Nama Om Vishnu paadaaya..
Hari Haraya Naama Krishna …
Mukham karoti…
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.17.27
äcäryaà mäà vijänéyän
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyäsüyeta
sarva-deva-mayo guru
Translation: One should know the äcärya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.
So this class I will give sometimes in English and sometimes in Bengali. Whatever I say in Bengali, Devagauranga prabhu will repeat and Sujitendriya prabhu will translate it. So we will keep Sujetrindriya and all the repeaters on their toes! So this purport reminds me of the time in 1969 in Boston, when we received Srila Prabhupada at the airport. There were about 150-200 devotees, I had come from Canada and other devotees from various places had come. There was a screen which did not cover the whole window. Prabhupad lifted his hand above the screen and you could see his bead bag, and the devotees exploded! They exploded! And the devotees were chanting and jumping up and down, Haribol! Srila Prabhupad ki jai! Then a newspaper man and the media men all came. And one devotee hit his head with a kartal. And blood was coming down. He didn’t know. Ha! He was jumping up and down, Prabhupada! Prabhupada! Haribol! Prabhupada! The newspaper man noted this that even though he was bleeding, he was dancing in such ecstasy. This time Prabhupada came over to the devotees. All the devotees paid obeisances by flatly falling on the ground. The newspaper men were all standing there. They couldn’t understand anything. Then Srila Prabhupada sat down, all the devotees offered garlands to Pabhupada. There were so many garlands that they came up to the top of his head! And he took all the garlands and the devotees came again and gave more garlands! This way two three times this happened that devotee offered gar and Prabhupada took them off. Then Prabhupada gave an arrival address. He said, that gurudev is to be honored like the Lord. Because he is the representative of the Lord. But he said if he thinks he is God, he is not God, G O D. He is the opposite – dog D O G! Haribol! So this experience I had. So Prabhupada, he showed this verse purport by his practical example. So the Hare Krishna movement was new in America then. So Prabhupada was showing to the Americans, how the guru is respected. This year we had Kumbha mela had taken place. I once went with Prabhupada to the Kumbha mela. A mayawadi guru came riding on an elephant. Prabhupada said, that we keep the deity of the Lord on the elephant, and we would walk along with the Lord. Lord Caitanya, when he was travelling in South India, He went to Kurmadesh, near Vizag. Then he gave this instruction to the Kurmadesh brahmana – yare dekho tare kaho Krishna upadesh, amara agya guru hoya tara ei desh. Whoever you see, instruct them about the teachings of Lord Krishna, and on My order become a spiritual master. We want all of you to become acharyas in the future. Teach by your example. Read Prabhupada’s books. Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Srimad Bhagavatam. Also Caitanya Caritamrita and all the other BBT literatures. Especially those written by Srila Prabhupada. This way Caitanyadev ordered, bolo Krishna bhajo Krishna koro Krishna shikha. Chant the holy names of Krishna, worship Krishna, learn the teachings of Lord Krishna. Many devotees do not study Prabhupada’s books. I have a test for those who want second initiation, they have to read the books. But for those who are illiterate they have a simple test. So one person, he took a test. He took the simple test. But he was a doctor! Ha! Ha! So we asked him how you are illiterate but you are a doctor? He said in spiritual matters I am illiterate! Ha! Ha! So we don’t want any illiterate spiritually! We saw that Srila Prabhupada, he stayed up all night translating these books. 10-12, he would rest at night. After 12, till mangala arati, he would write his books. In Mayapur he would think of something important, then he would say call, call, Jayapataka Swami. The secretary would knock on my door and say, Prabhupada wants to see you! I had to wash my face quick put tilak, wear my dhoti, and run down to see Prabhupada. And he would be translating, he would have his dictaphone. He had a mosquito net over his desk. And the room would sometimes be filled with frankincense smoke. And then he would stop translating and say whatever he wanted to say. Then he would let me go to sleep. I was at his call at every moment! No 9 to 5 job!24 hours! And I saw that Prabhupada used to translate through the whole night, and people said that Prabhupada did not know Sanskrit! That is completely bogus! The book he had had all the acharyas’ tikas. That book was in Sanskrit; it is still in his room! If you do not believe, you can go and see for your selves! I don’t know Sanskrit; I know a little Bengali. I can read Bengali and speak Bengali. A little difficulty writing Bengali. Because I don’t have much practice in writing, but I can do it. So this sloka is very important. It tells the way we should see the spiritual master. How we should not be envious, how we should be respectful, and it also gives advice how the guru should see himself. That although he is a representative of Krishna and one respects him as if Krishna is speaking through him. But he should see himself as a humble servitor of Krishna. So Prabhupada gave his teachings to be basically studied in these degrees – Bhakti Sastri, Bhakti Vaibhav, Bhakti Vedanta and Bhakti Sarvabhauma. So we hope that everybody reads the books and gets these degrees. Prabhupada used to say, that the title Bhakti Vedanta should be received by his disciples. Within his disciplic succession, meaning, his disciple, their disciple and on and on. Now they are in Bengali, English and Hindi. And other languages. So this is a great opportunity to study the books very minutely. You can see that when someone who is a so called acharya, but they give speculative interpretations, then they are doing a disservice. So this way Prabhupada, he taught his five thousand disciples, with his lectures and writings. He used to reply to many letters and he also answered many questions. Here in Mayapur, the questions he answered when Bob Cohen came and Prabhupad did the book Perfect Questions Perfect Answers. That was spoken when he stayed in the bhajan Kutir – grass hut. I told many times to have a big copy of the book there, and say that here this book was spoken. Many times! BBT has agreed, I have agreed, but not happening! So many historical things happened in Mayapur. Caitanyadev’s pastimes, Nityananda prabhu’s pastimes, the pastimes of Bhakti Vinod Thakur, and the pastimes of Prabhupada, pastimes of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. So we have a great heritage. So we thank everyone for coming to Mayapur. I hope that everyone will carry the heritage and culture of Mayapur in your hearts! And chant always the Hari naam! Jaya dhwani, Ulu dhwani. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! I heard that the Mayapur sankirtan devotees have brought some Caitanya Caritamrita sets here. If anyone wants them, I can touch them. Any questions on the class?
Now we have Bhakti Purushottam Swami, he wants to speak something.
I wanted to mention that guru maharaj today gave emphasis on Srila Prabhupad’s books. He said that if you want the Caitanya Caritamrita, please come now get the books and get blessing of guru maharaj, he will touch the books. You can pay later.
Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
17 April 2019