# Back to Godhead Magazine #45 *2011 (04)* Back to Godhead Magazine #45-04, 2011 PDF-View ## Welcome When Śrīla Prabhupāda left India in 1965 to travel to the United States, his mission was to teach. He was confident that people would welcome the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness if they understood it. He didn't demand blind following; he wanted people to hear an unadulterated presentation of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s teachings and use their intelligence to judge its value. In "Real Knowledge Changed My Life," Visakha Devī Dāsī recalls how, unlike anything she had heard before, what she learned in her early encounters with Prabhupāda's teachings and his disciples clarified everything. Manu Dāsa's story, related in "Recovering from Childhood," reveals his attraction to the application of the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, witnessed during his visits to the first London Hare Kṛṣṇa temple. Prabhupāda's lecture in this issue conveys knowledge every human being should aspire for: how to become completely free from suffering. The practices of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can deliver that kind of freedom. It takes time, however, so as Arcana Siddhi Devī Dāsī explains in "When Bad Is Good," devotees live in the knowledge that all reversals are sent by Kṛṣṇa, who knows exactly what we need to progress along the path back to Him and our eternal home. Hare Kṛṣṇa. —*Nagaraja Dāsa, Editor* ## Letters • 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 *Perspectives on Ritual* What an appropriate set of words Vraja Vihari Dāsa has used for his article about ritual in the March/April issue of *Back to Godhead*. How true it is that for many people, ritual would pave the path for spiritual enlightenment, and the author's writing on the subject spells that out well. Like the young man described in the article, I have always had doubts about the value of extended ritual practices to reach God, and I still do. I would never feel disdain for those who practice ritual sincerely and derive joy from it. What I feel sometimes is that, at least for some of us, participation during prolonged rituals detracts from thoughts about God and the teachings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and their great importance in one's life. I have often observed some attendees at services chatting with each other, walking away, or disengaging in other ways. Perhaps, as the great *acaryas* have said, in today's Kali-yuga, when there is the simple way to attain spirituality by chanting and following the four-way path of avoiding meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling, ritual can be kept up periodically purely for association among devotees and renewal of one's spiritual practices. Byravan Viswanathan. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania *Spiritual Challenges in the Workplace* The article "Transform Your Workplace into the Spiritual World", by Mahatma Dāsa (March/April), was very inspiring. I will definitely try to implement the points in my life. However, there are a few problems (listed below) which I find difficult to handle. • I work in an IT industry where almost 50% of the workers are females. Since in the corporate world emphasis is given on developing friendly relationships, what is the best way I can handle this situation? • There are team meetings, project parties, project picnics, client visits, etc. In such programs mundane topics are discussed, movie songs are played, and the entire atmosphere is full of passion and ignorance. They want me to be part of such events and say that they can arrange food for me without onions and garlic. Saying no to them every time hurts their egos, and they think me unsocial. • Sometimes I have to work till late at night, and getting up early in the morning to chant sixteen rounds becomes very difficult. How can I handle this situation? • Also, if it becomes difficult to complete sixteen rounds in the morning, then I try to complete them while commuting to the office. Is it correct to complete the prescribed number of rounds while traveling, or should it be completed at one fixed place, either in home or in temple? Purushottam Kumar Kolkata, India *Mahatma Dāsa replies:* Mixing of the sexes in the workplace certainly can cause problems. You have to create a balance between being friendly and warm and, at the same time, retaining a sobriety about yourself. If you consistently maintain standards in your dealings with women, they'll respect those limits. If you are overly friendly, then that can be seen as an invitation for more and closer contact. I teach a seminar on sexual purity, and the topic of female association in the workplace comes up often. One participant in the seminar suggested that if you are married, talk a lot about your wife, and if you are engaged, talk a lot about your fiance. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura defines “association” as an exchange of love. He describes association in the workplace as association in the line of duty. In other words, if there is no intimacy or exchange of loving dealings, then you are not considered to be associating with another person. I don't say this to minimize your concern about engaging in mundane activities and conversations with co-workers. If you can't get out of going to occasional company social events, then you have to accept them as austerities to be tolerated as part of your work. If you were a *brahmacari* or *sannyasi,* then you would have a different set of austerities to tolerate. If you were a billionaire, then you would have to tolerate the austerities of having a lot of false friends, experiencing constant requests for donations, and fearing that your child would be kidnapped. Life is austere, whoever you are and whatever you do. If there is anyone at these social events who is interested in spiritual life, then spend time with that person. You might have a chance to talk about Kṛṣṇa, and that would be enlivening. I understand that in the IT industry, employees sometimes have to work late. If this doesn't happen too often, again, you'll just have to tolerate the late nights and deal with them as best you can. If this is something that goes on regularly, this can be a problem for your spiritual life. In that case, it would be best to find employment in a company with work hours more conducive to your *sadhana.* Regarding **japa*,* it's better to chant in one place, ideally a place where you can fully concentrate on your **japa*.* If you must chant elsewhere, it's best to find a place where, as far as possible, you won't be distracted. Chanting and driving are not recommended because it's difficult to concentrate on *japa* while driving. However, if that's the only way you can finish your rounds, it's better to chant and drive than not to finish your rounds. *Mixing Prasadam* Is it an offense to mix *prasadam* with unoffered food and eat it? Also, if I offer a small amount of food for *prasadam*, would I mix that offered food into the pot of the normal food to make it all *prasadam*? Reshma Via the Internet *Our reply:* When we prepare a pot of something to offer to Kṛṣṇa, we take a small amount of that and then offer it with the intention that we are offering the entire pot full of food to Him. The small amount in His bowl is called *maha-prasadam,* and the rest is *Prasadam.* We should not add anything to *prasadam* except other *prasadam*. Better to offer each item in a meal on a plate for Kṛṣṇa and not eat anything that can't be offered. Founder's Lecture: The Solution to All Problems Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Hamburg, Germany, September 8, 1969 *Vedic civilization defines human life as the quest to end one's suffering permanently.* > daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī > mama māyā duratyayā > mām eva ye prapadyante > māyām etāṁ taranti te "This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” *Bhagavad-gītā* 7.14 According to Vedic civilization, anyone who is not inquisitive about the solution to the problems of life is not truly a human being, because there are so many problems. The animals cannot inquire into solving them, but a human being can inquire. So unless one comes to this point, to inquiring how these problems can be solved, he is not developed to human consciousness. He's still in animal consciousness. Human civilization, advanced civilization, means trying to solve problems. For example, at the present moment the world has atomic bombs, and all nations are anxious to keep peace. They have started the United Nations to solve the problem posed by atomic bombs. Although they are unable to do this, they are trying. So advancement of civilization means that by nature some problem is offered, and we are trying to solve it. Another example: In your country there are subways. Why? Because on the surface there is a lot of traffic, and a solution to the problem is to go underground. Therefore people may think, "Oh, the Western countries have advanced more than the Eastern countries. They have solved the traffic problem." But after that problem, there is another problem. Problem after problem. The ultimate problem is that we do not want to suffer. That's all. We want comfortable, peaceful life. That is the ultimate problem. Is it not? Just think it over. In Sanskrit language it is said, *atyantika-duḷkha-nivrttiḷ:* "to solve the problem of misery." We don't want any kind of misery. We don't want to suffer. We want very peaceful and joyful life. But that is not possible within the material world. That is the problem. By nature, the living entity wants joyful life. *Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt* (*Vedanta-sūtra* 1.1.12). *Abhyasat* means that by natural tendency the living beings want joyful life. But that is not possible here. A Bengali poet has written, "I constructed my home to live very peacefully and comfortably. All of a sudden there was a fire, and now everything is vanquished." In America they have the experience that Mr. Kennedy became president after a long struggle. He had a very nice wife, children, honor, prestige, everything. People took him to be a very happy man. Within a second, it was all finished. He was driving in a procession, people were honoring him, and within a second—finished. Everyone is trying to be very happy, comfortable, but it is being finished within a second. Is that not a fact? Is there any disagreement on this point? That is the problem. And everyone is trying to solve this problem in his own way. They are manufacturing different ways to solve it, but the problem is not solved. In America, whenever I meet some gentleman in the street and he understands that I am coming from India, he says, "Oh, India is very poverty-stricken." You see. As if there is no problem in America. So I tell them, "You also have many problems. You are not problem-free." Suppose you have some pain somewhere in your body. Sometimes we think, "If the pain had been somewhere else, then it would have been nice." But whether here or there, it is still pain. One country may have the problem of insufficient grain, and another country may have the problem of too many hippies, but in either case, a problem is there. Therefore one should be very careful to know how to solve the problems. Actually, we are trying. We are trying to advance in education, in scientific knowledge. In so many ways we are trying, because material nature is offering problem after problem. That is nature's business. You solve one problem, and she'll present another problem. Somebody thought, "If there are airplanes, then it will be very nice to travel in the sky." But now the problem is that with airplanes, if there is enmity, another country can bomb my country. So, another problem. Now people have to go underground. I was reading in the *World Almanac* that in the next hundred years, people will live underground. Just see. They will come on the surface just to breathe a little freely. Otherwise, they will have to live underground. So, another problem is coming. But intelligent persons should think of how to solve this ultimate problem. What will be the answer? How can the ultimate problem be solved? The solution is there in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (7.24): > avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ > manyante mām abuddhayaḥ > paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto > mamāvyayam anuttamam "This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” The solution is that we have to surrender unto the Supreme. If the police arrest you, then it is very difficult to get out of their clutches. But if you are a good citizen, a soul surrendered to the state, there is no problem. The police have nothing to do with you. Is it difficult to understand? The problems are there, and the problems are under the management of this material nature. It is not possible to overcome the stringent laws of material nature, exactly as it is not very easy to get out once the police arrest you. If you want to get out of the clutches of material nature, which is putting forward problem after problem, then you have to become a surrendered soul, or Kṛṣṇa conscious. Otherwise, material nature is so strong, you think, "Now this problem is solved," but you have not really solved anything, because another problem will come. *The Ultimate Problem* The ultimate problem is, of course, death. Nobody wants to die. Even if one is a very old man, older than me, and his body is not working, he's invalid, he cannot walk, he's lying on the bed—still, he wants to live. If you say to some suffering old man who is invalid and has many diseases, "My dear father, grandfather, you are suffering so much. Let me shoot you." "Oh, no, no, no. Don't shoot me." He doesn't want to die. Death is a problem. Nobody wants to die, but death comes and captures us, just like President Kennedy, within a second [*snaps his fingers*]—"Leave this position." Forced. Submit. "Yes. What can I do?" No scientific advancement of knowledge can protect us. The material scientists are trying. The Russians sometimes say, "The time will come when science will solve the problem of death. Nobody will die." Let them think like that, but it is not possible. That is stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (13.9), *janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam* "the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age, and disease." One who is actually learned, advanced in knowledge, should know these four miseries. The misery of taking birth means that after this body is finished, we have to take another body. How is the body constructed, developed? In the womb of the mother. The father gives the semen with the living entity within, and the mother receives it and develops the body. This is nature's law. You have to live within the mother—compact, airtight, packed—for ten [lunar] months, at least. Just imagine if you are packed in a bag and put in an airtight compartment, locked up, would you like it? You'll die within three seconds. But the arrangement is so nice, by nature's law, that the child breathes with the mother's breathing and is fed when the mother eats. Even when the child is unconscious, the development of the body goes on. That is nature's arrangement, but you cannot do that. It is by God's grace that the child lives. Otherwise, nobody can live in that condition. Just try it. Take any man, pack him, and put him in an airtight condition. He'll die within three seconds. There is also suffering when you die, when you are diseased, and when you are old. I am old, and some way or other I am maintaining this body by massages, by taking some medicine, this way, that way. This body is no longer like a young man's body. It is a suffering body. By nature, as soon as you are over fifty years, old age begins. And when you are over seventy years, you are completely old, and you have to suffer the consequences of old age. You may try to maintain that old body, but there is suffering. A young man cannot understand this, but one who is old can understand. Suffering of old age, suffering of birth, suffering of death, and suffering of disease. You may be proud of your advancement of knowledge, thinking you have solved all the questions, but in the *Bhagavad-gītā* Kṛṣṇa says, "Don't think like that. That is your foolishness. These problems are there. What can you do?" That is learning: "Yes. The problems are not solved. The problems are there." That is learning. When rabbits face a hunter and understand that "Now my life is in danger," they close their eyes and think, "The problem is now solved." [*Laughs.*] And peacefully he is killed. [*Laughs.*] You see? Similarly, the problems are there, but we are closing our eyes: "Oh, there is no problem. We are very happy." This is called *maya,* illusion. The problem is not solved, but they are thinking their problem is solved by closing their eyes. That's all. *Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Solution* Now, here is the solution to the problem, as Kṛṣṇa says in the fourteenth verse, Seventh Chapter, of *Bhagavad-gītā:* "It is very difficult to surmount the problems offered by the laws of material nature, but one who surrenders unto Me overcomes them." Therefore we are teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness to solve the problems of life. It is not sentiment or fanaticism or any sectarian religion. It is a fact that if you want to solve the problems of life, you have to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. There is no alternative. A Bengali song says, "Just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. All other solutions are false. You cannot escape. Death is waiting behind you." Before death overcomes you, solve the problem. That is intelligence. "The greatest danger—death—is awaiting me." That is sure. "As sure as death." Everyone knows. How shall we meet death? Like cats and dogs? If so, then what is the use of this human form of life? The cats and dogs also have their body. They will meet death. I have a body, and I will also meet death. So am I meant for meeting death like cats and dogs? If so, then what kind of human being am I? The *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* ((11.9.29) says, > labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte > mānuṣyam artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ > tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anu-mṛtyu yāvan > niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt "After many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human form of life, which, although temporary, affords one the opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus a sober human being should quickly endeavor for the ultimate perfection of life as long as his body, which is always subject to death, has not fallen down and died. After all, sense gratification is available even in the most abominable species of life, whereas Kṛṣṇa consciousness is possible only for a human being." There is an evolutionary process. That is admitted in Vedic literature. But it is not exactly like Darwin's theory. There is evolution of the living being from the lower grade of animal life to the higher grade of animal life. And we have gotten this human form of life after many, many lower grades of life. It is very rare. There are 8,400,000 species of life. Out of those, the human species of life are 400,000; compared with other animals, it is a very small number. Out of those, there are many uncivilized human beings. They are almost animals. Then there are civilized human beings, like us. Out of them, many do not know what spiritual life is. That is stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (7.3): Out of many thousands of human beings, one is interested to make a solution of the problem of life. Not everyone. Most do not even know what the problem is. Neither do they care about it. They think, "All right, let there be problems. We have got this life; let us enjoy our senses." They are almost animals. But those who are inquisitive about how to solve the problem are actually accepted as human beings. Others are not even human beings. They are almost animals. *Dying Like a Brahmana* Now you have this opportunity. This body should be utilized properly to solve the problem. If we simply give ourselves up to the waves of birth and death, to different types of body, that is not very good intelligence. Not intelligence at all. This human form of life should be utilized to solve the problem. That is the aim of Vedic civilization, which stresses the solution, not the creation, of problems. The materialistic way of life means to increase and create problems. That is not perfect human civilization. The perfect human civilization is to sit very calmly and quietly and to philosophically think, "How to solve the problem? Where shall I get the knowledge?" This is human life. The whole Vedic instruction is like that: "Now you must utilize this form of life to make a solution. Don't die like cats and dogs." The *Veda* says, "One who dies after attempting to solve the problems of life is a *brahmana.* And one who dies like cats and dogs is a **krpana*.*" *krpana* means a very less intelligent person. We should not die like cats and dogs. We should die like a *Brahmana.* Even if you don't solve the problem in one life, then you get another opportunity in your next life. It is to be understood that these boys and girls who have come to us tried in their last life to solve this problem but did not finish. Now they have another opportunity. These things are stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā.* Now, this life, you should be determined. Those who are coming in touch with Kṛṣṇa consciousness and becoming initiated should be very determined that "In this life I shall make a solution. No more coming again." That should be our determination. And go back home, back to Godhead, where we get eternal, blissful life of knowledge. This is the sum and substance of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Thank you very much. ## Śrīla Prabhupāda Speaks Out *Kṛṣṇa’s Pastimes: Reality, Not Allegory* *The following conversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and David Lawrence, a British schoolteacher, took place in August 1973 during an early-morning walk in London.* David Lawrence: In the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* there seems to be a great deal of . . . demonology, if you like. Now, I confess this raises problems for me. Are the references to, say, the demoness Pūtanṛ taking Kṛṣṇa on her lap and Kṛṣṇa sucking her breast and killing her—is this to be taken literally or allegorically? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Literally. Mr. Lawrence: Literally, as a physical fact? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. Of course, in the *Bhagavatam* there are some figurative stories, similar to *Aesop's Fables*. These are for instruction. Mr. Lawrence: What about the reference to Kṛṣṇa and the unmarried *gopis* [cowherd girls]? You say in your books that "He treated them like dolls, yet they were well pleased with Him." What is the main point of that passage? Śrīla Prabhupāda: When the *Bhagavatam* says Kṛṣṇa treated the *gopis* like dolls, that means the *gopis* danced just according to His desire. Mr. Lawrence: Is that to be taken literally, or is there some symbolic meaning? Śrīla Prabhupāda: No, literally. The *gopis* are so devoted to Kṛṣṇa that whatever Kṛṣṇa desires, they do. Mr. Lawrence: I must confess, these activities of Kṛṣṇa’s are quite beyond my comprehension. Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, they are very difficult for ordinary people to understand. That is why this portion of Kṛṣṇa’s life is depicted in the Tenth Canto of *Śrīmad-*Bhagavatam*.* Nine cantos are devoted to understanding Kṛṣṇa’s supreme position. Then Kṛṣṇa’s intimate *līlā* [pastimes] are described in the Tenth Canto. But if one tries to read the life and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa without understanding that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one will be misled. Therefore the *Bhagavatam* begins by explaining the Supreme Lord as the original source of the creation (*janmady asya yatah*). The *Bhagavatam* doesn't abruptly introduce Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the *gopis.* In the spiritual world krsna has unlimited varieties of activities. The activities in this material world are only a perverted reflection of those in the spiritual world. But out of foolishness we take Kṛṣṇa’s activities to be like ours. Kṛṣṇa loved the **gopis*.* The *gopis* were young girls, and Kṛṣṇa was a young boy, and He loved them. But here the so-called love between a young boy and girl is lust. Therefore it is condemned. But in the love between Kṛṣṇa and the *gopis* there is not a trace of lust. Here lust is going on in the name of love. And because it is not love, it doesn't continue very long—it breaks. But in the history of the spiritual world, you don't find that the love between the *gopis* and Kṛṣṇa broke at any time. That is the difference between lust and love. Mr. Lawrence: In the West, one in three marriages is destined to break up. That's what they say now—one in three. Śrīla Prabhupāda: Just see! And they are trying to drag their lusty ideas into Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. Generally, rascals claim that Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the *gopis* support their own lusty activities: "Kṛṣṇa acts lustily, so I can also." This is a gross misunderstanding. People who think like this do not take into account that here in the material world so-called love is lust—and it breaks. But in the love between Kṛṣṇa and the *gopis*, there is no breaking—only increase. So how can they compare their lusty affairs to Kṛṣṇa’s loving affairs with the *gopis*? Mr. Lawrence: I must admit that I've read far enough in your books to see that they really can't. Śrīla Prabhupāda: When you give an analogy, there must be many points of similarity. So where are the points of similarity between Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and the lusty affairs of this material world? These rascals are so dull-headed that they don't even have a logical argument. They are comparing the lusty affairs of this material world to the affairs of Kṛṣṇa and the *gopis.* But where is the similarity? Mr. Lawrence: There's never any mention at all of lust or animal desire, is there? Śrīla Prabhupāda: No. For example, the *Bhagavatam* describes everything about Kṛṣṇa’s dancing with the *gopis*—their kissing, their embracing, and so on. But there is no mention of contraceptives. And the *gopis* never became pregnant. So how can we compare Kṛṣṇa’s loving affairs with the *gopis* to the lusty affairs of this material world? Mr. Lawrence: It can't be done. Another question: I was reading a book (one not put out by the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement) about Lord Caitanya, and it said that the manifestations of Kṛṣṇa consciousness He showed during *kirtana* and so on were manifestations of madness. Can you comment on that? Śrīla Prabhupāda: When a man is himself mad, he'll find others mad. [*Laughter.*] Mr. Lawrence: He'll see a reflection of himself. Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. This misunderstanding is condemned in *Bhagavad-gītā,* where Kṛṣṇa says *avajananti mṛm *mudha*:* "Because when I come to this world I come in a human form, rascals take Me for an ordinary human being." (The word *mudha* means "rascals" or "asses.") So, Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself, but the fools and rascals take him for an ordinary human being. Mr. Lawrence: They're just talking from within their own experience. They can't imagine what happens when God presents Himself as a man. Śrīla Prabhupāda: When they hear that Kṛṣṇa lifted Govardhana Hill, they think, "This is mythology." But if Kṛṣṇa is actually God, is it very difficult for Him to lift a mountain? He's floating so many heavy planets in the sky. So if Kṛṣṇa can make so many planets weightless, is it very difficult for Him to make Govardhana Hill weightless? These things are very easy for devotees to understand, but nondevotees cannot understand them. Therefore in the *Bhagavad-gītā* Kṛṣṇa clearly says, *bhaktya mam abhijanati:* "Only through devotional service can one understand Me." So if you want to understand Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes in truth, you must take to the process of devotional service. ## When Bad is Good *By Arcana Siddhi Devī Dāsī* *Scripture and the examples of pure souls help devotees see the merciful hand of God in all of life's reverses.* On the way to the Kolkata airport from ISKCON's temple complex in Māyāpur, West Bengal, Braja Sevaki Dasi and her husband, Jahnudvipa Dāsa, were in a near-fatal car accident. They were rushed to the hospital and placed in the intensive care unit. The first days after the accident, reports of their life-threatening condition spilled into devotees' inboxes worldwide with urgent requests for prayers. After the couple was stabilized, a devotee requested Braja Sevaki to write about the experience from the perspective of a devotee undergoing great suffering—how it affects our spiritual lives and how we can accept something so bad or unfortunate happening to us. She replied that prior to the accident, she and her husband had both felt spiritually hindered by the weight of their faults and conditioning. They prayed a long time to Kṛṣṇa to help them remove whatever was impeding their progress towards Him. In a letter to devotees, she elaborated: "We can say with utmost sincerity, this situation was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to us. Kṛṣṇa took, in one swoop, all the many, many things that we longed to lay down at His feet and have Him remove. We had prayed for the removal of these things, but waited for His mercy. Even in the taxi on the way to the airport, two hours before the accident, I had wondered how He would take these things from me, how His mercy would manifest. But it did. It came. In the strongest, most assured, most final way." In my work as a psychotherapist, people generally contact me in the midst of a crisis or a very difficult time in their life. Over the past twenty years of helping spiritual practitioners navigate through stormy times, I have developed a much deeper appreciation for how Kṛṣṇa expertly uses material circumstances to help disentangle us from the material conception of life. Recently a devotee needed help accepting the loss of her infant child to sudden infant death. I helped her through the grieving process, and I helped her embrace the situation as part of her spiritual journey. The key to her healing came from accepting the event as part the Lord's greater plan for her life. How we respond to the events in our life, both by our attitude and by our subsequent behavior, will create our future. Śrīla Prabhupāda, in an exchange with a young man who later became his disciple, illustrated how we are not simply passive recipients of predestined life events. The young man was advocating using LSD for self-realization. After a lengthy discussion, Śrīla Prabhupāda defeated his ideas and told him, "Man is the architect of his own fortune. So make your fortune now. Whatever is done, is done. Now start a new chapter in your life, and next life go back home, back to Godhead." As a psychotherapist with a spiritual orientation on life, I believe that our current circumstances resulted from our past actions and attitudes. I also believe that because Kṛṣṇa is in control, ultimately everything that happens in our life is for our highest good. [See the "*Karma* or Kṛṣṇa ?"] In this way I have walked with devotees in their darkest times—chronic pain, spousal abuse or infidelity, the death of a loved one, the permanent loss of mobility after an accident, and a host of other situations that from a material point of view are terribly bad. Together, with the help of the Lord, we have worked on finding the gems in the misfortunes—the spiritual lessons ever present in Kṛṣṇa’s divine interventions. Our Gaudiya Vaisnava literature is full of stories about material reverses, seemingly negative events intruding into the life of an aspiring devotee or a pure devotee executing the mission of the lord. Reading the description of a devotee's calamity might make us think that God is heartless and cruel, and we might decide to abandon the book. We might even decide to denounce the theistic path, refusing to place our faith in such a being. But if we did so, our premature judgment of the Lord's character would cheat us out of witnessing how expertly the Lord uses material reverses and difficulties to bring about a glorious conclusion for the benefit of his faithful servants. *A Good Outcome to a Seemingly Bad Situation* Consider the example of Śrīnivasa Ācārya, who was still a boy when Caitanya Mahāprabhu left this world about five hundred years ago. Śrīnivasa was born to continue the distribution of love of God after Lord Caitanya's departure. As a young man, he spent time in Vrindavan, where some of Lord Caitanya's leading disciples had written books elaborating His teachings. Śrīnivasa and two other devotees (Narottama and Uyamananda) were deputed to transport copies of the books from Vrindavan to Lord Caitanya's followers in Bengal and Orissa. Accepting the service, they took several guards to protect the ox-cart carrying trunks filled with the valuable books. The journey unfolded without mishap until they reached the province of Vishnupura, ruled by the sinful king Virhambira. His spies spotted the well-guarded cart and assumed that the trunks contained valuable gems. After waiting until the guards had fallen asleep, they ambushed the cart and stole the trunks. When the king greedily broke into the trunks to inspect his booty, his impassioned enthusiasm quickly turned into disheartened disbelief as he beheld trunks filled with books. Disappointed, he ordered his men to put the books into his storage room. While the king lamented the loss of his illusory fortune, Śrīnivasa and the other devotees were devastated at the loss of the real treasure. Unable to immediately comprehend the greater plan of the Lord, they plunged into temporary despair. While the rest of his party traveled onward, Śrīnivasa stayed in Vishnupura, hoping to receive some clue to the whereabouts of the confiscated books. He eventually found them, and he took the opportunity to instruct King Virhambira in the teachings of the *Bhagavatam.* When the king heard this scripture from the great liberated soul, his heart became purified, and he surrendered his life and kingdom to Śrīnivasa . Thus by an intricate arrangement of the Lord, the king became a Vaisnava, and with his wealth and resources helped Śrīnivasa deliver Lord Caitanya's teachings. What initially seemed calamitous became a most welcome and happy event. *Seeing Kṛṣṇa’s Help* By following the process of devotional service, we align ourselves with the supreme mystic, Lord Kṛṣṇa. The more we take steps toward trusting Kṛṣṇa to be our maintainer and guardian, the more we will see how everything that happens in our life is designed to transform our consciousness from material to spiritual. Kṛṣṇa expertly arranges events in devotees' lives to help them give up their attachments to ephemeral matter and attach themselves to eternal spirit. He helps us correct our perceptual distortions and distinguish the eternal self from the temporary body. The devotee who lost her infant was able to contemplate the possibility that her child had practiced Kṛṣṇa consciousness in his previous life and needed to spend only a little more time in this life before going to Kṛṣṇa. She also extracted many important lessons about her own spiritual life. Being in so much distress over the loss, she took more and more shelter of her spiritual practices and felt that Kṛṣṇa intensified her desire to become more serious about making spiritual progress in this lifetime. The more intense her chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa *mantra* became, the more she was convinced that Kṛṣṇa was her only true shelter and source of happiness. In an amazing panorama of events going on simultaneously, Kṛṣṇa is purifying the hearts of all those who endeavor to reunite with Him. Those of us pursuing our spiritual lives under Prabhupāda's guidance, in a society of likeminded Vaisnavas, should always strive to remind one another of Kṛṣṇa’s unwavering eternal love for each of us. In this way we will know that for our unique circumstance, Kṛṣṇa perfectly orchestrates whatever situation we find ourselves in. Life can be compared to a big classroom, replete with lessons and exams. Our freedom in the human form of life lies in how we use our time. A syllabus alerts students to exam dates and projects, but it is up to them to use their free time to study. Similarly, we have to use our free time to practice our spiritual life so that we will be prepared for the exams that come—the final test being the time of death. Strong spiritual practices, such as chanting *japa* and hearing from spiritually advanced devotees, will help us embrace each situation with the attitude that everything the Lord does is for my highest good. This will help us make rapid spiritual advancement. Under Kṛṣṇa’s care, there is no bad, only good. *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.* ## Karma or Kṛṣṇa? *Devotee see suffering as karma, or the automatic result of their past misdeeds, but they also see suffering as sent by Kṛṣṇa for their benefit. Can both be true?* When speaking about the suffering of devotees, Śrīla Prabhupāda often quoted a verse from the *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* (10.14.8), spoken by Lord Brahma. Here is that verse, whose commentary by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciple His Holiness Hridayānanda Dāsa Goswami sheds light on the question "For devotees, is suffering *karma* or Kṛṣṇa?" > tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo > bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam > hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te > jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk "My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim." PURPORT: Śrīla Śrīdhara Svami explains in his commentary that just as a legitimate son has to simply remain alive to gain an inheritance from his father, one who simply remains alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, following the regulative principles of *bhakti-yoga,* automatically becomes eligible to receive the mercy of the Personality of Godhead. In other words, he will be promoted to the kingdom of God. The word *su-samīkṣamāṇa* indicates that a devotee earnestly awaits the mercy of the Supreme Lord even while suffering the painful effects of previous sinful activities. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains in the *Bhagavad-gītā* that a devotee who fully surrenders unto Him is no longer liable to suffer the reactions of his previous *karma*. However, because in his mind a devotee may still maintain the remnants of his previous sinful mentality, the Lord removes the last vestiges of the enjoying spirit by giving His devotee punishments that may sometimes resemble sinful reactions. The purpose of the entire creation of God is to rectify the living entity's tendency to enjoy without the Lord, and therefore the particular punishment given for a sinful activity is specifically designed to curtail the mentality that produced the activity. Although a devotee has surrendered to the Lord's devotional service, until he is completely perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness he may maintain a slight inclination to enjoy the false happiness of this world. The Lord therefore creates a particular situation to eradicate this remaining enjoying spirit. This unhappiness suffered by a sincere devotee is not technically a *karmic* reaction; it is rather the Lord's special mercy for inducing His devotee to completely let go of the material world and return home, back to Godhead. A sincere devotee earnestly desires to go back to the Lord's abode. Therefore he willingly accepts the Lord's merciful punishment and continues offering respects and obeisances to the Lord with his heart, words and body. Such a bona fide servant of the Lord, considering all hardship a small price to pay for gaining the personal association of the Lord, certainly becomes a legitimate son of God, as indicated here by the words *dṛya-bhṛk.* Just as one cannot approach the sun without becoming fire, one cannot approach the supreme pure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, without undergoing a rigid purificatory process, which may appear like suffering but which is in fact a curative treatment administered by the personal hand of the Lord. ## e-Krishna www.vrindavanexperience.com is designed for you to share your visit to Vrindavan with people all around the world. If you're interested in making your own visit, this site can help you plan, and if you have already been, it will help you stay in touch. The idea is to inspire everyone to make his or her own visit. The website is filled with many stories from devotees. Some have visited many times, and others have returned from their first experience. You can read the stories written by others, see their videos, leave comments, and start a conversation. After you go, you can share your personal story in writing and send your favorite photos or even a video. If you can't make the trip, while sitting at your computer you can visit Govardhana Hill, herd the cows, hear from the residents of Vrindavan, and visit many temples. “I love Vrindavan,” writes Sasha in her story. “God is in the center of everybody’s life, and the result is that Vrindavan inhabitants are peacefully happy. I wish I could go to Vrindavan every year and experience this spiritual happiness. When you are surrounded by *sadhus,* spiritually happy people, you become happy as well. It’s contagious.” “The moment I stepped into Vrindavan I felt like I was at home,” writes Sanjay. “When I went to Rādhā Ramana Temple, I felt like I knew each and every brick, every floor tile. It was as if I had been away for some time and was now back home.” The best videos and stories are featured on the front page to make them easy to find. You can navigate by choosing the categories on the menu bar that lead to the archives. The Tag Cloud on the front page helps you find the content that interests you most. One of the goals of the website managers, under the direction of His Holiness B.B. Govinda Swami, is to create a documentary film for distribution to inspire as many people as possible to make their own pilgrimage to Vrindavan. The best experiences from the site will be considered for the documentary. The documentary makers have spent two years in extensive filming and have produced twelve hours of interviews in full high definition with surround sound. In the shop on the site you can order a copy of *Glimpses of Vraja,* a DVD that shares some of the content of the documentary film. It is a series of videos of different locations and seasons of Vrindavan. You can click on the link to make a donation or to buy a CD or DVD from the online shop to help support the website and the documentary project. ## Two of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s artist disciples teach transcendental art at an annual Vrindavan seminar. *Two of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s artist disciples Teach transcendental art at an Annual Vrindavan seminar.* *By Śrīla HariDāsa Ṭhākura Dāsa* Vrindavan 2003: On the appearance day of Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was sitting in a garden after lunch thinking, “If only I could paint Kṛṣṇa while staying in Vrindavan during the holy month of Karttika—how wonderful it would be!” I was attracted by the amazing atmosphere of Vrindavan, where Lord Kṛṣṇa performed all the pastimes I craved to depict on canvas. My dream to paint in Vrindavan came true in 2007, when I was selected to participate in an art seminar organized by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT). Śrīla Prabhupāda created the BBT, which he called his heart, to publish his own books and other Gaudiya Vaisnava and Vedic literature translated from Sanskrit and Bengali into English. Most BBT books include paintings. To fulfill the growing demand for qualified linguists and artists, the BBT has introduced several training programs. To train devotees in the Sanskrit language and in the skills required to translate Sanskrit into English, the BBT founded the Bhagavata Vidyapitha at Govardhan, about thirty kilometers from the town of Vrindavan. There, students study the intricacies of Sanskrit grammar and the commentaries of our *ācāryas.* To train devotee artists, the BBT conducts annual art seminars where students learn to draw and paint the Lord’s transcendental pastimes as described in the scriptures. One of these training programs is conducted in Vrindavan for three weeks during the month of Karttika. Two of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s artist disciples, Ramadāsa Abhirama Dāsa and his wife, Dhrti Devī Dāsī, teach this seminar. Ramadāsa holds a degree in fine arts, and both have painted many masterpieces for BBT. To my great benefit, I attended my first seminar in 2007 and then returned for the next three. *Welcome to Vrindavan* Our venue is Radhe Dham, a spacious hall in Chaitanya Vihar, about five minutes’ walk from ISKCON's Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple. With me are about twenty-five international students and artists. After a short introduction, our teachers, Ramadāsa and Dhrti, read to us some of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statements about the BBT art department. Then they show us some of their paintings. Next, the teachers begin by demonstrating how to do a basic pencil sketch for composition, then a color sketch, and finally how to use the sketch to create an oil painting on canvas. Even great artists like Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and William-Adolphe Bouguereau followed this procedure. In the studio we learn how to depict basic human anatomy by sketching a live model from different angles, we learn about shading and light, and we learn something very basic—how to hold a pencil! On field trips we select a scenic spot of beautiful Vrindavan forest, quickly sketch the landscape on canvas, and then paint with vibrant colors—all within two hours. Then, synthesizing our anatomy sketches with our landscape paintings, we learn to create the transcendental form of the Lord using knowledge from ancient Indian scriptures on sculpture, known as the *Silpa Sastras.* At every step Ramadāsa and Dhrti carefully guide each student. Every morning at ten we assemble in the studio and work on drawing human anatomy using a model. We learn to capture the essence of a particular pose within seconds by doing rapid sketches. It’s common for aspiring artists to spend a lot of time with details and miss the essence. These rapid sketches help us grasp the pose, understand it, analyze it, and then sketch it—all within blocks of three, five, or ten minutes. The noon sessions are for portraits, paintings in which the person's facial expressions are highlighted. We encircle a human model and quickly draw the face, using limited colors. After the session, the models preview their portraits. “O my God! Certainly, that’s not me!” they say with a laugh. We too peek at each other’s illustrations and burst out laughing. I remember a comment Śrīla Prabhupāda once made about laughter, which I heard from his secretary Syamasundara Dāsa: “Laughter is the difference between the ideal concept and the ground reality.” I meet many devotees and make a few friends. There is Abhay, a *gurukuli* in his late teens. He is from Florida, and his mother, Hrimati Devī Dāsī, is a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Although he has no art background, he has attended the art seminars for three consecutive years and now wants to make a career out of art. Anandamayi Devī Dāsī, on the other hand, has received training from several Russian art professionals. She is twenty-two and comes from Canada. She finds the detailed teaching of every aspect of drawing and painting substantially useful and plans to paint for the BBT and the Ottawa temple. Sixty-year-old Australian Rasanandi Devī Dāsī came to the seminar with a master’s degree in Fine Arts and years of painting experience at Australian temples. She now plans to train artists in Australia and wishes to paint for ISKCON temples. Vijaya Mrdhava Dāsa, twenty-five, is from Mumbai. Although he has a degree in art, it didn’t give him much confidence to paint. The seminar has given him lots of encouragement. He now helps BBT Mumbai in the art department. *Training and Encouragement* It takes a lot to be an art teacher. Most of us do not reach the expected results while painting. But both teachers come to each of us and heartily encourage us for even the smallest good thing in our work while gently correcting our mistakes. With a smile on their faces, they have been doing this every day we have been here. I am reminded of a statement by Śrīla Prabhupāda: “Just like there is a small fire in the charcoal. You fan it, and it will gradually become a big fire. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is fanning that spiritual spark to come into full consciousness.” (Lecture, Los Angeles, December 22, 1973) Our teachers make us feel appreciated—as if we are already contributing significantly to the illustration of BBT books. In academic settings, art instructors rarely paint alongside their students. Here, our teachers not only instruct us but draw and paint with us—sketches, landscapes, portraits—and like the rest of us, work to fulfill the seminar’s goal: that we each complete a painting. *Humility, the Hallmark of a Vaisnava* With the last day of the seminar approaching, we are busy with our work, the final painting in which we show what we have learned during our three weeks here. The studio is a mess. On the last day, I find our teachers carrying brooms instead of paintbrushes. They begin cleaning the studio, and I am amazed. They are accomplished artists, direct disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who have been rendering valuable service to ISKCON for more than three decades, yet there is not an iota of pride in their hearts. This is real humility. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati Ṭhākura said, “Humility is the hallmark of a genuine Vaisnava.” Immediately some of us pick up brooms and join them. By cleaning the studio we feel satisfied. *Gaining a Perspective* I thank Ramadāsa and Dhrti at their residence, expressing my deep gratitude. I then give an interview on how I benefited from their seminar. I had problems with painting perspectives. In painting a landscape, to gain perspective one paints objects in the foreground clearer than those in the background. Before attending this seminar, I was painting all the objects with the same colors and clarity, creating a flat image. Our teachers took us outdoors so we could observe for ourselves how things that are far away appear. By my understanding these nuances, my recent paintings have clear and vibrant foregrounds and hazy backgrounds, making the paintings appear three-dimensional. I learnt about transcendental art while drawing human figures. How does an artist paint the transcendental form of Lord Kṛṣṇa while using ordinary human models? As an artist you naturally understand the proportions of a model, but when painting a transcendental figure you have to stretch those proportions. For example, what does it mean to paint eyes that look like a lotus petal? If you simply stretch the eyes out until they are the right shape, they seem artificial. But if you paint ordinary eyes, then they're not Lord Kṛṣṇa’s eyes. So you have to see how much to stretch. Similarly, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s body is transcendentally tender and delicate, so you have to decide where to cut or add muscle tone so that the art becomes transcendental. Śrīla Prabhupāda says that we make thousands of times more spiritual advancement by serving Kṛṣṇa in Vrindavan during Karttika than at ordinary times at ordinary places. That is the glory of Vrindavan. I am indeed grateful for having received training on how to portray Kṛṣṇa in Vrindavan, where art blends with devotion to Him. *Fifth Annual BBT Art Seminar Open for Registration* The BBT will be holding its fifth annual art seminar in Vrindavan from October 28 (the day after Govardhana Puja ) to November 17, 2011. Once again, the seminar will be led by veteran ISKCON artists Dhrti Dasi and Ramadāsa Abhirama Dāsa, teaching both new and repeat students practical techniques as well as the mood essential in producing devotional art. Applications should be submitted as soon as possible, but no later than August 31, 2011. Students chosen for the seminar will be contacted within two weeks of submitting their application. For more information and online registration, go to http://artseminar.bbt.info. *Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura Dāsa holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He has been serving full-time at ISKCON Chowpatty (Mumbai) since 1998 and heads the art department there. He also teaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness to university students.* *He would like to thank Gopala Bhatta Dāsa, Pancaratna Dāsa, the BBT, and VIHE for organizing the art seminar every year.* ## In Your Own Words *How would you respond to the charge that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, like religion in general, is naive sentimentality?* *When I think of the definition of "naive sentimentality,"* I understand that it generally means having or showing strong feelings or emotions based on a lack of experience, judgment, or information. Those who level this criticism towards Kṛṣṇa consciousness obviously have not tried this process for themselves. Before joining the devotees, I was considered by my family and friends to be an agnostic. I would challenge the persons who gave Kṛṣṇa conscious classes, asking them to prove their statements. The responses usually included references from the scriptures and a suggestion that this is a "living proof"; that by actually adopting the process of hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa, personal realizations would come. I was told that this life we have been given is a laboratory and that we are the scientists conducting an experiment on ourselves. Try it and see. So I did. What followed was experience, judgment, and information based on the pure process of *bhakti-yoga* as taught by Śrīla Prabhupāda. My life completely changed from being dependent on temporary arrangements for temporary happiness to a life with constant happiness and satisfaction based on spiritual knowledge and practice. When my family and friends see me now, they see living proof of how it works. This truly is a "try it and see" method. Hare Kṛṣṇa ! Kunti Devī Dāsī Dallas, TX *The so-called material scholars have put down religion as* “naive sentimentality.” Why? Because the concept of religion and a supreme controller cannot be fathomed by their material minds. Naive are those who claim that in order for something to exist, you must be able to see it. They forget that some of the most essential things around us cannot be seen. For example, one of the most essential elements we all rely on—air—cannot be seen, yet we all agree that it exists. Naive are those who are consumed by the material accumulation of wealth, properties, and other assets, acting as if they will remain on this planet for all eternity. Naive are those who think that the fact that all the planets are in perfect orbit, in perfect distance from the sun and each other, is all due to chance, that the existence of numerous other galaxies results from some random big bang! Kṛṣṇa consciousness lifts the cover of ignorance from this naivetī and explains the ancient Vedic science of self-realization. It is only through this powerful science that one understands that he is not some randomly created organic material that will perish with time, but is an eternal part of an eternal God, Lord Kṛṣṇa, separated from Him and living on this planet due to our very own actions and desires. The science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness presents a very clear way for how we can realize the self and ultimately realize the connection between the self and the supreme self. This connection, or devotion, is the ultimate purpose of this human life. I would encourage all those who see religion as a naive sentimentality to come out of their myopic tunnels and explore the world of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There’s eternal bliss to be found. Ram Sajjan Sydney, Australia *The answer is simple.* I would quite simply respond by saying, "What in the world is *wrong* with being a naive sentimentalist?" Must we always be grounded in the hard facts? Must we always be on the lookout for practicality and efficiency? Is there perhaps more joy to be found in the sentimental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa? *Sentimental* to me does not mean "weakly emotional"; it simply means appreciating the tender emotions and feelings that fill the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, the word *naive* to me does not mean "unsophisticated" or "having a lack of judgment." Instead, it means living a simple life with none of the corruption inherent in this material world. Kṛṣṇa Prema Dāsa Fairfield, California *Sentiment means mental feeling.* Religion is generally a particular way of training one’s mind to comprehend the nature of a superhuman agency (God). Religion is believed to govern the well-being of the general population. In this process, the mind is trained to rely upon God, by way of worship/glorification, primarily for supplying the necessities of life or for removing miseries so that one can feel relaxed that there is someone in whom one can seek refuge and in this way agree to behave within a given moral code. In various religions (including Hinduism if not practiced as the eternal religion of the spirit soul), this superhuman agency is looked upon as either formless or of some imaginary form or a form adopted as suitable or preferred over another, out of the many described in religious scriptures. Similarly, the other relevant information, namely His place, activities, likes and dislikes, and the best welfare He offers for human life, are either partial truths or concocted out of the human brain. Kṛṣṇa consciousness includes but is not limited to training the mind to link with God for one's wants. It explains the absolute form, nature, activities, and connection of that superhuman agency with the moving and nonmoving objects that are seen or not seen by human eyes, irrespective of whether one is trained or not trained to appreciate Him. It transcends both a general religious faith and the absence of it. All this is explained on the solid evidence of Vedic history. Govinda Nandini Devī Dāsī Plainsboro, New Jersey *The charge unfounded* because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a scientific process that stands up to scientific scrutiny, while religion, with its sectarian doctrine, may not stand such scrutiny and therefore becomes a sentimental issue for the followers on account of blind faith. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a way of life based on the individual’s true dharma, that of being part of the Supreme and an eternal servitor of the Supreme. Religion per se is faith in some doctrine. While one can change one's faith, one cannot change one's eternal relationship with the Supreme. Being exclusively on the spiritual platform, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is nonsectarian, and therefore it encompasses anyone and everyone regardless of their external attributes, and as such it is the only true religion one needs to follow. Vaikuthesvara Balaji Dāsa Austin, Texas ## How I Came to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness *Recovering from Childhood* *By Manu Dāsa* Early life experiences during India's violent partition turn a young man away from religion. I was born in the part of India that is now in Pakistan, in the town of Multan, originally called Kashyapapura after the great sage Kashyapa Muni. In the 1940s, it was war-torn with the partition of India. Living in what used to be a peaceful area, we felt fear and tension as Muslim forces frequently came to attack the area and forcibly convert or kill people. A local well became known as the “women’s well” because so many women had jumped into it, committing suicide to avoid the atrocities or forced conversion or even rape. For my parents, remaining Hindu was difficult. Resisting conversion was extremely hard and involved having to fake identity to escape the brutality. Religion became secretive, and external Hindu worship was uncommon because of the associated risk. Activities such as reading *Bhagavad-gītā* were done in secret, and having a *mūrti,* or Deity, in the house was considered unsafe. My grandfather somehow managed to keep a small Deity of Gopala (Kṛṣṇa as a cowherd boy) with him throughout the turbulent months. The elderly members of the family would recite the names of God silently even after they moved to India, due to their conditioning from the experience of the partition. My family members were on the last train out of Pakistan into India. It was the most overcrowded and suffocating experience, as people held on for their lives. The journey to India was some twenty-four hours. Our train was stopped many times with threats of slaughtering everyone on board. There was no food or water, and many plundered dead bodies were visible on the way. I was under ten years old. *A New Life in the West* In the 1960s I moved to London as a mathematics teacher. I was following a completely material way of life, thinking that way of life to be enjoyment and what coming to the West was about. Also, my negative childhood experience with religion encouraged me to follow a material way of life. After some time, however, I felt lost living in a new country and not having a strong faith or cultural identity to link with. One day I found a picture of Lord Siva. I took shelter of this picture and started to pray daily: “Dear Lord Siva, please show me the correct path in life.” Soon after, I met Śrīla Prabhupāda. I had visited many Hindu centers and institutions in London to find my religion. But I did not feel satisfied or fulfilled at any of them. My prayer was answered when I made a random visit to a friend’s house. His tenants answered the door while on their way out. I asked where they were going. “An English Hindu temple,” they answered. I was intrigued and quickly asked where it was. They gave a vague indication of the location. Later that day I decided to find it myself. I went to the area and saw a church. I asked the priest outside if he knew where “an English Hindu temple” was. He knew instantly that I was unknowingly referring to "the Hare Kṛṣṇa s” and directed me to 7 Bury Place, the first ISKCON center in Europe. I walked in and was astonished to see the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa being performed with so much love and joy. I had never seen this before, not even in India. The temple was a converted house. Two rooms had been converted into one large room, which was the temple room, where the Deities resided. Although outside it looked like an ordinary house, inside it was beautifully decorated as a traditional temple, with carved wooden walls. Even though the temple room and altar were small, there were two sets of large Deities: Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Londonisvara (ISKCON's first full-size Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities), and Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva, and Subhadra Devi. Gurudāsa, one of the small group of devotees who opened the temple, was giving a class. I sat down at the back, silently observing and listening. After forty years I still remember his expression of dedication as he said that he would do anything to serve his *guru*. I was amazed at the ability of that *guru* to have given people such strong faith and obedience. I decided I would keep returning to the temple until I met the *guru*. *Service at the Temple* I started going to the temple daily and asked for any service I could do to help. I would bring the temple groceries in my car and provide lifts for devotees, and some devotees would come to stay at our house, as there was a shortage of space at the temple. I also began chanting and soon found giving up meat, drink, and so on, not difficult because of the power of the holy name and the association of devotees, whose sincerity and dedication I admired. We would frequently chant through central London to Hyde Park (one of London’s main royal parks, from which the annual London Rathayatra starts). I met Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1970. I was most impressed by his determination to indiscriminately take as many people back to Godhead as possible. He was radiant and totally selfless. The temple president at the time, Tribhuvanatha Dāsa, asked me if I would like to take initiation, along with my wife, Krishna Devi. My wife was very religious since birth and had accepted a *guru* before marriage. However, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy and the beautiful Śrī Śrī Rādhā Londonisvara changed her very quickly from having been an impersonalist all her life to wholeheartedly embracing *bhakti-yoga,* or the path of devotional service. Śrīla Prabhupāda re-initiated her, but not wanting to remove "Krishna" from her name, added "Kamala" to it. We very much enjoyed the early days, being involved in the day-to-day service of cooking some of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s favorite dishes for him, which in the early days were new to most Western devotees, such as *kerala* (bitter gourd), *bangan* (small eggplant) and *bindi* (okra). We also transported Śrīla Prabhupāda to preaching events in London and helped cook for thousands of people at London’s early Rathayatra festivals. It has now been nearly forty years since our initiation by Śrīla Prabhupāda, and every day we feel blessed for the mercy he has bestowed upon the world by giving so much through his books and in the form of the Lord’s holy name. ## Lord Matsya and Superstring Theory: A Fishy Story With No Strings Attached *By Satyaraja Dāsa* *A scientific theory about everything points to realities beyond our grasp.* An assortment of ancient civilizations claims that a great flood took place in the distant past. They agree, too, that God or gods sent this flood to destroy humankind as an act of divine retribution, man having become so depraved that God wanted to start over. We find the flood in the biblical story of Noah's ark, the Puranic description of Matsya *avatara*, and the tale of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, among others places. In the Vedic tradition, God starts over repeatedly, as the great ages recur again and again, sometimes with floods ending one age before another one begins. Most people think of the flood as a myth, meaning either that it can't be proven by empirical means or that it didn't happen at all. The author of an article in *World Cultures,* an online academic journal, disagrees, specifically because several world cultures, separated by time, space, and worldview, all vouch for the fact that it happened. This unanimity of perspective, claims the author, would be highly unlikely if the story did not have some basis in reality. The Puranic version, for its part, is clearly presented as a true story. The first incarnation of Visnu, in terms of historical sequence, took the form of a fish, *Matsya* by name. (*Matsya* means "fish," and this incarnation is referred to as *Matsya* or *Matsya* avatara.) In *Moby Dick,* Herman Melville refers to what he sees as the Hindu myth of the whale incarnation of Visnu. But for Kṛṣṇa devotees, both Visnu and *Matsya* are real. *The Story of Matsya* Matsya's story flows as follows. In the earliest world age, Satya-yuga, a king named Manu was performing severe penance for thousands of years, as kings of the time were wont to do. One day, while he was performing ablutions with river water, a small fish appeared in his hands. Just as he was about to throw the little creature back into the river, it asked the king to save its life. Heeding its request, the king put the fish into a jar of water. But the fish grew so big that no jar could contain it. He then threw it into a lake, but it soon outgrew that, forcing the king to throw it first into the Ganges and then, as the fish kept growing, into the ocean. The king realized that it was Lord Visnu himself, who then made His divine identity clear. Matsya told the king that the world would end in seven days, compliments of a huge flood. He asked the king to build a large boat and to take onboard seven prominent sages, the seeds of all plants, and one animal of each type. He had come as a fish, He said, to propel the boat to Mount Himavan, where the survivors would begin the next *yuga* (eon). True to His word, the Lord appeared after seven days. The king tied the boat to Him by using the royal serpent Vasuki. Lord Matsya took all of them to Mount Himavan and kept them there until the flood was over. After that, a new era dawned, and the king began to procreate as Lord Matsya had instructed him. *Polydimensional Realities* What does all of this have to do with Superstring Theory? Recently, I happened to read *The Fabric of the Cosmos,* Brian Greene's best-selling book on String Theory. The author is the brother of Joshua Greene, also known as Yogesvara Dāsa, a close friend of mine and a senior member of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. So, although I have little interest in science, I read the book on Yogesvara's recommendation. While reading it—a book, mind you, that ostensibly has nothing to do with Kṛṣṇa consciousness—I was surprised that I couldn't help thinking of our predecessor spiritual masters. The works of Kṛṣṇa conscious teachers read like manuals on Superstring Theory in that they seem to anticipate the discovery of alternate universes and polydimensional realities. Superstring Theory, or simply String Theory, suggests that there are as many as ten spatial dimensions, not just the four of conventional discourse (the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time). It might be argued that we can accept the reality of Matsya—or of other supernatural descriptions from the Vedic literature, such as Visnu with four arms or God as a blue cowherd boy—with the aid of these extra dimensions, for without them one would be hard pressed to explain such things. Visnu and the spiritual realm, of course, need no such explanation, for, as Kṛṣṇa conscious masters repeatedly point out, the world beyond time does not have to conform to physical laws. When this higher reality breaks into the world as we know it, however, as in the story of Brahmṛ and the creation of the universe or of a fish growing to astronomical proportions, a reasonable explanation is certainly in order. Superstring Theory might provide such an explanation. The theory was popularized in the 1980s, when Michael Green at Queen Mary College and John Schwarz at the California Institute of Technology demonstrated that it just might be the unifying theory that reconciles quantum mechanics and general relativity. Its original proponents did not see it as supporting spiritual reality. With extrapolation, however, their explanations of it lead in only one direction: There are alternate levels of reality, things we can't see, and dimensions of existence to which we are not privy. *A Step in the Right Direction* Before Superstring ever came into existence, J. Stillson Judah, Professor Emeritus of the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley and a longtime friend of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, recognized the need to expand our perception of reality, and he often wrote about it. The article in *World Cultures* cites him: If to the outsider "the pastimes of Krishna" appear miraculous and illogical, the following question must be asked. Does not the awareness of a higher reality, which all religions declare to be a divine mystery, come most often through participation in the irrational, the paradox and, for the disbeliever, absurd? For many Buddhists it may emerge through meditating on the paradoxes of the *prajna-paramita* or the nonsensical ko-ans; for the Pentecostals it speaks through the incoherent babble of glossolalia; for the Roman Catholics it involves the mystery of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ during the Mass; for the Muslim, it may occur during the pilgrimage to Mecca, when he trots between the hills of Safa and Marwah imitating Hagar's search for water. In other words, religion is precisely concerned with higher realities and spiritual, not material, phenomena. Stories associated with the spirit will naturally focus on otherworldly or supernatural events, and this should be expected. It is only when viewed from a materialistic vantage point that such stories appear strange. In fact, Superstring Theory, a product of science, which is generally materialistic, unmasks a truth that could accommodate stories such as that of Lord Matsya. A devotee accepts these truths with no strings attached. But for those who need evidence, Superstring Theory might be a step in the right direction, and Judah would be a firm supporter of that move. *Satyaraja Dāsa, a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, is a BTG associate editor. He has written over twenty books on Kṛṣṇa consciousness and lives near New York City.* ## A Spiritual Beacon Over Sigatoka *By Kalasamvara Dāsa and Lavangalata Devī Dāsī* *Thanks to the exemplary dedication of two women, ISKCON has opened its fifth temple in Fiji.* Fiji is a small country (population 900,000) made up of many volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean. Sigatoka, where ISKCON opened a new temple last November, is situated on the coral coast of the main island, Veti Levu, between Lautoka and Suva, two of Fiji's largest towns, each with a large ISKCON temple. Śrīla Prabhupāda laid the cornerstone for the Kṛṣṇa-Kaliya Temple in Lautoka in 1977, and the Rādhā-Golokabihari Temple in Suva opened in 2004 [see BTG, May/June 2005]. Fiji is known as the first country to see the light of the sun, with the International Dateline bending around one of its islands and crossing another. It is a beautiful tropical paradise, lush with flowers, fruit trees, and other plants generous in their gifts to the local communities. Sigatoka and its surrounding 2,500 square kilometers has an Indian population of 12,500, mostly farmers living on cash crops who come to Sigatoka township regularly to sell their commodities. Sigatoka is a coral-coast town surrounded by big resorts that bring many tourists into town for shopping. Lush green hills, a big river, seascapes, and picturesque sand dunes surround Sigatoka. Above the town stands ISKCON's new Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Damodara Temple, cut thirty-five feet into the hillside. An expansive retaining wall creates a flat area of 6,500 square feet on which the temple stands—four stories high, with a dome on the roof styled after the old temple at Kusum Sarovar, near Govardhan Hill in India. The 20,000-square-foot temple complex contains a clinic and inpatient facility on the ground floor; reception and residential areas on the first floor; kitchens, a restaurant, a boutique, and a small theater on the second floor; and the main temple room on the third floor, which has direct access from a street that continues up the hill. Deities of Gaura Nitṛi, Nrsimhadeva, and Giri Govardhana accompany Rādhā-Damodara on the altar. *Two Exemplary Women* The history of the development of the temple stands as a reminder of the power of faith in the instructions of *guru* and Kṛṣṇa. As devoted *brahmacaris* (single celibate women), Guru-smarada Dasi and Gitakirti Dasi have taken leading roles in their Kṛṣṇa conscious community. For many years they ran the Sigatoka temple from their homes and from rented buildings. They also created a magazine called *Krishna Sun,* which serves Fiji devotees and their families, locally and abroad. Guru-smaraṇa Dasi, a doctor, gives holistic treatment to both locals and tourists and helps the needy with free treatment. Gitakirti Dasi runs a boutique named Rādhārāṇī's, manages the temple, and is planning a restaurant. Their spiritual master is His Holiness Tamal Kṛṣṇa Goswami, an early disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda and a leader in ISKCON who passed away in 2002. After his passing, Guru-smaraṇa and Gitakirti became even more determined in their devotional service. His Holiness Vedavyasapriya Swami, project coordinator for the construction of the temple, met Guru-smaraṇa and Gitakirti in 2003. He was traveling with his own Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities, and the three of them discussed the worship of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Soon after, their godbrother Nandavraja Dāsa moved from Fiji to New Zealand and entrusted them with the worship of his Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities, named Rādhā-Damodara, who quickly captured their hearts. They soon began to plan a temple for these Deities. Unswerving in their commitment to Rādhā-Damodara, they set an example for the devotee community by putting up their own money and assets to build the temple. Their contribution of around five million Fijian dollars was possible because of their frugal living for the past twelve years, as well as help from family members. Vedavyasapriya Swami and his disciples raised most of the remaining money required for the project. At one critical point, the construction faced a $100,000 shortfall. Vedavyasapriya Swami invited Gitakirti to Australia for a month to travel with him for fundraising. They successfully got through the crisis. When one donor withdrew his pledge of a large amount of money to pay for tiling the floors, Guru-smaraṇa and Gitakirti were undeterred, taking the setback as a challenge from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa responded, and a new donor came forward to not only cover the original pledge, but to do much more. *A Building Fijians Can Be Proud Of* While keeping the Vedic style of the original plans, Vedavyasapriya Swami modified the original design to attract both locals and tourists. The temple serves the community with daily worship and outreach, including a Sunday program in the temple and house programs in the surrounding areas. The second phase—finishing the temple with external and internal decorations and construction—is underway and is expected to be completed by Janmastami this year. Long-term plans include developing a farming community with a focus on simple living and high thinking, and further developing medical support for the community, including an inpatient clinic with a specialist diagnostic facility and surgical services. Noting the exemplary devotional service of Guru-smaraṇa Dasi and Gitakirti Dasi, Vedavyasapriya Swami said, "I am enormously grateful to all the devotees and well-wishers who recognized this quality of implicit faith in *guru* and Kṛṣṇa, came forward to help them with their hard-earned money, and made this project possible for the glory of *guru*, Gauranga [Caitanya Mahṛprabhu], and Fiji. It is the greatest fortune for the Fiji Islands that the spiritual service of Guru-smaraṇa Dasi, Gitakirti Dasi, and all who assisted them will serve as a matter of national pride for the people of Fiji. With this temple, Fiji can enjoy its status as a beacon of spiritual beauty for the whole world." *Kalasamvara Dāsa was initiated by Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1975 and has long served as the president of the ISKCON temple in Auckland, New Zealand, where he oversaw the construction of a beautiful temple. He has been an enthusiastic supporter of ISKCON Fiji.* *Lavangalata Devī Dāsī is a senior disciple of His Holiness Vedavyasapriya Swami. She hails from Hamilton, New Zealand, but chose to spend her life in service to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Syamasundara in Vrindavan. She helped with computer graphics in designing the Sigatoka temple.* The authors thank His Holiness Vedavyasapriya Swami for his invaluable help in producing this article. ## Real Knowledge Changed My Life *By Visakha Devī Dāsī* *Despite years of academic study, I didn't know anything until I met Śrīla Prabhupāda.* “In this material world there are different types of achievement, but of all of them the achievement of knowledge is considered to be the highest because one can cross the ocean of nescience only on the boat of knowledge. Otherwise the ocean is impassable.”—*Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 4.24.75 “Wales: Its People, Climate and History” was a myopic 61-page report of facts and maps by a proud ninth-grader (me) who thought, on completing the most extensive research paper she’d ever done, that she knew something about Wales. Looking back, what I knew about Wales after completing that report was theoretical at best, but in broad terms all that my fellow students and I got from the entire scope of our education wasn’t actually knowledge, at least in Kṛṣṇa’s terminology. According to Kṛṣṇa, actual knowledge is extraordinary and concerns more than the material sphere of science, politics, history, geography, sociology, and so on. It was at a tent program in the center of Mumbai during a warm March evening in 1971 that I first encountered actual knowledge. Śrīla Prabhupāda was speaking, and although I missed much of what he said because of his accent, I sensed that I was hearing something worlds apart from all that I’d ever heard before. The experience was scary but exhilarating, and something in me that had been sleeping began to stir. Because Prabhupāda was noble, learned, and gentlemanly, despite myself (I was an atheist at the time) I respected and had some faith in him and wanted to understand what he was saying. So I listened to him and his followers. They explained that real knowledge includes giving up the sense of proprietorship. Prabhupāda has written, “One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world.” (*Bhagavad-gītā* 15.5, Purport) The creator and proprietor of this world is God. All things and all beings come from Him and are His. Real knowledge also includes recognizing that the soul—the life in the body—is different from the body and is an integral part of God. A person in complete knowledge knows God, the soul, material nature, and their interactions. All this shattered my formerly held understandings. Yet it explained why, despite good friends, good health, and success in my desired profession of photography, I was deeply dissatisfied and confused. Without knowledge of my source and purpose, my life was in disarray. Prabhupāda’s followers told me I didn’t have to give up photography but instead of photographing for money, prestige, and the thrill of creativity, I could photograph as a service to God and His servants. This was devotional service, and it would free me from attachment to the results of my work and the continual ups and downs of my mind and profession. Instead of trying to please myself, I was to try to please God and His devotees. In this way, they said, I could become detached from mundane life and advance spiritually. In other words, the knowledge Śrīla Prabhupāda proffered did not result in passivity. It was not simply theoretical, but practical: I was to perform acts in the status of soul. Such acts—*bhakti-yoga,* or devotional service—would strengthen my advancement in actual knowledge. And this knowledge would in turn strengthen my budding enthusiasm for *bhakti-yoga.* I learned that lust, greed, and envy cover and destroy knowledge and would block my spiritual advancement by distracting me, thus keeping me materially attached. In other words, sense control—following rules and regulations—was necessary to acquire actual knowledge. But the idea of following rules and regulations wasn’t attractive. What to do? I realized that even the glimpses of spiritual possibility I had by being with Śrīla Prabhupāda and his followers made my old life and the future it offered look bleak. If I became a famous, popular, and wealthy photographer but was empty inside, what was the use? Better to accept the austerity of rules and regulations (which, as it turned out, were healthy for the body and mind) than to live a wasted life. Besides, if I’m a soul—and given the arguments and evidence I’d heard, it seemed likely I was a soul—why not act like a soul? Why act according to the dictates of my mind and body, which aren’t me? If I could transfer myself to a platform of real knowledge and its corresponding activities, then surely I would benefit and be inwardly satisfied. So, tentatively, my then boyfriend (and later husband) John (now Yaduvara Dāsa) and I tried doing what devotees do, namely hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, serving them, and living simply. Gradually our doubts decreased and our hopes increased. *The Effects of Real Knowledge* Prabhupāda says, “The purpose of knowledge is to understand distinctly that the living entity has by chance fallen into this material existence. By his personal endeavor in association with authorities, saintly persons, and a spiritual master, he has to understand his position and then revert to spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. . . . Then it is certain that he will never come again into this material existence; he will be transferred into the spiritual world for a blissful eternal life of knowledge.” (*Bhagavad-gītā* 13.24, Purport) And Kṛṣṇa says, “Even if you are considered to be the most sinful of all sinners, when you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries.” (*Bhagavad-gītā* 4.36) Why does transcendental knowledge have this amazing effect? There are at least four reasons: One is that the source of transcendental knowledge is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Worldly “knowledge” is the product of people’s limited and faulty worldly minds. Second, through knowledge Kṛṣṇa extends His mercy to us for our material and spiritual benefit. Worldly knowledge is for mundane aggrandizement, entertainment, titillation, and distraction, which do not ultimately benefit us. Third, actual knowledge discerns reality from illusion and makes us attached to reality and detached from illusion. Worldly knowledge delves only into illusion and increases our attachment to it. And fourth, the result of actual knowledge is pure devotional service, which frees the practitioners from material miseries and enables them to attain the highest love, love of God and His creation. Worldly knowledge cannot counteract the miseries of this world, which include birth, disease, old age, and death, and worldly knowledge cannot evoke real love. The result of transcendental knowledge defies the imagination. The *Bhagavad-gītā* explains that the fire of this knowledge burns up the reactions of our work and enables it to merge into transcendence (4.19, 23), it ends illusion (4.35), it is the most sublime and pure fruit of mysticism and the cause of liberation (4.38), one who achieves it achieves supreme spiritual peace (4.39), it’s like a weapon that slashes the doubts that arise from ignorance (4.42), and due to a lack of it, we suffer in a material body (5.14, Purport). *Changed by Knowledge* As we became more intrigued by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, transcendental knowledge changed John and me. Without thinking about it, we began to give up old ideas and habits, even though giving up those things separated us from family, friends, and coworkers who put importance solely on material endeavors. On seeing our change, some of those people ridiculed or ostracized us as if we’d become errant weeds or sycophants. Yet, however hurtful their reactions were, the knowledge Śrīla Prabhupāda presented, which had transported us outside societal walls of conformity, was stronger than social pressure. The most dramatic change we experienced from accepting actual knowledge was not that our material joys, sorrows, and fears ended (although they were tempered, perhaps), but that our lives were reoriented. Kṛṣṇa, *karma*, reincarnation, demigods and their higher planets, hells and the suffering and reformation they entail—knowledge of these became integral to our new worldview. Prabhupāda explains, “If one accepts a spiritual master, one can learn to distinguish between matter and spirit, and that becomes the steppingstone for further spiritual realization. A spiritual master, by various instructions, teaches his students to get free from the material concept of life.” (*Bhagavad-gītā* 13.35, Purport) Now John and I photographed with knowledge of our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, knowing Him as the supreme governing principle, as the one who knows everything, who is the oldest, the all-pervading origin of everything, and the ultimate controller and maintainer. He is knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge. As for my old report on Wales, well, “The purpose of education is to understand Kṛṣṇa and His devotional service. If one does not do so, then education is false.” (*Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya* 3.34, quoted in *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 4.29.50, Purport) Or in Kṛṣṇa’s words in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (9.2), spiritual knowledge is “the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.” *Visakha Devī Dāsī has been contributing articles and photographs to BTG for more than thirty years. She lives at Saranagati Village in British Columbia, Canada, and has recently published a book about life in Saranagati called* Harmony and the Bhagavad-gītā: Lessons from a Life-Changing Move to the Wilderness. *It's available at the Krishna.com Store or through her website: http://our-spiritual-journey.com.* ## The Breath of Bhakti-yoga *By Vraja Vihari Dāsa* *Our spiritual practices can become dry and mechanical if we omit the essential ingredient.* During my travels I sometimes meet people who were at one time enthusiastic in their spiritual practices of *bhakti-yoga* but later got distracted and gave them up. I often ask them why they aren't coming to the temple now. A few candidly express that they are bored practicing devotional service. A few others confess they have friends in Kṛṣṇa consciousness they feel aren't really happy chanting, hearing discourses, rendering services, and attending the festivals in the temple. Almost all who gave up the practice of *bhakti-yoga* feel that the chanting and temple programs were getting mechanical and they hate to pretend they are happy devotees. At the Hare Kṛṣṇa temple where I live, I often reflect on why some practitioners aren't joyful on the path of *bhakti-yoga.* Why for them does the process appear dull and mechanical? My study of the *bhakti* literature helped me discover answers to these questions, as did, surprisingly, insights from my *yoga* teacher. *Similarities with Yoga Asanas* Some of the resident devotees in the temple had been struggling with poor health. The temple management invited a *yoga* teacher who taught *yogic* *asanas,* or exercises, to help us regain our health. All the residents took part. While others reported improved health, I struggled to practice the *asanas.* My *yoga* sessions left me more tired, and while I had been sleeping six hours a night, now I needed more sleep. I knew my practice was flawed, and the teacher kindly pointed out my mistake. Although I had been stretching myself correctly, I had ignored the vital element of normal breathing as I performed the exercises. As I stretched myself hard, I held my breath. That left me exhausted rather than rejuvenated at the end of the hour-long *yoga* session. *Bhakti-yoga* also requires us to stretch ourselves—by engaging in various duties that can be compared to the different *asanas.* The ancient *bhakti-yoga* classic *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* describes the nine ways devotees practice *bhakti-yoga*: "Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia, and pastimes of Lord Vishnu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind, and words)—these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṇa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge." (*Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 7.5.23–24) Śrīla Rūpa Gosvami, a sixteen-century Vaisnava saint and teacher of the *bhakti* science, wrote the treatise *Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu,* presented by Śrīla Prabhupāda as *The Nectar of Devotion.* Rūpa Gosvami describes sixty-four ways a practicing *bhakti*-yogi stretches himself, including offering various types of prayer, singing for the Lord, rendering services, visiting holy places, studying sacred scriptures, and associating with other devotees. *Focus on Remembering Kṛṣṇa* Like any repetitive activity, *bhakti-yoga* practices can turn into blind rituals, and one can become disillusioned. Therefore Rūpa Gosvami emphatically states that the sacred rule governing the practice is "Always remember Kṛṣṇa and never forget Him." I compare this principle of remembrance of God to the normal breathing in a *yoga asana*. In all *yogic* *asanas* one must focus on one's breath. Similarly, in all activities of devotional service, *bhakti-yoga*, the devotee must focus on remembering Kṛṣṇa. "Kṛṣṇa should always be remembered and never forgotten at any time. All the rules and prohibitions mentioned in the scriptures should be the servants of these two principles." (From the *Brhat-sahasra-nama-stotra* of the *Padma Purana*) The *bhakti* literature emphatically declares that all other considerations in the practice of *bhakti*-yoga are secondary to the principal rule: "Always remember Kṛṣṇa and never forget Him." The spiritual master's duty is to help his students (the *bhakti-yoga* practitioners) focus their mind on Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda, a bona fide *bhakti-yoga* teacher, founded the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to engage his disciples in a variety of services for Kṛṣṇa. The goal of these services, Śrīla Prabhupāda often emphasized, is to remember Kṛṣṇa and develop our love for Him. *Making it Practical* The *Bhagavad-gītā* (15.7) describes Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and every living entity as part of Him: "The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind." Constant remembrance of Kṛṣṇa fills the heart with a spiritual serenity and joy that emanates from the spiritual realm, giving the practitioner a taste of connecting with Kṛṣṇa. As we remember Kṛṣṇa while performing our duties, we reestablish our relationship with Him. The **bhakti*-yogi* perceives this spiritual reconnection as increased happiness. (*Bhagavad-gītā* 9.2) Thus the spiritual health of a *bhakti* practitioner becomes vibrant by remembering Kṛṣṇa favorably. *Discovering a Healthy Balance* While for some, rendering services and duties without remembering Kṛṣṇa can make the practice of *bhakti-yoga* hackneyed, one could also drift to the other extreme. Just as a person who sits idly and only breathes doesn't grow his muscles and is deprived of good health, a devotee who does no practical service but rather attempts to only remember Kṛṣṇa finds his mind distracted. Services and challenges help us focus the mind on Kṛṣṇa, and as we increase our dependence on Kṛṣṇa by calling out to Him helplessly, we also make rapid advancement. Our spiritual muscles grow, and our consciousness remains spiritually healthy. As the challenge of services increases, we increase our favorable remembrance of Kṛṣṇa. The combination of remembering Kṛṣṇa and rendering various services helps the devotee advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and explore newer joys while practicing. *An Added Advantage of Bhakti Yoga* Unlike *yoga* paths where the practitioner's advancement depends on his or her own individual efforts, a devotee's progress is determined by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. The devotee's service and favorable remembrance of Kṛṣṇa are a sincere attempt to attract this mercy. Awareness of Kṛṣṇa’s Supreme position and loving grace keeps the devotee humble and thankful for all the blessings. Over a period of time, due to the devotee's cultivating these positive thoughts of gratitude, Kṛṣṇa consciousness appears ever fresh and new. Thoughts of affection and appreciation for Kṛṣṇa make the heart tender; increased fondness for Kṛṣṇa constantly nourishes and bathes a devotee's consciousness with rich spiritual emotions. Chanting Kṛṣṇa’s holy names, as in the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra,* is a powerful way to increase our remembrance of Kṛṣṇa. If our chanting is attentive and prayerful, the path of *bhakti-yoga* appears ever fresh; if our chanting is inattentive or mechanical, the process seems hackneyed and tiring. *Kṛṣṇa Accepts Devotion, Not the Externals* People who attempted to serve Kṛṣṇa but failed to offer their will and heart to Him by remembering Him favorably were deprived of the grace of Lord, for the Lord doesn't accept the thing offered but the mood in which it is offered. The scriptures compare the offerings of Vidura and Duryodhana. The latter offered an opulent reception to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Aware of Duryodhana's envy and ulterior motive, however, Kṛṣṇa ignored the hospitality. He then went to the house of His devotee Vidura, who greeted Him with a humble offering. Lord Kṛṣṇa gladly accepted Vidura's offering because it was imbued with deep affection and love. The Lord has revealed this mood of His in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (9.26): "If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it." Offering our love increases our attachment to Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, "The more the attachment is there for the Lord, the more success is there for the devotee." (*Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 1.8.23, Purport) I now understand an additional sweetness on the path of *bhakti-*yoga*.* Recently I met with an accident and while lying on the hospital bed for a week, I couldn't perform any of the *yoga* *asanas.* But I could easily perform the bhakti-*yoga* practice of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. As I chanted the holy names, I tried to remember the Lord. While my physical health needs time to recuperate, my spiritual health promises to be vibrant if I can somehow remember Kṛṣṇa and offer a silent prayer, even on a hospital bed. I invite devotees who find Kṛṣṇa consciousness boring after an initial period of enthusiasm to make another attempt at the process, this time with the additional treasure of remembrance of Kṛṣṇa. *Bhakti-yoga* will then reveal its identity as *ananda-krpa,* the path of pure happiness. *Vraja Vihari Dāsa, MBA, serves full-time at ISKCON Chowpatty (Mumbai) and teaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness to students at various colleges.* ## From the Editor *Transcendental Competition* My wife and I were driving past a sporting event when she mentioned how much she dislikes sports. "I hate that the winner's happiness has to come at the loser's expense," she said. "I don't understand the attraction to sports." But why is it, I thought, that despite the risk of losing, often repeatedly, so many people are attracted to playing sports? One reason would seem to be their love for competition, a love that overrides the fear of losing. While some of us might prefer, in principle, an atmosphere of cooperation to one of competition, which can inspire hatred, jealousy, and other bad feelings, competition has at least one good quality: It promotes excellence. Human beings feel the inner drive for excellence, whether in sports, academics, business, or any field of endeavor. We want to be better, and competition with others in our field spurs us to constantly improve. Those of us striving for spiritual improvement face competition too. Under Kṛṣṇa’s direction, Maya, in charge of Kṛṣṇa’s material energy, challenges us at every turn. Prabhupāda said that the aspiring devotee has declared war on Maya. We're competing with her to become totally pure in consciousness so that we can return to our home with Kṛṣṇa. It's a friendly competition, though, since Maya's challenges are meant to bring out excellence in our devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. If, like an Olympic athlete, our purpose is strong, the obstacles Maya places in our path will strengthen us spiritually. Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and lectures contain many statements disparaging ordinary competition, but he often spoke of "transcendental competition," which exists among devotees and between Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. For spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Prabhupāda encouraged competition among his disciples. When the Los Angeles temple outperformed the Rādhā-Damodara traveling book-distribution party, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to the Los Angeles temple president, "This is good competition. So now Tamal Kṛṣṇa is defeated by you? So one month you defeat him, and another he can defeat you, and in this way Rādhā-Damodara's service will be increased by transcendental competition. This is very nice." In the spiritual world, competition exists solely for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure. When Kṛṣṇa runs ahead of His friends while they play in the fields and forests of Vṛndāvana, He is pleased when the boys compete to be the first to touch Him. In the Damodara-lila, Kṛṣṇa competes with His own mother, Yasoda, and she wins: Her pure love conquers Kṛṣṇa, who submits to being tied to a grinding mortar. Kṛṣṇa and the *gopis* compete in attracting one another. Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kaviraja Gosvami writes in *Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta* (*Ādi* 4.192–193), "The beauty of Lord Kṛṣṇa increases at the sight of the beauty of the *gopis*. And the more the *gopis* see Lord Kṛṣṇa’s beauty, the more their beauty increases. In this way a competition takes place between them in which no one acknowledges defeat." And Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks of a competition between Himself and Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī: "There is constant competition between my sweetness and the mirror of Rādhā's love. They both go on increasing, but neither knows defeat." (Cc. *Ādi* 4.142) The competition between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is a spice that flavors Their absolute cooperation with each other. Besides excellence, competition also triggers creativity. Transcendental competition creates not the goods of material progress, but the inspiration to increase our service to Kṛṣṇa, by which we savor the ever-deepening tastes of pure devotion. —NagarajaDāsa ## Vedic Thoughts It is not possible for a conditioned soul to directly meet Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but if one becomes a sincere devotee and seriously engages in devotional service, Lord Kṛṣṇa sends an instructing spiritual master to show him favor and invoke his dormant propensity for serving the Supreme. The preceptor appears before the external senses of the fortunate conditioned soul, and at the same time the devotee is guided from within by the *caitya-guru,* Kṛṣṇa, who is seated as the spiritual master within the heart of the living entity. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda *Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Adi-līlā* 1.58, Purport Anything done as sacrifice, charity, or penance without faith in the Supreme, O son of Prtha, is impermanent. It is called *asat* and is useless both in this life and the next. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa *Bhagavad-gītā* 17.28 O my Lord [Kṛṣṇa], may I have the association of Your devotees, which is a sharp sword that cuts the bonds of repeated birth and death and is the only way to attain a place at Your lotus feet. Please give me devotional service to Your lotus feet birth after birth. Śrī Yamaraja *Brahma-vaivarta Purana* 4.6.24 O King, as I remember the wonderful form of Lord Kṛṣṇa, I am struck with wonder more and more, and I rejoice again and again. Śrī Sanjaya *Bhagavad-gītā* 18.77 Whenever pure topics of the transcendental world are discussed, the members of the audience forget all kinds of material hankerings, at least for the time being. Not only that, but they are no longer envious of one another, nor do they suffer from anxiety or fear. The Pracetas *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 4.30.35 The desire to gratify one's own senses is *kṛma* [lust], but the desire to please the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa is *prema* [love]. Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kaviraja Gosvami *Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Adi-līlā* 4.165 Whatever is in Kṛṣṇa is in His holy name, for the two are nondifferent. The name is eternally free from material contamination and spiritually situated in a state of pure goodness (*suddha-sattva*) like Kṛṣṇa. Though descending into the material world, the name remains pure, eternal, and the embodiment of the highest sweetness (*rasa*). Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura *Śrī Harinama Cintamani,* Chapter 2 Although Vaisnavas appear in poor families within this world to teach the fallen and wretched living entities to worship Hari [Kṛṣṇa], they are not actually poor. The purpose of such pastimes is to demonstrate how one can worship Hari in spite of being born in a poor family. The characteristics of Vaisnavas are incomprehensible to the materialists. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati Ṭhākura *Śrī Caitanya-bhagavata, Madha-khanda,* Chapter 9, Summary