All of a sudden, perhaps on this date, sometimes between 9 or 10 December. At that time, Guru Mahārāja was indisposed little, and he was staying at Jagannātha Purī, on the seashore. So I wrote him letter, "My dear master, your other disciples, brahmacārī, sannyāsī, they are rendering you direct service. And I am a householder. I cannot live with you, I cannot serve you nicely. So I do not know. How can I serve you?" Simply an idea, I was thinking of serving him, "How can I serve him seriously?" So the reply was dated 13th December, 1936. In that letter he wrote, "My dear such and such, I am very glad to receive your letter. I think you should try to push our movement in English." That was his writing. "And that will do good to you and to the people who will help you." That was his instruction. And then in 1936, on the 31st December—that means just after writing this letter a fortnight before his departure—he passed away. But I took that order of my spiritual master very seriously, but I did not think that I'll have to do such and such thing. I was at that time a householder. But this is the arrangement of Kṛṣṇa. If we strictly try to serve the spiritual master, his order, then Kṛṣṇa will give us all facilities. That is the secret. Although there was no possibility, I never thought, but I took it little seriously by studying a commentary by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura on the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Bhagavad-gītā the verse vyavasāyātmikā-buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana (BG 2.41), in connection with that verse, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives his commentary that we should take up the words from the spiritual master as our life and soul. We should try to carry out the instruction, the specific instruction of the spiritual master, very rigidly, without caring for our personal benefit or loss.
I took it seriously...
Expressions researched:
"I took it little seriously"
|"I took it seriously"
|"I took it very seriously"
Lectures
Festival Lectures
Prabhupāda: So we got this information from His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and that knowledge is still going on. You are receiving through his servant. And in future the same knowledge will go to your students. This is called paramparā system. Evaṁ paramparā prāp... It is not that you have become a student and you'll remain student. No. One day you shall become also guru and make more students, more students, more. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, not that perpetually... Yes, one should remain perpetually a student, but he has to act as guru. That is the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is not that because I am acting as guru, I am no longer student. No, I am still student. Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught us this instruction that we shall always remain a foolish student before our Guru Mahārāja. That is the Vedic culture. I may be very big man, but still, I should remain a foolish student to my guru. That is the qualification. Guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāśana (CC Adi 7.71). We should be always prepared to be controlled by the guru. That is very good qualification. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. Āra nā kariha mane āśā. So we should become always a very obedient student to our guru. That is the qualification. That is the spiritual qualification.
So recently... I am very pleased to say that our Harikeśa, I ordered him to go immediately to Poland, and he thought that he was being punished. That was... No. I was thinking that "Here is a very intelligent boy. If he is given chance to preach he'll come out very successful." So I see the glimpses that he has got now post. He's a very good organizer. That's a chance. At that time he might have thought that I was separating him. No. My good will was there that he should be given chance for better opportunity. So I am very much happy that he is doing there very nice. So this should be the attitude. My Guru Mahārāja wanted me to preach in the Western countries, although I was at that time a ordinary manager in a chemical firm. I never thought, but I took it seriously. So from that 1922, in 1965 it was fruitful. How many years?
Devotees: Forty-three.
Prabhupāda: Forty-three years. So it is better late than never. Yes. So he desired me. I thought, "Now I am a family man. Let me adjust things." I would have accepted immediately, but I was not so intelligent at that time. I thought, "My responsibility to family is there. Let me wait." But still, Guru Mahārāja was so kind to me that when I was gṛhastha, I was seeing him in dream and I was... He asked me, "You come with me." So I was going, and after that, I was thinking, "Oh, I will have to take sannyāsa and go with him?" So it appeared to me very horrible. I was not very much inclined to take sannyāsa, but Guru Mahārāja is so kind that he ultimately forced me to take sannyāsa and do this work. So it is all his kindness. So this is the memory of his kindness.
Cornerstone Ceremonies
So this Kali-yuga, as described by our Gaura-Govinda Mahārāja, a bhankara (?) yuga. But there is one opportunity, kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet. This is the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and a little attempt was made at the age of seventy years. Of course, my Guru Mahārāja asked me... When I was twenty-five years old, I first met him. He asked me to do this task. But I thought that "Let me adjust my family life, and then I shall do this." But I took it very seriously. But family life, never it was adjusted, so he forced me at the ripe old age to take up this work. So I tried to make an experiment that nobody had done: "Let me try." But I tried sincerely, so by the grace of my Guru... Guru-Kṛṣṇa, they favored me. When I was on the Commonwealth Jetty, Pier, yes, I was thinking that "Who will hear me? As soon as I shall say to these people that 'No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication and no gambling,' immediately they will say, 'Please go home. Don't talk here.' " Because I know that. This is their daily life. But by the grace of Kṛṣṇa they agreed. All these students, all these disciples... I do not accept anyone as my disciple that "You can do whatever you like." No. My first condition is that "You must be sinless." At least you must try to become sinless, because in the Bhagavad-gītā we understand,
- yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
- janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
- te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
- bhajante mām...
- (BG 7.28)
Without being sinless, one cannot make any advance.
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu introduced this movement. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). That is the first installment. Actually, if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, the first installment is that we cleanse our heart. It is simply misunderstanding. Kṛṣṇa also wanted to start this movement.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, but still, I am saying, "This will be all failure." And still, they are hopeful. My Guru Mahārāja is very pleased. As soon as a book comes out, he is pleased.
Jayatīrtha: Especially one so beautiful.
Prabhupāda: He was lamenting that "These men, they did not make..., publish any number of books. They are simply after this stone and bricks." He condemned. He was very, very sorry. So I thought that I must take a risk. And he's pleased.
Bhagavān: So now you have books and temples. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: Yes, temple is automatically.
Jayatīrtha: Without fighting, you've got so many temples.
Prabhupāda: No, I never stressed on temple. I was engaged in publishing the Back to Godhead. Whatever I could do, I did it, because I took it very seriously that he is very sorry that these things were not done. He said that "There will be fire in this Gauḍīya Math." Āgun jvālbe, he said. Amari taci loka kichui boi kakrayebo(?): "If I can, I shall sell these marbles of this temple and convert them into books." That was his ambition. He started a very nice press, and this Tīrtha Mahārāja sold it.
Jayatīrtha: Sold it?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bhagavān: The press.
Prabhupāda: He's not representing Guru... "Better let's have money for fight in the court."
Jayatīrtha: Sometimes I'm sorry that my name also has this word in it. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: You are Jaya-tīrtha. You are victorious. Now whatever is being done, it is by his blessing. Let us work sincerely. Things will be all... Otherwise it is humanly impossible. It is by his grace.
Akṣayānanda: Your Bhāgavata. There are no others actually.
Prabhupāda: Vyāsadeva, the words of Vyāsadeva, I am simply trying to explain, that's all.
Akṣayānanda: No one else is trying. No one else has done it.
Prabhupāda: It is due to the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja. He directly told me that "If you get some money, publish some books." I took it seriously, so he's helping me. All our Godbrothers, they didn't take it. Did not know it, neither..., even they... They know it. Because from the very beginning, Guru Mahārāja was serious about publication. He started press and published these books. This Bhāgavata was published by him. And the journal, six journals, he was very much fond of publishing, publication. Very, very. He told me directly that "If it was possible to get the marbles from this Gauḍīya Maṭha and sell it and convert it into books, I would have done it. Because I know there will be blazing fire in this place."
Prabhupāda: (laughs) So similarly, if one is giving very important service, then even there is some faulty thing, excuse. Service is so important. So in the Western countries the woman can give very good service. Api cet sudarācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). This book distribution is the most important task in our Society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Mahārāja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously.
I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples, or even in your country we didn't. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history. Sometimes they are criticizing, "What kind of sannyāsī? He is doing book business." (laughs) The other day that..., what is his name? Bachu Hai came. Bachu Hai Dresswalla. You know him?
Girirāja: I know one Madanlal Dresswalla.
Prabhupāda: I think this is... There are two, three Dresswalla in Bhubaneswar.
Girirāja: Yes, he's also in Bhubaneswar.
Prabhupāda: Maybe their father. In the beginning I had no place, so I was staying with..., what is that? Prem Niketan?
Girirāja: Prem Kutir.
Prabhupāda: Prem Kutir. So they received me very nicely. So I was going to sell my books. So some of them were criticizing, "What kind of sannyāsī? He's making business bookselling." Not the authorities, but some of them.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, I was not traveling. The wife was traveling.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His wife?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore doctor became fortunate. He got very good wife.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But you were most fortunate.
Prabhupāda: Huh? (break) I think so.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your wife wasn't so good.
Prabhupāda: Because she was always against Kṛṣṇa... My father said like that, that "You are so fortunate that you don't like your wife. Don't try to marry again."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were thinking like that.
Prabhupāda: "You are fortunate." I took it seriously. "People try to give up the company of wife with great difficulty. You have natural tendency."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It doesn't seem like your sons are very..., except for Vrindavan. None of the others come.
Prabhupāda: They are like mother.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I met that Madan-Mohan.
Prabhupāda: Mathura.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mathura-Mohan. Whew! Smoking.
Prabhupāda: All spoiled. Mother has spoiled. Everyone.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about this Vrindavan? He's...
Prabhupāda: He's half-spoiled.
Hari-śauri: Half-spoiled.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he the oldest son?
Prabhupāda: He was little crazy. Might have gone away from home. Very intelligent boy he was. His mother made him crazy. Very... He was standing first in school. Very intelligent. She spoiled the whole family life. It was good for... For my youngest daughter I selected one very nice boy, rich man. She did not give. She wanted to keep her as her assistant, and she's not married.
Correspondence
1976 Correspondence
You have given me the credit of being the best disciple of Prabhupada. That is very kind of you, but I am just trying to serve him. Whatever success there is is due to his mercy. In my last meeting with him in Radha Kunda he advised me to print some books if I get money. I took it very seriously and by His grace we have now published my translations of Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrta, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Upadesamrta, etc. to the extent of 84 books. You'll be surprised to know that these books and my magazine Back To Godhead are selling daily 5-6 lakhs of rupees in the foreign countries. Out of such proceeds I am bringing foreign exchange of not less than 10 lakhs per month for construction work in Bombay, Mayapur, Vrndavana, etc. So, this is all due to the blessings of Srila Prabhupada. I have no credit in this connection. These American boys are helping me in this endeavor, therefore, until they are admitted to the Jagannatha Puri temple I'm not inclined to go there.
| Page Title: | I took it seriously... |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 25 of Nov, 2013 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=3, Con=4, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 8 |