Srila Prabhupada: “Know that I am eternally your guide“,
but if you don’t accept me as your guide, what can I do?
“Know that I am eternally your guide, but if you don’t accept me as your guide, what can I do? If my disciples do not take my guidance, what can I do? By bad association it so happens, so I remain silent. I see the pricks of maya …
“You mention that your pathway has become filled with stumbling blocks. But there are no stumbling blocks. I can kick out all those stumbling blocks immediately, provided that you accept my guidance. With one stroke I can kick out all stumbling blocks.”
From Srila Prabhupada’s Sept 9, 1972 letter to Krsna Das
July 11 1969 letter
…You have asked if it is true that the Spiritual Master remains in the material universe until all of His disciples are transferred to the Spiritual Sky. The answer is yes, this is the rule. Therefore, every student should be very much careful not to commit any offense which will be detrimental to this promotion to the Spiritual Kingdom, and thereby the Spiritual Master has to incarnate again to deliver him. This sort of mentality will be a kind of offense to the Spiritual Master.
Out of the ten kinds of offenses, the number one offense is to disobey the orders of the Spiritual Master. The instructions given to the disciple by the Spiritual Master at the time of initiation should be strictly followed. That will make one advance to the spiritual path. But if one deliberately defies such instructions, then his advancement is hampered from the very beginning.
This defying means to disconnect the relationship with the Spiritual Master. And anyone who defies and therefore disconnects the relationship with the Spiritual Master can hardly expect the assistance of the Spiritual Master life after life. I hope this will clear up this question sufficiently for you.
Please convey my blessings to the others. I am very pleased that you are working so sincerely to maintain the Montreal temple. Hope this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Srila Prabhupada promises to take us back to Godhead
72-12-26.Amo Letter: Amogha 292164/530501
Please accept my blessings. I wish to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 1, 1972, and I have noted the contents. It is very much pleasing to me to hear that you are making such steady advancement in Krishna Consciousness. If you continue in this way, and strictly follow the four regulative principles, making sure to chant at least sixteen rounds on the beads, daily, it is without a doubt that at the end of this lifetime, you can go back home, back to Godhead. I shall be going there near February 1, so you may do the needful. Hoping this meets you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
73-01-28.Hil Letter: Hillel Ben-Ami 292681/530501
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter, undated, and I have noted the contents very carefully. Thank you very much for your kind sentiments. Now try and understand our philosophy very carefully by reading all of our books, such as Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Nectar of Devotion, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and there are so many others. In addition, please follow the regulative principles very rigidly, such as chanting daily 16 rounds on the beads, attending classes, getting up for mangala aratrika. These regulative principles will make us very strong in Krsna Consciousness and very rapidly we can advance in this way. So under the direction of the senior devotees there try and become fixed in your devotional service to the Lord, Sri Krsna, and this will certainly bring complete satisfaction to you and make you eligible for going back to home, back to Godhead, in this very lifetime. Hoping this finds you well,
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
72-09-20.Sus Letter: Susan Beckman 291155/530501
My dear Susan Beckman,
Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter dated September 22, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much encouraged that you want to join this Krsna Consciousness movement for perfection of your life. Householder life is also the perfect platform for rendering devotional service to Krsna. Any station of life, whether you are unmarried, married, or in any occupation of life, you can achieve the highest goal by adopting and practicing the principles of devotional service. You are married and your husband is striving to become a devotee of Krsna, so you become his devotee, that is the position of husband and wife, that the husband will become a great devotee of Krsna by his wife’s assistance, and the wife will take benefit and advance in spiritual life by serving her husband. You are anxious about the rules and regulations, but without rules and regulations there is more frustration. So it may be a little difficult at first, but if you are sincere to achieve the highest result of your lifetime, then you can be assured that by your efforts in Krsna Consciousness that you will very quickly become happy more and more. The difficulties of this material world will shrink to no more than the size of a hoofprint left by the calf. Actually there is no difference between devotees living inside the temple and devotees living outside the temple. You are right that the important thing is to remember Krsna, whatever is your activity. So try to remember Krsna always by following the principles as you know them, namely, rising early, taking bath, cleansing, attending aratrika, reading scriptures at least one hour or two hours daily, chanting sixteen rounds on beads of Hare Krsna mantra, going for street sankirtana, offering all your foodstuffs to Krsna, like that. In this way very quickly you will make progress in Krsna Consciousness and become very very happy in your life. Hoping this meets you in good health,
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
72-04-15.Ujj Letter: Ujjal 288256/530501
Please accept my blessings. Upon the recommendation of Citsukhananda, I am very glad to consent to accept you as my duly initiated disciple, and I am sending your beads, duly chanted by me, under separate post. I have given you the spiritual name of UJJAL DAS. I am very pleased to hear that you have been such a great help to Citsukhananda there in our Mexico City center. I can understand that you are a very sincere boy and are a very eligible candidate for going back to Home, back to Godhead. And the process is simple. Follow the regulative principles very strictly, chant at least 16 rounds of beads daily, read our literatures, go for street Sankirtana, etc. In this way keep yourself engaged in Krishna’s business 24 hours, and in this lifetime you will become perfectly happy and in the end reach the Supreme destination. Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
71-04-04.Vai Letter: Vaikunthanatha, Saradia 282070/530501
I remember the days when Saradia expressed to marry you and I immediately reserved you for marriage to Saradia. Later on in Boston you were married and since then you are working so nicely. I am very pleased upon you. Simply use this marital life for spreading the glories of Lord Krishna and in this very lifetime you will be promoted to associate with Krishna in Goloka Vrindaban. So please stay on the purity platform; chant 16 rounds daily and without fail, follow all the regulative principles, and read all our books and your life is sure to be successful. Unless one is sufficiently empowered, one cannot preach Krishna Consciousness. So the fact that you are preaching so nicely is proof that you are already benedicted by Krishna. So preach Krishna Consciousness and be happy. Here in India we are having one massive Sankirtana Festival called “Bhagavata Dharma Discourses, a Hare Krishna Festival” where 20,000 to 30,000 people are attending daily for chanting, lecture kirtana and prasadam distribution. So here in Bombay preaching work is also very successful. Many important men are becoming interested. Most probably we will have our permanent center here soon. Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
76-06-12.Lok Letter: Lokanatha 313692/530501
My dear Lokanatha Swami,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 2, 1976 and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am very glad to see that you are enthusiastically pushing forward with this preaching work and the young Indians are coming forward to join our sankirtana party. It is very encouraging to me. Anyone who has life he can preach, so go on very enthusiastically and there will be all facility given by Lord Krishna.
On your recommendation I am accepting the following devotees for initiation: 1st initiation: Bhakta Adhira whose spiritual name is Abhayasraya-dasa 2nd initiation: Dharanidhara das Brahmacari, Vrajesvara das Brahmacari, Enclosed please find a copy of gayatri initiation and two brahmana threads. After the yajna, the brahmana initiates should hear the gayatri mantra in the right ear. The devotees must all bear in mind that they are promising to follow the four regulative principles, i.e., no illicit sex-life, no intoxication, no gambling, and no meat-eating, and also chanting a minimum of 16 rounds of japa daily. This promise is made before the spiritual master, before the Deity, the devotees, Vaisnavas, the Supersoul, and the fire. Everyone should take very seriously this vow and make steady and sure progress in Krishna Consciousness and go back to home, back to Godhead in this
lifetime.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
71-08-04.Suk Letter: Sukhada 284007/530501
The process is simple. Follow the regulative principles of devotional life undeviatingly, regularly chant 16 rounds of beads daily and without fail, read all our literatures, attend classes and aratis, go for street Sankirtana. If there are any questions, always refer them to your elder godbrothers and sisters. So our method is not so difficult. Rather it is joyful. So engage yourself enthusiastically in this way and you will be happy and in the end go back to home, back to Godhead.
I have chanted on your beads and they were returned to you personally by Harer Nama; you should have received them by now. Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
71-11-12.Nit Letter: Nityananda 285613/53050
It is a basic principle that one must accept a bonafide spiritual master in order to achieve the highest perfection of life, love of God. I thank all of you very much for accepting me as your spiritual master, and I promise that I will take you back to home, back to Godhead. I ask you all to promise me to always chant at least 16 rounds, follow the regulative principles, read our books and try to preach this Krishna Consciousness Movement all over the world. So far my qualifications are concerned, I am simply trying to carry out the order of my Guru Maharaja. Hoping this will meet you all in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
770517ar.vrn Conversations
Prabhupada: So I cannot speak. I am feeling very weak. I was to go to other places like Chandigarh program, but I cancelled the program because the condition of my health is very deteriorating. So I preferred to come to Vrndavana. If death takes place, let it take here. So there is nothing to be said new. Whatever I have to speak, I have spoken in my books. Now you try to understand it and continue your endeavor. Whether I am present or not present, it doesn’t matter.
As Krsna is living eternally, similarly, living being also lives eternally. But kirtir yasya sa jivati: “One who has done service to the Lord lives forever.” So you have been taught to serve Krsna, and with Krsna we’ll live eternally. Our life is eternal. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire. A temporary disappearance of this body, it doesn’t matter. Body is meant for disappearance. Tatha dehantara-praptih. So live forever by serving Krsna. Thank you very much.
July 11 1969 letter….. Out of the ten kinds of offenses, the number one offense is to disobey the orders of the Spiritual Master. The instructions given to the disciple by the Spiritual Master at the time of initiation should be strictly followed. That will make one advance to the spiritual path. But if one deliberately defies such instructions, then his advancement is hampered from the very beginning. This defying means to disconnect the relationship with the Spiritual Master. And anyone who defies and therefore disconnects the relationship with the Spiritual Master can hardly expect the assistance of the Spiritual Master life after life. I hope this will clear up this question sufficiently for you.
Prabhupada: “Authentic, Scholarly and Self Evident”
So why would His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada the author of all his books which he confirmed
were dictated to him by the Supreme Personality of Godhead leave his books open to endless changes from conditioned souls?
He didn’t.
The result now is more than evident that if these endless illegal changes continue all of his books co-authored by Krsna will in the future no longer exist. The only books left will be derivitives of the originals or books created from original books. Those derivative literatures would and already do for the most part dilute the original philosophy as presented by Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada. That is enough to re direct the participant reader to focus on the organization of ISKCON scribes as the focus of worship simply due to impoverished irregular essays and extremely rare treatise presented to an already innocently ignorant congregation and public. This ongoing redirection is impersonalism which is a direct representation of the Mayavadi phiosophy as present by Sripad Sankarachary. To engage in an action such as book changes by ISKCON to the point at which they are now at without direct specific instructions from the author for each and every approach is to molest the author and attempt to degrade him to the level at which the book changers feel should be his real position. A position which they have recognized their whole lives in secret. One with Srila Prabhupada and one with Krsna, clearly the ISKCON leadership is Mayavadi to the hilt which means it an atheist leadership. Srila Prabhupada and Krsnas books are Vedānta-sūtra.
From Text 127 of the Adi-lila Chapter 7 on page 121 from the purport Srila Prabhupada and Krsna teach us and give us a further understanding and appreciation of the very serious damage being done by the BBT and ISKCON leadership not only to Srila Prabhupadas and Krsnas books but to the Hare Krishna movement as a whole.
“The falsity of Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya’s explanation of vivarta-vāda and pariṇāma-vāda has been detected by the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, especially Jīva Gosvāmī, whose opinion is that actually Śaṅkara did not understand the Vedānta-sūtra. In Śaṅkara’s explanation of one sūtra, ānanda-mayo ’bhyāsāt, he has interpreted the affix mayaṭ with such word jugglery that this very explanation proves that he had little knowledge of the Vedānta-sūtra but simply wanted to support his impersonalism through the aphorisms of the Vedānta philosophy. Actually, however, he failed to do so because he could not put forward strong arguments. In this connection, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī cites the phrase brahma pucchaṁ pratiṣṭhā (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.5), which gives Vedic evidence that Brahman is the origin of everything. In explaining this verse, Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya interpreted various Sanskrit words in such a way that he implied, according to Jīva Gosvāmī, that Vyāsadeva had very little knowledge of higher logic. Such unscrupulous deviation from the real meaning of the Vedānta-sūtra has created a class of men who by word jugglery try to derive various indirect meanings from the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhagavad-gītā. One of them has even explained that the word kurukṣetra refers to the body. Such interpretations imply, however, that neither Lord Kṛṣṇa nor Vyāsadeva had a proper sense of word usage or etymological adjustment. They lead one to assume that since Lord Kṛṣṇa could not personally sense the meaning of what He was speaking and Vyāsadeva did not know the meaning of what he was writing, Lord Kṛṣṇa left His book to be explained later by the Māyāvādīs. Such interpretations merely prove, however, that their proponents have very little philosophical sense.
Etymology is the study of the sources of words as well as their development
Srila Prabhupada exposes all truths!
Ys Hasti Gopala Dasa
In all of my other books-Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Isopanisad, etc-the system is that I give the original verse, its English transliterations, word-for-word sanskrit-english equivalents, translations and purports.This makes the book very authentic and scholarly and makes the meaning self evident.
Preface to Bhagavad Gita
Eternal Service To You
I shall put aside now my long loitering heart
Then dress formally within that song of service
Intent to hear more legends and then to start
Taking my life to its original purpose
Faith, be the wind that carry’s my motion
Across the last stretch of my sea
Provided from my port with whatever devotion
I can muster to serve with thee
Troughs by swells breaking crests with deeds
Shall take time and my journey to the brink
Devotional service to Srila Prabhupda concedes
That my journey to a hoof print shall shrink
I shall carry my hopes in the Hold
Steady that my course is true
Making sure that my courage is bold
With my eternal service to you.
Thank you dear Srila Prabhupada
Your eternal servant
Hasti Gopala Dasa
Why Did The Six Goswamis Write Books?
There are many reasons as to why the Six Goswamis wrote books and why so many other great sages from Lord Chaitanya’s time to now performed the same tasks. Obviously these great works were meant to be shared with anyone and everyone from their time and into the future. They were not meant for a select few. There is a varied and wide criteria for those able to write responsibly and potently about the time of Lord Chaitanya right up to the present. I think that the most obvious reason for their writing is to show one of the natural results that flows from following strictly the bona fide parampara while studying and associating with previous personalities and their great works. Naturally those writings are then presented to respective generations into the future and beyond. Srila Prabhupada stated many times that all his disciples should write their personal realizations, understandings and experiences down for others. If the topic is directly related to Krsna, Srila Prabhupada and to personal spiritual experiences then they are in their own right transcendental. As long as the writing is honest, sincere, well intended and certainly not in a form plagiarizing the past sages and parampara it is to be encouraged. At most if not all Krsna temples around the world these days as in the past people discuss amongst themselves about their understandings and appreciations on a daily basis. Writing about them on line and sharing is basically the same thing. The great Goswami’s wrote to help those who were and are in desperate need for spiritual advancement they did not write for personal aggrandizement. From those great writings came great leaders with great associations. Our writings need not be made public but at least encouraged to increase time for more devotee and follower association. I find that there is a shyness among a lot of devotees and followers to speak out about their personal realization, understandings and experiences. Speaking out in an aggressive debatable manner is always easy, speaking out in an amicable manner can be quite a challenging and delightful pursuit. Hearing is the first class sense that opens the heart.
Writing is the cousin that serves the world.
Ys Hasti Gopala dasa