhakti. While those things aways must be balanced in the follower of Srila Prabhupada’s life, the bhakti tends to be a little overshadowed sometimes by knowledge. We think that we are going to convince somebody with a lot of sastra. Actually, they are much more interested in the way the devotees act.
In the Caitanya Caritamrita Krishna Das Kaviraj says that the principles of religion are established not by logic and debate, but by behavior of the devotees.
We started a program to invite students to live in the center and chant eight rounds. They have to chant eight rounds, come to the morning program from six to eight-thirty for five days a week. We tell them that it’s just like regular college except that we have our parties in the morning. And they have to follow five regulative principles. We know the four regulative principles and that’s hard enough. But most of them are so burned out with sense gratification that they are ready to try something different, at least for a few months. The fifth principle is trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih.In that friendly, family environment, everybody is feeling very respectful. We learn how to avoid making offenses. We learn to respect and appreciate each other, whatever our situation is. Some devotees get fired up for the mission and want to go out and do books. Some devotees are in school and are getting their degrees. It’s not a slaughter house if you’re getting a degree for Krishna. And other devotees are working jobs, getting married, and fixing their economic situations. All of those are equal. All of the different roles that people may play in an environment like that are respected.
You know the master of interpersonal relationships in Krishna Consciousness was Jayananda Prabhu. The only disciple that Srila Prabhupada canonized, acknowledged as a pure devotee. The only disciple whose appearance day Srila Prabhupada told us to observe.
Jayananda Prabhu had a wonderful way of dealing with vaisnava aparadha. What is vaisnava aparadha? It usually begins like this: don’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Or, I’m not supposed to tell you this but… If somebody was speaking critically of another vaisnava, Jayananda would immediately say something nice about that person. He would find something to say to glorify them which catches the critic off guard. But if the criticism went on then he would leave. Another strategy is that if someone is criticizing another devotee then you say, oh that’s funny, he was saying something nice about you.
If there is an atmosphere of mutual respect then everybody feels encouraged. One of our esteemed graduates of the Krishna House is right here, Deva Krishna Prabhu. Did you feel that way when you lived at Krishna House? Did you feel supported and encouraged? Deva Krishna Prabhu is one of the top book distributers in North America. And he was a real trip when he came…no I’m just kidding. He was always wonderful.
In this atmosphere where peopler are genuinely appreciated, Krishna Consciousness becomes just as natural and easy as anything. Because such atmospheres like that don’t exist very often anywhere in this material world and if they do, they are around some sort of motivated cause. But if devotees are simply in the mood of giving Krishna Consciousness and appreciating anybody who walks in the door, then that mood is infectious. We have to be very diligent about giving appreciation and respect.
In a for profit organization, you get people motivated by what? By salary. But we are non profit. We are not working on salaries. The only thing we have are respect and appreciation. So we give that very generously. Lots of appreciation. Catch them doing something right.
There’s a story of Queen Victoria when she ascended to the throne of England. In those days, a capital case involving the death penalty had to be brought to the crown. There was an officer in the army who had committed this horrible crime. The prosecutor was seeking the death penalty and he argued the case before the Queen. Your Majesty, he did this and this and this. The Queen listened and she asked, have you investigated this case carefully? He said, yes, Your Majesty. Can you tell me anything good about this man? The prosecutor was completely stunned. He was stammering. She repeated, can you tell me anything good about this man that you discovered in the course of your investigation? Finally he said, I was told that he was good to his family. Then I forgive him. She did not want to execute the first capital case before her so she looked for some good qualities and that became everything and saved his life. So the devotees are like this, just looking for the good quality, something that will save this persons life.
The antithesis of Jayananda is a disciple of Madhavendra Puri named Ramacandra Puri. He was the self appointed watch dog of the vaisnavas, looking for any faults that he could find. He was seeing that there were some ants in Lord Caitanya’s quarters. He said, this sannyasi is eating so much, He’s obviously keeping sweets. He even fed Lord Caitanya a huge meal and then said look how this sannyasi eats so much.
So Lord Caitanya said that I am cutting my eating in half. All of the devotees said no, no Lord Caitanya please, he’s just a critic. Please don’t do that. But He would not budge. The more that the devotees asked Him to please eat as usual, He would eat less. They understood that they could not force Him. In this way all of the devotees who just loved Lord Caitanya and feeding Him, they were all miserable.Ramacandra Puri created so much stress and grief among the devotees. This is one of those pastimes that does not have a happy ending. The only happy ending was when Ramacandra Puri left. It wasn’t that Lord Caitanya changed. He remained subordinate.
This is the quality of a person who is finding faults. It makes everybody unhappy. We want to be the kind of person who makes people happy wherever they go. Not the kind of person who makes people happy whenever they go. This is what it means to serve in interpersonal relationships.
Now the last type of service is the most subtle. That is serving ourselves, taking proper care of ourselves in all respects so that we can serve Krishna. In his transcendental diary, Hauri Sauri Prabhu sites that the mention where Srila Prabhupada gave the four priorities for all devotees. First, health. Second, sadhana, japa. Third, service. And fourth, reading. First we have to take care of our health.
My mentor, Satsvarupa Maharaj had a motorhome that he got back in the mid seventies. This was quite an innovation at the time. He was thinking that this was way too opulent for a sannyasi. So he asked Srila Prabhupada to please come and see it. Srila Prabhupada stepped inside and said oh, very nice. It’s like a little house. Maharaj asked, is this inappropriate for a sannyasi? Srila Prabhupada said no, no. Keep yourself comfortable so that you can work nicely.
Another godbrother who, in his early years in Krishna Consciousness, just did intense austerities. He’d sleep two hours a night, eat very little. He did this for a year thinking this is the highest principle of Krishna Consciousness. Then he told me, I did all of these austerities and all I got out of it was bad health. So take care of oneself in that respect. By being temperate in eating, sleeping, work, and recreation, one can conquer all of the miseries of material life, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita.
That’s the external side. But the internal side of taking care of ourself, this is the most subtle thing. It’s very nice. Srila Prabhupada quotes this verse from the fourth chapter in the Bhagavad Gita, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. Krishna reciprocates with everybody according to their reciprocation with Him, their surrender. Each and every living entity has that relationship. The devotees are just that very precious few who have knowledge of that interaction. Krishna reciprocates with each one of us according to our surrender.
In the previous verse Krishna said vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā, one who gives up attachments here and takes shelter of devotional service. So in the purport of that verse Srila Prabhupada says that the fear that the devotee must give up is fear of personal spiritual identity. This is what keeps us from surrendering to Krishna. We have to be a meaningful, specific in Krishna’s service, not a generality king of devotee.
One devotee approached Srila Prabhupada and asked, what would you like me to do for Krishna? Prabhupada answered that question very intelligently. How do you handle a difficult question? You ask a question in return. So Srila Prabhupada asked, what would you like to do for Krishna? And he said, whatever you tell me, Srila Prabhupada! Prabhupada said no, I asked you. What would you like to do for Krishna?
It made the devotee think and commit. So he thought about it and said well, I’d really like to make mrdangas that don’t break. In those days all we had were very fragile clay mrdangas. They were very scarce and difficult to get from India. They’d break very easily. Prabhupada said, so do it! And that’s where the Balaram Mrdangas came from. The fiberglass, unbreakable mrdangas. Prabhupada insisted that he be a specific servant of Krishna, taking a specific service.
In the Nectar of Devotion Sanatana Gosvami says that there is this technique where you have one servicethat you want to do so intensely that you can shed tears. Srila Prabhupada said that a devotee should learn this technique. In order to do that we have to have a service that we really want to do with all of our heart. This is taking care of our surrender. Our surrender is not a general thing. It is a very specific thing. I want to do this service for You Krishna and this will be how I please You. Then Krishna reciprocates according to that desire, but He may not reciprocate in a way that we are expecting.
Srila Prabhupada had an intense desire to start an international movement for Krishna Consciousness. He went to Jhansi where there had been some interest. There he found somebody willing to help him with a temple facility. But then it all got taken away.
Now just imagine if he had been successful in Jhansi. Would any of us be here today? I don’t know. But somehow this very demoralizing set of circumstances occurred and Srila Prabhupada lost what he had started. He said, I am not a man to be discouraged easily. Thank Krishna for that! He did not deviate, even when there were setbacks.If we are trying to do some specific service and then Krishna gives us some setback that we don’t want and don’t expect, how do we respond? This is the test of the devotee. This is how a devotee becomes qualified. So if we respond by getting frustrated with Krishna, Krishna, I’m doing all of this and you give me “this?” So we’re frustrated. What does Krishna feel about us? Frustrated. When are you going to get it together? We’re frustrated with Krishna and Krishna is frustrated with us.ye yathā māṁ prapadyante.
We don’t want to pick any particular service, we don’t want to think about it, so Krishna is thinking about us. We want to avoid Krishna all together like a materialist then Krishna doesn’t impose. He’s always reciprocating.
Prabhupada said that the motto of the devotee is that when there are reverses, how should a devotee think? I am suffering now the result of my own past sinful activities. That means that we take responsibility for our own suffering. How does Krishna reciprocate? He takes responsibility for His own sinful reactions, right? No. He also takes responsibility for our own sinful reactions. That’s how He reciprocates, right? We take responsibility, then He takes responsibility. ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo. Then the devotee is enjoying to be patient and continue serving in spite of the suffering.
If we are patient with Krishna, even though we are not getting what we want right now, how does Krishna reciprocate? He is patient with us even though we are not really cutting it. And if we continue to serve Him from the core of our heart, expecting Krishna’s mercy, being very hopeful and positive, how does Krishna reciprocate? He’s expecting that we are going to make it and He’s very ready to give His mercy. So in this way Krishna is always ready to reciprocate with our personal service.
Institutionally, keep your money with ISKCON. Interpersonally, find the good in others. And personally, find some specific service and even when it seems very difficult, be patient and persistent. In this way we can offer our service to Srila Prabhupada and remain always in nitya-yuktā upāsate, that constant, endless loving exchange where we give more to Krishna and He gives more to us.
Thank you very much.
Any questions or reflections Maharaj?
Maharaj:
In the early part of your class you were talking about ashraya and vishraya. You also mentioned the fact that we serve Krishna and you used the word counter-intuitively, that it actually makes us happy. Now, I totally agree. But it’s interesting. Can you expand a little bit on why it seems so counter-intuitive?
Kalakantha Prabhu:
Because we have been trying to please ourselves for so long. We’ve tried and tried and it’s never worked but we keep trying. If we just have the determination that the non-devotees have on their path to ha
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