Śraddhā, to advance in spiritual life, the beginning is śraddhā, faith. That is faith. Śraddhā . . . not exactly faith. Śraddhā means respectful: "Oh, it is nice." That is called śraddhā.
So Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, in front of whom we are now speaking, he gave us the definition how one can make progress in spiritual life. Everyone is blind after material way of life. So the mission of human life is to get out of these clutches of māyā. That is the real mission of life.
We are missing the point. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). We are accepting this body as everything. And the modern civilization means to enjoy bodily comforts as much as possible. That is perfection of civilization. No. That is not perfection of civilization. That they do not know. Especially the demons, the nondevotees, they do not know.
This question was raised by Hiraṇyakaśipu before Prahlāda that, "Why you are after so much Kṛṣṇa, nonsense God?" So he replied his father, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31): "My dear father, generally, demons like you . . ." (laughter) Yes. He addressed his father asura-varya. Asura-varya means "the best of the demons." He was not afraid. He was a five-years-old boy. And he inquired some question, "My dear boy, what you have learned first class from your teachers?" (Hindi: come here, come here.) So Prahlāda Mahārāja addressed his father, tat sādhu manye asura-varya. Asura-varya. His father was addressed not "father"; he was addressed, "My dear the best of the asuras . . ." Asura-varya. Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehinām.
So when you become actually preacher of God consciousness, you cannot make any compromise. You must call the spade a spade. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja is one of the mahājanas. Out of the twelve mahājanas, he's one of them. Because he was very bold. He was not afraid of his demonic father. He chastised him in so many ways, but he was never afraid. So just like our people are being persecuted in Australia. You know? They have been put into jail because they are preaching Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So this is not very easy thing, easy-going. My Guru Mahārāja, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, he did not like that his disciples would be easy-going, cheap Vaiṣṇava. Cheap Vaiṣṇava. Mana tumi kisera vaiṣṇava. He sang a song, "My dear mind, oh, you are going to be a Vaiṣṇava. And what kind of Vaiṣṇava you are?" Mana tumi kisera vaiṣṇava, pratiṣṭhāra tare, nirjanera ghare, tava hari-nāma kevala kaitava. "You are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, imitating Haridāsa Ṭhākura or Rūpa Gosvāmī, in a solitary place . . . not solitary place. You are thinking of woman and money. That's all. Mind is filled with dirty things."
So this kind of bhajana is simply cheating. Cheating. He was after preaching. First of all, go door to door. Just like Nityānanda Prabhu did it at the risk of life. He was hurt by Jagāi-Mādhāi. Blood came out of His head. Lord Caitanya became very much angry. He wanted to kill immediately Jagāi Mādhāi. Lord Nityānanda said: "My dear Sir, You promised that this incarnation You'll not take any weapon. Please be kind upon them."
So this is Nityānanda. Nityānanda-vaṁśa means one who takes the risk of preaching work, he can claim Nityānanda-vaṁśa. Not that easy-going. The preaching work is not easy-going. There are so many difficulties. All the big, big preachers . . . Śrī Rāmānujācārya. His life was attempted to be killed. Why Rāmānujācārya? My Guru Mahārāja was attempted to be killed. Twenty-five thousand rupees were raised fund for bribing the police officer. He told me personally. The Navadvīpa . . . Navadvīpa gosāis, they wanted to kill him.
So preaching work is always risky. Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehinām. So kṛṣṇa-sampraśnaḥ. If you want to make the whole world peaceful, yenātmā suprasīdati. Suprasīdati. Prasīdati means to become satisfied, and su means super, extra satisfied. Then people should be educated to inquire about Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Simply. This very word. Yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṇa-sampraśnaḥ. Make such propaganda in a way that everyone becomes inquisitive, "What is this nonsense, Kṛṣṇa, they are speaking?" At least . . .
Just like Jagāi-Mādhāi, when they . . . in the beginning, they were very much adverse to saṅkīrtana, hari-saṅkīrtana, but one day, the Mādhāi was telling to Jagāi, "My dear brother, Jagāi, after all, these rascals sing very nicely, (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. They sing very . . ." "Oh, you are going to be Vaiṣṇava?" "No, no. I am not going to be Vaiṣṇava. (laughter) I'm just appreciating. They sing very nice." So you go like that. They will arrest you. You have got good experience. In London, they were arrested.
(aside) You were in London. How many times you were arrested?
Gurudāsa: Three.
Prabhupāda: Three times. Our record is that our people were arrested thirty-six times. They . . . now the police has become disgusted. They don't arrest. Yes. But this thing is going on in Australia, especially in Melbourne. I have got, received . . . so they asked me what to do. To do? "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and you'll get good opportunity. When you are put into jail, you'll be free to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." So they are doing that. They are not eating. The minister in charge of the jail department, he was perturbed that, "These people are not eating," and they were allowed to that, "You can cook." But they refused, because the same kitchen, they're cooking, I mean to say, flesh. So refused. So then after few days, they were let loose: "All right. You go home." Yes. So this is going on.