the magnanimity of srila prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada was such a devotee; he was an intimate associate of Lord Krishna. How do we understand Srila Prabhupada’s special, special, special position?

Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said that Lord Chaitanya is the most merciful and is the supreme amongst avatars because of His magnanimity; because He wanted to give Krsna consciousness to everyone and anyone without discrimination through the chanting of the holy names. Of all great personalities, Lord Chaitanya especially selected and empowered Srila Prabhupada to manifest his magnanimity to the highest extent, to travel on every continent in the world, giving Krishna’s name with no consideration of who we are or where we are coming from. Srila Prabhupad saw every living entity potentially as a pure saintly person, just with a little covering of maya over us.

So Srila Prabhupada, without any discrimination, he gave this Hare Krsishna mahamantra. He would sit in a little park in New York City called Tomkins Square Park. This is where Srila Prabhupada started the Hare Krsna movement in Tomkins Square Park. And some of the people in India were saying, "Why is he preaching to these lowest of uncivilised people in the West?"

But those people do not understand what Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said, that the supreme quality of Lord Chaitanya is His magnanimity and that He makes no discrimination. The Lord would give Krishna consciousness and the holy name to everyone.

So Srila Prabhupada was the manifested representative of that most illustrious quality of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. How dear he is to the Lord, and how fortunate are all of us to have the opportunity to be connected to such a special personality who is revealing the glorious opulences of the Lord in such a merciful and compassionate way.

But Srila Prabhupada explained that this verse; to be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, to be willing to and ready to offer all respects to everyone and to expect no respect from anyone else - that is the quality that will keep us always under Krsna’s divine protection, that is the quality by which Krsna would be pleased to reciprocate and manifest Himself in His holy name to us.

So we should chant very sincerely and very attentively every day to purify our consciousness, and simultaneously we should sincerely be a humble servant within our life.

the most sincere welfare worker

When our enthusiasm is directed by great souls, our enthusiasm is then purely and truly engaged in God's service. This is the greatest wealth: the mercy of the great sadhus, and under their direction and inspiration we can serve the Lord and thus serve every living being.

By serving Krishna, by watering the root of the tree, the whole tree is nourished. One who loves God is the topmost well-wisher for every living being. He is the most compassionate, most charitable, most sincere welfare worker on the face of the earth. Why? Because he has genuine love for everyone, he has genuine concern for the suffering of all living beings, he is free from all selfishness, he is free form all fanaticism, he is a genuine friend for every being. These are the qualities of one who is genuinely enthusiastic in the service of God.

everyone has their place in society

[the following is an answer to the question of a college student]

I have started to feel that all of these people, who hold the greatest accomplishments in this field of materialism, they are miserable, their lives are empty. Many of them are destroying all of whole society due to the exploitative methods that they are accepting in their pursuit. If I would have had someone to teach me, I would have probably been a very, very successful, God conscious businessman. But I could not find anybody who could answer the philosophical questions that I had in life, especially in the college I was going to.

So, I decided to travel around the world and study the various religions of the world, the different philosophies of the world and the different values that people live by. After some years I found myself traveling as a sadhu in India, and then I met my spiritual master. My spiritual master taught me the essence of what is in all of the great religions of the world: how to love God in whatever we do. He told me, “Yes you can go back and be a businessman, that’s very good, but there is also a need for people who dedicate their lives exclusively to educate others in this subject matter. That is also a need of this world.”

Some people say to me, "What if everyone would become a sadhu like you, then what would happen to the world?" Right? That’s probably what you are thinking. this is a business school, so what if I asked, “What if everyone would become a businessman?” The world couldn't function that way. There have to be doctors, too! There have to be lawyers. And if there were no farmers to grow food, everyone would die. There have to be politicians. Sometimes we wish there didn’t have to be politicians. [laugh] There have to be politicians organizing the affairs of the state. There have to be warriors defending the state. There have to be businessmen, marketers, bankers. 

So similarly, for the spiritual progress of society, there has to be a class of men who dedicate their entire life's energy to educate others in this spiritual science. It doesn’t mean that everyone must be like that. But there is a need for these class of men. So my guru maharaj convinced me, that although 90% of our congregation are businessmen, housewives, farmers, doctors, lawyers, musicians, architects, and engineers, there has to be a small percentage of people who are simply dedicating their lives to hearing the problems of all of these people and giving them spiritual counseling and giving spiritual direction to society. 

So my taking this dress was not to run from the problems of this world, but according to need of the world. There is a need of people to take to this life also, this occupation also; to face the problems of this world, to fight the crisis of the world and strive to improve the quality of the world.

the holy name is a worshipable deity

The Holy Name is a worshipable murti (deity). In fact, in this age of Kali Yuga, it is the most important murti, or form, of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada explained the difference between many other temples where everything is just centered around worshipping the deity. But in this age of Kali Yuga, that simply does not work. We make our life centered around the deity in the temple because that helps to facilitate us to actually approaching Him through His name. 

Everything we do in deity worship is connected with the name of Krishna. You cannot make a single offering without the name of Krishna. And when the devotees come before the deities, they practice the yuga dharma, the eternal service and religion of the soul, which gives the greatest pleasure to the deities. And that is coming together to dance gracefully, to chant the Holy Names: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

a lifetime mission

Our thinking should be as the servant of the servant. Whether you are a counselor, or a guru, or a GBC, or a president, or if you are just a new bhakta or bhaktin, whomever you may be, it is the responsibility of every single one of us to help each other that we never, ever leave the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

Krishna Consciousness is a lifetime process. To go back home, back to Godhead, you have to practice strictly and sincerely, until the day you die and go back to Godhead. This is not a movement that is just like a college, where you are in this movement for four years and you graduate, and then you go back into the material world.

This is a lifetime mission.