# Back to Godhead Magazine #40 *2006 (01)* Back to Godhead Magazine #40-01, 2006 PDF-View ## Welcome Śrīla Prabhupāda’s lecture opening this issue discusses some of the evidence for Lord Kṛṣṇa’s supremacy. This issue also brings you the essence of the *Bhagavad-gītā* in a few pages. As a book reviewer might say, the *Bhagavad-gītā* is essential reading—for every human being. In “The Gita Condensed,” Kalakantha Dāsa draws on Lord Kṛṣṇa’s words and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s insightful commentary to create a concise, highly readable rendition of this great work. In “The Scriptural Basis for the Greatest of All Mantras,” Satyaraja Dāsa provides scriptural support for another activity essential for all human beings, namely chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. As we chant Kṛṣṇa’s names, our love for him and everything dear to him grows, and Ananga Rādhā Devī Dāsī, in “At Home in Kṛṣṇa’s Land,” shares with us some of the emotions she felt on her first visit to Vṛndāvana. Lord Kṛṣṇa wants to help us reach the highest levels of love for him, so he sends us tests in life that help purify our hearts. That’s the theme of Arcana Siddhi Devī Dāsī’s article “Cleansing the Temple of the Heart.” And Caitanya Carana Dāsa discusses the relationship between ordinary morality and the pristine spiritual morality of Kṛṣṇa and his pure devotees. Hare Kṛṣṇa. —*Nagaraja Dāsa, Editor* Our Purposes • To help all people discern reality from illusion, spirit from matter, the eternal from the temporary. • To expose the faults of materialism. • To offer guidance in the Vedic techniques of spiritual life. • To preserve and spread the Vedic culture. • To celebrate the chanting of the holy names of God as taught by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. • To help every living being remember and serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. ## Letters *Any Path to God?* I have heard in many spiritual lectures that the *jiva* is part and parcel of Paramatma and that after successfully controlling the mind and senses one can, as told by Rsabhadeva, merge into God to attain *moksa,* or relief from the cycle of death and birth. Moreover, there are many avatars, and although Kṛṣṇa in the *Gita* says to surrender unto him, he also says that we will reach him by praying to any god. Many gurus in India have taught that one may concentrate on the form or name of any god. Why does ISKCON focus only on Kṛṣṇa? Are ISKCON members like the Christians and Muslims who insist that there is no salvation unless you obey the Bible or the Koran? K. Sarma Via the Internet *Our Reply*: It is true that the *jiva* soul is a part of Paramatma (Supersoul), as Lord Kṛṣṇa says in *Bhagavad-gītā* 15.7, but Kṛṣṇa does not tell us to “merge into God,” but to go to the spiritual world and be with God. In the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* (5.5.6) Lord Rsabhadeva says, “Until one has love for Lord Vasudeva, . . . he is certainly not delivered from having to accept a material body again and again.” Rsabhadeva uses the word *vasudeve,* which means “unto Vasudeva (Kṛṣṇa).” He does not say unto any god or goddess that you like. Only through love of Vasudeva can we get liberation. In *Bhagavad-gītā* 7.20–23, Lord Kṛṣṇa discourages worship of the demigods, concluding: “Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but my devotees ultimately reach my supreme planet.” In verses 9.23–25 he repeats the same points. Thus it is not a fact that Kṛṣṇa says that worshiping any god yields the same result. What you are presenting is a popular misconception of the truth spoken by Kṛṣṇa. In ISKCON we accept the authority of Kṛṣṇa, not some popular gurus who misrepresent him. Only the Supreme Lord can give salvation, not any other Deity. So if the Bible and the Koran teach us to worship the Supreme Lord, and if people follow this good advice, they can attain salvation. Similarly, because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, he can give salvation. Unfortunately, many swamis and so-called gurus who present philosophies that disagree with the *Bhagavad-gītā* have created great confusion and led people away from the simple teaching of *Bhagavad-gītā*: pure devotion to the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. *Motherhood As Devotional Service* Reading the article “What do Hare Kṛṣṇa Women Do?” [Sep/Oct 2005] left me wondering, with all respect, where is the Vedic role model of women as mothers and homemakers? When children are grown, women may do some substantial service for the temple. But aren’t motherhood and homemaking services of great importance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if, for the time being, a woman can’t do much substantial service for the temple? Kausalya Devī Dāsī Via the Internet *Karuna Dharini Devī Dāsī Replies:* I very much appreciate your question. In writing the article I mainly wanted to portray what women do as service at a temple. I did not present the important Kṛṣṇa conscious role of woman in the home as wife and mother; however, it is perhaps the most essential foundation for a spiritual society. We know everything starts at home. A regular *arati* offering before a home altar has the energy to radiate throughout a household, to touch the lives of everyone you associate with, directly or indirectly. Home *kirtana* strengthens every family member who has to go off to work or school so he or she can face materialistic association. A wife and mother must be convinced of the importance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the home. For a family that is always coming and going in and out of materialistic association, as most do, her stability and devotion are an anchor in the ocean of *maya.* And women doing temple services can be an example for her of practices that she can take up in her day-to-day life in the home. *Service Mixed with Offenses* I know a man who commits all kinds of offenses. He does not even try for liberation from his karma. Yet he chants almost daily, offers incense, and attends temple services now and then. He does these things because he likes to, with no thought of reward. He is always telling others that the temple is so beautiful, and he has taken many there. He tells others that spiritual life is good, but he does not follow the rules, even though he has some feelings of love for God. So what happens to such a man? Are his actions rejected by Kṛṣṇa? Why would such a sinner find himself chanting for no reason? Nevan Via the Internet *Our Reply*: Lord Kṛṣṇa is very merciful and is inclined to give us many chances to improve ourselves. He also overlooks the devotee’s faults and takes seriously his devotional service. Because of his past service to Kṛṣṇa, the man you speak of has some attraction to devotional activities, but his offenses prohibit him from performing them steadily, so his progress will be slow. If he offends the devotees regularly, Kṛṣṇa will protect him (from making more offenses) by taking him away from the association of devotees, and he will probably become more materialistic, until he recognizes his mistake and becomes repentant. If his offenses are minor, he will be able to stay in the association of devotees and gradually improve. Whatever devotional service he does is for his eternal benefit, and his offenses will have a temporary negative reaction. *Source of Negative Thoughts* What should we follow—our mind or our heart? Does Kṛṣṇa give power to the mind to think? If so, why do we get negative thoughts? Vijay Raj Via the Internet *Our Reply*: Should we follow our mind or our heart? We should follow God. God is in our heart, but until our heart is pure, we cannot see God and get his pure dictation. So we chant the holy name of God to purify our heart. And we follow God’s representatives and his instructions as given in scripture. Kṛṣṇa gives us the power to think, but we create our particular thoughts by our past positive and negative activities. Kṛṣṇa also gives us free will to cultivate positive or negative thoughts at the present moment and change our destiny. We can also choose to surrender to Kṛṣṇa’s advice in *Bhagavad-gītā,* become free from all our karma, and attain the spiritual world. *What Is “Worship”?* I am a graduate student doing my masters in architecture at the University of Arizona. My thesis is basically trying to extract what makes a spiritual place spiritual. Māyāpur is one of my case studies. My question is “What is worship?” and how can I best put it in an academic viewpoint. Varshas Tuczon, Arizona *Our reply:* Here are two references that may help answer your question. The first is from Dr. Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University. In a 1979 article in *Back to Godhead* (#14-10), entitled “Kṛṣṇa Consciousness in Historical Perspective,” she wrote: “What is worship? It is not elaborate ritual which only a few can afford, but simple offerings to God, made with a pure heart. As Kṛṣṇa explains to Arjuna: ‘Whoever offers to me a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water with devotion [*bhakti*], that person’s offering of love made with a pure heart do I accept.’ (Bg. 9.26)” In his purport to *Bhagavad-gītā* 6.47, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes about worship and the special exclusive worship due the Supreme Lord: “Worship means to adore, or to show respect and honor to the worthy one. But service with love and faith is especially meant for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can avoid worshiping a respectable man or a demigod and may be called discourteous, but one cannot avoid serving the Supreme Lord without being thoroughly condemned.” These quotations give some insight into worship from the academic and devotional points of view. Please write to us at: BTG, P.O. Box 430, Alachua, FL 32616, USA. Email: [email protected]. Except where otherwise noted, replies to the letters were written by Kṛṣṇa-krpa Dāsa. *Correction* Our “Guest Editorial” in the last issue reported that a team of devotees from Houston rescued the Deities in New Orleans. The rescue team was actually from Dallas, and the tractor-trailer they used was owned and driven by Daruka Dāsa of Dallas. Founder’s Lecture: Lord Kṛṣṇa: The One Above All Others *Māyāpur, India—March 9, 1974* The authoritative scriptures and saints in the Vedic tradition agree that Kṛṣṇa stands above all others, with no competition. by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness > svayam bhagavan krsna ekale isvara > advitiya, nandatmaja, rasika-sekhara “Kṛṣṇa, the reservoir of all pleasure, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself, the supreme controller. No one is greater than or equal to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, yet he appears as the son of Mahārāja Nanda.”—*Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Adi-līlā* 7.7 WHATEVER Kaviraja Gosvami is speaking is not out of his own whimsy. Whatever he’s speaking, he’s following the *parampara* system of disciplic succession. That is the requirement of Vaisnavism, or the requirement for being an **acarya*,* or *guru*. *Ācāryavan puruso veda:* Unless we accept the *acarya* in the *parampara* system, we cannot understand things as they are. It is not possible. Kaviraja Gosvami is writing the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta* strictly according to the verdict of the *sastras,* the scriptures. His statement is that Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. *Svayam bhagavan krsna.* Bhagavan is a person. Bhagavan is not impersonal. *Brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate* [*Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 1.2.11]: The first realization of the Absolute Truth, by speculative knowledge, is the impersonal effulgence of the Lord, which is called the *brahmajyoti.* The next realization is the Paramatma, the localized aspect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But realization of Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate realization. *Svayam bhagavan krsna.* Bhagavan means “possessor of opulence,” specifically one full in six opulences. Nobody is richer than Bhagavan, nobody is stronger than Bhagavan, nobody is more beautiful than Bhagavan, nobody is wiser than Bhagavan, and nobody is more renounced than Bhagavan. That is Bhagavan. *Aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sri-yah . . .* [*Visnu Purana* 6.5.74]. That is Bhagavan. He is fully opulent, not partially. For example, he knows everything. Kṛṣṇa says in the *Bhagavad-gītā*—*vedaham samatitani* [7.26]—that he knows past, present, and future. He says, therefore, “My dear Arjuna, it is not that you, I, and all the soldiers and kings assembled here were not existing before. We are existing at the present moment also, and in the future also we shall continue to exist.” And how shall we exist? Individually. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa would have said that in the future when we become liberated we shall become one. No. He says, “Even in the future we shall continue to exist like this. You are an individual. You are Arjuna. I am Kṛṣṇa. And all other living entities are also individuals.” That is the real understanding. Every one of us living entities is an individual person, and Kṛṣṇa is also an individual person. That is knowledge. > nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam > eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman > [Katha Upanisad 2.2.13] “The Lord is the supreme eternal among innumerable eternals and the supreme living being among the innumerable living beings. He maintains all others.” Kṛṣṇa, or God, is eternal, and we are also eternal. *Na hanyate hanyamane sarire* [*Bhagavad-gītā* 2.20]. We do not die. That is the preliminary spiritual understanding: “I am not this body. I am spirit—*aham brahmasmi*—but I am an individual.” Kṛṣṇa is an individual person; I am also an individual person. Kṛṣṇa says *sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja:* “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me. [*Bhagavad-gītā* 18.66]. That does not mean that I will become one with Kṛṣṇa or merge into his existence. I keep my individuality, and Kṛṣṇa keeps his individuality, but I agree to abide by his order. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [18.63], “I have spoken to you everything. Now what is your decision?” As an individual, Arjuna has a choice. It is not that Kṛṣṇa is forcing Arjuna. *Yathecchasi tatha kuru:* “Now whatever you like, you can do.” That is individuality. *Merging into Kṛṣṇa’s Order* This is the ultimate knowledge. To “become one” or “merge into the existence” means to merge into the order of Kṛṣṇa. Our individuality at the present moment is *maya,* illusion. We are planning so many things, and therefore your individuality and my individuality clash. But when there will be no more clashing—when we shall agree that the central point is Kṛṣṇa—that is oneness. Not that we lose our individuality. As it is stated in all Vedic literature and as spoken by Kṛṣṇa, we are all individuals. But the difference is that he is the supreme ruler: *svayam bhagavan ekale isvara.* He is a ruler, and we are also rulers, but we are subordinate rulers. Therefore He is *ekale isvara,* “the one ruler.” The *Brahma-saṁhitā* [5.1] says, *isvarah paramah krsnah:* “The supreme ruler is Kṛṣṇa.” *Isvara*, the ruler, cannot be many. The Mayavada philosophy that everyone is God is not the right conclusion. Kṛṣṇa says, *na mam duskrtino mudhah* [*Bhagavad-gītā* 7.15]. If one does not submit to the supreme *isvara,* the Supreme Lord, you should know perfectly well that “Here is a *mudha,* a rascal.” Because it is not that everyone can become *isvara.* That is not possible. There is then no meaning to *isvara.* *Isvara* means the ruler. We are in a group, our International Society. But if everyone becomes the ruler or *acarya,* then how can it be managed? No. There must be some head. That is the principle in our practical life. We follow our political leaders. Unless I follow the leader, I cannot say, “I belong to this party.” That is natural. That is the Vedic statement: *nityo **nitya*nam* cetanas cetananam.* There must be one leader. That leader is of the same quality as I. I am **nitya*,* eternal, and Kṛṣṇa is **nitya*.* Kṛṣṇa is a living entity; I am also a living entity. So what is the difference between Kṛṣṇa and me? The difference is that there are two **nitya*s* or two *cetanas.* One is described as singular, and the other is described as plural. *Nityo **nitya*nam*.* This **nitya*nam* is plural, and *nitya* is singular. So God is *nitya*—one, singular—and we are being ruled. We are plural. That is the difference. *The One Supplying Everything* And how is he ruling the plural in number? *Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman:* He’s supplying all their necessities of life. Therefore he’s *isvara,* he’s Kṛṣṇa, he’s God. The one who provides all the necessities of life is *isvara.* He’s Kṛṣṇa, he’s God. We can very well understand that we are being maintained by Kṛṣṇa. And why should we not be ruled by him? Now, you can see in this country, in this village, Māyāpur, that so many food grains are growing, but who is supplying? That is Kṛṣṇa. It is not possible to grow these food grains in your factory. No. That is not possible. Kṛṣṇa is helping us. He has stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [3.14], *annad bhavanti bhutani.* Unless you eat sufficiently, unless you have food grains in stock, you cannot flourish. *Bhavanti* means flourishing. Both animals and men must eat sufficiently. There must be enough food grain. You cannot manufacture food grain in your factory. You may start a very big factory—Goodyear tire factory—but that tire will not move when there is no supply of petrol. This is your position. You are dependent even for tires and petrol, and what to speak of food grains. Who is supplying the food grains? *Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman:* that singular number individual person. He is supplying. You can say that *prakrti,* or nature, is supplying. No. Nature is not supplying. Nature is the agent of supply. The real supplier is Kṛṣṇa. That is also stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [9.10]: *mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram.* Nature is working under the instruction or the indication of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. In *Brahma-saṁhitā* [5.44] it is stated, > srsti-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka > chayeva yasya bhuvanani bibharti durga > icchanurupam api yasya ca cestate sa > govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami “The external potency Maya, who is of the nature of the shadow of the *cit* potency, is worshiped by all people as Durga, the creating, preserving, and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, in accordance with whose will Durga conducts herself.” Nature is dependent, although nature has got very extensive power—*srsti-sthiti-pralaya*—to create, to maintain, and to annihilate. Nature has such power, and therefore she is called Durga, Durga Devi. In Bengal there is a great, pompous Durga-puja, Durga festival. That is nature worship. But nature is *yasya ajnaya:* She is working under the order of Kṛṣṇa. It is not that we Vaisnavas do not care for Durga Devi, as some people say. No. We offer her all respect because she is the agent of Kṛṣṇa, but we do not accept foolishly that Durga is all in all. No. That we do not accept. Durga is the working agent of Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa also confirms this: *mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram.* Therefore Kṛṣṇa is the supreme *isvara,* controller. Durga is conducting the activities of the material nature. But those who are *mudhas* are captivated by the wonderful action of material nature. They are materialists. *Tribhir guna-mayair bhavaih . . . mohitam.* That is stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [7.13]. They are bewildered. Nature’s business is to keep you a fool always. And if you can surpass the bewilderment of material nature, if you agree to be controlled by the supreme controller, then your life is successful. Therefore the author of the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta* writes, “Here is the one controller, *ekala.*” And Kṛṣṇa says, *mam ekam:* “Me alone.” Not an imitation Kṛṣṇa. Then you’ll be befooled. Understanding the Verdict of Scripture The verdict of all the **sastra*,* scriptures, is the same. It is simply our misfortune that we do not understand the verdict of the **sastra*.* In the *sastra* everything is there. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. That is the verdict of the **sastra*.* It is stated in the *Brahma-saṁhitā.* And it is also stated in the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* [1.3.28]: > ete camsa-kalah pumsah > krsnas tu bhagavan svayam > indrari-vyakulam lokam > mrdayanti yuge yuge “All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.” And in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [7.7] Kṛṣṇa says, *mattah parataram nanyat:* “Nothing is superior to me.” Don’t think that there is something superior to Kṛṣṇa. That is rascaldom. As long as we remain such rascals, we shall not surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says [*Bhagavad-gītā* 7.15], > na mam duskrtino mudhah > prapadyante naradhamah > mayayapahrta-jnana > asuram bhavam asritah “Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto me.” Who does not surrender to Kṛṣṇa? You’ll say, “There are so many big, big persons, and they do not surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So are they all *mudhas*?” Yes, they are all *mudhas*. That is the verdict of the *sastra.* We cannot make any compromise. That is not possible. We cannot go against the principle of the *sastra.* If you keep a competitor of Kṛṣṇa, then you are a *mudha.* *No Competitor* In today’s verse it is said *advitiya,* “without a second.” Not that there is another Kṛṣṇa. No. There cannot be any competitor of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, *mattah parataram nanyat:* “There is no bigger authority than I.” And here Kaviraja Gosvami says *advitiya:* no competitor. Someone may say, “Everyone is God.” But there is competition among such “Gods.” But in the case of Kṛṣṇa, there is no such possibility, no competition. Nobody can compete with Kṛṣṇa, as he showed by practical example when he was present. Nobody could compete with him in knowledge, strength, love affairs, or any field of activity. There was no competition. When Kṛṣṇa was present, he married sixteen thousand wives. Where is the competition? A person who cannot marry even sixteen wives claims that he has become God. Just see the foolishness. Even from the materialistic point of view, who is that god who can marry sixteen thousand wives? Is there any possibility? Kṛṣṇa showed that he could. From his very childhood, when Kṛṣṇa was three months old, Putana tried to kill him. But he killed her. Similarly, Agh*asura*, Bak*asura*, this *asura* [demon], that *asura*. From the beginning of Kṛṣṇa’s life, Kamsa and others from among the rogues, the *asura*s, were making plans to kill Kṛṣṇa. Even before Kṛṣṇa’s birth Kamsa was planning, “As soon as Kṛṣṇa is born, I will kill him.” Kamsa wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa’s mother Devaki, but Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa’s father, argued, “Don’t do this. Your sister’s son has been prophesied to kill you, but your sister will not kill you. So let the son be born. Then I shall bring him to you.” Kamsa believed the honorable words of Vasudeva because he knew, “Vasudeva is a very respectable, honorable man, and he has promised that the child will be brought to me.” So Kamsa refrained from killing Devaki, his sister. Still, he was such a cruel person that he was ready to kill his own sister. The rogues and cruel persons do not care even for their mother or sister. They can kill anyone. That is their rogueism. Kamsa was that type of rogue. But Vasudeva, by his intelligence, saved the situation. And as an honorable person, he brought all the children to Kamsa. You know this history. *God Is Not Dead* The plan of Kamsa and the *asuras* is how to kill Kṛṣṇa, or God. That is going on. Everyone says, “God is dead. God is dead.” When I first went to America, the philosophy was “God is dead.” But in a newspaper report they admitted, “No, God is living. Swamiji has brought him in *sankirtana* [the chanting of God’s names].” God cannot be dead. If we are not ever dead—*na hanyate hanyamane sarire* [*Bhagavad-gītā* 2.20]—how can God be dead? That is another foolishness. God cannot be dead. He is *nitya,* eternal. This is the position of Kṛṣṇa: He is the Supreme Person, the supreme ruler without any competitor. *Advitiya:* no competition. Here we have got competition, but for Kṛṣṇa there is no competition. There cannot be any competition. You cannot say that Lord Siva or Lord Brahma or any other demigods are as good as Kṛṣṇa, equally. No. That is not possible. Then Kaviraja Gosvami would not have used the word *advitiya.* There cannot be any competition. If somebody puts any competitor before Kṛṣṇa, he’s a *pasandi.* > yas tu narayanam devam > brahma-rudradi-daivataih > samatvenaiva vikseta > sa pasandi bhaved dhruvam "A *pāṣaṇḍī* is one who considers the great demigods such as Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa." (*Hari-bhakti-vilāsa* 1.117) What to speak of gods such as Indra and Candra, even Lord Siva and Brahma, the creator of the universe, cannot be compared to Kṛṣṇa. *Advitiya.* Cannot be compared. So those who say, “All the demigods and Kṛṣṇa are on the same level; you can worship anyone”they are all rascals. Because here it is said *advitiya:* Kṛṣṇa cannot be compared to anyone else. That is Kṛṣṇa. **Isvarah paramah krsnah*.* Others may be *isvara,* rulers. Lord Siva may be *isvara,* Lord Brahma may be *isvara,* but they cannot be parama *isvara,* the supreme ruler. That is not possible. Paramesvara is Kṛṣṇa. **Isvarah paramah krsnah*.* But, at the same time, Kṛṣṇa is Nandatmaja, the son of Nanda, and Vasudevatmaja, the son of Vasudeva. That is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, his dealings between himself and his devotees. Nobody can become Kṛṣṇa’s father, because he is the original father—*aham adir hi devanam* [*Bhagavad-gītā* 10.2]. But he agrees to become the son of his devotee. That is called devotional dealings. Nobody can become the father of Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. He is the original father. *Aham bija-pradah pita* [*Bhagavad-gītā* 14.4]. Then how can he be Nandatmaja? How can Nanda Mahārāja become the father of Kṛṣṇa? That means Nanda wanted to become the best servant of Kṛṣṇa. When I become the father of my child, I am actually the best servant of the child. You see that the children is moving and the mother is taking care of the child. So the mother is the best servant of the child. This is Vaisnava philosophy. Others want to become one with the God, but we keep ourselves always as servants of God. And to become the best servant of God includes becoming his father or mother. Therefore a devotee prayed, > srutim apare smrtim itare > bharatam anye bhajantu > bhava-bhitah > aham iha nandam vande > yasyalinde param brahma “Let others, fearing material existence, worship the *Vedas,* the Vedic supplementary *Puranas,* and the *Mahābhārata,* but I shall worship Nanda Mahārāja, in whose courtyard the Supreme Brahman is crawling.” That is the superior position of Nanda Mahārāja. Ordinary men cannot understand it. But Vaisnava philosophy is so nice that instead of becoming one with the Supreme, the Vaisnavas want to become the father of the Supreme. That is Vaisnava philosophy. Such relationships are pleasurable for Kṛṣṇa. As a son, Kṛṣṇa wants to be subordinate to his devotee so that he may be punished. He is punishing everyone, but he wants to be punished also. That is his pleasure. And who will punish him? His father and mother, superiors. Or his superior lover, Rādhārāṇī, can punish him. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very scientific and sublime. Try to understand. Always read the books. Don’t try to understand Kṛṣṇa in an ordinary way. In the *Bhagavad-gītā* [7.3] Kṛṣṇa says, > manusyanam sahasresu > kascid yatati siddhaye > yatatam api siddhanam > kascid mam vetti tattvatah “Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows me in truth.” To understand Kṛṣṇa is not so easy, but if you follow the *mahajanas,* the great souls, if you try to understand the philosophy through the *parampara* system, then you’ll realize Kṛṣṇa, and your life will be successful. Thank you very much. ## Cleansing the Temple of the Heart *The tests that Kṛṣṇa sends are meant to purify our heart and make it a fit place for him to reside.* *By Arcana Siddhi Devī Dāsī* I STILL REMEMBER hearing my teachers announce to the class, “Please put all of your books and notes away, and I’ll pass out the exam.” I’d feel a rush of adrenalin and a mix of anticipation and fear. The palms of my hands would become clammy, and I’d wipe them on my pants. I’d mentally scan all the notes I had crammed the night before and think how I should have studied more. When the exam appeared on my desk, I’d take a deep breath. Essays, multiple-choice questions, and some true and false. In general, I did well on exams, but despite that, even to this day I have dreams of going into a class totally unprepared for the examination or of my mind going completely blank as I stare at the questions. These commonplace anxiety dreams often bring to the conscious mind our fear of failure. I’m no longer a student in the classroom, where my success hinged on my ability to read, comprehend, and memorize. Now a lifelong student of *bhakti-yoga,* my success depends on the Lord’s mercy and my endeavor to make steady progress in my spiritual practices. Every moment of every day I’m taking a series of experiential exams. Am I choosing to do something favorable for advancing in my spiritual life, or am I choosing something unfavorable? Sometimes when I’m doing a service for the Lord, my mind thinks about many other things, or my attitude about the service is steeped in material consciousness. For example, I recently went into the kitchen to cook an offering for the Lord. I was tired from having been up late the night before with a guest who had come for the Sunday program at the temple. My husband had also been up late and hadn’t had a chance to clean the kitchen. My mind rebelled at the thought of having to clean the kitchen and then cook. I accepted the service, but not with the proper mood. While I plunged the pots into the sink of sudsy water, I could feel the resentment in my chest. I begrudgingly washed the dishes and wiped down the counters. After it was done, I stopped to examine myself. The kitchen was clean, but my heart was contaminated by my poor attitude. I hadn’t passed the test. One thing I have learned from thirty years of practicing *bhakti-yoga* is that Kṛṣṇa will very soon let me take the exam again. I’ll have many opportunities to get this one right. These tests are taking place on the stage of *bhakti-yoga* called *anartha *nivrtti*. Anarthas* are unwanted things such as lust, greed, anger, misconceptions, and false values within the heart, and *nivrtti* means to clear away. In this clearing stage, we constantly confront situations orchestrated by Kṛṣṇa for our spiritual growth. We can get help by looking to the examples of great devotees, who show us how to react to difficult situations and what our proper frame of mind should be. Kṛṣṇa himself also guides us, such as when he appeared as Caitanya Mahāprabhu five hundred years ago. Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa entwined with the sentiments and emotions of his topmost devotee, Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mission was to teach us how to obtain very deep loving feelings for the Lord. To fill our hearts with pure loving emotion, all the negative, impure emotions and thoughts must be purged. Lord Caitanya prescribed a most effective way to clean the heart: chanting the pure names of God. In his commentary on *Caitanya-caritāmṛta,* Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati Ṭhākura explains how one of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes illustrates how carefully we must rid our hearts of all impurities. Lord Caitanya took many of his followers to clean the Gundicha temple in preparation for Lord Jagannatha’s visit there during the annual Rathayatra festival in Puri. First, the devotees collected and threw out all the large pieces of debris. Then they swept up smaller and smaller pieces of straw, dirt, and dust. With each successive sweeping, smaller and smaller pieces of dirt and dust remained. Finally, the devotees thoroughly cleaned the temple with hundreds upon hundreds of pots of water. Throughout the process the devotees chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra* while they cleaned. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati Ṭhākura writes that the cleansing of the temple can be seen a metaphor for cleaning the heart of all unwanted things, even the most subtle. *The Debris of Pride* When we start practicing *bhakti-yoga* and chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, very prominent material attachments become visible. If we are fortunate, those attachments leave our heart, like thieves disappearing at the first glimpse of daybreak. When I first became a serious student on the *bhakti* path, I moved into a Hare Kṛṣṇa community. The first ugly and unwanted debris I encountered in my heart was my false pride. Most of the young women and men living in the community were younger and less educated than I. Some had dropped out of high school to join Prabhupāda’s mission, whereas I had finished college and was a graduate student. Chanting helped me at once to see that my pride was an impediment to developing love for the Lord and his devotees. I intensified my prayers to become free of this pride. Shortly after, a very wonderful thing happened. For a period of time, perhaps weeks, Kṛṣṇa took away my ability to do even simple tasks. I was able to realize clearly that I had nothing to be proud of and that whatever abilities I had were all the Lord’s mercy. Kṛṣṇa can give and he can take away—whatever will aid the devotee’s progress. Caitanya Mahāprabhu would often help people recognize some internal impediment to their achieving devotion to the Lord. Those who were sincere would be grateful to him for exposing dirty things in their heart. Once a great scholar named Keshava Kashmiri visited the town of Navadvipa, where Lord Caitanya, then known as Nimai Pandita, lived. At that time Nimai was teaching elementary grammar to children. So great was Keshava Kashmiri’s learning that he intimidated everyone. No one dared challenge him to debate. But sixteen-year-old Nimai Pandita, seeing the pride of the scholar, decided to challenge him. His intention was not to discredit the *pandita,* but rather to purify his heart of pride so that love of God could manifest. The Lord met Keshava Kashmiri alone and critiqued his poetic composition glorifying the Ganges River. When Lord Caitanya found many faults in the poetry, the scholar became morose. In a dream that night, Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, informed Keshava Kashmiri that Nimai Pandita was the Supreme Lord and that he should surrender to him. Because of the scholar’s good fortune, he was able to go before the Lord and give up his materialistic mentality and pursuits. Sometimes we tenaciously hold on to our negative qualities even while the Lord expertly tries to pry them from us. As a way to justify keeping a coveted attachment, we might leave the association of Kṛṣṇa’s devotees. The company of devotees is extremely important for spiritual advancement, but Kṛṣṇa will keep us in that company only as long as we have faith in the practices of *bhakti-yoga.* With faith, we can successfully pass examinations and make steady spiritual advancement. As we advance, our *anarthas* become more and more subtle, like the sand and dust particles in the final stages of cleaning the Gundicha temple. They become more difficult to detect and easier to cover up. But before the Lord will agree to come and sit in our hearts, they also must be removed. Sometimes after spending many hours cleaning our homes, we might be tempted to forgo the last details and feel content with what we did. But the goal of **bhakti*-yoga* isn’t to be content with an almost clean heart. Rather, a purified heart sets the stage for the real goal of *bhakti* practices: love of God. If we stop short of this goal, we have done ourselves a great disservice. Reflecting on my episode in the kitchen, I think about the attitude that would have been more favorable for cultivating love of God. I could have recognized that my husband was an instrument to test my devotion to Kṛṣṇa. The people closest to us often serve us in that way. I could have remembered that this is the Lord’s kitchen and to be able to clean it is a privilege. If I had embraced the service in that mood, I would have come a step a closer to realizing my eternal loving relationship with Kṛṣṇa. But, as I mentioned earlier, Kṛṣṇa will give me another opportunity to jump this hurdle. *Arcana Siddhi Devī Dāsī was initiated by Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1976. She lives with her husband and son in Sandy Ridge, North Carolina, where she works as a family therapist. She is a frequent contributor to* Back to Godhead. ## Śrīla Prabhupāda Speaks Out *“Bhagavad-gītā Is Meant For Giving the Real Cure”* This conversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and social worker Ashoka Chugani took place in Mumbai, India, on January 8, 1977. Mr. Chugani: I feel that your movement is doing very valuable work here in India. Perhaps you know of our success, also. We are making arrangements for many villagers in the outlying areas around Bombay to receive greatly needed eye operations. We have facilities for 5,200 patients. Śrīla Prabhupāda: We are following *Bhagavad-gītā* as it is. *Bhagavad-gītā* doesn’t teach that you help the people by taking care of their eyes. Kṛṣṇa does not give us any such philosophy in *Bhagavad-gītā*. That is your own idea. But we are applying *Bhagavad-gītā* as it is. That is the difference between your work and ours. Our program is, instead of giving relief only to the eyes, we give people real relief. If you give a man Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he won’t have to take another birth in this material world. That means no more material bodies—no more eyes, no more disease. This is real relief from suffering. Somebody’s taking care of the eyes, somebody’s taking care of the stomach, somebody the teeth, somebody something else, on and on. But this will not solve the problem. The real problem, *Bhagavad-gītā* says, is *janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi*—birth, death, old age, and disease. Because you took birth, you have these eyes, so you’re bound to have eye disease. Birth, death, old age, and disease: because you have accepted birth, you must accept old age, disease, and death. Hospitals may give some temporary relief, but that is not the solution. The solution is to stop birth, death, old age, and disease. If you are able to give that solution, then there will be no more eye trouble, ever. Suppose a diseased man goes to a doctor for treatment. His symptoms are sometimes headache, sometimes eye-ache, sometimes stomachache. Now, if the doctor gives medicine only for the symptoms, is that the cure? No. This man has a disease, and if you cure the disease, the symptoms will be cured automatically. Similarly, everyone within the material world is suffering from repeated birth and death. But *Bhagavad-gītā* is meant for giving the real cure—how not to take another birth in the material world. Kṛṣṇa’s advice in the *Bhagavad-gītā* is that we tolerate this temporary suffering. Just as your body is not permanent, so your diseases are also not permanent. You should tolerate the temporary suffering and solve the real problem—you must stop your repetition of birth and death. But people do not know that birth and death can be stopped, so they are simply busy with the temporary problems. The *Gita* explains how, on leaving his body at the time of death, one can go back home, back to Godhead—*tyak-tva deham punar janma naiti mam eti.* No more birth in the material world—that is the real cure for all suffering. Mr. Chugani: What about the problem of starvation? We are working to solve . . . Śrīla Prabhupāda: Starvation? This is not a problem. The *Vedas* say, *nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam/ eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman.* God is perfectly providing food for all living beings. If someone is not getting any food, that is a blessing. It is God’s arrangement to correct him. Suppose a child is diseased and his father does not give him any food to eat. That is not starvation—it is his father’s blessing. It is the cure. Why should the child complain? The so-called starvation problem is just a mental concoction. But we don’t concoct anything; we get our knowledge from the scriptures. *Tat te ’nu-kampam susamiksamano bhunjana evatma-krtam vipakam:* if a devotee of the Lord is starving, he doesn’t complain. He takes it as God’s blessing. “I did something wrong, so God has put me into this difficulty. It is his blessing.” This is our view; this is scripture. People often ask this question: “How can God be unkind to some people and kind to others? It’s unjust.” But this is foolishness. God is not unjust; God is good, but people do not understand God. Because you are unintelligent, when you see that people are starving you say that God is not good. But the fact is that you are not good. Each man’s suffering is simply his own fault. So a devotee takes suffering as Kṛṣṇa’s blessing, and because a devotee is thinking like that, his liberation is guaranteed (*mukti-pade sa daya-bhak*). Mr. Chugani: The ways of God in the world are difficult for us to understand. They do seem unjust. Śrīla Prabhupāda: Actually, you don’t believe in God. And this godlessness is the real problem. You only believe in God if God is your servant and order supplier. “God, if you don’t help me, I won’t serve you.” People think of God as their servant and order supplier. One of my Godbrothers—from Germany—told me that in the Second World War, when the men of Germany went to fight, all the women were left at home. So, they went to the church and prayed to God that their husbands, their fathers, and their sons would return home. But none of them returned home, and the people all became atheists. “Ah, it is useless to go to the church! I prayed so much for my husband, but he did not come. It is useless!” So this is their understanding of God. When the war was declared, they didn’t consult God. But when their husband is going to die, then they petition God. They order God to make their husbands return from the war unharmed. “God did not bring him back. He did not carry out my order. So God is unjust. We’re not interested in God.” And this is the attitude here, also. When people act sinfully, God is never consulted. But when they suffer, then they cry to God. And if he doesn’t supply their order, they become atheists. “God is unjust!” they say. This is their rascaldom. ## The Scriptural Basis For the Greatest of All Mantras *The chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, spread by Śrī Caitanya and his followers, is rooted in ancient Vedic texts.* THE MAIN prayer of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—is translated as “O Lord! O energy of the Lord! Please engage me in your divine service.” It is traditionally known as the *maha-mantra,* or “great mantra,” because it contains yet surpasses all other sacred sounds and because it is a completely pure and selfless prayer; it asks only for service to the Supreme Lord and wants nothing else in return. This being the case, it is surprising that the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam,* the *Bhagavad-gītā,* and the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta,* the three most important texts of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, do not quote the mantra even once. Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in his purports and sometimes in his translations, lets us know when a verse is implying the *maha-mantra,* even if the Sanskrit and Bengali do not explicitly mention it. As an *acarya,* or exemplary teacher in disciplic succession, his explanations incorporate the context of the vast gamut of Vedic teachings, as well as the insights of the saints and sages of the past. While the central texts mentioned above do not include direct references to the **maha-mantra*,* they certainly glorify the chanting of the holy name. But I decided that, for those who want to know, it would be useful to explore the explicit mentions of the *maha-mantra* in scriptural texts. Some of my findings appear below. For the earliest references, I include the Sanskrit, especially for those specialists who may doubt my translation. For later quotes garnered from the Hare Kṛṣṇa or Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, I give only the English, since the entire later tradition would endorse the translations given here. *Why the Silence?* To my knowledge, no *acarya* in our tradition has ever explained just why the central texts neglect to mention the full **maha-mantra*.* Perhaps the *acarya*s considered the question unimportant. After all, our main scriptures glorify the chanting of the holy name, even if the *maha-mantra* is absent. Furthermore, scriptures and teachers in the tradition talk about the confidentiality of certain mantras. Śrī Sanatana Gosvami, for example, writes in his *Dig-darsini* commentary on the *Brhad-Bhagavatamrta* that such mantras should be chanted only by qualified persons who have received them through proper initiation. He says that even when certain scriptures discuss these mantras, special efforts are often made to disguise their exact syllables, or their explanation is purposely made difficult to understand for those unfamiliar with the cryptic codes of transcendental literature. Kṛṣṇadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, the author of the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta,* Śrī Caitanya’s most authoritative biography, expresses a similar idea (*Ādi* 4. 231–232): “All these conclusions are unfit to disclose in public. But if they are not disclosed, no one will understand them. Therefore, I shall mention them, revealing only their essence, so that loving devotees will understand them but fools will not.” In other words, the scriptures and sages sometimes reveal esoteric mantras such as the **maha-mantra*,* and sometimes they don’t. So the question becomes not so much why the central texts do not mention the mantra, but why other texts do. The answer is, as Kṛṣṇadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says, so that sincere souls will be able understand it. Also, great saints, in their ecstasy, are sometimes unable to contain themselves, and so the *maha-mantra* slips through. For these reasons and others, the full mantra appears in sacred texts and in the writings of the sages. That being said, there are no restrictions for chanting the *maha-mantra* and, once properly received, the practice of chanting is easy and blissful. Someone might ask, “Who cares? If the tradition teaches that chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa is central to the practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, why does it matter if the *maha-mantra* is not found in the movement’s most important texts?” In one sense, it doesn’t matter. And yet, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a scripturally based tradition. All truth is gauged by reference to three authorities: the guru, the scriptures, and the sages, especially the great spiritual teachers in the disciplic succession. If these three don’t tally, the tradition teaches, then something is amiss. In the Vaisnava tradition, gurus and sages attest to the importance of the *maha-mantra*. But do the scriptures? A quick reading might suggest that they do not, even if the references are highly suggestive—the most important texts speak of the holy name but never mention the *maha-mantra* directly. It is only in what scholars deem “later” literature that the mantra is generally found. Modern scholars from outside the tradition say that the four *Vedas* and the *Upanisads* constitute the oldest of the Vedic texts (called *sruti*), whereas the *Puranas* and the epics came later. Consequently, so the theory goes, Vaisnavism, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, came later too, for its specific practice is mentioned only in the “later” texts. Scholars arrive at these conclusions by using their own system of checks and balances, one less reliable than the one composed of gurus, sages, and scriptures. They use techniques of comparative and historical linguistics in conjunction with references to texts whose dates are known with greater certainty. Naturally, these methods are open to error, and scholars will generally admit this quite openly. Practitioners and scholars from within the tradition, however, teach that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is eternal and that Vedic texts, whether old or new, are based on an oral tradition revealed at the dawn of time. The *maha-mantra* is certainly part of the Vedic oral tradition. Furthermore, the mantra itself, as well as references to it, can indeed be found in “old” Vedic texts that have survived through the ages. *The Earliest References* (1) The *Kali-santarana Upanisad,* part of the *Yajur Veda,* states: > hare krsna hare krsna > krsna krsna hare hare > hare rama hare rama > rama rama hare hare > iti sodasakam namnam > kali-kalmasa-nasanam > natah parataropayah > sarva-vedesu drsyate “The sixteen names of the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra*—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—destroy the iniquities of the Kali age. This is the ultimate conclusion of all the *Vedas*.” The context of the above quote is important: This Upanisadic text is a dialogue between Brahma, the first created being, and Narada, his disciple, who asks him about the most effective means to attain liberation in the current age. Brahma answers with the above verse. And in a prior verse he informs Narada that the *maha-mantra* is “the real secret of the Vedic literature,” thus underlining the mantra’s confidential nature and its importance for the Vaisnava tradition. (2) The *Rama-tapani Upanisad* (1.6) explains the meaning of the name *Hari* (Hare in the *maha-mantra*): > harati tri-vidham tapam > janma-koti-satodbhavam > papam ca smaratam yasmat > tasmad dharir iti smrtah “The Lord is known as Hari because he takes away the sins—as well as the three types of suffering that result from them—of those who remember him. These are sins that are accumulated over millions of births.” The *Mahābhārata* (*Udyoga-parva* 71.4) explains the meaning of *Kṛṣṇa:* > krsir bhu-vacakah sabdo > nas ca nirvrti-vacakah > tayor aikyam param brahma > krsna ity abhidhiyate “The root *krs* indicates the Lord’s supreme attractiveness; the suffix *na* points to ultimate joy. Thus, the *na*me *Kṛṣṇa* indicates the Supreme Brahman [spirit], who is the culmi*na*tion of these two characteristics.” In the *Padma Purana,* the *Sata-nama-stotra* (8) of Lord *Rama*candra defines *Rama* in this way: > ramante yogino ’nante > satyanande cid-atmani > iti rama-padenasau > param brahmabhidhiyate “Yogis, or those desiring to link with God, take pleasure in the Supreme Self, who manifests as an absolute form of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. That same truth, known as the Parabrahman, is also called Rama.” (3) The *Caitanya Upanisad* (verses 11–12), part of the *Atharva Veda,* tells us that the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra* is made up entirely of Kṛṣṇa’s names: > svanama-mula-mantrena > sarvam hladayati vibhuh > sa eve mulam-mantram japati > haririti krsna iti rama iti “The name of God is the root of all mantras, a splendid thing that brings joy to all. This root mantra is chanted with the words *hari, krsna,* and *rama.*” > harati hṛdaya-granthiṁ vāsanā-rūpam iti hariḥ > kṛṣiḥ smaraṇe tac ca ṇas tad-ubhaya-melanam iti kṛṣṇaḥ > ramayati sarvam iti rāma ānanda-rūpaḥ atra śloko bhavati. “Hari is he who removes the knot in the heart in the form of material desire. One can unite with the Lord by remembering the root *krs* and the suffix *na,* which gives us the ultimate hymn of praise: *Kṛṣṇa.* And Rama is he who gives pleasure to everything and is the form of bliss.” Because the word *hare* is the vocative case for both *hari* (a name for Kṛṣṇa) and *hara* (a name for Rādhā), some texts, such as the one just quoted, interpret “Hare” in the *maha-mantra* as a call to Kṛṣṇa. Later commentators, however, insist that, in its most far-reaching and spiritually sublime interpretation, Hare refers to Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa’s eternal consort and the very embodiment of his spiritual pleasure potency. The Gaudiya Vaisnava *acarya* Śrī Jiva Gosvami points us in this direction when, in his explanation of the *maha-mantra*, the *Maha-mantratha-vyakhya*, he writes (verses 1 and 2): > hare krsna hare krsna > krsna krsna hare hare > hare rama hare rama > rama rama hare hare > sarva-ceta-harah krsnas > tasya cittam haraty asau > vaidagdhi-sara-vistarair > ato radha hara mata “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Kṛṣṇa steals the minds of all living beings [which is the meaning of “Hari”], but Rādhārāṇī steals even his mind when she uses her spiritual talents. Therefore she is known as Hara, as in the *maha-mantra.”* (4) The *Ananta-samhita,* another ancient text, tells us: > hare krsna hare krsna > krsna krsna hare hare > hare rama hare rama > rama rama hare hare > sodasaitani namani > dvatrimsad varnakani hi > kalau yuge maha-mantrah > sammato jivatarane > varjayitva tu namaitad > durjanaih parikalpitam > chandobaddham susiddhanta > viruddham nabhyaset padam > tarakam brahma-namaitad > brahmana gurunadina > kalisantaranadyasu > sruti-svadhigatam hareh > praptam sri brahma-sisyena > sri naradena dhimata > namaitad-uttamam srauta- > paramparyena brahmanah > utsrjyaitan-maha-mantram > ye tvanyat kampitam padam > mahanameti gayanti > te sastra-guru langhanah > tattva-virodha-samprktam > tadrsam daurjanam matam > sravatha pariharyam syad > atma-hitarthina sada > hare krsna hare krsna > krsna krsna hare hare > hare rama hare rama > rama rama hare hare “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. This sixteen-name, thirty-two syllable mantra is the *maha-mantra* in the age of Kali, and it is by this mantra that all living beings can be delivered. One should never forsake this mantra and adopt other so-called religious processes practiced by less qualified souls. Nor should one chant concocted combinations of Kṛṣṇa’s names that contradict the pure conclusions of the scriptures or are filled with incongruent emotions. Regarding this divinely spiritual *maha-mantra*, which frees one from material existence, the original *guru*, Lord Brahma, has said, ‘The *Kali-santarana Upanisad* has declared this mantra to be the best means of deliverance in the age of Kali.’ Having heard all this from Brahma, his sons and disciples, beginning with Narada, all accepted the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra* and, having meditated on it, attained perfection.” (5) In the *Brahma Yamala tantra,* an ancient book of instruction on rituals, one finds the following: > harim vina nasti kincat > papani-starakam kalau > tasmal-lokoddharanartham > hari-nama prakasayet > sarvatra mucyate loko > maha-papat kalau yuge > hare-krsna-pada-dvandvam > krsneti ca pada-dvayam > tatha hare-pada-dvandvam > hare-rama iti dvayam > tad-ante ca maha-devi > rama rama dvayam vadet > hare hare tato bruyad > harinama samud dharet > maha-mantram ca krsnasya > sarva papa pranasakam iti ”Without Hari, there is no way to eradicate the sins of the age of Kali, and therefore it is essential that the name of Hari (*hari-nama*) should reverberate in all the worlds. By this reverberation, all dimensions can be released from the great sins of the age of Kali. First one should twice chant ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa,’ then twice ‘Kṛṣṇa,’ then twice ‘Hare,’ then twice ‘Hare Rama,’ and in the end, O Mahadevi, one should chant ‘Rama’ twice, and then ‘Hare Hare.’ In this way one should pronounce Kṛṣṇa’s *hari-nama* maha-mantra, which destroys all sins.” (6) From the *Rādhā Tantra:* > srnu matarmahamaye > visva-bija-svarupini > hari namno mahamaye > kramam vad suresvari “Hear me, O mother Mahamaya, seed of the universe, mistress of the gods! I ask you to please explain the sequence of *hari-nama.*” > hare krsna hare krsna > krsna krsna hare hare > hare rama hare rama > rama rama hare hare > dvatrmsad aksaranyeva > kalau namani sarvadam > etan mantram suta srestha > prathamam srnuyan narah ”Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. O best of sons, this is how you should chant these thirty-two syllables and sixteen names in the age of Kali. This mantra should be heard by all human beings.” (7) Dhyanacandra Gosvami, an early follower of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, refers to an old Vedic text in describing the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra* in his *Gaura-govindarcana-smarana-**paddhati* (132–136): There are three Kṛṣṇa mantras that are very pure and powerful. They are famous for bestowing love of God on their chanters. The *Sanat-kumara-samhita* refers to the first mantra*: “*The words Hare Kṛṣṇa are repeated twice, and then Kṛṣṇa and Hare are both separated and repeated twice in the same way. After that, Hare Rama, Rama, and Hare are repeated twice as well. The mantra thus flows as follows: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” The meditation that accompanies this *maha-mantra* is also found in the *Sanat-kumara-samhita:* “Śrī Kṛṣṇa is playing in the cooling waters of the Yamuna or in the shade of a *kadamba* tree in the beautiful Vṛndāvana forest. He is accompanied by cows and cowherd boys, and by Śrī Rādhā. He is very skillful at playing the flute, as he stands in a charming thrice-bending pose, always bestowing mercy and kindness upon the devotees.” (8) Gopala Guru Gosvami, Dhyanacandra’s successor, quotes from the *Brahmanda Purana,* which discusses the names in the *maha-mantra:* The Lord is known as Hari because he takes away the ignorance of his devotees. Indeed, he reveals to them his actual nature and his personal spiritual form. Because Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa’s joy, steals Kṛṣṇa’s mind, she is known by the name Hara. The dark, lotus-eyed Lord, the true master of the highest bliss, he who brings pleasure to Gokula, the son of Nanda, is known as Kṛṣṇa. He is also known as Rama because the joys of conjugal life are the essence of his being, because he is the incarnated Deity of loving pastimes, and because he brings pleasure to Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. *The Maha-mantra in Later Literature* While the above represent the few references to the *maha-mantra* in the earliest Vedic texts, the vast majority of such references appear in the later corpus of Vaisnava literature. In such references, the *maha-mantra* is sometimes presented in its entirety, but alternately a “shorthand” reference to the *maha-mantra* appears simply with the words “Hare Kṛṣṇa.” Here are but a few examples of both: (1) Rupa Gosvami, chief among Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s primary associates, praises the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa in his *Laghu-Bhagavatamrta* (1.4): “The syllables ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’ emanated from the mouth of Śrī Caitanya himself, drowning the universe in love of God. Let these names be glorified!” (2) Śrī Rupa longs to again attain the audience of Śrī Caitanya, who is always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He writes in *Stavamala, Prathama Caitanyastakam* (5): “When will Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu—whose tongue is always dancing by loudly chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa; who counts the number of times he chants on the wonderful strip of cloth from around his waist, tied with knots for chanting; whose eyes are so large that they seem to wrap around to reach his ears; and whose arms extend down to his knees—again become visible to me?” (3) Baladeva Vidyabhusana, an important eighteenth-century teacher in the Gaudiya tradition, confirms in his *Stava-mala-vibhusana-bhasya* that “Hare Kṛṣṇa” in the verse by Rupa Gosvami just quoted refers to the thirty-two-syllable *maha-mantra:* “The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra was resounding in Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mouth. The mantra consisting of sixteen names and thirty-two syllables was dancing on his tongue.” (4) Raghunatha Dāsa Gosvami, one of the famous six Gosvamis of Vṛndāvana, writes in his *Saci-Sunvastakam* (5): “When will that son of Mother Saci [Śrī Caitanya]—who, taking the residents of Bengal as his own, inspired them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa a prescribed number of times daily and who like a father gave them many cherished instructions—again become visible to me?” (5) Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, an intimate associate of Lord Caitanya, states in his *Caitanya-satakam* (64): “Seeing the people of the world afflicted by the sins of the age of Kali, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally gave them the holy name and ordered them to perform loud congregational chanting of this *maha-mantra* while dancing and playing musical instruments.” (6) The following instance of Śrī Caitanya’s chanting of the *maha-mantra* is found in the *Caitanya-mangala* of Locana Dāsa: “Once Mahāprabhu visited the home of a *brahmana* and embraced him. The *kirtana* that followed made that home become just like Vṛndāvana, and a multitude of people gathered to hear and chant the holy names: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” (7) In the *Caitanya-bhagavata* (2.23.75–78), the earliest biography of Lord Caitanya, Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura quotes the *maha-mantra* directly: “The Lord ordered everyone in great joy, ‘Listen to the *maha-mantra* of Kṛṣṇa’s names: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. I spoke this *maha-mantra*. Perform *japa* of this mantra a prescribed number of times. All perfection will be attained through this. Chant this mantra at every moment. There is no other rule.’” (8) In *Caitanya-bhagavata* (1.14.143–147)*,* Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura quotes Lord Caitanya’s instructions to Tapana Misra: “Everything is accomplished by hari-nama-sankirtana*,* including the goal of life and the means for its attainment. In this age of Kali*,* the only means for deliverance is the chanting of the names of Hari. There is no other way*,* there is no other way*,* there is no other way. Hare Kṛṣṇa*,* Hare Kṛṣṇa*,* Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa*,* Hare Hare/ Hare Rama*,* Hare Rama*,* Rama Rama*,* Hare Hare. This verse of names is called the *maha-mantra*. It contains sixteen names of the Lord*,* consisting of thirty-two syllables. Chanting this mantra again and again will awaken the sprout of pure love of God within the heart. Thus*,* by chanting*,* the goal of life and the means for its attainment are understood.” *Conclusion* The great *acaryas* in disciplic succession from Śrī Caitanya (the line-age represented by the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement) have given the world numerous indications and instructions about chanting the **maha-mantra*.* Therefore, although not explicitly quoted in the three primary texts mentioned at the beginning of this article, the implicit reference to the mantra pervades the tradition. The whole of the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam,* in fact, centers on hearing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa—with many references to *hari-kirtana* and *hari-sankirtana*—as does the *Bhagavad-gītā.* Both texts glorify the great souls who know that chanting the Lord’s names is the central practice of spiritual life. As for the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta,* Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s most in-depth biography, each turning point in the Lord’s life is highlighted by chanting. For example, we learn how the *maha-mantra* changed his course early on, and how his chanting inspired and illuminated others. But, as stated earlier, the *maha-mantra* is meant to be conveyed by a bona fide spiritual master to a sincere disciple. Of course, the tradition teaches that anyone can chant it, and that there are no hard and fast rules for doing so. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s own example shows it was not until he received the *maha-mantra* from Isvara Puri, his spiritual preceptor, that he became intoxicated with love of God. In other words, the real fruit of the mantra is given by one who already relishes its fruit. And the scriptures, while encouraging a devotee to move towards initiation, will generally only hint at the mantra and its efficacy, the total affect only unleashed when one surrenders to a spiritual teacher in disciplic succession. But let us for a moment revisit the question of why the *maha-mantra* is not found in the central texts of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. First of all, it was originally a *sruti* mantra, found in such texts as the *Kali-santarana Upanisad,* quoted earlier. This being the case, it was considered a confidential mantra, and as such would normally be revealed implicitly rather than explicitly, as both Sanatana Gosvami and Kṛṣṇadasa Kaviraja Gosvami attested to. This would explain why it is not explicitly found in the *Bhagavad-gītā* or the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam,* even if these scriptures stress the importance of chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. However, Caitanya Mahāprabhu broke open the storehouse of love of God, and in so doing ushered in the true glory of the *maha-mantra*, in terms of both its unending potency and its accessibility to all who would take it. Indeed, he revealed it to be the special dispensation of the current age of quarrel and hypocrisy. Why is the *maha-mantra* not in the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta*? Kṛṣṇadasa Kaviraja Gosvami writes that he will not unduly repeat things revealed by the earlier biographer Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura, whom, as we have seen, did mention the *maha-mantra*. Building on the explicit information of his predecessors, Kṛṣṇadasa Kaviraja Gosvami writes many verses glorifying the chanting of the holy name. When he uses words like *hari-nama* and *maha-mantra*, his readers would have known what he was referring to. In this way, the scriptures and the great *acaryas* sometimes reveal the full *maha-mantra,* and sometimes they do not. But one thing is certain: Those who are sincere will eventually receive the holy name and thereby attain perfection. Satyaraja Dāsa, a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, is a BTG associate editor. He has written over twenty books. He lives with his wife and daughter near New York City. *The author would like to acknowledge the research of Madhavananda Dāsa in compiling scriptural references to the* maha-mantra. ## At Home in Kṛṣṇa’s Land *When a devotee’s longing to see Vṛndāvana is fulfilled, her gratitude for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s gifts grows.* *By Ananga Rādhā Devī Dāsī* ALL GOOD THINGS come to an end. And so will my first visit to Vṛndāvana after a few hours from now. That we require Rādhārāṇī’s special mercy to be here cannot escape my mind, since I’m here after twelve to thirteen years of my association with ISKCON. It was in the year 1992, during my October holidays (I was studying in the eighth standard then), that I came across the book *Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,* by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Coming from an orthodox *brahmana* family in South India, I grew up hearing stories about gods and goddesses from our scriptures. But I was very keen to know who God is. Some people told me that Lord Siva is God. Yet others told me Ganapati was God. I came across neighbors who were worshiping human beings as God. I was confused, and many questions gripped my mind. What did God actually look like? Did he listen to my prayers? Why was I here? Would death separate me and my grandfather, whom I love so much? As I started reading *Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,* I realized that Kṛṣṇa was God. His amazing childhood pastimes in the holy land of Vṛndāvana were so fascinating that I gave up my Enid Blytons and Nancy Drews. I realized that there was no point in reading make-believe stories about ordinary people when you could read about the real pastimes of the Lord. As I started turning the pages of *Kṛṣṇa,* Kṛṣṇa’s childhood activities were not only a delight to read, but they totally absorbed my mind. It was then that I developed a desire to see Vṛndāvana. I dreamt as far as my imagination could take me. How would I feel when I saw the land where Kṛṣṇa performed his childhood pastimes? When I reached Vṛndāvana I realized that my dream of so many years was finally coming true. I felt at home on seeing the Deities of the ISKCON temple: Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, Rādhā-Syamasundara, and Gaura-Nitai. The Lord felt so near and yet so far away. The beauty of these Deities is simply unparalleled, and one can get lost drinking the nectar of their merciful glance. Everything about Vṛndāvana is so special. As previous *acaryas* have said, Vṛndāvana has to be seen with our ears and not just with our eyes. If you see it with your eyes alone, you can see only dust and stones. But if you see it with your ears, you can be reminded of all the wonderful pastimes the Lord performed on this very land five thousand years ago. There are so many temples to see and so many spots where Kṛṣṇa performed his pastimes. Every corner has a rich history and story behind it. Every thing here—animate or inanimate—seems to be enjoying the spiritual ecstasy of separation from the Lord. *United in Service* During my three-day stay the temple was filled with devotees of Kṛṣṇa from around the world. They were engaged in various services for the Lord—making garlands, selling books, distributing *prasādam,* teaching, cooking, taking care of Tulasi, doing the *arati,* hearing classes. All of these devotees are spirit souls in the garb of Europeans, Americans, Indians, and other nationalities. It is as if the entire world has been united under one banner, under the flagship of ISKCON. It was also very heartening to see the little children of the international *gurukula* getting trained in accordance with scriptural injunctions. All this was made possible by Śrīla Prabhupāda, a seventy-year-old *sannyasi* who renounced the comforts of Vṛndāvana Dhama to deliver us fallen souls. If one sees the glorious Rādhā-Damodara temple and Prabhupāda’s quarters there overlooking Rupa Gosvami’s *samadhi* (memorial tomb), one can realize what sacrifice Śrīla Prabhupāda made in leaving the spiritually opulent atmosphere of Vṛndāvana to embark upon his holy mission. Vṛndāvana Dhama is filled with such potency that everything here reminds one of the Lord: the beggar on the street holding the *ektara* (a single-stringed instrument) and singing *bhajanas* glorifying Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes; the sound of the conch shells announcing worship in a temple; the cycle rickshaw drivers, shopkeepers, and all the Vrajavasis (residents of Vṛndāvana) greeting each other with “Radhe! Radhe!”; the more than five thousand temples; the innumerable spots where the Lord performed his unlimited pastimes; the chirping of colorful birds; the sound of a flute playing around the corner. It is startling to see that such a place exists in modern-day India, untouched by the large malls, shopping complexes, discotheques, and pubs that are slowly becoming the norm of every Indian city. Vṛndāvana Dhama is clearly the recipient of special mercy from Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. The chants of “Radhe! Radhe!” and the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra* are like the anthems of Vṛndāvana Dhama. *Indebted to Prabhupāda and His Followers* Standing in front of the ISKCON bookstall, I realize that I am eternally indebted to Śrīla Prabhupāda. If I had not read his book *Kṛṣṇa* and had not met devotees sent by him, I would be lost in the ocean of nescience, “chewing the chewed” of material life, as Prabhupāda would say. How indebted all of us should be to all the devotees who helped Prabhupāda set up so many centers, publish so many books, and do all the wonderful things that went into making this exceptional society called ISKCON. As I prepare to leave with a heavy heart, I come to the conclusion that nothing in this world can surpass the magnificent beauty of their Lordships Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Syamsundara. It is very easy to remember Kṛṣṇa here. The real test is this: When I go out and *maya* spreads her wings, how will I remember the Lord? May Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī cast her merciful glance towards me—and all the devotees assembled here—and help me remember Kṛṣṇa always. And may she fulfill my desire of coming back every year. I’m sure that each time I come here, I shall be overwhelmed with new revelations of Vṛndāvana Dhama. All glories to Rādhā-Syamsundara! Vṛndāvana Dhama *ki jaya*! Ananga Rādhā Devī Dāsī, a disciple of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami, lives with her husband in Mumbai, India. She has a post-graduate degree in management and is currently writing about vegetarian food and vegetarian cooking. ## From Morality to Spirituality Until people gain the spiritual inspiration that underlies truly good behavior, attempts to legislate morality will inevitably fail. *By Caitanya Carana Dāsa* DAILY NEWS reports of things like corruption, nepotism, favoritism, and infidelity have us fed up. Politicians say, “Education in ethics and values is the solution.” But don’t most people already know right from wrong? I think so. They just feel they’ll fare better in life without following moral codes. And exhortation by moralists or legislation by politicians doesn’t inspire them to think differently. Living by moral principles is like following traffic laws for smooth and safe travel. The purpose of travel, however, is not to follow the laws but to reach the destination. If a traveler feels that the traffic laws delay him or obstruct his reaching the destination, he may break them if he thinks he can get away with it. Like traffic laws, moral principles promote order, specifically orderly social interactions. But modern education doesn’t teach us about the goal of social transactions or of life itself. Consequently people may stay moral out of deference to culture or tradition but give up morality when circumstances threaten or tempt them. Worse still, the incessantly glorified goals of modern consumer society—fame, wealth, luxuries, power, pleasure, prestige—encourage and even necessitate immoral behavior. The *Bhagavad-gītā* (16.8–15) explains that a materialistic worldview leads to insatiable lust and greed, which impel corrupt actions. When people are surrounded and bombarded by materialistic allurements, they may feel that by being moral they stand to lose a lot and gain nothing tangible. Moreover, our godless education gives us no knowledge about any higher natural laws of cosmic accountability. And the fallibility of our penal systems is all too well known. The result? Morality appears entirely dispensable, especially for the shrewd or powerful. In such an environment, how can we expect mere platitudes to inspire people to be moral? “Morality means lack of opportunity.” This saying catches the tottering utilitarian approach to morality. The Vedic texts of ancient India assert that morality without spirituality is baseless and therefore short-lived. If we seriously want morality in society, we need to introduce systematic spiritual education centered on a positive goal of life. The Vedic texts inform us of a nonsectarian universal spiritual goal of life: to develop pure love for God. We are all spiritual beings and are meant to rejoice in our eternal loving relationship with the supreme all-attractive spiritual being, God. Being intrinsically spiritual, we find real happiness not in material acquisition but in spiritually awakening our innate love for God. The more we love God, the happier we become. Love for God results in love for all living beings as our brothers and sisters in the one universal family of God. When we love all living beings, we will no longer desire to exploit or manipulate others for our selfish interests. Instead, our love for God will inspire us to love and serve each other. This will create a culture of warmth and trust, which engenders moral behavior. This contrasts sharply with the modern culture of alienation and suspicion, which fosters immorality. Genuine spiritual practices, even in their preliminary stages, trigger our innate value system. We intuitively realize that God is our greatest well-wisher. Subsequently we voluntarily and lovingly choose to lead a morally and spiritually principled life, as ordained by God, knowing it to be in our ultimate interest. And as we find inner happiness by loving God, we become freed from selfish, lusty, greedy, and egoistic drives. No longer do we feel we are missing anything because of our morality. Morality ceases to be the “difficult but right” choice. Rather it becomes the easy and natural course of action for our spiritual growth. Some may feel, “All this sounds good, but it’s unscientific and utopian.” In other words, we live in an age where only the scientific, practical worldview is considered reasonable and acceptable. But is the Vedic worldview really unreasonable or impractical? We should remember that science has never disproven the existence of God or the soul. Rather the reductionistic approach chosen by most scientists for studying the universe just presumes the non-existence of any spiritual reality. Strikingly enough, even within this framework some scientists conclude that the evidence strongly suggests a super-intelligent designer of the cosmos (God) and a non-material source of consciousness within the body (soul). Love of God will appear utopian only as long as we do not know the coherent philosophy and the clear-cut path to its attainment. Through genuine spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, and chanting the names of God, anyone can experience spiritual enrichment. Once we taste immortal love, we realize that it is the defining and unifying goal of life. Someone familiar with episodes in the lives of Kṛṣṇa and his devotees might object: “But Kṛṣṇa Himself sometimes acts immorally. And so do his devotees. How can worshiping an immoral God help us become moral?” To understand this, we need to first consider the ultimate purpose of all morality. We are lost in the darkness of ignorance in the material world, not knowing what to do and what to avoid. Like a torch, moral codes light the way for us. They protect us from being waylaid by selfish desires and keep us on the way toward our ultimate objective—achieving love for Kṛṣṇa and returning to him. But Kṛṣṇa is the source of all morality, just as the sun is the source of all light. Because he is fully satisfied in himself, he acts only out of selfless love for us, either to reciprocate with our love or to help us rectify our errant ways. He does not need moral codes because he has not the slightest trace of selfish desires. It is we who need moral codes because we are filled with selfish desires. But if we become proud of our morality and try to examine Kṛṣṇa with our moral standards, that’s like searching for the sun with a torch. It’s foolish and futile. When the sun rises by its own accord, its effulgence reveals its full glory. Similarly when Kṛṣṇa decides to reveal himself by his own sweet will, we can understand his pure morality and glory. Until then it is best for us to scrupulously follow moral codes to please him so that he may eventually reveal himself. And we should be careful not to become proud of our righteousness. If we accept Kṛṣṇa’s position as the Supreme Lord, we can gain some understanding about how all his acts are moral. For example, Kṛṣṇa steals butter from the houses of the cowherd women of Vṛndāvana. But how can he be considered a thief when he creates and owns everything? He takes the role of a child to reciprocate the maternal affection of his devotees. His stealing, a naughty childhood prank, enhances the sweetness of their loving exchanges. How can that be compared to our stealing, which leads to pain and punishment? Similarly Kṛṣṇa takes the role of a handsome youth to reciprocate with the devotees who desire a conjugal relationship with him. His love for the *gopis* (cowherd maidens) is based not on the beauty of their bodies but on the devotion of their hearts. Some people allege that Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the *gopis* are like the lusty dealings of ordinary boys and girls. But then why would highly renounced saints who give up the sexual love of this world, seeing it as disdainful and distasteful, worship the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa with the *gopis*? Even today thousands of people all over the world are becoming free from the control of lusty desires by chanting Kṛṣṇa’s names and worshiping him. If Kṛṣṇa himself were controlled by lust, how could he free his devotees from lust? In the battle with the Kauravas, Kṛṣṇa urges the Pāṇḍavas to act immorally. But that is like an authority’s urging policemen to break the speed limit to catch thieves who are speeding away. The policemen are breaking the speed limit to serve the purpose of the law. Similarly the Pāṇḍavas break moral codes to serve a higher purpose that Kṛṣṇa wants to see fulfilled: to establish the rule of morality by removing the immoral Kauravas from power. In exceptional circumstances, devotees of Kṛṣṇa may act seemingly immorally to do his will, which is meant for the ultimate good of all living beings. But generally devotees follow moral codes as an expression of their devotion to Kṛṣṇa. In fact, without devotion, we will not have the inner strength to sustain lifelong adherence to moral principles. We need to exercise caution in understanding Kṛṣṇa’s actions, which are above morality. Otherwise, we may misunderstand him and reject his love, condemning ourselves to staying below morality and suffering the karmic reactions for our misdeeds. If we want lasting morality, empty exhortation and ineffectual legislation won’t do. As long as people are taught to pursue material goals, they will feel morality to be impractical or even undesirable. Only when they know and pursue love for God as the goal of life will morality become desirable and practical for them. Therefore at a social level we need to introduce genuine spiritual education and practices leading to love for God and inner fulfillment. And at an individual level, recognizing the spiritual basis of morality is highly empowering. It opens for us a course of action far superior to apathy, tacit approval, helpless lamentation, or indignant self-righteousness. In a cancerous tissue, one healthy cell can activate the healing process. Similarly when the cancer of immorality afflicts modern society, each one of us can, by leading a life of spiritual and moral integrity, activate the process of social recovery. *Caitanya Carana Dāsa, who serves full-time at the ISKCON temple in Pune, India, runs a free cyber magazine,* The Spiritual Scientist. *To subscribe, write to [email protected].* ## In Memoriam - Kusakratha ON OCTOBER 7 Śrīla Prabhupāda’s dear disciple Kusakratha Dāsa peacefully passed away in Vṛndāvana, surrounded by devotees chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He’d had cancer for several years. Kusakratha joined the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in 1969 and received initiation from Śrīla Prabhupāda in New York in 1971. From the beginning he showed a great attraction to studying Prabhupāda’s books, and he soon became known for his thorough knowledge of the *Bhagavad-gītā*. In 1975 the leader of the Los Angeles temple was so impressed with his erudition that he brought him there to teach a *Bhagavad-gītā* course to the devotees. But Kusakratha was also known for his eccentric personality, and so the course didn’t work out and he soon left Los Angeles. By the time he’d returned and settled there in mid-1976, he’d spent time rendering various services in the temples in New York, Boston, Atlanta, and San Diego, and done a short stint on the traveling Rādhā-Damodara bus party. In Los Angeles Kusakratha joined the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Sanskrit department. Applying his keen intelligence to learning Sanskrit, he soon mastered the basics and *was* helping produce books. After Śrīla Prabhupāda’s passing in 1977, book production tapered off, but Kusakratha stayed, and before long he *was* the Sanskrit department. It was in mid-1978 that Kusakratha began his translation of the Vaisnava classics, mostly Sanskrit but also Bengali. This work would continue for more than twenty years. Working day and night, he produced over two hundred volumes of translation, as well as original Sanskrit and English poems. Rupa Gosvami’s *Stava-mala, Vidagdha-madhava,* and *Lalita-madhava,* Raghunatha Dāsa Gosvami’s *Stavavali,* Jiva Gosvami’s *sandarbhas,* Sanatana Gosvami’s *Śrī Brhad-bhagavatamrta,* works by Prabodhananda Sarasvati, Kṛṣṇadasa Kaviraja, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura—these and many more flowed from his computer and into the hands of eager devotees worldwide. In 1998 Kusakratha moved to Vṛndāvana and began writing English poems glorifying Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and devotional service. By the time he passed away, he’d written thousands, almost all in longhand. The Vaisnava community eagerly awaits their posthumous publication. ## Vedic Observer *Transcendental Commentary On the Issues of the Day* The Tend-and-Befriend Hormone *By Karuna Dharini Devī Dāsī* When I read about oxytocin, I was relieved. Now I have a word to make sense out of all the emotional distractions I’ve felt since I was a young girl. The feelings I first noticed if a small child came near, took my hand, or sat in my lap, the sudden concern for a crying baby, deep feelings when I would see an old couple struggling through a supermarket, even affection for a puppy or a kitten—I can blame it all on oxytocin. The intense feelings in a woman to want to care for another have been linked to a chemical release of oxytocin, the “tend and befriend” hormone (so nicknamed by psychiatrist Dr. Michael Gurian.) Researchers say that women simply have more of it. What I interpreted as weakness was actually the call of nature to transform a self-absorbed twenty-year-old into someone who would be able to take care of a child. Was it the beginning of a long road of transformation that might lead to a somewhat more selfless character? Now that I have traveled it, I can say yes. As Gurian describes it in his latest book, “When a teenage girl hears a baby cry in a crowded theatre, her oxytocin level rises just slightly. When she hears a baby cry just next to her, it rises still more. When she sees a baby nearer her, or sometimes, even just on a television commercial, her oxytocin rises still further, compelling her to want to help the baby. When she holds the baby, oxytocin surges again. The imperative to intimacy in a young girl’s brain is unmistakable.” In PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans, Robin Gur of the University of Pennsylvania’s neural imaging unit found that among males subjected to the same stimulus for tending and caring as were females, oxytocin changes in the brain are minimal by comparison. Śrīla Prabhupāda, while explaining the view of the Vedic literature that women should always be protected, offered the example of a sixteen-year-old boy. He said a boy of that age who sets out alone to travel around the world will have more freedom and less difficulty than a sixteen-year-old girl. According to Dr. Gurian, “Males find it easier at times to remain independent and stoic for months on end because they don’t have an internal female hormonal cycle returning them, repeatedly, to the intimacy imperative.” So, shall we just attribute emotional drive to a chemical such as oxytocin and leave it at that? Is being more emotion-driven than someone else an inferior condition? Did Kṛṣṇa invest some people’s bodies with extra emotion just to feel a kaleidoscope of ever-changing feelings and never see any reason for it? No. First and foremost we must always remember that we are not the body, whether that body is male or female, young or old, sick or well, rich or poor. We are the soul who experiences life through the limiting medium of a body, much as a driver has a limited view from inside his car. The “car” of the body may provide a tour of the feminine or masculine experiences of life, and it may be fueled by a slightly different set of chemicals, but it has nothing to do with the constitution of the observant person riding inside. That person, temporarily inside the physical body, is the spirit soul, and all spirit souls are equal and eternal parts of God. As spirit souls we originally spent our time with Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world. Being pure spirit souls, we are all meant to enjoy an eternal, perfect emotional nature in the spiritual world with Kṛṣṇa, who is Rasaraja, the master of all emotional experience, masculine and feminine. The tend-and-befriend propensities, the intimacy imperative—these are all an integral and joyous part of Kṛṣṇa’s world. In his village of Goloka Vṛndāvana every person is fully cognizant and sentient because everyone’s personal service relationship with Kṛṣṇa is top priority. Mother Yaśodā’s feelings for Kṛṣṇa are so strong that her breasts flow with milk at the very thought of him. When Kṛṣṇa’s father sees him at the end of the day, he heartily embraces Kṛṣṇa and smells his head. Here in this world, Kṛṣṇa has invested us with relationship ability because we are made in his image. He has it too. If we don’t at least observe and respect the basic nuances of material personality in this world, we lose an opportunity to accept the possibility of variety in the spiritual world with Kṛṣṇa, who is the source of all variety, spiritual and material. *A Deviation from Traditional Human Behavior* As a young devotee mother with a hope that I might be pregnant, I went to a woman’s free clinic to take a test. I sat in the waiting room anxiously. When my name was called, I went to sit with the clerk, who gave me the news of my pregnancy. Then, unabashed, she asked, “Would you like to carry the baby full term or terminate the pregnancy?” Modern society has come a long way from traditional human behavior. I left feeling I was lucky to be glad I was pregnant. Many women don’t feel that way.With more women than men predicted to graduate with doctorates by the year 2010, more female CEOs in business than ever before, more women working side by side with police, firefighters, and soldiers, oxytocin gets in the way of career. The distraction of the tend-and-befriend hormone is best denied by women who wish to conquer areas of life formerly mostly the realm of men. As a result, in modern first-world countries we see a strong decline in the birthrate among the middle and upper classes, since motherhood generally used to go on during these years, which are now focused on career. The science of birth control and abortion has become a somewhat hidden tool of several generations of the upwardly mobile professional woman. Whatever the God-given effect of oxytocin, women have the means to circumvent it. Or redirect it. Hence the boom of the pet and pet supply industry. In the parks in the seventies, you could generally see more babies in carriages than dogs on leashes. We now observe the great esteem dog owners have for their dogs, along with a growing row of pet products in every grocery store. Chains of giant billion-dollar pet supermarkets have opened up throughout the world. Surgery, chemo-therapy, emergency hospitals, and doggie mental therapy are all part of a modern science that caters to furry companions. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that to remain independent a person may refuse to serve anyone. He may live alone and choose to have no family. He may even try to get a job in which he interacts with no one and tries to avoid serving the government by not paying taxes. He may try to set himself up as self-sufficient and not of service to anyone. And yet, in his solitude, he takes to a pet dog or cat. Why? Because the inherent quality of every living being is to serve another, and that service attitude is ultimately meant to serve the Supreme Being, Lord Kṛṣṇa. We say in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s beautiful *pranam* mantra: > namas te sarasvate deve > gaura-vani-pracarine > nirvesesa-sunyavadi- > pascatya desa tarine “Our obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanya and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.” Prabhupāda came to destroy the impersonalism and voidism that have Western civilization spinning in circles. To refuse to recognize our loving tendency to serve God and his children is to deny our own drive for wholeness and happiness. Women as a class have suffered severely from this impersonalism in modern times. Because women have the intimacy imperative, what greater emotional danger could there be for them than to have their tendencies put aside and depersonalized as they pursue trumped-up material achievements? What greater insult to them and to the forthcoming generation from their wombs than to diminish their ability to foster love and nurturing in favor of material rewards? *Neglected Children* Women have the very gift of life in their wombs. They can give the soul the opportunity for the human form of life and self-realization. Yet statistics show that children are not a priority. In January 2001 the American Surgeon General reported that the U.S. is facing nothing less than “a public crisis in mental care for children and adolescents.” One in five American children has a diagnosed mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder, according to the National Mental Health Association. Both teenage obesity and prescription psychiatric drugs for children tripled in the last quarter of the 1900s. Ritalin production for children has increased by seven hundred percent, and in teenage years these same kids tend to take to the abuse of it. Teenage suicide rates are also on the rise, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Such is the fate of the growing number of children in the last three decades who come home every day to an empty house. This type of suffering, in which a child feels little attention and care, cannot exist alongside true spiritual practice. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, personal relationship with him, and the true spiritual practice of worshiping him. These gifts raise us up to a level of personal responsibility. Prabhupāda introduced *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* in the West because it describes Kṛṣṇa’s unlimited pastimes and relationships with us. When we hear Kṛṣṇa’s glories, we tap into a deep well of pure affection that is precious to the soul. Śrīla Prabhupāda has written, “The Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is never impersonal. Everywhere in the Vedic literatures his glories are sung. As soon as soft-hearted people such as women hear those transcendental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa, they immediately become attracted to him. Soft-hearted women and girls are therefore easily drawn to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.” When we hear Kṛṣṇa’s words, self-realization becomes a natural, spontaneous choice of the heart that we want to share with babies, children, family, friends—anyone Kṛṣṇa sends our way. We see everyone as a wonderful part of Kṛṣṇa. ## The Gita Condensed *A concise refresher on Lord Kṛṣṇa’s immortal teachings.* *By Kalakantha Dāsa* IN 1968 HIS DIVINE Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda published the *Bhagavad-gītā As It Is,* which has since sold tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages. As a lifetime devotee of Kṛṣṇa and a consummate Sanskritist, Śrīla Prabhupāda spells out the clear conclusions of the *Gita* that are often obscured by arms-length commentators with their own agenda. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purports (commentaries) illuminate for us the verses spoken by Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. The following condensed version of their historic conversation combines key points from the verses and purports in the same sequence as the original. These are not direct quotes and thus cannot replace the complete *Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.* Instead, this version provides an overview of the philosophical thread of the *Gita*. It is consistent with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s comprehensive edition and can be used for introduction or review. *Part 1: Action* Arjuna: Kṛṣṇa, please drive my chariot between the two armies. Let me see which followers of that criminal Duryodhana have come here to fight. Kṛṣṇa (*Steering the fine golden chariot between the two huge armies facing each other on the vast, flat battlefield*): Just see, cousin, all the great warriors assembled here. Arjuna (*aghast*): Kṛṣṇa, I can’t fight all these dear relatives, teachers, and elders. My whole family would be destroyed. I’d rather die, or just live as a beggar. Kṛṣṇa (*smiling kindly*): You forget that everyone is an eternal soul, not a physical body. You can kill the body but not the soul. Arjuna: Kṛṣṇa, how could I kill these worshipable men? Any victory would be tainted with their blood. I don’t know what to do. Please instruct me. Kṛṣṇa: My friend, you’re a warrior. Fight, but not for yourself. Fight for the Supreme. Then you’re acting as the eternal soul you truly are. Fight all varieties of materialism and be a yogi. Arjuna: What do yogis do? How do they behave? Kṛṣṇa: Yogis perform their external duties without attachment because they have mastered their mind and senses. They enjoy an inner happiness that is lost to most people. Arjuna: You’re telling me to be happy within and fight at the same time. That’s a contradiction. Kṛṣṇa: You can’t live without acting, Arjuna. Instead of acting for yourself, turn what you do into a sacrifice for the Supreme. Then you’ll be happy. Arjuna: What is this power pushing me toward acting selfishly? Kṛṣṇa: Lust, Arjuna, born of festering desire. Lust destroys your ability to think clearly. For a long time I’ve been teaching people how to use yoga to conquer lust. I taught the sun-god, who taught his son, who started a long chain of teachers. Somehow, though, the original knowledge has been lost, so today, dear friend, I’ll teach it to you myself. Arjuna: How could you teach the sun-god, who’s so much older than you? Kṛṣṇa: Ordinary bodies age and die, Arjuna, but my body is spiritual and never deteriorates. From time to time I appear in society to help the good people and to vanquish the bad. Good people get rid of their lust and turn their love to me. But there are many kinds of people, and I respond to everyone individually. Act for my sake, Arjuna. When you do, everything involved—your work, your equipment, your knowledge—becomes part of a blissful offering, a sacrifice for the Supreme. There are many ways to sacrifice, Arjuna, so you need to find a truly enlightened *guru* to help you sort them out. Acting without attachment and acting for me are both forms of yoga. However, by acting for me you automatically act without attachment. Remember that I’m your friend, that I own everything, that all action is meant for me. Then you’ll have endless inner peace. You’ll do your duty in perfect yoga, or union with me. To do this you may find it helpful to perform the long austerities involved with the mystic process of yoga and meditation. Arjuna: Making the mind sit still is like trying to control the wind. Mystic yoga seems too hard for me. Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it is hard, but it’s possible. Arjuna: What if I start the path of yoga and fail? Then I’m a loser, materially and spiritually. Kṛṣṇa: If you do the right thing, how can you lose? At least in your next lifetime you’ll be better off. On the other hand, if you simply learn to serve me with love, at death you’ll come to me and leave this horrible world. *Part 2: Devotion* Kṛṣṇa: Arjuna, just listen. You’re one of the rare souls who want to know the truth. Just try to understand these points: Everything comes from me, Arjuna, even the three types of materialism, which affect everyone except me, their creator. People who are materialistic, arrogant, falsely wise, or dull ignore me. People turn to me when they’re curious, desperate, sad, or wise. People who think I’m just a mouthpiece for Brahman, the formless spirit, never get to know me personally. But wise people who serve me come to me after death. Arjuna: Tell me about this formless spirit, please, as well as the gods, the soul, karma, and your presence in my heart. And, please, how do I know you at death? Kṛṣṇa: The formless spirit, or Brahman, is my spiritual effulgence, and the sparklike individual spirit souls are of the same spiritual substance. By nature, the individual souls serve, but if they choose to serve this endlessly changing world of matter they suffer karma. As for the gods, I create them to manage this material world. And yes, I do live in your heart as the Supersoul, Arjuna. As for remembering me at death, practice by thinking of me as you fight. At other times think of me as both ancient and fresh, grand and minuscule, but always as a person, shining like the sun. Mystic yogis train themselves with long, deep, mechanical meditation to leave their bodies at just the right time. That helps them proceed to me in the spiritual world—the only world free of the extended misery of birth and death. But you can get there simply by remembering me. In fact, by serving me you gain whatever you might achieve from study, austerity, charity, renunciation, or any sort of religion. Let me tell you more. These lessons comprise the king of education, Arjuna. Because you have no envy toward me you’re able to understand them. You must simply listen with faith. I create the universe and everything in it, but I remain an individual, untouched by my creation. Fools see me as an ordinary man, but great souls bow to Me and serve me with love. Some offer great sacrifices to the gods instead, for they like the material enjoyment the gods can give them. But if one lovingly offers me a little water or a flower or some vegetarian food, I accept it. Even if you make a mistake, I’ll still accept you; I’m equal to everyone but partial to my devotees. Be my devotee, and I promise you’ll come to me. In short, just know that I create everything. Always serve and speak about me, and you’ll be happy, for I, sitting in your heart, shall shine the lamp of knowledge and destroy all the ignorance in your life. Arjuna: I love listening to you, Kṛṣṇa. It seems that only You can truly know yourself. How can I know you? Kṛṣṇa: When you see the best of anything—the shark among the fish, or lion among beasts, for example—think of me. Yet anything wonderful you see in this world is just a spark of my true splendor. Arjuna: Kṛṣṇa, you have kindly dispelled my illusion. Although I see you now as you are, if you think I am able to behold it, please show me your form in which you are the universe and everything within it. Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Arjuna. I shall give you divine eyes to see this divine vision. Arjuna (*amazed*): Kṛṣṇa, I see the huge gods with their weapons and jewels, dispersed on every planet, dazzling with every imaginable color. The blazing glory of it all surrounds and blinds me. And yet the gods bow in fear before you. Truly you are everything, Kṛṣṇa! You see everything with your eyes, which are the sun and moon. (*fearful*) Now I see you crushing the bodies of every living being with your terribly sharp teeth. My relatives, my enemies—everyone is rushing into your mouth! Why are you doing this? Kṛṣṇa: I am time, the death of all. All these warriors are already as good as dead, Arjuna. Fight as my weapon and win your fame! Arjuna (*trembling*): Almighty Lord, I bow to you from every side! Every living thing should glorify you, but I have foolishly treated you as a friend. Please forgive me, as a father forgives a son or a wife forgives a husband. And please, let me see you again as Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa: My universal form has frightened you, Arjuna. Be calm. Now see me in the form you hold dear. Arjuna, even by performing every kind of good deed, a person will not see me like this, as I am, as Kṛṣṇa. Only by loving devotion can I be truly seen. Arjuna: My Lord, should I contemplate you as Kṛṣṇa or as infinite, formless spirit? Kṛṣṇa: Some people meditate on me as an endless spirit. That kind of meditation is troublesome, but eventually they may achieve me. But if you directly think of me, I swiftly rescue you from the sea of birth and death. If you can’t always think of me, then hear and chant about me in the practice of *bhakti,* or devotional yoga. If you can’t do that, then work for me, or at least work for charity, because detachment brings peace—more so than mere knowledge. Those who think of me in devotion show wonderful qualities of kindness, tolerance, steadiness, and determination. They love me, and I love them. *Part 3: Spiritual Knowledge* Arjuna: Kṛṣṇa, what is the relationship of the body and the soul? Kṛṣṇa: The body is like a field of action for the soul. An ordinary soul interacts with the body by using the senses and by feeling emotions such as lust and hate. However, taking help from a *guru*, a wise soul becomes detached from the material body. Such a person is humble, equipoised, and truly independent. As the Supersoul, I offer guidance to all souls, however wise or unwise they may be. Each soul can choose between me and materialism. Those who choose materialism suffer repeated birth and death in different species. Those who choose me come to see the whole situation—the compassionate Supersoul and the plight of a spiritual soul encased in dull matter. Let me tell you more about matter. It comes in three varieties, or modes: goodness, passion, and ignorance. As the seed-giving father, I bring dead matter to life by implanting the soul. Then the modes take over. Goodness forces the soul to happiness, passion to ambition, and ignorance to delusion. The three modes compete for supremacy, knocking you, the eternal soul, from one material situation to the next. Only when you are free of their control can you taste real happiness. Arjuna: How does one rise above the three modes, and having conquered them, how does one behave? Kṛṣṇa: To conquer the modes and be free of karma, simply love and serve me in every circumstance. Then as the modes come and go you’ll observe them without loving or hating them. At that point you’ll be unshakably calm and treat everyone equally. Arjuna, imagine this world as a great, ancient banyan tree with branches that grow down to become roots. No one can figure out where such a tree begins or ends. If you want to escape its entangling branches, you must cut it down. Then you can enter my self-illumined abode, where there is no need of sunlight or electricity. When you go there, you won’t miss this mortal banyan tree. I want everyone to come to my abode, so I sit in every heart as the Supersoul, offering guidance. I also write the Vedic literature so that people can understand me. I exist beyond both the materialist and the enlightened soul. If you know me, you’ll be wise and everything you do will come out perfect. I’ve told you something about enlightened souls; they’re honest, pure, self-controlled, and detached. You are such a person, Arjuna, but I’d like you to hear something about the materialistic, atheistic demons. Demons don’t know what to do or what not to do. They’re unclean, dishonest, and preoccupied with sex. Thinking my creation to be their personal property, they build costly, destructive weapons and feel powerful and proud. Their occasional pretenses of religion or charity are meaningless, for lust enslaves them. Chained to materialism by greed and anger, they fall into lower species of life birth after birth. The Vedic scriptures, which could save them from such a fate, are of no interest to demons. Arjuna: What becomes of those who don’t refer to the *Vedas* but make up their own ways of worship? Kṛṣṇa: Religion by imagination is a product of the three modes. In goodness one worships the gods, in passion, powerful demons, and in ignorance, ghosts. The three modes affect everything, even your food. Juicy, fatty, wholesome foods are in goodness; bitter, salty, pungent foods are in passion; and stale, cold, putrid foods are in ignorance. The modes also influence what kind of charity you give and what kind of discipline you impose on yourself. Still, you should not renounce charity or penance. Arjuna: What does it mean, then, for one to be renounced? Kṛṣṇa: Renunciation means detachment from the fruits of your work. One in the mode of goodness works dutifully but renounces the result. One in the mode of passion renounces work when it grows troublesome. One in ignorance renounces work out of laziness or confusion. By seeing others as souls and acting with that understanding, you will stay in goodness. That takes a determined mind, but the initial trouble will later bring you happiness. Happiness in passion seems splendid at the start but ends up being painful. Happiness in ignorance, such as taking intoxicants, is bitter from beginning to end. Those who work in goodness, or *brahmanas,* are often judges, teachers, or priests. *Ksatriyas,* those who work in passion, are often administrators, police, or soldiers. Passion and ignorance combine to produce *vaisyas,* businesspeople or farmers. Those largely in ignorance are called *sudras,* and they work as artisans, laborers or servants. Regardless of the kind of work that best suits you, by doing your work for the Supreme you turn it to yoga and become enlightened. For that reason it’s better to do your own work imperfectly than someone else’s perfectly. My dear Arjuna, here is a final summary of what I have been teaching you. By serving me you will learn to act and live in simple wisdom, controlling your mind and senses and renouncing the fruits of your work. Soon you will enjoy peace and insight as you achieve unprecedented happiness and appreciation for everyone. In such a state of mind you will attain my abode. Think about me and stay with my devotees; I will clear every obstacle from your path. If you become egoistic and think that you can make it on your own, you’ll be lost. You’re a warrior, Arjuna; because of your nature you’ll fight no matter what. Fight for me and you’ll return to your original home in my abode. Now I’ve told you the secrets of perfection. Think over what I’ve said, and then do whatever you wish to do. Since you are very, very dear to me, I’ll conclude with this: Think about me always. Become my devotee. Worship me and give me homage, and you will return to me. Give up all other duties, Arjuna, and submit yourself to me. Don’t worry; I’ll free you from the results of any past mistakes. Please, repeat these words of mine, but only to pious people. That too shall ensure that you will return to me, for no one is more dear to me than one who shares this message. And anyone who hears it faithfully, without envy, attains to the worlds of the pious. Arjuna, do you understand? Arjuna (*firmly*): Infallible Kṛṣṇa, you have destroyed my illusions and doubts. By your kindness I have remembered who I really am. Now, according to your instructions, I shall fight. *Kalakantha Dāsa,* Back to Godhead *associate editor and author of* Bhagavad-gītā: The Song Divine, *writes and raises a family in Alachua, Florida.* ## Life and Afterlife *Does Modern Science Have It Right?* The intellectual community fails to even consider the validity of evidence of reincarnation. *By Navin Jani* I RECENTLY READ one of the latest books by Ian Stevenson, entitled *European Cases of the Reincarnation Type*. Dr. Stevenson is a research professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia, and he has been doing research on the subject of reincarnation for more than thirty years. Over this period, he has accumulated several hundred accounts of young children who consciously remember details of past lives, exhibit birthmarks or phobias connected with a former person’s death, or even speak fluently in languages with which they have had no prior contact. Stevenson and his team have rigorously investigated and verified many of these accounts through interviews, historical record searches, and visits to the often-remote areas described by these children. And yet few people are familiar with his work, and even fewer scholars in conventional academic circles address it seriously. Why such indifference? What is it about the intellectual community that prevents it from embracing Stevenson’s research and the idea of reincarnation? I’m a graduate of the Science, Technology and Society program at Stanford University, and this is not the first time I have thought about the nature of the modern scientific establishment and its relationship with mainstream culture. Among the public there is a perception that scientific inquiry is a dispassionate endeavor that uncovers value-neutral truths about reality. As a result, people are expected to regard scientific knowledge as belonging in a different category than knowledge from other sources, such as opinion, intuition, or scripture. This is justified on the grounds that science is supposedly free from the bias, prejudice, and blind faith that may characterize these other sources. But this distinction is artificial. Science is far from the objective arbiter of truth it is commonly perceived to be; rather, it is routinely affected by all manner of subjective considerations. Not only these more general mundane influences, but a more profound spiritual one as well, have played a part in the low esteem with which scientists hold Stevenson’s body of work and the concept of reincarnation. *Tainted Perception* The effect of irrational factors on empirical scientific research has been discussed, most notably by Thomas S. Kuhn in his classic *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.* Among the issues he highlights that I view as bearing on reincarnation are the theory-laden nature of perception, the role of paradigms in scientific research, and the social nature of such research. The first influence refers to the unconscious effect of existing attitudes and worldviews on what someone perceives. A popular notion is that scientists collect hard facts and then process them in a straightforward, rational way to come up with a theory. Stevenson points out, however, that “prior beliefs influence judgments about evidence; and they influence even more the primary observations that furnish the evidence.” A researcher’s underlying system of values unwittingly shapes the conclusions he or she comes to. What’s more, even the original facts themselves are subjective in that they may mean different things to different people. In this light, the image of the open-minded scientist transparently studying the world to extract an objective truth rings false. What a researcher believes before beginning an investigation necessarily affects what he or she ultimately discovers. Kuhn cites an interesting psychology experiment as an example of this phenomenon of perceptual bias. In it, the experimenters asked their subjects to identify a series of playing cards that were shown to them in increasingly lengthy exposures. Mixed in with the normal deck, however, were some anomalous cards, such as a red six of spades and a black four of hearts. When the cards were shown in short flashes, almost all of the subjects correctly identified the normal cards but, without hesitation, misidentified the anomalous ones (i.e., they would identify a black four of hearts conventionally as either a black four of spades or a red four of hearts). As the exposure time increased, the subjects started to hesitate in identifying these anomalous cards, until, often quite suddenly, they were able to identify them correctly without difficulty. At first, the subjects fit the strange cards into one of the normal conceptual categories they had derived from experience. Only with an extremely exaggerated exposure time, perhaps forty times as long as that required to identify normal cards, were they able to correctly identify the anomalous cards. One is almost forced to conclude that, until the end, many of the subjects were actually “seeing” something different than what was actually before their eyes. In terms of reincarnation, this selectivity of perception has affected the way scientists and scientifically minded people have reacted to the same evidence that convinced Stevenson. What to speak of the specific case studies he catalogues, there must be legions of other similar incidents and individuals. Why haven’t these garnered more widespread notice and study? The answer is likely the predisposition in mainstream Western society, even if unconscious, against a belief in transmigration of the soul. Even though some individuals and groups may be found who accept the concept, two views are predominant: either a strictly secular disbelief in the very existence of a soul, or at most a religious belief that accepts only one earthly lifetime. The educational and cultural norms of Western society simply don’t prepare people to be receptive to the idea of reincarnation. Those who do accept it do so in spite of, rather than because of, the underlying biases of their upbringing. Thus, most people, be they scientist or layperson, are predisposed to overlook evidence suggestive of reincarnation, whereas Stevenson, due to his own idiosyncratic background and experiences, was more open-minded and paid heed to such evidence. *Entrenched Paradigms* A second common source of subjectivity in the practice of modern science is the function of paradigms. Kuhn writes that paradigms are fundamental to the practice of normal science. A paradigm is a way of viewing the world and its study shared by a scientific community and connected to a set of generally accepted assumptions, rules, methods, and instruments. A paradigm aids detailed and precise study because those working within it don’t have to build their argument from scratch in every investigation but can proceed from a common base of accepted fundamentals. Rather than splaying out their efforts in sundry directions, they can focus on specific areas of new research consistent with the paradigm and develop elaborate tools and techniques appropriate to these areas. The problem with paradigms is that, because they are so useful, they become firmly entrenched and are displaced only with great difficulty. The same implicit beliefs and specialized methods that make research efficient and make certain types of progress possible become hindrances to the acceptance of novel beliefs, the development of new techniques, and the achievement of a grander type of progress. Thus, problems and phenomena that don’t fall within the parameters of the dominant paradigm are usually rejected, Kuhn writes, as “metaphysical, as the concern of another discipline, or sometimes as just too problematic to be worth the time.” This obstinate resistance to change reminds me of a book I read as an undergraduate that compared the modern scientific enterprise to the mythical Jewish golem. This zombielike creature, fabricated from clay, was completely subservient to its creator, with no mind of its own. The point made by the authors was that one can no more expect the scientific establishment to be genuinely flexible and responsive to new information than one could expect the dull, lumbering golem to perform a ballet; both have so much unconscious momentum behind their bulk that they tend to simply roll over anything in their way. The work of Ian Stevenson has been marginalized precisely because it is not in line with most contemporary paradigms. Despite his volumes of convincing evidence, the idea of reincarnation is anathema to traditional disciplines, and Stevenson’s case studies are explained away on other grounds or rejected outright as unscientific. The logic or elegance of reincarnation as an explanation of many of his observations is irrelevant. There is simply no room in the worldviews or approaches of established scientific communities for disembodied living beings who migrate from one body to another. Thus, only a shift in paradigms is likely to raise Stevenson’s studies to greater prominence. *Self-Preservation* A third influence that colors the practice of science is the social nature of research. Academics are reluctant to embrace ideas that stray too far from established laws and principles because their reputations, and possibly their careers, depend on their credibility and the respect of their peers. At an informal level, scientists usually don’t want to risk being ridiculed or minimized by presenting unconventional theories. At a formal level, researchers may hold prestigious positions or may have been honored with distinctive awards based on work they’ve done related to a particular theory. As a result, they are unlikely to welcome new discoveries that undermine their work. The temptation to suppress such information by reassigning the “renegade researchers,” cutting their funding, or simply firing them is often too strong to resist. Dr. Richard Thompson and Michael Cremo refer to the effect of this sort of strongly vested interest in maintaining the status quo as a “knowledge filter.” Their work on archaeological anomalies cites several cases in which up and coming scientists were permanently stigmatized for presenting findings that deviated too far from the conventional wisdom (e.g., dating certain types of fossils tens or even hundreds of thousands of years further into the past than was generally accepted at the time). The scenario is somewhat reminiscent of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” There was once a vain emperor whose only fondness was for extravagant and refined clothing. A couple of clever scoundrels decided to take advantage of this weakness by making a proposal: for a small fortune, they would weave an outfit for the emperor out of a revolutionary new cloth so fine that it appeared invisible to those too foolish to perceive it. The emperor agreed, and the rascals took advantage of his gullibility by dressing him in nothing at all. When he paraded his new “outfit” before his subjects, however, no one was willing to admit that the emperor was actually naked for fear of appearing too foolish to be able to see the cloth. Finally, a simple child pointed out the obvious, and the crowd took up the cry, leaving the emperor in the ridiculous position of having to finish the procession with a straight face, knowing he was indeed naked. The response of the intellectual community to Ian Stevenson’s findings is not unlike the response of the crowd to the emperor’s new clothes. Even if some individuals agree with some of his ideas or find some of his evidence persuasive, they are loath to publicly or professionally acknowledge their sympathy for fear of censure from their colleagues. Practically everyone is aware of the weaknesses and limitations of standard explanations for the evidence Stevenson presents, but they think it better to play along and preserve their status than to risk deviating from the norm and being labeled irrational. *Scientific Hubris* The three factors listed above—the effect of preconceptions on perception, the entrenchment of paradigms in modern science, and the social nature of research—are among the problems, as pointed out by Kuhn and others, associated with a strictly objective and rational image of science. I have indicated how all three probably play a role in keeping professional research communities from appreciating the pioneering work of Ian Stevenson on the subject of reincarnation. I believe another dynamic is at work, however, perhaps more significant and certainly subtler and less well understood: the *hubris* of modern science. The goal of scientific research as it exists today is to understand, manipulate, and ultimately master matter. Physicists even speak of a desire to develop a grand uniform theory that would take the form of a few equations (or even a single one) that could be printed on a T-shirt. In their search for truth, scientists tend to rely solely on their own intellect and innate abilities in making new discoveries. “Man is the measure of all things” is their motto, and the infinite potential of the human intellect is their creed. Even those who believe in God relegate him to the background, as at most the initiator of a universe now completely mechanistic and rational. Indeed, scientific inquiry is predicated on the belief that the universe is a riddle answerable through human endeavor. The privileged position in society of science as a whole, and of scientists as individuals, rests on this belief. *Higher Sources of Information* Phenomena such as reincarnation that indicate a reality beyond the reach of the microscope and telescope remind scientists too poignantly that their collective sense of mastery is only illusory and threaten their high status. The fact is that empiric research, such as that of Ian Stevenson, can take us only so far in understanding the transmigration of a nonmaterial soul. Even if they accepted his work, researchers of reincarnation would be forced to turn to other sources of information, such as scripture, to more fully understand it. To do this they would have to admit their dependence on an authority higher than themselves. Such submission is anathema to the very spirit of contemporary scientific inquiry, however, and so it ends up being much easier to reject reincarnation altogether. If only scientists were able to accept a more humble stance, they could take fruitful advantage of the Vedic literature of India, which represents a coherent source of information on reincarnation and other topics not addressed by mainstream science. The Vedic literature explains that the true nature of the universe is in fact inconceivable to ordinary human perception, and information about it must ultimately descend from God through his messengers and revealed scriptures. Among such scriptures is the *Bhagavad-gītā*, which informs us that we are all eternal spirit souls who belong in the spiritual sky with the Supreme Lord. There we are all immortal and full of complete knowledge and uninterrupted happiness. Due to a desire to enjoy separately from the Lord, however, we have been forced to descend to this material world and endure the cycle of repeated birth and death. Here we must reincarnate through various species of life until we again accept the supremacy of God, or Kṛṣṇa, and are allowed to re-enter his realm. Until then, the actions of our current life determine what our next material body will be. Significantly, the Vedic understanding of reincarnation doesn’t preclude its systematic study and experimental investigation. That is to say, scientific research could go on, but simply in a different spirit (and perhaps with some different theories and tools). Rather than approaching the study of nature as the lords of all they survey and pretending that scientific research as currently practiced is a completely reliable source of objective truth, the intellectual community would have to acknowledge its limitations, some of which have been described in this article, and adopt a more appropriate humility. In this mood, scientists could begin to embrace reincarnation based on Stevenson’s work, and then turn to the Vedic scriptures for further guidance and information. The texts themselves guarantee that such a sincere cultivation of knowledge will result in genuine realization and verifiable truth. Backed by a robust and well-grounded understanding of reincarnation, scientists could offer society answers to some of its most pressing questions: Why do some people suffer and some people prosper in their present lives? They are simply experiencing the results of actions taken in their past lives. Why should people be moral and avoid sinful activities? By doing so, they ensure a better next life. Of course, the ultimate understanding of reincarnation enunciated by the Vedic scriptures is that we should try to break free from the cycle of repeated birth and death by reconciling ourselves with God. As soon as we surrender unto him, he promises us in the *Bhagavad-gītā,* he’ll fill our hearts with complete knowledge of everything to be known. And we’ll get to live with him in eternal bliss to boot. What more could any scientist hope for? Navin Jani has a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Florida. He lives with his wife, Kṛṣṇa-priya Devī Dāsī, in Irvine, California. ## From the Editor *The Joy of Sacrifice* I WAS GOING TO open this essay with this simple declarative sentence: The essence of spiritual life is service to others. But then I hesitated. As an editor, I deal every day with the challenge of achieving clear communication. So I thought, “Will everyone understand what that sentence means?” You might think the sentence is clear, but not everyone will read it the same way. The main problem here has to do with the word *spiritual,* which means different things to different people. What image comes to mind when you hear the word? If you’re a regular reader of this magazine, you’ll probably think of the soul or Kṛṣṇa or the *spiritual* world or the practices of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You’ll naturally equate *spiritual* with *transcendental.* But not everyone thinks that way. One definition of *spiritual* is “showing great refinement and concern with the higher things in life.” Someone with that idea of *spiritual* might agree with the statement “The essence of *spiritual* life is service to others” but miss the intended point. He or she might think, “Serving others is a refined human quality, and therefore it’s *spiritual*.” So let me be clearer. When I say “spiritual,” I’m talking about the reality that exists beyond matter and the temporary things of this world. I’m talking about eternal truths. And “spiritual life” is the transcendental life of the soul in it’s relationship with God, whether in this world or beyond it. To say that service is the essence of spiritual life means that serving others is intrinsic to our real identity. We can’t escape it, nor, in our pure state, do we want to. It’s essential to who we are, and therefore it’s ultimately what fills us with joy. Someone who thinks of spirituality in a more humanistic way might say that the good feelings one gets from serving others, in the philanthropic sense, indicate that helping others is spiritual. It’s a higher kind of happiness than self-centered acts. That’s true. Śrīla Prabhupāda says something similar, but he takes the idea to a higher level. He says that our joy in voluntarily sacrificing for the benefit others, with no apparent reward for ourselves, reveals our true nature as eternal servants of God. In the *Bhagavad-gītā* (3.10) Lord Kṛṣṇa says, “Be thou happy by this sacrifice.” We become happy by giving to God and his creatures. Once, when a reporter asked Śrīla Prabhupāda what the purpose of life was, Prabhupāda answered, “To enjoy.” Surely not the answer the reporter expected. Prabhupāda then explained that in our true identity as spiritual beings we are by nature happy. Real life, therefore, is enjoyment, but in this world we look for joy in the wrong places. We’ll find bliss in service to others, in sacrifice. “Service to others” is another part of my opening statement that might be misunderstood. Not all service is equal—or spiritual. What is truly beneficial, spiritual service? Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, because all who hear God’s names receive eternal spiritual benefit. The Vedic scriptures prescribe different kinds of sacrifice for different ages. In this age, the recommended sacrifice is to chant God’s names—a simple sacrifice that requires only that we give up some of our time and words.—*Nagaraja Dāsa* ## Vedic Thoughts Advancement of civilization is estimated not on the growth of mills and factories to deteriorate the finer instincts of the human being, but on developing the potent spiritual instincts of human beings and giving them a chance to go back to Godhead. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 1.11.12 One who is the kind well-wisher of all living beings, who is peaceful and firmly fixed in knowledge and realization, sees me within all things. Such a person never again falls down into the cycle of birth and death. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 11.7.12 The Supreme Truth is spiritual. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is spiritual. The individual spirit soul is a tiny particle of spirit. Great variety exists in the realm of spirit. Spirit is by nature full of bliss. By performing spiritual activities one becomes blissful. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura *Tattva-viveka* 2.9–10 All of one’s sins, whether accumulated by words, actions, or the mind, can be removed only by remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. *Brahma-vaivarta Purana* Quoted in *Śrī Hari-bhakti-vilasa* (3.55) Those who drink through aural reception, fully filled with the nectarean message of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the beloved of the devotees, purify the polluted aim of life known as material enjoyment and thus go back to Godhead, to the lotus feet of him [the Personality of Godhead]. Śrīla Sukadeva Gosvami *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 2.2.37 Persons simply initiated into the chanting of Kṛṣṇa’s names certainly attain liberation, what to speak of those who constantly worship Lord Acyuta [Kṛṣṇa] with pure devotion. *Brahma Purana* 119.6 If the sense of speech, which sets all the external and internal senses in motion, is brought under constant control, then the mind becomes stable and can properly engage in transcendental remembrance of the Lord. Remembrance thus develops as the fruit of chanting. Associates of Lord Visnu *Śrī Brhad-bhagavatamrta* 2.3.150 You should know Kṛṣṇa to be the original Soul of all living entities. For the benefit of the whole universe, he has, out of his causeless mercy, appeared as an ordinary human being. He has done this by the strength of his internal potency. Lord Brahma *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 10.14.55