Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Instructions in the Delhi Gauḍīya Maṭha

[From Four Ācāryas: Biography of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, originally written in Hindi by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, English translation published by Bhakta Bandhav Publications.]

Śrīla Prabhupāda arrived in the Delhi Gauḍīya Maṭha in October of 1935. One day, he called a pūjārī–brahmacārī who would also regularly study and speak on the Bhāgavata. He asked him, “Do you read the Nadīyā-prakāśa and the Gauḍīya?”

The brahmacārī replied, “I read the Gauḍīya whenever I have time, or whenever there is some time left after I have finished reading the other books.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Many people don’t have the time to do Bhagavān’s bhajana. Most of our time is spent in tending to the orders of our body and mind. In reality, these ‘orders’ are only composed of the modes of passion and ignorance. As a result of following such orders, we are encumbered by sleep and laziness. By not reading the Gauḍīya, you will not be able to understand the true meaning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and the other scriptures of devotion.”

Meanwhile, someone said, “I am not able to have unflinching faith in devotion.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “You have a lack of faith because of not listening properly from the devotees.”

After sometime, Dr. J. K. Sen Mahāśaya came to meet Śrīla Prabhupāda. After collecting much wealth from many residents of Delhi, a professional speaker of the Bhāgavata was called. Scores of people had gathered to listen to the Bhāgavata from him.

Someone asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “What is the reason for this?”

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “We will have to give our time to listen to hari-kathā. If we sincerely listen to hari-kathā, then the conception of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ in relation to the body will go away. The knots of the heart will be cut asunder. As a result, all our obstacles and calamities will go far away. It is only at this time that pure knowledge and detachment from sense-objects will manifest in the heart. Many people may gather to listen to a paid orator speak on the Bhāgavata, because such a speaker will only serve to increase the audiences’ desire for sense gratification. But paraphernalia related to Kṛṣṇa will never yield to such an increase in one’s sense gratification.

Although you claim that many people come to listen to such a speaker, you should know that many more people come to see a courtesan dance.

“Those who listen to the ‘sweet music’ of such bhāgavata–kathā will be entrapped like the deer that was caught in the hunter’s trap. Such victims may also smell sweet fragrances, taste delicious foodstuffs, and gratify their senses in many ways. By listening to such ‘bhāgavata–kathā’, the unfortunate listeners will only accept death just as the deer did, for such kathā only veils talks about sense-gratification. Thus, everyone is a servant of sense gratification. Such people have not even opened a page of the Bhāgavata. Indeed, they have not even seen the Bhāgavata. They have only seen the grammatical components and they eat, drink, and play on their musical instruments. They don’t possess even a trace of transcendental knowledge. They are pañcopāsakas, worshipers of the deities: Viṣṇu, Śiva, Sūrya, Gaṇeśa, and Durgā. They don’t realize how they are trying to harm the propagation of true monotheism.

“Who can really speak about Śrī Bhagavān, the Supreme Absolute Truth? And who can really listen? Can those who are running to fill their bellies and fulfil their cravings for prestige, adoration, and the association of women, ever speak on the Bhāgavata? Such people leave aside the association of devotees and make their own group. Upon seeing a devotee speak on the Bhāgavata, a mundane linguistician will say, ‘Although he is speaking on spiritual reality, his language is not proper.’ But the language of such spiritual reality is completely independent; it doesn’t consider the limitations of mundane language.

“When a person absorbed in sense gratification starts to listen to kathā that cuts asunder the knots of the heart, he will think, ‘These talks only constitute sectarianism.’

The people of this world only endeavor to be in good standing with everyone. They don’t endeavor to know the Supreme Absolute Truth. Rather than making his listeners inclined towards seeking the Absolute Truth, a person who claims to preach dharma will only make the minds of his listeners happy.

Thus, he remains busy in maintaining his life. Therefore, the truth is not being preached for the happiness of society.

“A person engrossed in anarthas cannot do bhajana of adhokṣaja Śrī Vāsudeva. The considerations of those who are free from anarthas are of another standing. The desire for dharma (mundane religiosity), artha (wealth), kāma (fulfilment of material desires) and mokṣa (liberation) is itself an anartha, impediment and inauspicious desire. Those who have purchased a ticket for dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa, have not purchased a ticket for prema, which is the final station. They will either continue to wander in material existence or they will accept sāyujya-mukti, merging into the impersonal light, which is spiritual suicide. They consider this as the ultimate end. But those who have purchased a ticket for prema will be one-pointed. Although their ‘train’ may stop at the stations of dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa, they will only neutrally see these stations for a little while. But these stations will not be able to attract them. Only the station of kṛṣṇa-prema will attract them in an unequalled way.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda then quoted and explained the following statements of the scriptures:

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

—Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.151

[Of all the souls wandering through the infinite universes, only a most fortunate one receives, by the mercy of Śrī Guru and Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the precious seed of the creeper of devotion (bhakti-latā-bīja).]

vaikuṇṭhāj janito varā madhu-purī tatrāpi rāsotsavād
vṛndāraṇyam udāra-pāṇi-ramaṇāt tatrāpi govardhanaḥ
rādhā-kuṇḍam ihāpi gokula pateḥ premāmṛtāplāvanāt
kuryād asya virājato giri-taṭe sevāṁ vivekī na kaḥ

—Upadeśāmṛta 9

[The sacred land of Mathurā is superior to Vaikuṇṭha, the realm of spiritual majesty, for it is there that the Lord appeared. Greater still is the forest of Vṛndāvana, where He performed the blissful festival of the rāsa-līlā. Superior even to Vṛndāvana is Govardhana Hill, which He lifted with His lotus hand and upon which He delighted in innumerable intimate pastimes with His beloved devotees. Yet most exalted of all is Śrī Rādhā-kuṇḍa, for it overflows with the ambrosial nectar of divine love for Him, the Lord of Gokula. Who, then, if truly wise, would not long to serve this resplendent pond, which shines gloriously at the base of Govardhana Hill?]

In the night of October 2nd, 1936, a youngster named Mukhopādhyāya asked the following question to Śrīla Prabhupāda:

“Besides listening from the Gauḍīya Maṭha, will hari-sevā not be attained by listening to others?”

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “Except the association of those who the Supreme Lord identifies as His servants, how can service be rendered in the association of anyone else? Those who desire dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa are not even servants. Their rendering of service is only a show. By rendering such service, they desire to make Śrī Bhagavān, who is the object of service, their order-supplier, who will only gratify the desires of their senses. They can never be known as Bhagavān’s servants. Therefore, how can service be rendered in their association?”