Lecture
by
Shrila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Goswami Maharaja
on
Bhaktivedanta Swami tirubhava
Vrindavana November 19th, 2001

vande ham sri guro sri yuta padakamalam sri gurum vaisnavam ca
sri rupam sahagrajatam saha gana raghunatamvitams tam sa jivam
sadvaitam savadutam parijana sahitam krsna chaitanya devam
sri radha krishna padam saha gana lalitam sri vishakan vitams ca

I offer my satastang-dandavat to Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, the founder of this mission, then I offer my satastang-dandavat to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami who is the founder of this Gaudiya Mission.

Acaryas come to this world only to carry the message of their predecessor. In the slow process they will attract the public and make them Krishna conscious. Now the process of approaching a Vaisnava is that, there are different grades of Vaisnavas: kanishta, madhyama and uttama. We have to serve the uttama bhagavata. What for? For their mercy. What for their mercy? Only for devotion. What is that devotion? Devotion is eternal service. A person who is under the influence of maya, he serves only ordinary materially advanced people. Suddha bhakata carana renu bajana anukula Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that we must accept the dust of the Suddha Vaisnava, a pure Vaisnava. And how to get a pure Vaisnava? We must surrender to the Lord, then He will show the path as vartma pradarsaka, and again He will lead to perfection. Now, to know the subject, what is the subject we want? We want to know what? We want to know dadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te. If you will surrender to the Supreme Lord, He will dictate us that buddhi yoga, that perfect buddhi will lead us always to perfection, and gradually to the process to reach the supreme Lord, through the blessings of a mahatma, or a suddha bhakta. Then we will follow suddha bhakata carana renu bajana anukula, bhakata seva parama siddhi prema latikara mula. To get prema we must do bhakta seva.

We may say: How can we know a bhakta to whom we can dedicate ourselves? If I am sincere, if I am honest, if I want to be pure, the Lord will show us the path. If I am mischievous, if I don't follow the path of devotion, because our Bhagavatam says dharma projito kaitavatra paramo nirmat saranam satam vedyam. Who can understand the Absolute truth, the service to the Absolute truth? Nirmat saranam. The sadhu must be nirmat saranam, without malice. If he has got malice in him, he can not lead others, nor he can proceed in the proper way he is cheated, he is deceived and he will deceive others. Dharma projito, what is our dharma? Dharma must be pure, and that purity will lead to devotion. That devotion can be had through the blessing of a mahatma. Dharma projito a sadhu who is without malice, he can lead others. This is the beginning of the bhagavata, nirmatsaranam satam. Vaisnavas, they don't have malice, no matsarya only those who are karmis and jnani, those who depend upon action, those who depend upon knowledge, they are of that category. That category will never give you purity. Devotion is pure and that pure devotion is that one does not want anything in return from the Lord, the Guru and the Vaisnavas. This is the devotion of our Bhagavatam. We read Bhagavatam, we understand Bhagavatam, we practice bhakti, but without purity, we can not practice bhakti. Dharma projito kaitava tra, What is kaitava? It is cheating (kapatasaha) everybody wants dharma, artha, kama, moksa. Kapatasaha, he will be deceived if he stays in the wrong process, he can not have a glimpse of bhakti.

Though he has the fortune of serving a great Vaisnava, a pure Vaisnava but his heart is not pure, he has malice and with that malice he can not understand the teaching of Bhagavatam or the teaching of the Guru and the Vaisnavas. If the Guru speak with malice, his teaching has no value. It may have some value for jnani or karmi, not for the bhaktas. The bhakta does not want anything from the beginning to the end. Nothing he wants, though the Lord wants to give him some boon, he says: Im not going to accept your boon Who says this? Prahlada, he was a pure bhakta. Though the Lord wanted to give some boon, he says: No, I don't want. He never accepted. There are so many bhaktas in the Bhagavatam like Vrtasura. He says:

na naka prstham na ca paramestyam
na sarva bhaumam na rasadhipatyam
na yoga siddhir apunar bhavam va
saman yasya tva virahayya kanksye.

I want You, Sir, I don't want anything except devotion. I want your service. Once Hanuman was presented with a necklace of pearls. Now Hanuman starts to check and crush every pearl and then threw it. Our Sitadevi thought: It is a monkey, it is doing monkey action. Then he could understand: Mother this is not a monkey action. I must test all the pearls whether in each pearl there is a view of Rama, Laksmana and Sita. If there is no Sita-Rama in that pearl, I give no value.. I don't want this necklace, I don't want, I don't want pearl, I want devotion. You can test me. Then he opened his chest and showed Sita Rama Laksmana. Then everybody could understand he's not a monkey, but a great devotee of the Lord. What a devotee wants, he wants only devotion. Unless one wants devotion, he will fight, because he does not want devotion. This institution, Iskcon, Sri Krishna-Caitanya philosophy is pure devotion. Nothing mixed, not even one per cent mixed. Pure. Pure devotion should be taught to others, pure devotion should be practiced, thereby we can be benefited. I come here every year by the mercy of all the Vaisnavas, not to speak but to have darsana of all the devotees. No, I can not speak. This gatherings is the cream. I want to see you all and take your blessings. Svami Maharaja Prabhupada, he blessed me, he was very kind toward me, and that can not be exposed, it is our matter. He is an ideal personality. He went to America, and I saw there in New York those places where he was sitting and doing bhajans. We went to Los Angeles, very big palace. We were very much fortunate to see that opulent place. Lokanath Swami was there to guide us. I'm glad how they are keeping Mahaprabhu and Prabhupada names nicely.

Yes, Prabhupada is great, nobody can compete with him. He is great, nobody can become great like him. He is a mahatma, a single person went there without a single penny. He has published so many volumes of books. Thousand of volumes, and you see everywhere ISKCON can be maintained with a income of the books so much service he has done. Wherever you go, everywhere there are books. Wherever we go, they ask You are from ISKCON. Are you from ISKCON? Yes, we tell, afterward we may explain it. Now, he had the great ideal that all the people in the world should follow the message of Lord Gauranga. With that aim he has travelled all over the world at that old age. He travelled all over the world. Now wherever we go everybody says Hare Krishna. Everybody says Hare Krishna, he does not know what is Hare Krishna. Yes, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, everybody laughs. Now we also ask to them to stand and to repeat Hare Krishna. If one does not repeat Hare Krishna then we ask again to repeat. On the end he will repeat definitely. Then we say: You go! Now they are purified and they will go. Since I am an old person, they will not speak or punish me. They can not punish me, they like to repeat nama. That nama was preached by Swami Maharaja Prabhupada. He has single hand done. By the blessing of his Guru Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and Gauranga he was able to do that. With their blessings he could do wonder in this world. Wherever you go, everybody knows Prabhupada and Harinama Sankirtan. But we must be alert. See how it was the time of Prabhupada and how far it is grown up. That we have to see. Because the first and second meeting I came here, there were hundreds of dandas. But gradually it is reducing, it is going down. Now you have to bring the message of Prabhupada door to door with bigger effort. This is necessary. As Nityananada Mahaprabhu says:

suno suno nityannada suno haridasa
sarvatra amara ajnaya koro he prakas
prati ghare ghare ghiya koroye ei biksa
bolo Krishna bhaja Krishna koro Krishna siksha.

You go to every house and beg the householder Sir we have come to you to beg you. You don't know. This western people does not know begging. But begging is a part of vedic culture. A brahmacari should beg and a Vaisnava also must beg. He must do to the householder Sir, we have come to beg you. What do you want? Rice, clothes, money? What do you want? No, no, no, bolo Krishna bhajo Krishna koro Krishna siksa. You repeat Krishna nama and bhajo Krishna, you serve Krishna and follow the teaching of Krishna. If you say that you will follow, we will go to the next door. This is how they were ordered by Mahaprabhu, Nityananda said to Haridasa Mahaprabhu has ordered us just like a governor or a police officer, you go, carry My command. If we go everywhere, some will say yes, yes we will do. Others will say you fellow, you have no money, nothing to eat, this is the way that you earn. No, you go! In the evening Nityananda and Haridas were reporting to Mahaprabhu. Once Nityananda saw two great robbers, Jagai and Madhai. They were the terror. Now terrorists are the enemies of the world. At that time also terrorists were there. So He thought (Nityananda): Let me purify these two terrorists, they are brahmin brothers. And Haridasa said From tomorrow I don't want to go with Nityananda to preach. He goes to the drunkards to make them repeat Harinama. They will never hear, instead today they could have taken away our lives. My Lord, You are here to save us. From tomorrow I will not go with him, let him go. But Mahaprabhu said: Nityananda is determined to purify them. It will be done in three or four days. Just on the third day, in the evening, when he was coming alone on the way, He saw these two brothers, Jagai and Madhai, they were drunk and they were fighting. They asked Nityananda Who are you? Nityananda replied I am avadhuta Ahhh!! Avadhuta!!. And with both hands they throw a pot full of liquor, that was like a coconut and broke the head of Nityananda. Then Mahaprabhu was coming running to punish this fellow, because he has committed offences at the feet of the Vaisnavas. I must kill him said Mahaprabhu and called the Sudarsana Cakra to come. But Nityananda said: In this yuga you can not call the Sudarsana, only nama sankirtana. You teach them nama sankirtana, they will be purified. So Mahaprabhu said All right, you have beaten Nityananda. But I request you to repeat Krishna nama at least once. Then they immediately say Krishna! And all their sins were gone. Then they catch hold the feet of Mahaprabhu requesting Him to bless them. And Mahaprabhu blessed them. Then they were brought to the house of Mahaprabhu. And these two and other Vaisnavas, they started sankirtana for three hours, dancing and singing for three hours. After three hours the colour of Mahaprabhu and Nityananda changed. Now Jagai and Madhai became pure. Then Mahaprabhu ordered to them that they should clean the ghat, Jagai ghat and Madhai ghat, and food will be given to you daily. Clean the ghat and those who will come to take bath, you raise your hand and beg for excuse to those that you have committed offences. So saying they did this service and this message was scattered through the world and all the people was coming there. Now sarvatra mara ajnaya koro he prakasa, Mahaprabhu says: You carry to all the corners of the world my message. Swami Maharaja Prabhupada has done this and now we can not forget him. You must sing his glories, you must remember him, think of him always and speak of him always, then only you will be able to conquer maya. Daivi esa guna may mama maya duratyaya. I have taken much of your valuable time, I beg to excuse me for anything wrong that I have committed.

Vancha kalpa tarubhias ca.