The following is a class given by H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on September 15th 1981 at Murari Sevak Farm in Mulberry , Tennessee.

Bali Maharaja , he had a test he couldn't pass. From materialistic... He said, “Give me 3 steps of land, but... So he couldn't give it, of course; but he surrendered everything to Him. So he was removed, everything he had, he lost; but then he was given other things in exchange which were greater. He couldn’t get exactly what he wanted, but he didn't care. He was crying, he was overwhelmed by the Lords mercy. Even his guru was, who was, you know, misdirecting him, (whom) he rejected, also could see that he got all the mercy, and I made a fool of myself.

So, whatever the Lords plan is, that's what's going to be. That's definitely what's going to happen. If we keep following the Lords direction, we are going to reap the benefit. For the Pandavas its was an on-going thing. So it may not just be a one-minute scourge; may extend over a period of few minutes like with Bali Maharaja, or a couple of years like Prahlad Maharaja, or even over a decade like with the Pandavas, over a whole life.

Srila Prabhupada said, “The test of how my followers love me is how well they co-operate with each other in my absence.”

We can always find reasons why we shouldn't cooperate. We can find the defects in each individual. This one does not look in the right way, this one late for mangal arati 3 days a week. Just, you know, we find some, everyone will find something. This one has this defect, what ever. Then we come to the ultimate conclusion, so therefore I won’t cooperate. Prabhupada didn't say that. The test of how you love is how you gonna cooperate. So people can always find some kind of fault, but the real thing is how to do what Prabhupada wanted.

Once Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter to some devotees that he was very pleased that they were working together with each other, without any argument. He said he knew that Maya gives so many ideas just to cause argumentation, difficulties, but the fact that those two devotees are working together (he said) was a sign that they were more attached to Lord Caitanya’s ideas, to the lotus foot dust on Lord Caitanya's louts feet, rather then the ideas that Maya was presenting. Especially we are in this material world, because of enviousness. So natural tendency is always that why this person got that, why I didn't get it? Why this person get this, why I didn’t get it?

Just like in India in Bengal, there is a paper called the Sangbad. It's the Communist mouth-piece. So they published in there, that the number one enemies of our class struggle are represented by this Hare Krishna movement. This Hare Krishna movement, don't be fooled by them. They're not sectarian, they're not limited to simply Hindus, or Muslim or Christian; they are for all the humanity. They are preaching the most insidious philosophy(devotees laugh), which cuts at the very root of our doctrines(a devotee laughs). They are teaching shamelessly, “isavasyam idam sarvam,” these blasphemous words that everything is the property of god, ”yat kincha-jagatyam jagat” and that whatever a person has as his quota, he should be satisfied. If this poison is allowed to spread in the society, then we will not be able to cause the masses to uprise in political revolution and they will become complacent and our class struggle will be stopped ; therefore at any cost, you must stop these Hare Krishna movement people from their insidious programs. Right in the public paper! So the whole thing, the whole Communist, so-called revolution, is based upon envy.

They get them all riled up, some people have, you don't have, is that right? No, They never gonna get, they just take away from those people and the party people take It. Its not that the proletary people get more than when they started out; they take from the rich people, and then the party people are the new rich. But they get everybody riled up, simply on envy. “No body can be rich, everybody poor.” But then they're still the rich, the black marketeer service and communist party men are rich. Some people are always rich by karma, but its just more difficult. So like that, so many ideas maya will give us and always the opposing elements, they will want to divide; create disturbance. But if we see the good qualities, like in our movement they are so many wonderful vaisnavas who are preaching Krishna Consciousness who are severing, developing projects for this movement. I was visiting one temple and someone asked that what GBC was in the temple, and I said there wasn't a GBC. He said, “Well what did you do?” I said I visited so many other wonderful devotees, I talked with them, visited them; its not that, thank Krishna that our movement is not that just a few people are spiritually advanced. Some are maybe more advanced then others, but our movement has a tremendous depth of great devotees who have dedicated their lives to serving Caitanya Mahaprabhu's movement and developing it.

Srila Prabhupada was talking about giving some type of title to devotees who excelled in different services; not to create any false prestige, but to encourage them, so that such devotees would then become authorities in that field to give example to take some responsibility to train others. Like, say someone is very expert cook. Then something like bhakti pochak, or something (devotees laugh), means cook. Bhakti prashad vikas (devotees laugh), or someone that's very expert at taking care of cows, bhakti goraksha or some one that's very good with Sanskrit, Bhakti Siddhanta gave someone, bhakti ratna, ratna vidya, vidya rata, jewel of knowledge.

Prabhupada was discussing it, he said that, “What type of title could be given,” but then it never finalized. The idea being is that, its not only the management, is one of the services, but all the different services Krishna accepts equally. Managing, puja, cooking, whoever takes responsibly to do his service first class for Krishna, whether its cooking, planting or preaching, his taking it up in that dedicated mood, Krishna appreciates that. Different people have different qualities, some maybe an actor, some maybe a drummer, everyone is needed.

In Krishna’s eyes every devotees is judged according to his surrender and sincerity. How much he is taking commitment to do his service. He takes more responsibly, he is given more mercy, because he needs it to cross over all the trials that comes with his responsibly. You don't want mercy, you don't want trials, you wont get mercy. Trials means you want more mercy to cross of the trial, right? So you gonna drive in the plane so you don't need a strong engine, but if you going to cross over the mountain, you need a big engine. You wanna advance fast in Krishna Consciousness then you don't baulk away from taking responsibility, but take it and then, according to one's capacity, you should take then pray to Krishna pray to the spiritual master overcome the difficulty by developing maturity in Krishna Consciousness. Then the leaders should see, how much a person can take, if he can do more then he is doing. If he is doing up to his capacity, all right. If he can do more, then he should be encouraged to do more, each person may have a different capacity, that's also all right. Hanuman was throwing big Bowlers and the insect was throwing specs of dust, but Ramachandra as accepting both. Each person should be working up to his capacity. So what a difficulty or responsibly with that comes a trial or a pressure that's what helps us to, we need more help from Krishna then, as we get more help that means that we have increased our devotional service.