On Friday, August 13th, 1965, at the advanced age of sixty-nine, Srila Prabhupada embarked on a thirty-five-day sea journey aboard a cargo ship. His mission: to teach people world-wide how to be happy.
“We are therefore taken up this mission, to preach Bhagavad-gītā as it is, to solve all the problems of the world.” Bhagavad-gita lecture 1975
“Sarve sukhina… Everyone be happy. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We want to see everyone to be happy. That’s all.” Morning Walk 1974
The duty of his sincere followers is to determinedly carry on this mission.
“If you kindly take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement seriously, your country will be saved, and the whole world will be saved.” Arrival Lecture 1972
However, if we do not discuss his books, we will neither be happy in our own lives, nor able to help others become happy.
“Sat-saṅga means assembly, discussion. Bodhayantaḥ parasparam, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca. If you are not interested in association, discussion, then you are finished. So? Karmīs, they are fools and rascals. When you have got this center, it is not that you should be engaged from morning till you go to bed for sense gratification. That is not life. That is karmī’s life. You have no time for sat-saṅga, for association. You cannot make any progress by this sort of karmī’s life. We have to work for organization, but not that whole day and night engaged and no sat-saṅga. That is a misguided policy, and it will spoil the whole structure.” Room Conversation 1973
“Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, this is our main business. Śravaṇam. If you don’t hear, what you will do? You will do simply sense gratification. That’s all. So this is difficulty, that we are not very much interested in hearing. And that is the main business. Our bhakti begins = śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ [SB 7.5.23]. We have to hear and we have to speak. But if we are not interested in hearing and speak, then it will be the same ṭhākura-bari[?], simply formula. That’s all. And gradually it will be stopped. Unless there is life of śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, these big, big building, temples, will become burden. So if we are…, if we want to create burden for future, then we may give up this hearing and chanting and sleep very nicely. It will be burden. Galagraha. Not śrī-vigraha, but galagraha. Galagraha. Śrī-vigraha means worshipable Deity. So if we give up this śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ [SB 7.5.23], then it will be thought that “Our Guru Mahārāja has given a burden in the neck, galagraha.” This is the danger. So we must be very much alert in śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Otherwise, all this labor will be futile.” Srimad Bhagavatam lecture 1974
That is why from as early as 1972, he instructed his followers to put less emphasis on making new devotees and more on training existing devotees in scriptural knowledge.
Letter to Damodar das: ” You can thin milk by adding water and you can make it thick by boiling. Now is the time for us to begin the boiling process. Now you know everything how to be a Vaisnava brahmana, now you must practice these things or the whole thing will be a show only. Better to develop the small number of devotees we have, make them truly Krishna conscious boys and girls than to go on getting many followers who do not understand and practice the real principles. Better one moon that many stars.”
“So I want you leaders especially to become very much absorbed in the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and become yourselves completely convinced and free from all doubt. On this platform you shall be able to carry on the work satisfactorily, but if there is lack of knowledge, or if there is forgetfulness, everything will be spoiled in time. So especially you must encourage the students to read our books throughout the day as much as possible and give them all good advice how to understand the books, and inspire them to study the things from every point of view. In this way, by constantly engaging our tongues in the service of the Lord, either by discussing His philosophy or by chanting Hare Krishna, the truth is that Krishna Himself will reveal Himself to us and we shall understand how to do everything properly. Now we have got so many students and so many temples but I am fearful that if we expand too much in this way that we shall become weakened and gradually the whole thing will become lost. Just like milk. We may thin it more and more with water for cheating the customer, but in the end it will cease to be any longer milk. Better to boil the milk now very vigorously and make it thick and sweet, that is the best process. So let us concentrate on training our devotees very thoroughly in the knowledge of Krishna Consciousness from our books, from tapes, by discussing always, and in so many ways instruct them in the right propositions.“
“Now I want that we shall concentrate on making our devotees Krishna conscious and ourselves becoming Krishna conscious, and not be so much concerned with expanding ourselves widely but without any spiritual content. Just like boiling the milk, it becomes thicker and sweeter. Now do like that, boil the milk.”
“Yes, you have got the right idea when you say that your preaching work shall be directed toward the children and the devotees and not so much to the Dallas public. We may thin the milk till it becomes useless, or we may boil it until it becomes thick and sweet, so now we have got enough followers, let us train them up perfectly in the philosophy and activities of Krsna Consciousness way of life. Unless all of my students become very much fixed up in their spiritual progress, what is the use of so many programs for expansion? “
In the following letter to Tribhuvanatha, he even specified that we should discuss his books from different perspectives:
“I am very much stressing nowadays that my students shall increase their reading of my books and try to understand them from different angles of vision. Each sloka can be seen from many, many angles of vision, so become practiced in seeing things like this
Such discussions will help us to advance in Krishna consciousness and avoid dogmatism which is dangerous:
“You people, you try to understand the gifts of Caitanya Mahāprabhu by your philosophical understanding.” Not blindly; philosophically. And vicāra karile citte pāibe camatkāra: If you are actually a wise man, then you’ll find it is sublime.” And if you simply stick to your own religious ritualistic principles—don’t try to understand the philosophy of everything—then you become a fanatics. So we should not become religious fanatics, nor dry mental speculators. Both these classes of men are dangerous. They cannot make any advance . The combination. You should be religious, but try to understand each and every line philosophically.” Bg lecture 1968
“Discussion of Kṛṣṇa is very potent, and if a fortunate person has such association and tries to assimilate the knowledge, then he will surely make advancement toward spiritual realization.” Bg 9.1 purport
The Improving Sanga Principles are collations of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions regarding sastra discussions. We have personally experienced the efficacy of these instructions, and we therefore humbly request the GBC, sannyasis, temple presidents and other leaders in ISKCON as well as temple devotees and congregation members to please implement them and thus ensure your personal success and that of ISKCON.
Although any one of us can succeed if we personally commit to applying these ten principles, for ISKCON’s success we especially appeal to the GBC members to give this serious consideration. Please meditate on Srila Prabhupada’s words:
“There we have created these GBCs. So they should be very responsible men; otherwise, they will be punished. They will be punished to become a śūdra. Although Yamarāja is a GBC, but he made a little mistake, he was punished to become a śūdra. So those who are GBC, they should be very, very careful to administer the business of ISKCON. Otherwise they will be punished. As the post is very great, similarly, the punishment is also very great. That is the difficulty. You can see from this example, Vidura. He was immediately punished.” Srimad Bhagavatam Lecture, 1974
0 Comments