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S S S S S r r r r r i K i K i K i K i K r r r r r is is is is is h h h h h n n n n n a K a K a K a K a K a a a a a t t t t t h h h h h amr amr amr amr amr it it it it it a a a a a S S S S S r r r r r i K i K i K i K i K r r r r r is is is is is h h h h h n n n n n a K a K a K a K a K a a a a a t t t t t h h h h h amr amr amr amr amr it it it it it a a a a a
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Tav kQaaMa*Ta& TaáJaqvNaMa( Tav kQaaMa*Ta& TaáJaqvNaMa(
tava kathāmta tapta-jīvanam
20 November 2003
Śrī Utpannā Ekādaśī
, 10
Keśava
, 517
Gaurābda
Circulation 1,435Issue No. 66
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K
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,T
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ANKIRTANA
M
OVEMENT
His Divine Grace A.C. BhaktivedantaSwami Prabhupada
The International Society for KrishnaConsciousness is a bona fide religious so-ciety strictly following the principles de-scribed in the Vedic scriptures and prac-ticed in India for thousands of years. Our basic beliefs are as follows:1) The absolute truth is contained in allthe great scriptures of the world;the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc.However, the oldest known re-vealed scriptures in existenceare the Vedic literatures, mostnotably the
Bhagavad-gītā
,which is the literal record ofGod’s actual words.2) God, Krishna, is eternal, all knowing,omnipresent, all-powerful, all attractive, andis the seed-giving father of all living entities.He is the sustaining energy of all life, nature,and the cosmic situation.3) Man is actually not his body but is spirit soul,part and parcel of God, and therefore eternal.4) Brotherhood among all men can be prac-ticed only when we realize God as our com-mon ultimate father.5) All our actions should be performed as asacrifice to the Supreme Lord: “All that youdo, all that you eat, all that you offer and giveaway, as well as all austerities that you mayperform, should be done as an offering untoMe.” (
Bhagavad-gītā
, 9.27)6) The food that sustains us should always be offered to the Lord before eating. In thisway He becomes the offering, and such eat-ing purifies us.7) We can, by sincere cultivation of bonafide spiritual science, attain to the state ofpure, unending, blissful consciousness, freefrom anxiety in this very lifetime.8) The recommended means of attaining themature stage of love of God in the present ageof “Kali,” quarrel, is to chant the holy name ofthe Lord. The easiest method for most peopleis to chant the Hare Krishna
mantra
:
hare ka hare ka ka ka hare harehare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
Our basic mission is to propagate the
sakīrtana
movement (chanting of the holynames of God) all around the world, as wasrecommended by the incarnation of theLord, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Peoplein this age are very reluctant to understandabout God consciousness on account oftheir unfortunate condition of life. Theyare working hard day and night simplyfor sense gratification. But this transcen-dental vibration of
sakīrtana
will knockat the door of their hearts for spiritual
•
K
RISHNA
C
ONSCIOUSNESS
, T
HE
S
ANKIRTANA
M
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His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
•
“Y
ES
”, “N
O
”, “V
ERY
G
OOD
”
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur
•
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Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja
•
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WEETEST
OF
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WEET
Ray Sekhar
é[q k*Z<akQaaMa*Ta ibNdu
Issue Issue Issue Issue Issue Sixty-six Sixty-six Sixty-six Sixty-six Sixty-six , Page — 2 , Page — 2 , Page — 2 , Page — 2 , Page — 2
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awakening. Therefore, they should begiven this opportunity.It is not recommended that a Krishna Con-scious devotee go into seclusion for chant-ing by himself and thereby gaining salva-tion for himself alone. Our duty and reli-gious obligation is to go out into the streetswhere the people in general can hear thechanting and see the dancing. We have al-ready seen practically how by this processmany, many boys and girls of America andEurope have been saved from the immoralpractices of this age and have now dedi-cated their lives to the service of Krishna.The state laws are specifically meant formaking citizens into men of good charac-ter, and good character means avoiding thefollowing sinful activities: intoxication, il-licit sex life, gambling and meat-eating. Weare checking people from practicing thesesinful activities. All of our students are ap-plying these principles practically in theirlives, and they are teaching others to fol-low the same principles. Therefore it is theduty of the government to help us in ourmissionary work rather than to hinder us.It is hoped that the government authori-ties will cooperate with our
sakīrtana
par-ties in enabling us to perform
sakīrtana
onthe streets. To do this it is necessary thatwe be able to chant the names of Krishna,dance, play the
mdaga
drum, request do-nations, sell our society’s journal, and, onoccasion, sit down with the
mdaga
drum.As devotees of Lord Krishna it is our dutyto teach the people how to love God andworship Him in their daily life. This is theaim and destination of human life.A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
—Letter to: Unknown, Tittenhurst, 1 October 1969.
“Y
ES
”, “N
O
”, “V
ERY
G
OOD
”
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta SaraswatiPrabhupada
Upākhyāne Upadeśa
is a collec-tion of short stories with explanationsthat were commonly used by SrilaBhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.Compiled by Sri SundaranandaPrabhu, a prominent disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, it was first published in 1940.
A simple villager once picked up some En-glish through listening. He memorized onlythree English phrases, “Yes!” and “No!” and“Very good!” However, he never seriously at-tempted to understand the application ofthese words in the proper context. He onlyknew that by using the words in front ofpeople one could obtain some respect.Once a few dacoits murdered someoneand then escaped making it look like thatvillager had committed the crime. When thevillager was brought to the court of law, the judge asked him in Bengali, “Did you com-mit the murder?”The foolish villager thought that if he couldspeak some English in front of the judge, thenthe judge might have great respect for him,considering him to be a follower of Westernculture, and thus he might be relieved fromthe allegation of murder.Contemplating thus, the villager replied tothe judge, “Yes!”The judge then asked, “Was there anyoneelse with you?”The villager replied promptly, “No!”Then the judge said, “Do you realize thatyou will have to go to jail?”Hearing this, the villager thought that heshould put forth his protest against such aninjustice by applying his last resort. In or-der to confirm that he was a perfect gentle-man, that he did not commit the murder,and that he should never be thrown inprison, he replied to the judge’s questionsaying, “Very good!”PURPORTEven in the field of devotional service,there are many persons who cite manyscriptural quotes in a parrot-like fashion,without proper understanding of the in-structions, religious terminology, and in- junctions of the pure devotees. They aresimply hankering to receive respect frompeople for their show of “knowledge”. Buteventually their position becomes similarto that of this villager. If scriptural quotesand authoritative injunctions are not prop-erly assimilated and digested, the righteouscommunity never appreciates them. It isalso not possible to be released from the
Sri Krishna-kathamrita BinduSri Krishna-kathamrita BinduSri Krishna-kathamrita BinduSri Krishna-kathamrita BinduSri Krishna-kathamrita BinduIssue Sixty-six, Page — 3Issue Sixty-six, Page — 3Issue Sixty-six, Page — 3Issue Sixty-six, Page — 3Issue Sixty-six, Page — 3
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Invaluable Gems
Anantadev, who stays in
Pātāla
, carries thematerial universe on one of His hoods like amustard seed. With His unlimited mouths,Anantadev has been continuously speaking
Bhāgavatam,
and has not yet finished. The fourKumaras are there, hearing
ŚrīmadBhāgavatam
from Anantadev. Therefore
ŚrīmadBhāgavatam
is
ananta,
unlimited, like an un-limited ocean. If you dive deep, deeper, to thedeepest region of the ocean, you can collectinvaluable gems. One of the synonyms forocean is
ratnākara,
or
ratna-garbhā
.
Ratna
means invaluable gems, and these are foundin the
garbha
, belly, of the ocean. But who cancollect them? Only one who dives very deep,to the deepest region, can collect these gems.If you float on the surface, you will collect onlyfish. Similarly,
Bhāgavatam
is an unlimitedocean, and you have to dive deep into it. SrilaA.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada said,“Everything is in my books.” He has given ev-erything, but it is in seed form. He has onlygiven a hint. Now you have to dive deeper anddeeper, to the deepest region, then you willcollect the invaluable gems that are there.Prabhupada’s purports need explanation.The Bhaktivedanta purports are unique.
Vaiava
philosophy is not easy to describe.It is a very subtle and most sublime philoso-phy. It is a very difficult philosophy.Prabhupada explained it in a very nice easylanguage. Srila Prabhupada is especially em-powered, a
śaktyāveśa-avatāra
sent by SriChaitanya Mahaprabhu. Otherwise no onecan give such a thing as he has done.Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta SaraswatiGoswami Prabhupada Maharaja has ex-plained
vaiava
philosophy, but you cannotunderstand his words. His language is so dif-ficult you cannot enter into it. This
vaiava
philosophy is very difficult because it has it’sown specific language. But Srila Prabhupada,our revered spiritual master, was an especiallyempowered person, and he explained it in theEnglish language. It is very difficult to explainin English language. Many times the Englishlanguage has no words to properly conveythe meanings. In this purport Prabhupadatried his best to translate the ideas into En-glish, but sometimes he just used the originalclutches of
māyā,
illusion, through such aparrot-like verbiage.It is often observed in public meetings, as-semblies, and popular mundane literaturethat many so-called “men of letters” of mod-ern civilization deliver such ludicrous ver- bosity on the subjects of devotion, devotees,and the Supreme Godhead. Pure devoteessimply consider those deliberations similarto those of the villager mentioned above,who did not realize anything beyond “Yes”,“No”, “Very good”. Those persons are ulti-mately destined to suffer imprisonment un-der the merciless clutches of
māyā
.
Bibliography
— Sundarananda Vidyavinode.
Upākhyāne Upadeśa
. Sri Gaudiya Math.Baghbazar, Calcutta 1995. Bengali.— Sundarananda Vidyavinode.
Upākhyāne Upadeśa
. English translation by Akhilatmananda Das. Published by Sri Rupanuga ParamarthikaVidyapitha, Mayapur. 1995.
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Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja
Caitanya-caritāmta
(
madhya
24.318) statesthat
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
is unlimited:
ka-tulya bhāgavata — vibhu, sarvāśrayaprati-śloke prati-akare nānā artha kayaŚrīmad Bhāgavatam
is as great as Krishna, theSupreme Lord and shelter of everything. Ineach and every verse of
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
and in each and every syllable, there are vari-ous meanings.
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
is as good as Krishna. Itis not different from Krishna. This is described by Thakur Vrindavan Das in
Caitanya-bhāgavata
(
antya
3.516):
premamaya bhāgavata śrī-kera agatahate kahena yata gopya ka-ragaŚrīmad Bhāgavatam
is full of
ka-prema
. It is apart of Krishna Himself, for it describes Krishna’sconfidential pastimes.
Bhāgavata śrī-kera aga
—
ŚrīmadBhāgavatam
is the body of Krishna.
tahatekahena yata gopya ka-raga
— all confiden-tial, sweet pastimes are described here. Krishnais
vibhu
, the Supreme Lord, and He is
ananta
,unlimited. Similarly,
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
is also
vibhu
and
ananta,
the unlimited Supreme Lord.
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