“Showing Deity in the Temple and eat and sleep, better you become a Sweeper in the Street”

GURU-KRIPA, 2 May, 1976, Fiji: Srila Prabhupada, what about, say, many of your god-brothers? They also have disciples, and they also are properly initiated by a proper spiritual master, and they give the Hare Krishna mantra?

PRABHUPADA: The thing is the spirit, real service of preaching, stopped. Formality is going on, but the real business…. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement means amara ajñaya guru hana tara ei desa. That is stopped. Do you follow?

The formalities are there, but the real life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement is preaching. Otherwise, why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajñaya guru hana tara ei desa?Tara means preaching. Yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krishna-upadesha.’ And that is stopped. They are satisfied if they could construct one temple and beg some rice from the neighbourhood, “Sir, we have got some temple…” That’s all. They are satisfied. The spirit of preaching forward–papi tapi jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo — that is stopped. So by hari-nama, by chanting, by this way, to live little peacefully in the temple and eat and sleep, that much they have got. If that is the success, that success they have got. And this was condemned by my Guru Maharaja, that “To earn some money by showing Deity in the temple and eat and sleep, better you become a sweeper in the street and earn your honest livelihood and live.” This is cheating. This was condemned. To construct a temple…just like the Vrindavana Goswamis are doing. They thought that “This is our business. Some innocent people will come here and offer some… bas. That’s our good income.” According to the temple’s popularity, they think, “This is our success.” Success is his who is pushing forward the preaching method. That is his success. And if we think that “By showing a temple Deity we get some money and rice and cloth and just peacefully live here, don’t bother about going to Fiji and all over…” [laughs] That much success they have got. But that is not Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama, sarvatra prachara . What they are doing for that? That is point.

GURU-KRIPA:What if sometimes disciple, he may go to preach, but he’s not preaching in the exact same spirit of his spiritual master?

PRABHUPADA: Therefore he is not to be preached. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara: “Go to do good to others. First of all, you do good to yourself.” First of all, you become really preacher. Then go to preach. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu never sent neophytes to go to preach. For neophytes, the preaching is not their business. For neophyte, one should stick to the worship of Deity in the temple. And those who have understood the philosophy, applied the philosophy in his life, he should go for preaching. Otherwise he’ll preach wrongly, like…what is that? Charan das Babaji. And it will stop. He wanted to preach, but he did not know how to preach, and therefore after his life, it is finished. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does not say like that, that “You remain a rascal and go to preach.”No. Janma sarthaka kari . “Your first business is that you make your life perfect. Then go to preach. Perfect means you learn how to obey My orders.” That is perfection. Amara ajñaya. So if you are actually, perfectly carrying out the orders of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, then you are preaching. Otherwise you will do wrongly, mislead. Don’t do that. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanah . If you remain blind, don’t try to lead other blind men. That is misleading. First of all open your eyes. Everything is there. Nobody can do anything whimsically. If you do whimsically, concoctedly, that will be failure. It will not be effective.