Q&A Transcription

[devotee:] During Pushyabhishek and some other festival like we had yesterday, we see that the flowers that have been offered to the Lord and have directly been in contact with the Lord, then after the offering is over then we shower the flowers back on the devotees and they throw the flowers on each other. They do it with love and devotion but still, those flowers get trampled upon and all sorts of things happen with the flowers. So since it has been offered to the Lord directly, is it right for us to do this?

[Maharaj:] Hare Krishna! According to different spiritual events sometimes the natural enthusiasm of the affection for the devotees for one another supersedes certain regulations, such as not to step on flower. That’s all. You also put Prasad in your mouth and crush it with your teeth. [devotees laugh] So, according to certain perceptions of how we approach Prasad there is certain way of honoring it. But showering Krishna with flowers, when Krishna entered Dwaraka he was showered with flowers. When Krishna would kill a demon, the Demigods would shower him with flowers. Showering the Lord with flowers is a great tradition meant for the glorification of the Lord, and when the devotees joyfully share those flowers with one another sometimes unintentionally they may step on them and that is excusable. So please you can sleep nicely at night, you are forgiven. Hare Krishna!

[Other speaker 03.04 – 3.48]

It is my great pleasure to welcome Yadubar Prabhu to Pune Yatra. [devotees] Hari Bol! Hari Bol! Hari Bol! One of the very senior disciples of Prabhupada, very intimate association he has had for many years with His Divine Grace and his performed some of the most substantial service for our society by creating films, which have enchanted the hearts of many thousands and thousands of people within the movement and in the society at large, so we are very honored that he has come today. Next, the questions will go in line. Malati Mataji, Hare Krishna!

[Other speakers 04.48 – 09.08]

[devotee:] Maharaj, we hear that Krishna is all attractive. Krishna’s pastimes are all attractive, but when we hear some of the pure devotees of the Lord they have gone against the Lord then it becomes very depressing. Like for example we have Akrura who even killed for Syamantaka jewel and Yadavas they got intoxicated, they fought against Krishna and Balaram. So, how do we understand this? How do these pastimes become attractive?

[Maharaj:] Hare Krishna! Acharaya Upashnam, one who sees through the eyes of the Acharyas’ can understand everything as it is. We must understand the Lila of the Lord through the disciplic succession of Acharyas. Otherwise the Lord’s Lila is very inconceivable, and sometimes even contradictory to our relativistic intelligence. The Lord wants to teach the world through his devotees. Sometimes the Lord even by his own sweet will induces his devotees to do the wrong things to teach a sublime message to the world. And what that message is, we must learn through the commentaries of great Acharyas. So in these particular incidents that you have mentioned Srila Prabhupada explained very elaborately, why it was so? Akrura by Krishna’s will, he took Krishna from Vrindavan to Mathura, because Krishna’s mission to kill the Asura class within the world necessitated him to go to Mathura in order to eliminate Kamsa, Jarasandha and so many others. But in doing so Akrura also broke the hearts of the Brijawasis, headed by the Gopis. And Krishna wanted to teach that if you break the hearts of devotees, then you’ll be in big trouble. But, because he did it in the service of Krishna, even though he was in big trouble, he was ultimately protected by Krishna. And he is glorified as of the nine processes of devotional service, he is the example of perfection by offering prayers. So he is exalted and glorified but at the same time he taught… Krishna taught a very important lesson to the world through him of the problems that will come about of Vaishnava Aparadh. As far as Yadus, the commenters… the commentators have explained that they may have had a fratricidal war, but it was because of Krishna knowing that they were so great and so powerful that they would have in such immense separation, they would have gone totally mad, if Krishna left the planet without them. So it was actually out of compassion and love for them that he sent them back to the spiritual world before he left. But at the same time through the way he did it, he taught a lesson.

The Yadavas committed an Aparadh to Narada Muni, Parvata Muni and other great Vaishnavas, when they asked is this girl going to give birth to boy or girl? Actually it was Samba, the descendant of Krishna dressed up as a pregnant woman. But they were minimizing and ridiculing the great Rishis, obviously out of fun but it was a Vaishnava Aparadh. Therefore, in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada explained that Krishna wanted to warn us against Vaishnava Aparadh by creating entire… by annihilation of entire dynasty on the basis of Aparadh. They were Krishna’s personal relatives and personal associates in his Lila and even they had to suffer such dire consequences due to Aparadh. Good lesson but at the same time they were innocent and because Krishna is using them for this lesson, they all went back home back to Godhead. So without the commentator’s explanations, it is impossible for anyone to understand Krishna, Krishna’s words or Krishna’s pastimes. Bhagavat-gita is there for everyone, but until Prabhupada’s Gita came to the western world, despite hundreds of translations not a single person understood that Krishna is a person or that we should be his devotee. This is also the Lord’s pastime,

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam

 [Bg. 7.25] 

[I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.]

People cannot understand Krishna as long as they are covered by curtain of Maya. tad-vijṣānārtha sa gurum evābhigacchet. [Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.12] One cannot understand the Vedas, in other words that vail is not uncovered unless we approach a bonafide spiritual master. Hare Krishna!

[Other speaker starts 15.40 – 16.27] 

[Maharaj:] So did I. [devotees laugh]

[Other speaker starts 16.33 – 16.52]

[Maharaj:] I think you are best amongst us. [devotees laugh]

[Other speaker starts 16.57 – 27.06]

[devotee:] The first question is asked by one Mataji, she wants to know after we give up this body, after we die whether the same guru continues in the next birth or what happens to that soul? Because the guru naturally goes back to Godhead we’ll go back is doubtful. So what happens to us in the next birth?

[Maharaj:] Srila Prabhupada requested that none of us make him come back into this material world. That should be the aspiration of the disciple, not to create these burden upon a person who is so compassionately making so many sacrifices for our welfare. It is a transcendental arrangement; we understand that Krishna is Jagat-Guru, he is the Supreme Guru of all. And all the spiritual masters in the disciplic succession are by their surrender to the will of Krishna accepting the position of Guru on his behalf. And it’s a very personal and very special offering of compassion that they are giving us. When the spiritual master leaves this world, through the agency of Parampara, he is supervising the spiritual progress of each of his disciples. He may come directly, he may come indirectly, but it is all through the coordination of Guru Parampara in which he is our special guide in going back home back to Godhead. Hare Krishna!

[devotee:] Maharaj the second question is, I heard a lecture in which you said that when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Srivas Thakur that I never see you do any work, but you seem to be very blissful, I am very curious to know what work you are doing? And how you maintain yourself and your family? Then Srivas Thakur did not reply, so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu insisted on knowing and Srivas Thakur said it just took inside his house and he said whenever I need anything I just clap three times and I call out to Krishna. And if he does not give me what I want then I tell him that within three claps if you do not give me what I want then I will just tie a stone around my neck and drown myself in the Ganges and normally he does listen to me. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very happy, he embraced him and said that I am very happy with your reply, but then Maharaj how do we understand this, because then we will become useless, and we will also start clapping three times. [chuckle] How do we understand this, we still have to do our duties?

[Maharaj:] Srivas Thakur did not want anything except devotional service. Because he had that unflinching, unparalleled faith in the mercy of the Lord. That is why Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was so extremely pleased with him. He said, if I clap three times and any of my desires are unfulfilled then I will enter into the river Ganges. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu knew, he had no desires except devotional service. And there is never a time when Lord will ever not give service to his devotees. Srivas Thakur had such faith, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that your faith in Krishna and your surrender to his mercy is so great that I give you this benediction, even if there’s drought and plague to the extent that Goddess of fortunate has to go and do Madhukary, with a bowl in her hand begging alms begging alms, there will be never a shortage of anything in your house. When we have that surrender, Krishna provides everything ananyāś cintayanto māṁ, [Bg. 9.22] Krishna says in Gita that for one who is surrender to me, I preserve what he has, and I carry what he lacks, and this is a beautiful example of this truth.

[Other speaker starts - 32.29 – 45.26]

[Maharaj:] Yadubar Prabhu, you should answer this question. You heard Prabhupada discuss this?

[Other speaker starts 45.36 – 46.20].

[Maharaj:] Good answer!

[devotee:] Hare Krishna Maharaj. In ISKCON Sannyas Diksha is given to Prabhujis and not to Matajis. What is the reason? I just inquired to some senior devotees he told that it is prescribed in Gita and Vedas, as Gita and Vedas are the words from Krishna, then what is the reason and what or Krishna being partial to this thing? Why this partiality is made by Krishna?

[Maharaj:] I have experienced, that direct experience that Jayadvaita Maharaj is authority on this subject. [devotees laugh]

[Other speaker 47.14 - 47.22]

[Maharaj:] When you came to New Vrindavan, you seem to know a lot about it. [devotees laugh]

[Other speaker 47.30 - 47.33]

[Maharaj:] According to Shastras, a woman is always to be protected. When she’s young by father, older she is said to be protected by husband and later by her grown up children, because the nature of the body of a woman within the material existence is, she can easily be exploited by the physically stronger sex of the males. Therefore, a woman is always to be protected. Sannyas ashram means no protection, Achyuta Gotra. He goes to the forest he depends completely and exclusively on Krishna and Krishna alone. So it is for the sanctity and the protection of the class of woman that it is not recommended, it is not be done that they take Sannyas. However, real renunciation doesn’t simply mean taking a formal Varnashrama Sannyas. Real renunciation is to completely surrender to Krishna. We find some of the greatest personalities to be women. Even though they were totally surrendered to Krishna, still for social sanctity and protection they kept themselves under the protection of either by their father, husband or their grown up sons. So this the wisdom of Lord Krishna with the welfare for all classes of human beings. Jayadvaita Maharaj, do you have anything to add?

[Other speaker speaks 49.40 – 49.58]

[Maharaj:] Thank you! [devotees laugh] We have become friends again. [devotees] Hari Bol!

[Other speaker starts 50.18 – 59.16].

[devotee:] Maharaj this question is regarding organ transplant, there nowadays many celebrity people have been coming forward and saying that they are donating their eyes after their death, so I want to be clear in Krishna consciousness perspective, is it that we should not be tampering with the body that is given by Krishna, or is it something which the eyes can be given by someone else and that person may benefit more. Has Prabhupada said anything on this?

[Maharaj:] Hari-Hari! If you give an organ, you are Karmically implicated with how that person uses that organ. If that person is using your organ for sense gratification and sinful activity. Then you are just facilitating that person for suffering and misery. However, if it’s a devotee, who you know to be utilizing it specifically for devotional service, then it’s acceptable. But generally devotees let nature take its course and depend on Krishna.

[Other speaker starts 1.00.43 – 1.02.01]

[devotee:] Question is, Maharaj, as we should not be in the political field in the spiritual life. Whereas this managerial level people have to form some of the rules and regulation for set righting the Krishna consciousness life properly. So in such cases there are some chances of… some level of Vaishnava Aparadh. So, how can we avoid that, how can we come out of it?

[Maharaj:] If there’s envy in your heart, if there’s pride in your heart, then you criticize or cause harm to a devotee, then your spiritual life will definitely suffer because that is Vaishnava Aparadh. There’s no escape, except begging forgiveness of that Vaishnava. However, in a humble spirit of trying to serve, serve the Lord, serve the mission without envy or pride. If it’s by nature’s course, sometimes we may make mistakes, we may hurt a devotee’s heart that will not be taken very seriously. That will not be spiritually held against you. Real Vaishnava Aparadh is motivated by pride or envy, when we speak or act against a devotee directly or indirectly, then Krishna will crush you today or tomorrow, it’s just a matter of time.

As we heard today, during the eating, at lunch Prasad, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said only two things are required to go back to Godhead, chant the holy names of Krishna and do no offend Vaishnavas. That’s how important the principle of guarding against Vaishnava Aparadh is. And it’s repeated again and again and again in our scriptures, because it is essential for our spiritual survival. If you are a manager, if you are a president, if you are a GBC, if you are in any position, even a husband to a wife, if out of envy or pride we hurt that person’s heart or try to defame that person, then spiritually you are in a fallen condition and it’s just a matter of time till Krishna reveals it to the world. This is a tremendous defect in our thinking, we think because we have a high position, we have a right to say or do whatever we please for experiencing. As soon as you take a leadership position or that of management people are going to be hurt by decisions you make. You are going to say certain things in order to stabilize the environment, which you may not even want to say. Because you are doing a service it’s so valuable to Guru’s mission that will be excused. However, whatever your position is, there is no excuse to cause a harm or defame to a Vaishnava, if there’s envy or pride in your heart. Therefore, whoever we must be, we must carefully analyze our motivations, before we speak against anyone. As a service to protect, sometimes we may have to speak against others. But if there’s something else there, if there is a competitive spirit, a spirit to try to push someone else down and put over selves up then we are fallen. Be very, very careful, there’s no justification by which we can act with pride and envy against a Vaishnava, we will have to suffer. Does that answer your question?

[devotee:] Perfect Maharaj! Yes! Thank you!

[Maharaj:] And the bigger you are, the harder you fall. So, the higher position we get in a hierarchy of spiritual societies, the more careful we have to be, not to commit offenses.

[Other speaker starts 1.07.13 – 1.20.58]

[devotee:] Hare Krishna! There is a question from the Marathi speaking audience there? Draupadi had five husbands, so it appears that externally illicit. Is it against the four principles that Draupadi had five husbands?

[Maharaj:] For you, yes! Draupadi was an exceptional personality it was not her will. It was the inconceivable will of the Lord. We cannot imitate such great personalities, but we can follow in their footsteps. Draupadi was perfectly chaste, faithful to her husbands and that every woman should do. Draupadi was completely depending on Krishna, when she was being disrobed and she saw that all of her five husbands were ultimately not able to protect her she threw up her arms in complete submission to the Supreme personality of Godhead to chant his holy names. [devotees] hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare. 

We should follow in Draupadi’s footsteps in that sense. As far as her five husbands goes, it was the order of the queen of the world, Kunti Devi, that the Pandavas share what Arjuna had won in the Svayamvara, and because the word of such a great divine personality as Kunti Devi, must be honored and obeyed, on that basis Pandavas all accepted her as wife. Does that answer your question?

[devotee:] The question came from the Marathi speaking crowd.

[Maharaj:] But you are representing.

[devotee:] Yes Maharaj, I am convinced.

[Maharaj:] Very good!

[Other speaker starts 1.23.46 – 1.31.51]

[devotee:] Hare Krishna, actually I would like to direct this question to everyone and hope I can get permission from Vaishnavas, but this is, the topic is Kirtan, Katha. Kirtan, so we engage in Yuga-Dharma Harinam Sankirtan, on a regular or daily basis. If we could improve the quality of the Kirtan in our lives, we would all benefit immensely, yesterday Her Grace Malati Mataji, she brought the point that we should be attentive to the holy name during Kirtan and sometimes devotees they talk in the Kirtan this should be avoided, the sense of being inattentive to the holy name. So, I would be very grateful to all the exalted and experienced senior devotees on the dais, if they can give some enlightenment as you have devotees could improve the quality of Kirtan in their lives and hear to Srila Prabhupada’s standards for us in Kirtan, regarding this Malati Mataji mentioned through, one - Kirtan etiquettes, also, two - proper playing of instrument and in this regard I believe H.H. Jayadvaita Maharaj has some experience with devotees playing too loud in the Kirtan, I heard one time. And third - dancing in the Kirtan I especially like to hear from H.H. Radhanath Maharaj on this topic, as I heard Bhakti Charu Maharaj was asked, “How Lord Chaitanya danced in the Kirtan?” And Maharaj said, “Have you ever seen H.H. Radhanath Swami Maharaj dance?” And four - most importantly is the realization of the devotees about the chanting of the holy name, hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare, during the performance of Harinam Sankirtan. I thank you very much.

[Maharaj:] Purpose of Kirtan is to induce the congregation to become absorbed in the attentive chanting of the holy names. And everything that is facilitating the Kirtan should be for that purpose. They should not distract us from taking shelter of the holy name, but rather they should facilitate us in complement the holy name of the Lord. If the instruments are so loud that you cannot hear the holy name of the Lord, then the instruments are unfavorable. If the instruments are being played and they induce the devotees, to become more absorbed in hearing and chanting Harinam that is the purpose being served. Similarly dancing, if our dancing is a proud show or a violent athletic exhibition, which is endangering the innocent, then however transcendental we may say it is, the real transcendental level is depending on our consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to dance gracefully tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā, [Cc. Adi. 17.31] listen carefully, amāninā māna-dena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ [Cc. Adi. 17.31]. We should dance with respect to everyone else in the Kirtan, we shouldn’t be spinning around, punching them in the eyes [devotees laugh] and then saying, “Prabhu it’s transcendental.” [devotees laugh] We should dance in a respectful, graceful way. It is not an athletic exhibition, but it’s a gracious offering with the limbs of our body to Krishna, when you dance. So everything in Kirtan should be for that purpose, to help people to become more and more and more absorbed in Harinam. Because that is the Yuga- Dharma, vompers is not the Yuga-Dharma, loud Mridanga drums is not the Yuga-Dharma. These are associates of the holy name; they are there to help us to take shelter of the holy name. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used these instruments especially for that purpose. In so many of our activities in life, sometimes what we are doing, we become so absorbed in that we forget what we are doing it for and who we are doing it for, that is always an impediment, that can be an impediment in any type of devotional service.  We have to keep our mind fixed on the goal. The goal of Harinam Sankirtan is to please Krishna by inducing everyone to become absorbed and glorifying his all purifying, all attractive holy name, [devotees] hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare. 

In Goloka Vrindavan, we see pictures, paintings of Gopis they are playing Tamburas, they are playing Mridangas, they are playing Kartals, but it’s all to give pleasure to Radha and Krishna, because their enjoyment is the center of all of their musical instruments, their pleasure is enjoyment of all their beautiful dancing, their enjoyment is the purpose. That is the Kirtan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, we should not lose the goal. That’s one reason we dance and chant in front of the deities, the deities are there to remind us that you are dancing for us, not for your egos, not for your musical taste, not to express your passionate natures, not to get revenge on some Godbrother that you don’t like, the purpose is to please us. And Srila Prabhupada taught us how to play Mridangas, how to play Kartals, how to dance in such a way that everyone enthused and enliven to please to Krishna. And what is the Mahamantra? It’s Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, Hare is Srimati Radharani. Krishna, Rama as Shyamsundar, pleasure of the holy name. Therefore, Kirtans should be very graceful, the focus should not be on the instruments, the focus should be on Harinam. Does that answer your question? And when we are chanting the holy name in Kirtan, we should all be like children crying out for mother taking shelter of the holy names. [devotees] hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare. At the time of death, you should not be thinking of the beats of the Mridangas or the clangs of the vompers. We should be thinking about the holy name, and that is our Kirtans should be practiced for that moment of death. Hare Krishna!

[Other speaker speaks 1.40.49 – 1.59.49.]