Our insincere attitude always keeping us away from the absolute teachings shown by The Prabhupada - Part 3

All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga                

Date—03.05.2024

Dear/ devotees all around the world

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda said that— “Give up the mentality of a termite and with a sincere heart read the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. In that way, one will realize the eternal purpose of life and one will understand who is Śrī Gaura and who are His intimate associates”.

With folded hands we (all the sincere followers of Śrī Bhakti Siddhānta Vani) also like to request you all – that please give up the mentality of a termite and with a sincere heart try to listen to the divine hari-kathās of Śrīla Shyam Das Baba who is really trying his best to establish again all the divine siddhānta vichars of Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura.

Śrīla Baba Maharaj many times told us that— “I wonder how all exalted Vaiṣṇavas like my Gurudeva Śrīla Bhakti Pramode Puri Gosvāmī  Maharaj, Nayananda Baba, Śrīla Kumud Shanta Maharaj, Śrīla Satya Govinda Maharaj, Śrīla Sarvasva Giri Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Bardan Sagar Maharaj, Śrīla Van Baba, Śrīla Bhakti Vijnana Bharati Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Vaman Gosvāmī Maharaj etc., so many of them they all told me that—it is your sevā to do sampradik sevā (to protect siddhānta vani vaibhava). Even though I have no qualification but still it was their strict order on me to go on with this kind of special vani sevā—to establish the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda and his Mission, for that reason I am trying my best. Till now I am shouting like a dog, but almost nobody ready to hear, still with full enthusiasm I am following the order of my guru-pāda-padma and guru-varga. It is a fact that nowadays almost nobody speaking about the divine achar and adarsha which was exclusively shown by Śrīla Prabhupāda. The idealism shown by The Prabhupāda and our genuine guru-varga is almost forgotten nowadays.”

Also Ācārya Kesari Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Pragjan Kesava Gosvāmī Maharaj used to say that— “Jagad Guru Śrī Śrīla Prabhupāda's close servants know well which views he upheld in his time, which one he did not, and what standard of conduct he personally followed. It is no fault of Prabhupāda if those who were never around him whimsically chose not to follow his personal conduct. Their behavior cannot be taken to represent the views accepted by Prabhupāda.”

(Taken from Śrī Gauḍīya-patrikā, Year 41 Issue 6, excerpt from a letter by Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvāmī Maharaj)

Also, my guru-pāda-padma Śrīla Bhakti Pramode Puri Gosvāmī Maharaj used to say that— “Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhakti Siddhānta was an exalted powerful personality. He spoke with such force that they would just sit in silence. Let them say whatever they want. Prabhupāda's philosophical conclusions are the highest. We must engage in worship according to these conclusions. Then they will understand. Everyone is trying to deviate from the truth in different ways. They try to deviate others and make fall down from the path of devotional life.”

That’s why it is my only resolution in this lifetime to go on speaking about The Prabhupāda and all his jewel-like siddhānta vichars as I was ordered by my Gurudeva Śrī Śrīla Paramahaṁsa-ācārya Bhakti Pramode Puri Gosvāmī Maharaj and many other senior Vaiṣṇavas. I have no interest in opening any temple or society, the only thing what I want is to see that somehow or other that light (or that flame) which I got from my Gurudeva and guru-paramparā must continue to glow in this world.”

Śrīla Baba Maharaj also many times told that— “Those devotees who all neglect the writings of The Prabhupāda, and trying to spend their time creating their own imaginative philosophies and claim those to be perfect siddhānta vichars, they all can be sooner or later get afflicted by enviousness and in that way can start to criticize those pure Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas (it is quite natural). Those jīvas are drowning in māyā in this material world, just cannot destroy the name of Śrīla Prabhupāda and his divine qualities or activities any way-anyhow; but those so-called devotees which are either Māyāvādīs in disguise of devotees, or devotees who are only busy with worshiping Prabhupāda by their lip service can bring the most harm for our Śrī Gauḍīya Madhva sampradāya, even though in reality their efforts are similar to those of Rāvaṇa, capturing Māyā-Sītā. The transcendental subject matter of The Prabhupāda is something that can never be accepted by Māyāvādīs, karmis and wayward non-devotees. All those followers of demons like Rāvaṇa or Kaṁsa they all have tried in various ways to force Śrīla Prabhupāda to enter their own illusory domains, but at the same time Śrī Gaura Bhagavan is also sending His own pure devotees to the material world in order to frustrate the endeavours of those demons. There is an eternal struggle between the non-eternal philosophies of those demons and the absolute pure and divine teachings of Śrī Gaura. The result of this war is the rise of pure kṛṣṇa-prema in the uncontaminated land that is the heart of the jīva, or the swelling of poison in the impure soil of the jīva’s consciousness.”

Śrīla Baba Maharaj also told us many times that— “Those so-called devotees who are following the principles of Kaṁsa and Rāvaṇa are going completely against our guru-varga and guru-paramparā. They mix everything up and then they establish what Śrīla Prabhupāda explained as perceiving sweet and bitter, dishonesty and honesty, idleness and enthusiasm, getting beaten and getting sweets are all the same thing and this is their so-called guru bhakti or sampradāya niṣṭhā.”

All our great Gauḍīya guru-varga such as Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Puri Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Rakshak Śrīdhar Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Sadananda Svami etc. they all told that— “First of all we must realize that our very existence is to be totally subservient to the teachings given by Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura, who are pure devotees of Śrī Gaurasundara—it is only then that all the darkness and fog of illusion will be vanished like a momentary storm. One thing is sure that by rejecting this advice, one will only learn enmity towards those pure devotees by finding all kind of faults in their pure and divine character. Everything in our spiritual life depends on how much love and strong belief we have in our sampradāya. If we are not always ready to point out our previous ācāryas, our Gauḍīya guru-varga, then slowly slowly all the vitals of our bhajana life will dry up. It is only when one’s roots regarding guru niṣṭhā and sampradāya niṣṭhā have grown so deep that one’s heart will be touched by the actual kṛpā of Śrī Gaura and only then one will be inspired to know where the transcendental abode is and one can determine whose abode it is; one will believe the words of the pure devotees and understand what the atheistic Māyāvādīs say about Gaura and guru-varga.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda also said  that— “Just as a Kazi, because he belongs to a different religion, is incapable of deciding the dates of Hindu festivals due to his lack of knowledge in śāstra, just as a barren woman is incapable of giving birth to a son, just as one cannot eat sweets with his eyes, similarly being under the influence of mundane faith and unknowingly accepting the essence of such so-called devotees, it is futile to try to understand spiritual subject matters concerning Gaura and his eternal pārṣadas.”

For all this reason Śrīla Baba Maharja is encouraging us more and more by saying that— "We must distribute to others what His Divine Grace Gauḍīya Goṣṭhi Pati Paramahaṃsācārya Varya Śri Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākur Prabhupāda told, what our Gauḍīya guru-paramparā out of their causeless compassion kept for us—their writings, their books, their audios and video recordings. What we ourselves newly invent or discover is not necessary to distribute; just share and distribute what our Gauḍīya guru-varga already have told, that will be more than sufficient—people will be immensely benefitted through that. Only we need to keep patience to go through those immense treasures left by our Gauḍīya guru-varga.

Some of you may think that sounds too much orthodox. But as Śrīla Baba Maharaj has said and all our previous ācāryas, that our bhajana life is not a matter of joke, it is the question of the survival of our real self. We may see that in the political or religious field there are always some modernisations and at the same time there are those who subscribe in following strictly the traditional orthodox way. That maybe regarding worldly matters, but if it comes to spiritual matters than these questions whom to follow doesn’t even come up, because it is very clear that those siddhānta vichars are once being said by our pure ācāryas, they must have eternal value. Like an arrow once shot, can never come back again. In this regard for your kind information, we want to quote one excerpt taken from ‘The Harmonist’ or ‘Sajjan Toshani’, which was written by Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur—

“The Vaiṣṇava Philosophy has spoken about true wisdom. True wisdom is not subject to an attack from any rival camp like the changeable and fluctuating knowledge of the empiricists; this is the special feature of the Vaiṣṇava Philosophy. The philosophies that have been, are being and will be built on the foundation of empiricism and will be abandoned, enlarged and altered along with the increase and decrease of experience. Before the civilization five-thousand years old, the three-thousand year old civilisation is imperfect; and the seven-thousand year old one is more enlarged; and in ten thousand years it will be still further changed and enlarged. The Vaiṣṇava Philosophy built, as it is, upon the strong unalterable foundation, of true and perfect wisdom is not fit for change and reformation through scuffling and disputes even like the foot-ball being kicked to and fro.” 

(Excerpt from The Harmonist or Sajjan Toshani)

Also our seventh Gosvāmī Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura used to say that— “A path cannot be manufactured. Whatever path is there should be accepted by sādhus. Those who are proud and want fame try vigorously to discover new paths. Those who have good fortune from past lives give up pride and respect the established path. Those who are unfortunate walk on a new path and thus cheat the world.”

(Excerpt from ‘The Harmonist’ or ‘Sajjan Toshani’)

There are countless books and articles written by Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda and our Gauḍīya guru-varga. We have so much transcendental Gauḍīya literature that we could go on reading and distributing them day and night. But why we are not seeing the full blossomed Gauḍīya Literatures in all our Sarasvat Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community? The only reason for that is our insincerity which is throwing us far away from the actual teachings of our Gauḍīya guru-paramparā only by following the instructions of some so-called ācāryas, by avoiding those real treasures protected and preserved by our Gauḍīya guru-varga.

Once, Śrī Madana-mohana Malaviya, the founder of the world-famous Banāras Hindu University in Vārāṇasī, Uttar Pradesh, while speaking with Śrīla Prabhupāda at Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha in Bāgbāzār, Kolkata, asked him with astonishment, “For how long will you be able to run this Dainika Nadīyā Prakāśa? From where will you obtain the great number of spiritual articles needed to keep it in print every day?”

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “Your astonishment pales in comparison to the astonishment I feel in seeing that you, a person regarded as foremost among the best scholars of India, is expressing wonder about these concerns. This material creation is merely the reflection of a quarter of the transcendental creation.

Across the globe, countless newspapers are published every day in different languages, and this earth planet is only one part of the fourteen-fold planetary system, which belongs to just one of the innumerable brahmāṇḍas in the material creation. Therefore, why would you be astonished about the daily publishing of but one newspaper, the Dainika Nadīyā Prakāśa, which focuses on the transcendental spiritual world? In fact, we have enough transcendental content about the spiritual realm to publish numerous daily newspapers from now until forever.”

Because a scholar can very easily detect implied meanings, Śrī Madana-mohana Malaviya was extremely pleased to hear Śrīla Prabhupāda’s assertion that because the spiritual world is unlimited by nature, the reservoir of transcendental subject matters from which the paper could draw would be similarly unlimited.

Also, in a similar way, Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura expressed his deep concern—

“Newspapers that make the readers happy by daily writing of new topics only write about varieties of the material world, but the topics of Lord Hari are different. They never become old. The more one hears or speaks of the Lord the more one relishes these topics. O readers! If you have any attachment for the topics of Hari, then again and again relish the descriptions written by the mahājanas. Although this newspaper [in which this article first appeared] is very small, nevertheless in each edition the conclusive descriptions of the mellows of devotional service written by the previous mahājanas are published part by part. Since there is no question of worldly stories in this paper, we must publish some compositions of the previous great learned scholars. The material world is full of nonsense talks; therefore, do not avoid relishing the pastimes and the science of devotional service available in this small newspaper, Śrī Sajjana-toṣaṇī. There is no doubt that the compositions of the previous great saintly persons will be more covered than our own writings. Another point of consideration is that those who are fond of reading should certainly read the devotional work of the previous saintly persons. If such readers gradually enter into and relish these writings, they will obtain immense pleasure. Unfortunately, we love to read our own writing or the writing of some new modern authors. But when we deeply absorb ourselves in the compositions of the mahājanas, we no longer like the modern compositions. The point is that we think we can compose better than the mahājanas, but when this illusion is destroyed we no longer like the modern compositions. Great personalities and poets are not always coming to the material world. They are rare. Therefore, it is very difficult to find great poets after Jayadev Goswami and Sri Rupa Goswami. Only when some recipients of Sri Krishna’s mercy appear in this world will we again see books like Śrī Gīta-govinda and Śrī Bhāgavatāmṛta. To feel happy by reading the work of modern authors and poets is like imagining one is relishing milk by drinking buttermilk because there is an absence of milk. We do not find any writing sweeter than the writing of the mahājanas.”

— Śrī Sajjana-toṣaṇī 10.5, quoted in Śrī Bhaktivinoda Vāṇī Vaibhava, chapter 39

Is it not at all some consideration worthy, to just stop for a moment and think—How is it possible that I call myself a Gauḍīya devotee, a follower of The Prabhupāda, a devotee in Caitanya’s Mission without having even the slightest idea about the actual teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Gauḍīya Maṭha. It is due to our own insincerity that nowadays all attempts have been made to lower the yardstick as it was set by The Prabhupāda. But that was never the idea of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda in his own life has shown that he never wanted to make any compromise regarding the pure teachings of Śrīman Mahaprabhu.  

Nowadays the situation is the direct evidence that we can almost no longer find that divine yardstick set by The Prabhupāda, and not only that even we find that those innocent new adepts which are trying to start their spiritual journey became polluted by the miss preaching and misinformation given by so-called spiritual leaders who are totally against Gauḍīya Maṭha. So how in infinite time period will we get maṅgala by avoiding Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha, whereas Śrīla Prabhupāda himself told that Gauḍīya Maṭha is the only way. Will it not be an act of the greatest of all jīva-hiṁsās, to deprive those innocent adepts from their real maṅgala? Without following the path shown by The Prabhupāda everything else will just stay a dream only, no reality at all. We cannot allow this contamination to flow generation after generation.

Ācārya Kesari Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Pragyan Kesava Gosvāmī Maharaj the disciple of Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagad Guru said that—“With a strong hope to get pratiṣṭhā  by exhibiting our personal talent, if we never hesitate to identify our most favourable benefactor (or true well-wisher) previous ācāryas as ignorant and foolish, then in that case our children (our next generations) they also can call us ignorant, foolish or uncivilized (or brute) etc. what strange or surprise can be there in it?”

(Taken from the article named “Asistachar” on the basis of some special advice given by Śrīla Prabhupāda in Nadia Prakasa Patrika)

We do not want to be very big big monkeys, we don’t want to be imitators, we want to have the real thing. That is why it is of the utmost importance to understand the difference between bhaktivinod-dhara and non-bhaktivinod-dhara. If somehow someone is thinking that— “I am not getting any taste when I read or hear those articles and absolute speech by The Prabhupāda and his actual followers, then we must understand that inside such a heart there must be some aparādha, which is an indication that the person in question lacks the most elementary conditions for God’s Mercy. Otherwise, the power (śakti) of Mercy, which bestows wisdom and true knowledge, would have given the insight that without the writings and teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura there is no alternative—no entry into the real endless ocean of loveful worship and sevā of Śrīman Mahaprabhu.

Thanks a lot

Truly yours in the service of Guru Gaurāṅga and Go-Mata

Under the divine guidance of Śrīla Baba Maharaj

All the sincere followers of Bhakti Siddhānta Vani