The following is class given by H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on Sept 19th , 1979 in LA, California. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 4, Chapter 9, Text 6.

dhruva uvāca
yo ’ntaḥ praviśya mama vācam imāṁ prasuptāṁ
sañjīvayaty akhila-śakti-dharaḥ sva-dhāmnā
anyāṁś ca hasta-caraṇa-śravaṇa-tvag-ādīn
prāṇān namo bhagavate puruṣāya tubhyam

TRANSLATION by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:

Dhruva Mahārāja said: My dear Lord, You are all-powerful. After entering within me, You have enlivened all my sleeping senses—my hands, legs, ears, touch sensation, life force and especially my power of speech. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto You.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada:

Dhruva Mahārāja could understand very easily the difference between his condition before and after attaining spiritual realization and seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. He could understand that his life force and activities had been sleeping. Unless one comes to the spiritual platform, his bodily limbs, mind and other facilities within the body are understood to be sleeping. Unless one is spiritually situated, all his activities are taken as a dead man’s activities or ghostly activities. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has composed a song in which he addresses himself: “O living entity, get up! How long shall you sleep on the lap of māyā? Now you have the opportunity of possessing a human form of body; now try to get up and realize yourself.” The Vedas also declare, “Get up! Get up! You have the opportunity, the boon of the human form of life — now realize yourself.” These are the Vedic injunctions. Dhruva Mahārāja actually experienced that upon enlightenment of his senses on the spiritual platform he could understand the essence of Vedic instruction — that the Supreme Godhead is the Supreme Person; He is not impersonal. Dhruva Mahārāja could immediately understand this fact. He was aware that for a very long time he was practically sleeping, and he felt the impetus to glorify the Lord according to the Vedic conclusion. A mundane person cannot offer any prayer or glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because he has no realization of the Vedic conclusion. Therefore when Dhruva Mahārāja found this difference within himself, he could immediately understand that it was because of the causeless mercy of the Lord. He offered obeisances to the Lord with great respect and reverence, completely understanding that the Lord’s favor was upon him. This spiritual enlivenment of Dhruva Mahārāja’s senses and mind was due to the action of the internal potency of the Lord. In this verse, therefore, the word sva-dhāmnā means “by spiritual energy.” Spiritual enlightenment is possible by the mercy of the spiritual energy of the Lord. The chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is first addressed to the spiritual energy of the Lord, Hare. This spiritual energy acts when a living entity fully surrenders and accepts his position as an eternal servitor. When a person places himself at the disposal or order of the Supreme Lord, that is called sevonmukha; at that time the spiritual energy gradually reveals the Lord to him. Without revelation by the spiritual energy, one is unable to offer prayers glorifying the Lord. Any amount of philosophical speculation or poetic expression by mundane persons is still considered to be the action and reaction of the material energy. When one is actually enlivened by the spiritual energy, all his senses become purified, and he engages only in the service of the Lord. At that time his hands, legs, ears, tongue, mind, genitals — everything — engage in the service of the Lord. Such an enlightened devotee no longer has any material activities, nor has he any interest in being materially engaged. This process of purifying the senses and engaging them in the service of the Lord is known as bhakti, or devotional service. In the beginning, the senses are engaged by the direction of the spiritual master and śāstra, and after realization, when the same senses are purified, the engagement continues. The difference is that in the beginning the senses are engaged in a mechanical way, but after realization they are engaged in spiritual understanding.

Thus ends the purport by Sri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, verse 6, chapter 9, canto 4 of the Srimad Bhagavatam.

GURUDEV'S ELABORATION :

Actually, when I read here about the empowerment of Dhruva Maharaja, I am reminded of a great devotee in our midst. Dhruva Maharaja was empowered by Krsna and his intelligence, his ability, became fully manifest.

Without being empowered by the Lord, nobody can preach Krsna consciousness; no one can become spiritually enlightened. kali-käle dharma naama sankirtan, Krsna kripa bina nahi taar vartana. In this Kali yuga, the only religion, the only path for spiritual life, is nama sankirtan, Krsna sankirtan, glorifying the holy name and fame of Lord Sri Krsna. And unless someone gets the mercy of Krsna he is not empowered to preach, to expand that sankirtan movement.

I was remembering how Srila Prabhupada, in his last few days and months, one day called us and he was telling us how we have to prepare for carrying out the work he had begun. He said, “Only half my work is finished, other half is remaining, you must all finish.” He said, “You are actually all simple, you are all simple, innocent devotees, so you should combinedly work together to spread this Krsna conscious movement.” He said, “Amongst you only one person has got a little intelligence, that is Rameswar Swami.”(devotees respond with, “Jai!”) So Srila Prabhupada was very much affectionate to H D G Srila Rameswar Swami and for his using, having intellingence to use and using it to spread the sankirtan movement. So reading here about Dhruva Maharaj, I was reminded of my worshipable godbrother, Srila Rameswar Swami, who is always using his intelligence to glorify the Lord according to time and place.

Actually, here we see the words ‘dhamna’, the internal potency of the Lord. Actually, the Lord’s internal potency manifests herself in so many different ways, and this potency of the Lord is divinely connected to the Lord and everyone who is a pure devotee is under the shelter of this divine energy. Actually if anybody wants to Krsna, one first has to get the mercy of the energy of the Lord in the form of the mercy of spiritual master or by Krsna’s associates, of course of which the spiritual master is one. Other associates after the spiritual master gives mercy may also come.

Prabhupada says that before you can see Jagannath, first you will see Subhadra. Subhadra, being the energy of the Lord, she is all compassionate. Then after Subhadra then comes Balarama, then finally you will see Jagannath. The Lord’s mercy – very compassionate. Before Dhruva Maharaja could see Narayana, he saw Narada muni, and by his mercy he ultimately saw Narayana. By Narayana’s mercy, he was empowered to glorify Narayana. Glorifying Narayana is not a material capacity. It is not possible for any material person to glorify the Lord perfectly. This is only possible by the mercy of Narayana, by the mercy of Krsna and his pure devotees. So, one thing is, we see how ‘dhamna’ means spiritual energy but ‘dham’ is the spiritual energy.

I am reminded of how nicely Srila Prabhupada describes that if you want to know Krsna, if you want to love Krsna, then you must know and love those whom Krsna loves. Otherwise it is not possible. “My dear Lord Krsna I love you, but if You just get rid of those cows, so I could have You on Fifth Avenue.” You see, these are all concoctions. If you want Krsna then you have to also have His cows, and His cowherd boys, and His cowherd girls, His mother and His father and His uncles and His aunties and His grandmother, Paurnamasi, everyone. Krsna is a person so He has likes and He has dislikes. He doesn’t like anyone to suffer. He doesn’t like His devotee, especially, to be put in difficulty. This is His dislike, He doesn’t like that. Therefore He comes down to give His mercy to His devotees who are feeling separation of His lotus feet. Therefore, He mitigates the anxiety of the pious people, the devotees, by arranging to have the demoniac influence diminished.

The Lord has likes, He likes His particular dress, He likes His flute, He loves His flute, which is non-different, all these things in the Absolute world are non-different. But somethings take the position of paraphernalia, of associates, or eternal servitors, His holy name, His holy form. And He also has a place which He likes. He likes a particular place. I never understood that yet, although everyone likes to say that Jayapataka Swami has been living in the holy dham. That is my body alone, the glories of the holy dham, are not something that simply by living there even one can understand very easily. It can only be understood, what is the glory of the holy name, fame, dham, lila roop, of the Lord, only by very special mercy of Krsna and his pure devotee. How the Lord has a deep love for a particular place and how that place is not part of the material world, but is expanded by His internal potency, is a very difficult matter to understand. But actually wherever the devotee goes, he recreates that place. The dham is not limited, although He is situated fixed up in one particular place in the world, at the same time, it is all pervasive, just like Krsna; because wherever Krsna is, there is His dham, there is His name, there His form, there is His pastime, there is His devotees. So when one brings Krsna in his heart there also comes the holy place. When one brings Krsna in his home there also the dham is manifesting. As much as one has his devotion Krsna and His holy paraphernalia, roop, naam, dham, manifest. So everything has a transcendental relationship.

Srila Prabhupada said, “ISKCON is my body.” “I am a devotee of Srila Prabhupada but I don’t like ISKCON.” How can that be? Is it possible? “I love you Srila Rameswar Swami, but I don’t like your body.” How is it possible? I like his transcendental beautiful form, his sweet lotus words, everything about him (if I like him) his associates--- everything. “Krsna, I like you but I don’t like your body.”

Of course, this material body is different from the spiritual body. But a pure devotee’s body becomes spiritually enlivened. It becomes holy, because it is fully dedicated to Krsna. Even if one is told it is a material body. No, it may be material to your eyes, but because it is fully engaged in Krsna’s service it has also become sanctified. But especially when Prabhupada says, “My body is ISKCON.” How can we see ISKCON as separate? “Krsna I love you but I don’t like your body.” Is that possible? Is there a difference in Prabhupada and his body? When he says, “ISKCON is my body,” he means, “If you love me, you love this association of devotees joined together for the purpose of preaching the message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”

I know one devotee said, “Srila Prabhupada, is it true that only the devotees who are doing sankirtan are the pure devotees of Krsna?” And Prabhupada said, “ Who is not doing sankirtan?” This whole movement is based on sankirtan, who is not doing sankirtan? Everyone is combining together to co-operate with the one, single purpose of spreading sankirtan. If one person does not cook the prasadam how will the devotees go out to distribute the prasadam? Every person is combining, may be one person is taking greater risk than another. Whoever puts themselves out the most to do devotional service, taking shelter of guru and Krsna, he gets the best. He can get more mercy. But who isn’t doing sankirtan in this movement? The whole movement is based upon spreading sankirtan and everyone should have that preaching mood. How can I cooperate with the desire of Srila Prabhupada, to work as a gear, as a nut, as a bolt, as a wheel in the huge machinery of ISKCON for the purpose of preaching the sankirtan movement? The whole machine is going to that destination only. To spread Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s message everywhere.

Dhruva Maharaj, he is glorifying the Lord, “By your mercy, my senses have become enlivened. I was asleep. Isn’t that our position? Before we get the mercy of guru, we are simply dead men, walking corpses. By his mercy, we become awakened. By his mercy, we have eyes to see, who we are, what is our purpose, where are we headed? Who is Krsna? What is our relationship? How do we act in that relationship? What is the supreme perfection?

Srila Prabhupada presented Krsna consciousness in a unique, dynamic way. While maintaining the very strict essence of Rupa Goswami’s following of the principles of rules and regulations or sadhana bhakti, he intertwined within that an all-pervasive facility for manifesting raganuga bhakti or spontaneous devotional service. It is very rare. In India, it is immediately the tendency to become a kanishtha adhikari! Immediately. “I am Hindu,” “I am this I am that..To simply ring the bell at the arati time, “ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong” and then go back after the arati, sit down and wait for the rice. Eating a lot of rice, take a little rest. In other words, (he would) be able to lift up the bell at the next arati. Very heavy, about 2 kilos, 5 pound bell.

Prabhupada admitted to us that at one point Srila Bhakti Siddhanta said, “If I just had one Madhyam adhikari disciple, one…never mind uttam adhikari, never mind first class devotee; if I had just one second class devotee, I would say my whole movement is a success.” One second class devotee.

The third class devotee simply sees the external form... simply sees the external form. If someone bows down, “Oh, he is surrendered to Krsna; if he goes to the temple, he is surrendered. So then... There is more than that. But then, the sahajiyas take it a step further. They say, “Oh, we are fully second class devotees. We understand that simply bowing down, going to the temple, is not pure devotion. There's more to it. So therefore we don't go to the temple in devotion. We're beyond that! We don’t need that.” Then they go off the deep end. Prabhupada said that spiritual life is sharp like a razor. What does that mean? That if one follows the straight path of Krsna consciousness as is given by Prabhupada, which is completely aligned with Rupa Goswami, he goes down the straight path. If one goes a little bit to the right, he falls down in a pit of Mayavad – “I am God!” “I am same as guru.” “I am same as Krsna.” “All is one.” And if he goes a little bit the other way, to the left side, then he becomes a sahajiya “I am already an eternal associate of Krsna. I am already a pure devotee of Krsna; I don't need all these rules and regulations. I can act in any way I like, I am surrendered to Krsna in my heart and mind!”

But Rupa Goswami has... What he(Rupa Goswami) has said, perfectly Prabhupada has given us. The practical application, which so many so called followers of Rupa Goswami have obviously failed to pick up.

While following basic sadhana – chanting rounds, attending temple programs, to be always fixed and enthusiastic in devotional service under the order of the spiritual master, and to develop one’s spontaneous enthusiasm to that devotional service. The more purified one’s senses become, the more perfect becomes his service. The more purified one’s senses become, the more clearly he can see what is his duty to the spiritual master and Krsna. And even if one is an awakened soul, he will try to give a good example, because the kanishtha adhikaris, the un-advanced devotees will not understand his advancement. But the pure devotee sometimes is just too much absorbed in his mood of trying to satisfy the order of his spiritual master, which is a much higher principle.

Once Srila Prabhupada went to visit one wealthy man in Calcutta, and he went to his house. When he went there the man’s servant went and told him Srila Prabhupada is here, would you like to see him? Many many years ago, you sent him a message, the man sent out his message, “Well, I am doing puja, please come back after an hour or something.” Prabhupada said, “He does not know how to satisfy, what is the position of a devotee, simply kanishtha adhikari.. He is doing his puja and Krsna sent his devotee.” To greet a devotee is a much higher principle than worshiping the deity in a mechanical way. There are so many instances in Caitanya lila. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya left what he was doing and immediately came to greet the devotees. By pleasing the Lord’s devotees, Krsna immediately becomes pleased, more so than worshiping Krsna directly for unlimited time.

Srila Prabhupada personally didn’t like the samadhi mandir of Bhakti Siddhanta, because he felt that they made the murti of Bhakti Siddhanta look like Rupanuga or Bhavananda, I forget. But it did not certainly remind him of Bhakti Siddhanta and when he went there they put him through many different kinds of inconvenient situations. So when he would go by he would pay his dandavats like this with his hands, and he would go by. So one day he came through the grapevine that one of his god brothers was criticizing that why Bhaktivedanta Swami does not come and bow down before the samadhi mandir of Bhakti Siddhanta? Before his guru’s mandir! This is a defect. They were criticizing him. And I happened to be in his room when he heard that and he started to become so affected, “They just don’t understand, don’t understand. They think that Bhakti Siddhanta is stuck there in the ground. They do not realize that he is sitting by my side, and every moment guiding me, helping me! The kanishta adhikar thinks that one is only one is worshiping his spiritual master when he is ringing the bell at his arati. They can't see that by carrying out his order, a pure disciple is intimately connected with his spiritual master more than at any other time, and that connection is so strong and sweet, that he may even override some ritual, absorbed in that mood of satisfying his innermost desire. What will carry out and satisfy his intention, that is the higher principle. But blinded by envy, blinded by ignorance, blinded by material contamination, blinded by imperfect vision, one can see a defect in someone where there is no defect.”

Just like, who was it? Ramananda Puri? Paramananda Puri? Ramachandra Puri, who saw, he would come and he would feed devotees, feed prasad, no no you must take more, you must take more, pile up on their plate. Then finally, he would force so hard, that they would say, “All right, I've already had; just for you, I ll take a little more. (Then Ramachandra Puri would say), “Oh, you over-ate, you slob, you non-vaishnava, you rascal, you have over-eaten, you are not a true bhakta.” “I was just taking because you were insisting, I had enough.” “Arhhhh..you rascal!” This is Ramachandra Puri’s mood. Set someone up and then cut off his head. So, there is really no positive instruction, wonder why are these lilas put in Caitanya Caritamrita! What is the benefit? Benefit obviously is because there are going to be instances when foreign souls are going to (like us) they are going to have different idiosyncrasies to act like that.

Therefore, to give us instruction how foolish it is, Krishnadas Kaviraj has included for our instruction, lest we become a Ramachandra Puri, who goes to Lord Caitanya’s room and sees a few ants on the floor... and says, “Oh you are eating so many sweets , so many ants are coming, you are not a real sannyasi!” He is criticising Krsna’s Himself! How puffed up?.. So then forced by the opinion, the devotee is so humble. Lord Caitanya was taking the mood of a devotee, so humble, “All right, I will no longer eat. He reduced his diet to just one token. Devotees are so soft-hearted that if someone critisizes, even though it is on a materialistic platform, even though it is not a perfect platform, he is so humble, “All right, whatever you like… I will stop eating.” But actually, where there is no fault, someone will find a fault.

Simply due to not a deep anubhav, or understanding of the inner intention of the Guru, of Krsna. What does it take to instill faith in fallen souls in this kali yuga? How is it possible to inject in their dead, stone-like heart the sweet nectar of Krsna conscsiousness? Which is what is Lord Caitanya’s supermost desire.

We pray every day sri caitanya manobhistam sthapitam yena bhutale svayam rupa kada mahyam dadati svapadantikam. “Oh Srila Rupa Goswami, I follow and beg to follow you and take shelter of your divine lotus feet, because you have established the desire of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in this world. That is the highest principle. Rupa Goswami is called Rupa Manjari; He is the most intimate servant of Srimati Radharani, 9th gopi in the 108 gopis. . He does not think that he is Radha and Krishna. He is the eternal servant in the most superlative internal aspect. What is He doing? He is establishing Krsna sankirtan to satisfy Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And following his rule, Bhakti Siddhanta said, “I have taken sannyas just to show that I am the servant of the servant of Krsna. I am not like Lord Caitanya, who would just sit and enjoy, in the Gaurgambhira puri, tasting the nectar of RadhaKrsna lila. Am I Lord Caitanya, am I to enjoy like that? I am his servant; what He wants, let me simply serve Him. He should enjoy this internal pastime. I will simply serve His lotus feet. And whatever mercy He wants to have on me, that I am always eager and anxious for. Nothing else do I want, but I will not imitate Him, to try and taste the nectar of Radha and Krsna. Falsely putting myself in His position... that is His. I will taste anything simply by his mercy, absorbed in serving his intention, his mood.” So he saw that what Caitanya wanted, His sankirtan spread everywhere, His pure devotional service to spread everywhere. Throughout the guru parampara we see that they are simply manifesting His desire. Srila Prabhupada took that order to heart unlimited percent and expanded all over the world. This is a very wonderful thing, a very wonderful thing.

I may be walking down the street in Mayapur (of course, there is only one street) but the road I have to say. Actually I have been told by some local people that there is a very big banyan tree near our bridge, about half a mile from our land, on the main Bhakti Siddhanta Road, and that tree, someone told me, “This is yogamaya.” So about 7 – 8 years ago I asked Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, people say this tree is yogamaya personified, come here. Could you explain, is that true Srila Prabhupada?” Prabhupada looked, “Why not?” (He) answered the question at the same time left us completely bewildered - that definitely that tree was yogamaya, but then of course he was instructing that that doesn’t mean that every other tree in the dham isn’t yogamaya.

The whole dham is of course yogamaya, it is not that only that tree is yogamaya, of course everything is yogamaya there. So specifically if there is more yogamaya that of course was something which required deep realization to delve further into. Prabhupada had given a very, deep-as-the-ocean reply, which simply increased our appreciation of the holy dham.

Actually, we feel at Sri Mayapur not that we are local GBC or temple president. We have eyes to go see, we feel very much that we are simply the caretakers for the whole ISKCON society. If I remember, in 1970 when Srila Prabhupada went, actually asked me to go to India and then he came there after some short time; also he mentioned that my guru (inaudible), the land given to me by Krsna to preach was in the western world; now we have so many devotees in the west, who are preaching. It is necessary that you should go and visit the holy land, to see Mayapur, Vrindavan and visit on occasion for some time the holy birthplace of Lord Caitanya, of Lord Krsna. So then he asked me to try to find, he asked first Acyutananda, and later he asked me to help Achytananda, and later asked me to try to find the land, some land in Mayapur and Achyutananda Swami for that purpose. It was a long drawn out thing as most things in India. It takes about three hours to mail a letter at the post office, you can imagine what it is to buy land.

And Prabhupada’s mood was always that we have a nice place so that devotees can come and visit, and stay here for some time. He used to tell us, that by preaching to demons gradually one’s mind becomes affected. In fact he was saying that it is a status quo. But when one is continuously preaching to people who are 100% maya conscious and 0% Krsna conscious, then gradually, one can become a little grayed. This conception of what is the real standard of living can become a little bit shaded. Just like, through the years we are seeing, even in America if 30 years ago if one were to say a man is homo-sexual, people would say immediately(they would) want to kill the guy. And now, because of so much association, pretty soon, after 30 years people in America, many of them think that think that it is also normal, this is a normal way to be.

Association is so powerful. So of course devotees by associating with gross karmis continuously, they may eventually start to think that something a little bit better than that is really what we should be to be perfectly Krsna conscious. But Prabhupada wanted to recreate that mood of Lord Caitanya, so people can get out of this kind of gross sensuous people, once in a while for some time to... and to also associate with each other, on a truly spiritual level, just with devotees, an island oasis, so that this, combined with the desire to satisfy the hopes and dreams of the previous acaryas, to manifest what Caitanya…, in a most respectful and prominent place all over the world, so many factors, Prabhupada had started these projects.

And when we see all these things, when one is working with the dham, then one starts appreciating what is naam, what is roop, what is lila, what is a devotee. So, one sees that in the spiritual world, there is a relationship between everything else. And this relationship has different moods and mellows and rasas, and at the same time everything has a deep attachment with Krsna, so that one has to be very careful – how he is dealing in this spiritual realm. So this spiritual realm is of course existing all over Krsna conscious movement and we have to become so expert to perceive the relationships between Krsna and his devotees – Krsna and His holy name, Krsna and His holy dham, Krsna and His form, Krsna and His paraphernalia. We cannot touch the sri kolh, the mrdanga, the drum, with our feet, we cannot touch arati paraphernalia with out feet. Why? These are simply pieces of brass, why don’t we touch with our feet? Because they are used in Krsna’s service. In the spiritual kingdom, the arati paraphernalia is singing Krsna kirtan while doing arati. Of course, we cannot say that our arati paraphernalia is not... we are may be simply too dense, too stone-and-wood-like to hear the song that little gopi is singing while we are offering arati. Krsna’s flute talks. The gopis say, “Oh, you are so fortunate. How is it that you are always being kissed by Krsna’s lips?” And the flute will chide them on. Everything in the spiritual world is alive; it is a living spiritual entity. How can we separate anything? Everything is prasad, person, everything is vital, dynamic, living, spiritual entity, Krsna’s expansions in different forms, with different relationships with Himself.

Although everything is Krsna Himself, in some aspects He is serving Himself, and in certain aspects He is accepting services. In some aspect He is tasting the nectar of serving, in some aspect He is tasting the nectar of being served and reciprocating with the devotee. The most difficult thing to understand, this is the… essence of all existence that everything is based, everything is simply a reflection of the deep spiritual relationship which Krsna has in His eternal kingdom. And the wonderful thing is that to experience that we do not have to adopt any artificial; it is simply by dedicating ourself to carrying out the order of our pure spiritual master, Krsna reveals everything.

vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam

By surrendering in pure devotional service automatically transcendental knowledge and renunciation become manifest in our heart.

I was very pleased and astounded to hear when I was visiting Tamal Krsna Goswami that, I don't know whether he mentioned it here or not, I am afraid that I might misquote, because I was not paying so close attention when it started, although in the end my mind was completely attracted. But, apparently he attended the Vyas puja of Srila Rameswar Swami. He came here for your Vyas puja?(Gurudev asks Rameshwar Swami) He told me he had a dream either that night or the night before or the night after, or a few nights after, I don't know exactly, whatever the chronological order I don’t know. He had a dream of Srila Prabhupada was going down , came to the temple, there was Rameswar Swami, His Divine Grace, sitting on his Vyas Asan. Srila Prabhupada was personally present on his Vyasasan. And the morning temple program was going on and Pra bhupad went up to his room at 10.30 took a little breakfast. He said now I want to go back to the temple. He said, “Oh, so what arrangements shall we make Srila Prabhupada?” He said, “I want to hear Srila Rameswar Swami’s disciples offering him Vyasa puja.” Prabhupada went downstairs and was listening very intently to each devotee’s offering and expressing transcendental pleasure on the very Krsna conscious offerings that were being made. Prabhupada…. I don't know whether he mentioned that anywhere or not, but of course, Prabhupada is personally present. How pleased he must be when a devotee surrenders to this Krsna conscious movement and shows deep faith in the guru parampara. How satisfied he must be!

Of course the dream that a person has are directly dependent on how pure that person is. Naturally, a pure devotee’s dreams are very significant. Because Krsna and the spiritual master will reveal, and they become very important. But if some insane, mad, crazy lunatic has a dream, naturally that won’t be very authoritative, one cannot depend on it. Someone, anybody can say, if someone walked in to the Mayapur temple, and tells I had a dream that you are going to come to Asansol, which is a little town, about a 100 – 200 miles away, and you are going to build a very big temple in my backyard. I’ll say go on dreaming, it may happen.

So you see, actually Tamal Krsna Goswami mentioned to me that he was very disturbed over some recent things that happened. Two months ago during his Vyas puja, he received a letter from a devotee in Bombay called Amogalila telling that I have realised that you are the avatar of Krsna. That you are Krsna, you have descended. You are Krsna Himself. I have realised this. And he wrote a Vyas puja offering, which they did not publish, saying that Tamal Krsna was actually the kali yuga avatar of Krsna. And Tamal Krsna told us, intimated how this person is actually an affirmed mayavadi. And how Prabhupada warned against this kind of thing, but because this… wrote him back that he shouldn’t say these kind of things and stopped it. He was very offended recently some other letter was sent out with so called dreams that this same person had, telling that Tamal Krsna that the whole GBC is no longer valid and that you and Giriraj are the joint Acharyas for the Hare Krsna movement. He was very offended. I was just two months ago Krsna, now I am only the Acharya. Why have I been demoted? You see. Of course, this recently I heard recently that he wrote a letter announcing that everything is all right. Prabhupada has come in his dream and told him that he was just testing Amogalila, everyone everything should go on as it was, everyone is all right. GBC is reinstated on the strength of his dreams.

Of course some people who are kanishta adhikaris, who don’t realise what is the mood of satisfying the spiritual master, may become affected. Obviously Krsna allows certain things to happen just to reveal who is a kanishta adhikari and who is a madhyam adhikari; who is absorbed in the internal mood of satisfying the desires of Srila Prabhupada and who is absorbed in external forms without even touching his real desires. Prabhupada said, “Sometimes it requires some churning of the mud to see where people stand -- who has that clear vision, and who has got muddy vision, and who has got absolutely clouded vision. Krsna tests his devotees.

Each devotee will have a different mood, individual, of how to preach Krsna consciousness, how to satisfy his spiritual master. But those who are cent percent pure they can be seen that their every moment is absorbed in fulfilling the orders of his spiritual master to him. There are detailed and there are general orders given in the scriptures.

Scriptures give a general order that one must go to the temple. Nectar of Devotion explains many specific things when one goes to the temple what should he do Rupa Goswami left out of the Bhakti Rasamritasindhu. General order one must accept, initiation from the spiritual master, follow his orders. Whatever his orders, will be given by the spiritual master according to the time, place and circumstances. There is a general order that one must do worship to his guru, to his spiritual master, accepting him as the pure representative of Krsna, that Krsna is speaking through him, instructing through him, that by serving him Krsna is accepting that service through him, by feeding him Krsna is eating through him. Now, how the spiritual master wants his disciple to render that worship according to their particular mental frame of mind, according to how they will become more fixed up in devotional service, that is the specifics, which Rupa Goswami doesn’t get into, because it varies from different place and time.

I remember when I came to Mayapur... in the beginning people, when I say people, some of Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers criticized Srila Prabhupada, “Why you are sitting in such a big seat? Like Bhaktisiddhanta, why you are sitting in such a big seat?” Now they don’t say that. Now they say he was the only one who could Krsna consciousness all over the world. He was the empowered soul. Now what we are doing in ISKCON they have nothing wrong to say. All the senior respected members, they have nothing wrong to say. Now they are coming forward and saying that we are looking for that day when ISKCON will actually manage all these temples, because we are not able to manage. Many brahmacaris come and say, we are not able.

At the Mayapur festival Srila Rameswar Swami revealed how Prabhupada personally confided in him that one day all these temples, they will come to us and beg us please take over, please manage, there is no one else who can manage. And this year, this year, as we are going on parikram one of the very ancient shrines in Mayapur, a holy spot dating back millions of years, was offered to the Krsna consciousness movement, that please take over and manage it. That is the sacred temple of Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram, of Simantadweep. So there are many pastimes connected with that, which I do not have the time to mention right now, but I would just like to mention that thanks to the blessings of Srila Prabhupada, and the inspiration of Srila Rameswar Swami, who encouraged us as soon as we asked him, “Should we accept this burden, he said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada told me all these temples we should eventually manage. And he told all the GBC this is our duty.”

So now that temple has been fully signed and given to the Krsna conscious movement. And five thousand of the local villagers came for the Snan Yatra, and they were glorifying how wonderful it is to see Jagannath worshiped. Actually there are some very transcendental and beautiful pastimes which occurred with these Jagannath deities, which I’ll go into later, if you are interested to hear. But the point is that, this Krsna conscious movement will be spread by the madhyama adhikari devotees, by the devotees who have accepted the order of their spiritual master as more dear than their own life, as their very life and soul, who rise above all kinds of limited vision and see what is the relationship between general and specific order, what is the relationship between rules and regulations, and between the manifestation of the order of the spiritual master on this world. May Dhruva Maharaj please bless us that we can get the mercy of Krsna. What greater thing is there to hope for?

Thank you very much

Transcriber’s name : Lilamayi Rukmini Devi Dasi Date of completion of transcription: Aug 6th, 2013

Devotee who assigned this service to me : Amala Manjari Devi Dasi