Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.5.3. Pure Devotees Always Live in This World
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2020
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Homage to Bhakti Charu Swami
So, thank you very much for inviting me to this session. I feel very honored and very much undeserving to speak in front of all of you, but I also feel that it's my duty to speak a little bit glorifying Śrīla Bhakti Caru Mahārāja whom I loved very dearly.
I will read a very famous verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which very clearly states that the great devotees of the Lord are there.
Sometimes people have this misunderstanding that great devotees were somewhere in other parts of the world or they were in the past and not now.
But this verse spoken by Vidura very clearly states that Lord Krishna always sends his devotees to traverse the earth.
So let's read this verse and purport to start our little discussion about Bhakti Caru Mahārāja and about the role of a pure devotee to save the world.
janasya kṛṣṇa-dviṣamo daivataṁ dharma-śīlasya sudurukitasya anugrahāya caranti hi nūnaṁ bhūtāni bhavyāni janārdanasya O my Lord, great philanthropic souls, travel on the
earth on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to show compassion to the fallen souls who are averse to the sense of subordination to the Lord, purports by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
To be obedient to the wishes of the Supreme Lord is the natural position of every living entity.
But due only to past misdeeds, a living being becomes averse to the sense of subordination to the Lord and suffers all the miseries of material existence.
No one has anything to do but render devotional service to the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna.
Therefore, any activity other than the transcendental loving service to the Lord is more or less rebellious action against the Supreme Will.
All fruit of activity, empirical philosophy, and mysticism are more or less against the sense of subordination to the Lord, and any living entity engaged in such rebellious activity is more or less condemned.
Śrīla Prabhupāda for the third time repeats more or less qualifying this, saying that basically whatever other activities people do, it's more or less against the will of the Lord. Giving us little freedom in this regard.
More or less condemned by the laws of material nature which work under the subordination of the Lord, great unalloyed devotees of the Lord are compassionate towards the fallen and therefore they travel all over the world with the mission of bringing souls back to Godhead, back home.
Such pure devotees of the Lord carry the message of Godhead in order to deliver the fallen souls and therefore the common man who is bewildered by the influence of the external energy of the Lord should avail himself to their association.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! Janasya kṛṣṇa-dvi-mukhasya daivatam adharma-śīlasya sukṛtino 'nugrahāya carantī hi bhavyāni janārdanasya.
Nama oṁ viṣṇa-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-swāmi iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine, nirviśeṣa- śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tārine. vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo
vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupādānanda Śrī Advaita Śivāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Hare Kṛṣṇa
Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rama Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
Yāntaḥ praviśya mamāvācam imāṁ prasuptaṁ saṁjīvayaty akhila-śakti-dharaḥ svadhāmnā, anyāṁś ca hasta-caraṇa-śravaṇa-tvag-ādīn prāṇān namo bhagavate puruṣāya tubhyam.
Śvāsasya viśvasya kalāḥ prasīdāṁ tat-tejasāṁ śivam utādyā-manasā ca bhadram bhaja tat-kṛta-duḥkha-jālaṁ avehi taṁ no matir apy ahaitukī.
Appreciating the presence of pure devotees
Hare Krishna. So I will try to say a few words about this particular verse, which is very encouraging for all of us. And it's a proof, very definite pramana, that the great devotees will always be there in this world.
It's a pity that we as conditioned living entities sometimes don't understand the greatest of the devotees. Unfortunately, due to our conditioning, due to our ignorance, we sometimes take great devotees for granted.
We see them and we see you, oh yeah, yeah, he's yeah, nice, nice person.
In a similar way, uh Uddhava in previous chapters of the Third Canto of Bhagavad-gītā, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, said that Yadavas they took Lord Krishna for granted. And Uddhava gives a very beautiful example in this regard.
He says that fish who swims in the water sometimes sees the moon, the reflection of the moon in the water. And the fish thinks, oh, it's just another fish. Nice fish. Very brilliant fish. But swimming there in this water.
So Uddhava says in a similar way, Yadavas, they took Lord Krishna as being an ordinary living entity and didn't really appreciate him to the proper extent.
So sometimes it takes Krishna to take away the devotee for us to appreciate him properly. So in this verse, very beautiful verse of Srimad Bhagavatam, it is said that Janasya Krishna Tvi Mukasya Daiva that Adharma Silasya Sudukitasya, that all the living entities in this world they are Sudukitasya, they are very very much suffering suffering to a very great extent this Janasya, all these people in the world.
Why Krishna Vimukasya? Because they are because of their Vimukkata, because they are a verse of the Lord because they don't accept the Lord, because they don't, as Prabhupada say, they are rebellious of the Lord.
Literally, Vajmukata means that they turned away from the Lord. They don't want to see the Lord. They're indifferent to the Lord. And they don't want to follow Him. Why does it happen like this, Daivat.
Daivat basically means that because of their karma, because of their misdeeds, because of their sinful activities, because of our sinful activities, because of our misdeeds in the past, we don't have attachment to the Lord.
Even after hearing so many descriptions, even after trying to chant his holy names, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he says the same thing, Durdaiva Midrisha Mahajan in Nanurah, Durdaiva.
This daiva basically means bad fortune and bad fortune is the result of our own misdeeds. What is the result of our own misdeeds? Indifference to the Lord? By Mukhatta.
So, but because Anugraha, because of Augraha, because of the mercy to the fallen conditioned souls. Bhutani Bhavyani Nunam indeed B,haviani, Great Souls, Charanti. They travel in the world all the time.
Vidura uses here present tense. It basically means that at any given moment of time there will be a great devotee in this world. Why? Janardhanasya, their own people of Janardana, their own people of Krishna.
Krishna makes sure that at least one pure devotee will always be there.
For the benefit of all fallen conditioned souls, and for the benefit of us, for the benefit of this fallen conditioned souls, he will always be traveling, charanti. He will always be on move.
He will not wait when the conditioned souls will come to him. He will come to them. So that's a very nice and encouraging news for all of us.
And also a very good meditation because we have to understand that if we don't understand, if we don't see the pure devotee right now, it just means that something is wrong with us.
Compassion of Srila Prabhupada and disciples
Pure devotees are always there and they always will be traveling and they will always be giving their association.
So, and of course, this verse very beautifully describes his divine grace Śrīla Prabhupāda, who traveled to America knowing the suffering of the conditioned souls.
He underwent immense, immense austerities, immense difficulties in the foreign land, for what? Just for one reason. Because he wanted to make others happy.
And of course, his glorious disciple, His Holiness Bhakti Charumaraj, is also a very glowing example of this verse and illustration of this verse.
I wanted first to tell a few memories, personal memories about Śrīla Bhakti Charu Swami, because my first memory of him was exactly on the point or on the subject matter of this verse. I was a relatively young devotee.
I joined in 1980 in the Soviet Union, got initiation in 1983. And then I had to immigrate from the Soviet Union because of the harassment of the KGB, sorry,
Because of the harassment of the KGB and because of all the persecutions which were there, and because also Kīrtirāja prabhu, who was in charge of Soviet mission at that time, wanted somebody who knows English to translate books of Śrīla Prabhupāda into Russian language.
In this sense, there is some parallel between my humble self and great devotee Bhakti Charu Swami.
Of course, to him personally, that was the first instruction which Prabhupāda gave him personally to translate his books into Bengali.
But I was also, in this sense, fortunate, because I got this order through guru-paramparā to translate books of Śrīla Prabhupāda in Russian. And for many, many years, day in and day out,
for many hours every day I was translating books of Śrīla Prabhupāda in Tärāsana, meditating deeply on the meanings. And in 1990, for the first time I saw His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami.
So it was uh I believe it was 1990 or maybe 1989, but I think it was uh 1990.
And uh His Holiness Bhakti Charumaraj, he came personally to Sweden and he traveled from I don't know from where, but he specifically, I believe he traveled specifically from India to Sweden for one single reason.
He wanted to meet with Kirti Raj Prabhu and his mission, his desire, why he wanted to travel all the way from India to Sweden is just to help Russian devotees. At that time, of course, the Soviet mission was
very much prominent in ISKCON, and many devotees they were demonstrating in front of the embassies of Soviet Union with the campaign free Soviet Hare Krishnas.
Little Prahlāda at that time he chanted a beautiful song in Australia, Mr. Gorbachev: Free My Friends, Free My Friends.
And the Prime Minister of Australia personally handed over this petition or this little song to Mr. Gorbachev during his personal meeting.
So at that time, the stories, very moving stories of Russian devotees who were persecuted in prison, put in prison in labor camps, and some of them even died, were very much in the minds of all the devotees.
Bhakti-caru Swami, he came all the way from India to Sweden and his only desire was to offer what can I do for Russian devotees?
He came to Kirtiraj Prabhu and he said, you know, Soviet Union started opening up because it was basically the fall of Soviet Union, perestroika was there, and there was some little opening in the iron curtain.
So the first person who came basically ran to Kirtiraj Prabhu was Bhakti Charumaraj. And why did he run to Kirtiraj Prabhu?
He said, I have my friend, and this friend, I heard that the Russian devotees they have nothing to eat. We can send to them dal and rice from India. I will arrange everything.
There will be cargos of ships, you know, coming with the tons of rice and doll and spices and everything. That was the idea of Bhakti-caru Swami. And it's very typical for Bhakti-caru Swami.
You know, the all the time, uh all the 30 years which I luckily, have I known him. I know that if somebody is in need, he is the first one to help. You don't even have to ask him, he will be the first one to volunteer and he will run to help.
I have seen him for many years on the GBC body, you know, whenever there was some need, and there is always some need. You know, there's not a single year where there was not a need, and somebody is in need. So Bhakti Charu Maharaj was always the first one who would volunteer to help.
So Bhakti Charu Maharaj was always the first one who would volunteer to help. of course it was a gap, a huge gap between myself, a humble bhakta translating something and secretary of Kirtiraj Prabhu.
I was at that time personal secretary of Kiriti Raj Prabhu, and him who was a great sannyāsī, spiritual master, so on and so forth. But the amazing feeling which I had from the very first second of interaction with him.
He just he embraced me in his usual manner and he made me feel so comfortable as if I had known him all the time.
And I was you know when I heard that he came specifically uh to bring rice and dal to Russia, you know I I I went to the temple room and I started praying.
Uh my dear Lord Krishna, please let Kirti Raj Prabhu be merciful to him and allow him to go to Russia.
At that time, Kirti Raj Prabhu was very strict. He was really controlling. Who can go to Russia? Who cannot go to Russia. Somehow or rather my prayers were not heard and Kirti Raj Prabhu was not merciful.
But nevertheless, you know, in one sense from the material point of view you can say that Bhakti Charu Maharaj went all the way from India to Sweden without any result.
But the result was there. The result was in the heart of Bhakti Charu Maharaj. And all the time, you know, whenever I was in need, the first one whom I would come was Bhakti Charu Maharaj.
We had a very difficult time with temple in Moscow. Bhakti Charu Maharaj was the first one whom I approached and I said, Could you help? And he said, Yes, yes, of course, of course.
Never you know when you would approach Bhakti Charu Maharaj, you would never feel like a beggar.
You would feel like a good friend who is coming to your best friend, and this best friend is always there, waiting for you to come and ready to give some shelter and to give you some help and some support.
And actually, that was my first interaction with Bhakti Charu Maharaj when he came to help Russian devotees.
Then there was very significant help when he really basically volunteered and you know, came out of his ways to help Moscow Temple. And then my last interaction was also exactly the same.
Over the 30 years, of course, I had many interactions, but my last interaction, amazingly, was the same. I again approached him because there was some problem. In uh of course, there is always some problems.
So in Russia, some disciples they became very critical, the disciples of a particular guru became very critical and they started criticizing left and right everyone.
Detachment combined with personal care
And again, Bhakti Charu Swami was the first one to help. He went to this guru, he spoke uh with him and then uh we spoke with each other and uh this is this is the feeling which I always had that here is my best friend, here is somebody who loves me.
But at the same time, today while thinking a little bit about this class, I was trying to reproduce the impression which I had in my interactions with Bhakti Charu Maharaj.
So it was a very interesting impression which I always had with him. He was very cordial, very open, very outgoing, ready to help, but at the same time, there was always some weight, some little sense of detachment.
You would interact with him in a very close and a very cordial way, and many, many times he did it. But at the same time, you always had such a strange feeling that he is not fully present at this moment.
That part of his consciousness is somewhere high up. He is this such a brilliant example of genuine detachment. He was with you. He was ready to help. He was ready to do whatever you needed. He was all open to you.
But at the same time, you felt that part of him is somewhere else, that a part of him is really detached. So this air of detachment was always around him. I've seen him through many difficult situations, but I
always felt that you know he takes these difficulties. He really takes these difficulties seriously. He really takes it to his heart. But at the same time, he is not affected by all these difficulties.
This is something very special about him: that he is not really affected by the material atmosphere. This is what I definitely noticed.
There is one beautiful little story about Śrīla Prabhupāda, which illustrates how Śrīla Prabhupada was also unaffected. Somehow rather this story is not very well known, but I read it in some materials
which Satsvarūpa Mahārāja collected for his Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, but this particular episode was not included in the final version of Prabhupāda- līlāmṛta. It's a story about Prabhupada during a very difficult period in Iskon's time.
He was in Bombay at that time, and there was the whole drama with Bombay Temple there, and there were court cases in America, and there was the programmes, and there was difficulties in Australia.
You know, the movement has become too big and you know too unwieldy, and so many problems were there.
And like all the leaders, I've been in such situations and you know you try to be detached and it's practically impossible to be detached. You will be affected, you will always be thinking about it, and your mood will be changed.
But in this little story about Prabhupada, it shows how he reacted to this. So this story was told by Harikesh Maharaj, who was a personal secretary of Prabhupada at that time and personal servant at that time.
So, you know, he said that the pressure was building up, building up, building up day after day after day during the stay of Prabhupada in India in Mumbai in Bombay at that time.
And every time, every day some bad news would come from some corner of the world. And finally, the maha-bad news arrived. Some telegram came with some really bad news.
And you know, Harikesh Maharaj read this and he became shocked. And he gave it to Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he was wondering how Prabhupada would react. Prabhupada read this telegram.
He folded this telegram, put it aside, and went inside his room. And Harikesh Maharaj became very intrigued. He thought what he would do. And he looked in the hole, in the keyhole as servants sometimes do.
And he saw Prabhupada and Prabhupada lay down on the floor and started laughing. He started laughing and laughing and laughing. And it was so funny. And Prabhupada couldn't stop. He was laughing and laughing and laughing.
So he was not affected by this. He was dealing with this very diligently, very dutifully, but he was not really affected because he knew ultimately it's Kṛṣṇa's līlā. Ultimately there is a higher plan behind it.
And it's all you know something which is temporary, which needs our attention, but does not need us to be distressed.
So this is exactly the impression which I always had about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Swami Maharaj that he is not affected. He was not affected by anything. You know when I remember now him how he would walk, how
he would talk, how he would come to you, how he would embrace you, how
Spiritual nature of pure devotees
he would, you know, open his heart and started conversation. There is a very. It's a very tangible feeling that he is not of this world.
As it is said here, beautifully in this verse, it is said here, Janārdanasya, this people, they belong to Krishna. They don't belong to this world. They travel in this world.
They do the mission, they helped the conditioned souls in this world to become mukha because now they are turned away from the Lord, so they helped them to become sunmukha, to turn uh towards the Lord.
But they themselves are not of this world. They just travel in this world doing their mission. And uh uh uh, there's something else I wanted to tell uh about Bhakti Charu Maharaja. Yeah.
Uh, so the impression which I have about Bhakti Charu Maharaja, especially now when I remember him, is that he's not really touching this world.
It is said about demigods, they when they walk in this world, they don't touch the ground. So it's exactly the same. When he would walk, he would almost fly. He would not really walk.
And especially I was shocked once I arrived to Māyāpur. Usually we don't see each other being busy in our corners of the world, preaching in our particular areas. Rarely we see each other.
Of course, sometimes Bhakti Charu Maharaja would come to our festival and would present Krishna consciousness there. But we would always see each other in Māyāpur.
So I remember — I don't remember when it was, recently, a few years back, maybe five years back or six years back. There was this ILS, ISKCON Leadership Sanga.
And oh no, no, it was not ISKCON Leadership Sanga, it was uh sannyāsī, what is it called? SGGS, sannyāsī, guru, GBC sanga. So it was rather selected group of people, sannyāsīs, gurus, GBCs, who were interacting with each other, trying to solve the problem and to have some good association and Sangha.
And you know this is the time when at one point you arrive and you look around and you see everyone became old. So that was exactly my shocking feeling.
I arrived to Mayapur, I looked around in this and you know when we joined Iskon everyone was young. It was the movement for young people. There was no old people.
When Prabhupāda started his movement, he was the only one who was old. Everyone else was in his twenties, so the eldest one were in their 30s or maybe 40s.
So uh and I was shocked because I always, you know, used to think I'm in a very young and dynamic movement and I'm young and everyone is young, and I looked around and I realized that everyone, everyone is old. And I became very depressed.
You know, I looked at everyone and saw all the wrinkles and you know somebody with the cane, somebody with the crutches, somebody is in the wheelchair. I thought, my goodness, what's going on?
And then and then I saw Bhakti Charu Maharaj. And he was the only one who was not affected at all. Everyone else was old. He was the same. And I became relieved. I thought, okay, so time does not affect the devotees.
So that was that was my really very, very tangible feeling that
he is he's transcendental somehow or other time has no power over him you know and everyone can confirm this he's he was basically the same person without any changing.
He is avikārī, one of the qualities of the soul which is opposed, diametrically opposed from the material body, is that the soul does not undergo the changes, does not undergo the transformations.
Spontaneous surrender to the spiritual master
So when you interacted with Bhakti Charu Maharaj, this very strange and distinct feeling was there that he is not affected, he is not really undergoing any transformations, he is what he is, and he will always be like this.
And when I read his book, I a couple of years back when his book, first of his memories of Śrīla Prabhupāda, came out. I read his book.
And the most striking episode, or not even episode as such, but the most striking element of this book was his complete and total surrender to Śrīla Prabhupāda, immediate, instant surrender.
I remember myself, you know, I was, it was, it was a long, long, long process inside when I was trying to surrender, and there was a lot of resistance inside, and I thought, why should I surrender?
Exactly as Prabhupāda says: that this rebelliousness is there in everyone. And if we are introspective, if we can feel this rebelliousness. As Prabhupāda said, this completely irrational unwillingness to surrender.
You know, we can be philosophically convinced that we should do it, still, nevertheless, on some level of our consciousness, subconsciously, we will be rebellious. Because we don't want to surrender.
Because we have this, you know, long-root history or long history of being rebellious, being turning away our face from the Lord.
So the most glorious quality or the characteristic which I saw when I read this book is that immediately
without any, without any thinking, Bhakti Charu Maharaj read Srila Prabhupada's book, Nectar of Devotion. And then he saw the dream of Prabhupada.
When Prabhupada glowing was sitting in his Vyasasana, and he surrendered and that was it. He gave his life, he gave his heart, and that's definitely an indication that he was Prabhupada's eternal associate.
That Janardana, Lord Krishna himself, personally sent Srila Bhakti Charu Maharaj to this world to assist Srila Prabhupada in his mission.
And that's the only reason which will make sense if you look on his life and on everything which he has done, which he has managed to do.
He, you know, when when I first heard that he is hospitalized in America, I I didn't believe that something bad was happened with, will happen with him. I I just couldn't believe. I I didn't take it seriously.
I thought, oh, it's just his līlā. He is just performing his līlā because he's so, I mean, it it cannot happen to him. I I couldn't believe.
And then the news would come and I would of course pray and would do kīrtana from on his behalf. But still deep inside I didn't believe that something happened.
And then, you know, this shocking news came that he left this world. And I still couldn't believe. And I was crying, I was bereft, I was, you know, I couldn't I was
immediately when it happened, I called Niranjana Swami, and Niranjana Swami said to me, I was crying, he was crying, I was crying, we all were crying.
We couldn't, we couldn't just we couldn't cope with this news because it was so shocking.
But then I started thinking, you know, the only that the only thought which gave me the solace in this tragic event is that he has never been of this world.
We could, you know it's just we we're foolish enough not to understand this that uh here is somebody who is so completely absolutely perfect in all regards working among us and we take him for granted. We think that yeah, yeah right, he's he's just yeah at the end it will always be like this.
But then Krishna gave him to us and then Krishna took him back because he wanted him back, because Krishna wanted him back to his service because he is his eternal associate. So you know and I I just realized
that instead of being grateful to Krishna that he would show us such a perfect example for so many years, we started believing and saying, you know, why did it happen? Why did it happen so abruptly?
So, and at that time when I realized that Śrīla Bhakti Caru Swami was a gift. And uh the and then at that time the gratitude entered my heart, deep gratitude, which actually washed away the grief.
Now when I when I remember about him, only the deepest, deepest amazing gratitude is there in the heart, nothing else. And I will always remember him. I still cannot believe that he's not there.
I still cannot believe that I will come to Mayapur and he will not be there. I I I cannot believe it. I don't even know I now I think whether I should come to Mayapur at all or not, because when
I come to Mayapur everything, I will always be looking for Bhakti Caru Swami because it was always a highlight of my Mayapur visit to speak with him.
Sometimes it was really brief, or sometimes there was not even personal interactions. Sometimes I would only be there.
No, you know, of course I would always be when Bhakti Caru Swami would do Pushpanjali for Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada for his appearance day. That was always something very special.
We all knew that we would come to the temple room, and Bhakti Caru Swami will be there in front of the microphone. And he would in a very beautiful way, chant all the pranam mantras of all the acharyas of Parampara and
Universal affection through non-enviousness
would basically transport you into the presence of all the Acharyas. So again, when I remember Bhakti Caru Maharaj, the only thing which comes to my mind is that he was perfect in all regards.
It's probably he's probably the only person in our movement who everyone loved. You know, everyone else, you you know know,, has some you know, we all know our movement has become very big and there is no authorities uh
undisputed authorities in our movements. Everyone has some faults or some problems or whatever. But nobody nobody had I never at least I never heard any complaint about Bhakti Charamaraj.
Everyone everyone loved him everyone uh without any exceptions loved him why because he was not he was detached because he was not envious.
You know why do we create uh b different feelings, sometimes contradictory feelings in the heart of other people? Because there is slight, maybe, maybe not so slight, maybe very slight, but still tinge of envy in our heart.
When we approach somebody, this little tinge of envy is still there. We are as conditioned souls, we kind of hold on to this envy.
It is said in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa that pratiṣṭhā. Pratiṣṭhā is the last anartha, and this anartha is sarvānartha-bīja — it's the breeding ground for all other anarthas. Pratiṣṭhā means I'm special.
But it stash means I'm special. I'm the best. And I'm the best means implies that you are a little envious to others. You approach somebody else and you kind of feel you know I'm better than him.
You know, and your mind will always give you some reasons why you're better than him, and which regard you're better than him, and this and that. So many tricks are there. Mind knows how to do this.
And when we associate with people this little tinge of envy, sometimes it spoils the relationship or makes the relationship not so smooth.
But the amazing feeling which you would inevitably have when you interact with Bhakti Charu Maharaj — no envy. No envy whatsoever.
No desire to become more you know to become more prestigious to become more honorable, to to feel better. No, no, not the competition spirit.
So, this competition spirit, this matsarya, matsarya — envy. In Sanskrit, matsarya, and matsarya basically means this competition. I'm ahead of you. I will run first. I will be the first.
This is a demonic quality which is unfortunately in everyone's heart, especially in Kali Yuga.
But why all these devotees who travel in the world even now, as it is said by Vidura in this verse, beautiful verse, why they can turn all this rebellious soul back to Godhead? Why they can uh really change their hearts only because they're not envious.
There's walking around, uh traveling around this world to spread their own non-enviousness. And when you feel very secure in their presence, then you feel that the surrender to the Supreme Lord is so natural.
As I said, that what struck me in his account of his spiritual life or his biography is that for him surrender was so natural. It was not the internal struggle. It just sort of property and he surrendered and that's it.
So when such a soul comes to our presence, then our surrender also becomes natural. By his mere presence, by his mere existence, he is as if saying to us, why don't you surrender? It's so easy. It's so simple.
It's so blissful. Why don't you do this? Why should you why should you keep your sufferings? Why should you be attached for all these things? Just surrender, no problem. So by his natural spontaneous surrender, he teaches us.
It is said that you know you can teach by speaking to others, you can teach by many different ways, but the most profound teaching which is there, which is given by any pure devotee is just their mere presence.
They don't have to speak anything.
Bhakti Charumaraj didn't have to open his mouth to teach others to surrender because just his presence was strong enough to prove that surrender is something good and something beneficial and something we should all strive for.
So this is how Krishna saves us. Krishna sends all his, not all, some of his pure devotees whom he trusts completely to this material world. And they travel all over the world with only the mission to distribute his mercy.
There is no other there is no other solution. There is no other reason, there is no other cause for them to travel.
And therefore they are called mahā-bhāgavatas. Mahā-bhāgavatas mean really great souls, the great souls who have bhāva, who have this very great feelings towards the Lord. So, this is some little memories
of Bhakti Charu Swami, whom I will always remember. And again, in my opinion, this is Krishna's mercy that Bhakti Charumaraj was so long with us.
Unifying role within the spiritual movement
And one more thing, one little point, uh one more point which I won't tell is that you all know that when Prabhupada disappeared there was a very critical period in ISKCON's history.
So many great leaders who were personally groomed by Prabhupada and trained by Prabhupada, they experienced some difficulties because of their position, of their position of power.
We all know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So there were difficulties. And as I said in the late 80s, beginning of 90s, Russian mission was
playing a very significant role for the whole of ISKCON because it was a kind of unifying force for the movement. You know the very moving stories of Russian devotees tortured by
the KGB were spread all over the ISKCON world. And many devotees, for many devotees, it was, you know, and the success of Russian mission was also a very significant proof that this ISKCON is still alive.
You know, those who remember this year they know that many people had severe doubts whether ISKCON will survive these critical years.
But then, of course, another era came, and there, so many different periods of ISKCON history were there.
But looking back in ISKCON's history, I can uh with great assurance tell you that one of the most powerful unifying forces for the whole movement was mere presence of Bhakti Charumaraj. Just the very fact of his presence was unifying the whole movement.
How he could do it only Krishna knows.
But he would give such a confidence in ISKCON and Prabhupada when so many people had doubts, so many devotees had severe doubts, and so many devotees heard so many criticisms, especially now from different corners, different sites, and all the detractors they say this is bad, this is bad.
But Bhakti Charumarach, by his mere presence and by his mere smile, by his kirtans, beautiful Bengali kīrtanas, by his lectures, and just by his presence he would unify.
It's not without a reason that Bhakti Charu Maharaj told in great details this story how Srila Prabhupada gave his very profound instruction that your love for me will be proved how you cooperatively work together for the sake of this movement.
And definitely Srila Bhakti Charumarach was the living manifestation of this last instruction of Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was proving his love to Śrīla Prabhupāda every day, every second of his life. How?
Because he was non-envious and he was cooperating with everyone. He was ready to help everyone and anyone. And you know, he said, this is so simple. You want to love Krishna?
This is the way to love Krishna, love Śrīla Prabhupāda. How to love Śīla Prabhupāda? Just love his movement.
Just work with other people who are trying to do something for this movement, help these other people, assist them in their mission, and your life will be successful because Śrīla Prabhupāda will appreciate it.
Because Śrīla Prabhupāda will be personally guiding you if you have this attitude.
Demonstrating love through cooperative service
So these are all immortal teachings of the life of Bhakti Charumaraj. He was the unifying force.
He showed how it is simple to be the soul, how it is blissful to be the soul, how it is simple to be detached from this world without being envious to everyone. Because there is no real cause.
There is no reason to be envious. Why should we be envious? Krishna loves everyone. There is no point to try to prove your superiority over others or to try to prove that you're better than others.
No need no need just be yourself. Preach, help others and Krishna will do the rest. Krishna will do and Prabhupada will be very pleased with you. And this is how you can love Śrīla Prabhupāda.
So this is a very sad days of course when we remember about Bhakti Charu Maharaj.
But at the same time, you know we can only understand this and realize this unfortunately when we are deprived of personal association of the souls.
And even though I still don't believe that he is not there and I will not meet him in Mayapur, but nevertheless uh yeah all these realizations can come when we really start looking uh back and seeing the amazing qualities of the pure devotees who are always there.
And that's the main point of this verse. Pure devotees they always travel in this world. And they always will be traveling in this world. Right now they are traveling in this world.
We just have to have eyes to see, and as Prabhupāda beautifully said in the end of the purport, such pure devotees of the Lord carry the message of Godhead in order to develop to deliver the fallen souls, and therefore the common man who is bewildered by the influence of the external energy of the Lord should avail himself to their association.
So we were lucky enough to avail ourselves to the association of Bhakti Charu Swami and it's our great fortune. And now we have this great fortune to glorify him unrestrictedly, which we couldn't do during his manifest presence.
So thank you very much. I spoke long enough. Maybe there is some questions, so I don't know what's going on. Hari-śāstra, thank you very much.
Turning material difficulty into surrender
There are quite a lot of questions there. So we can take a few.
First is Hare Krishna Maharaj, please accept my prostrations at your lotus feet and all glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Thank you for your wonderful association. It is such a pleasure to see you after such a long time.
Maharaj, my question is that you have seen most difficult days in establishing Krishna consciousness in Russia and you are full of very deep realizations facing such atrocities and oppositions.
My first question is Maharaj, please advise that how can we utilize material difficulty as an opportunity to surrender to spiritual master and supreme lord and not see them as obstacle in our devotional service.
When difficulties come, we don't have actually much choice.
Either we try to rely upon ourselves and if we you know are realistic and real about ourselves we understand that it's not the best policy, or we will have to pray to the Supreme Lord for help.
So, and Krishna, when He makes real difficult, real difficulties are such that you don't even have this illusion that you can do something yourself.
Real difficulties is that you know only the Lord can save you. So that's the real difficulty, that's the definition. So the real difficulties by definition are such difficulties which push you into surrender.
And the most amazing thing is that when you surrender at that moment, you immediately feel the help of the Supreme Lord.
I can tell you a little story from my personal experience in during these difficult times years when I was still in the Soviet Union. You know the devotees were put in prison.
I was uh lucky enough not to be in the same batch. But when I came back from Moscow, I was studying in Moscow, I was doing my PhD degree in Moscow. And uh and I had to leave because of this difficulties.
KGB didn't allow me to uh continue with this uh uh degree. So I went back and uh the secret police KGB uh intelligence
service of Russia they called me for interrogation and they wanted to know how I interact with devotees, what they're doing. They basically wanted me to report to them on a regular basis.
So I refused and they said to me that I have to come to them I don't remember, every second week. So I had to come to them for this, and it was it was psychological torture.
There was no physical torture, but psychologically it was very difficult because they knew the psychological tricks, how to scare yourself,
how to scare you, how to push you into something which you don't want and so on and so forth.
So and usually when you would come to them, the you know the session would last two, three hours, they would ask you questions and you you know and you you will have to either answer or to say no, and it was very difficult.
So I remember I would come to them every second week for this and I uh usually I would be very very fearful before coming to them. I was shaking in my boots, I would come, you know, and the
conversation would start, and the person from the KGB would be very powerful and he would ask very powerful questions and I would be shaking there. But then at one point I would feel that you know,, Krishna save me.
This complete total sense of surrender would overwhelm me because I understood that it's just impossible, it's too heavy, too hard.
And immediately when this feeling would come, when I would remember Krishna and I would internally in my heart pray to him, please save me from this, immediately I would hear the voice of my
spiritual master chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra. It was amazing. And with this voice chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra inside, I would feel very cool and very secure.
And this change was practically, this transformation was practically immediate.
At one point I was shaking and I was very fearful, and then all of a sudden I felt very secure and very protected, and I would like, you know, sit like this and said, so you know, ask me more questions. What do you want?
And the person who were doing interrogation immediately felt the change. And I looked at him and he looked at me and he saw a change in me and I immediately noticed a change in him.
He became fearful because he would feel a very strange presence in me and this change in me. And he would be king he would become very insecure and his questions were, you know. Very timid.
And he would unwind uh the whole thing and said you go home and come in two weeks. So and this would repeat itself two or three times, I don't remember, two or three or maybe four times.
Every time I had this difficulty, and it didn't come immediately, but at one point I felt this very acute sense of surrender because uh there is no other way. I have to surrender.
And immediately this change and uh fearlessness would come to me. And then on the last time when I came to them, he again
said to me, in a very fearful voice, he said, because usually it would end, he's fearful, and I am very bold. It would start, I am very fearful, he's bold, and it would end completely opposite.
So he said in a very timid voice. Please come in two weeks. And I thought inside my heart and I said, why should I come in two weeks? I will not come in two weeks. And I didn't come and it stopped. Nothing followed.
So Krishna actually, you know, he he brings you to a very dangerous situation, but he also relieves you as soon as you surrender.
Serving the spiritual master through instructions
And you immediately feel his reciprocation when you do it. Second question to this is especially as at such times when we are facing separation from Guru Maharaj, how can we even come more closer to him?
Well, Prabhupada always said that the real association is the association with Vani, not Vapu. And in any case, during our lifetime. You know, Prabhupada only had five times association with Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.
So most of the time it's our meditation which brings us closer to the person.
There is this beautiful story in Prabhupada's life when his disciples told him that his god brothers criticized him for not coming to the Samādhi Mandir of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī whenever he was in Māyāpur.
And when Prabhupada heard this criticism, he became furious. He said, these people don't understand that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda, he's always behind my back. I always feel his presence.
Because he's fulfilling his mission. He is doing what the order of his spiritual master. And therefore he felt the presence of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī very acutely.
Probably more acutely in America than even in Mayapur or in India because he was doing his mission. So if you have this consciousness that whatever I'm doing, I'm doing because I'm following the order of my Guru Maharaj.
So, what is the question of his absence? He will be present in your consciousness, in your heart, in a form of his instructions or his order. I'm totally convinced that it's possible.
These were the questions from Manu Prabhu from London and there is a question by Jagatji Vantru. Hare Krishna Maharaji how does how devotees in USSR taking Krishna consciousness so seriously despite of so many challenges.
While here in India, although not such not much struggle as compared to there, unfortunately still we are unable to take mission more seriously as we supposed to take. How we we can get more enthusiasm?
Among the devotees in this con there is a very small but very peculiar group of devotees. These are devotees of Indian origin, people of Indian origin, who have become devotees in Russia, in the Soviet Union, in Moscow.
They were students in medical colleges usually in Russia and somehow or other they would come to our temple and they became they would become a devotee and they would start chanting 16 rounds.
And then usually, you know, eventually, ultimately they would come back to India.
And I spoke with quite a few of these devotees and all of them, all of them, without any exception, inevitably they would say the same thing. They said there is no Krishna consciousness in India, Krishna consciousness is only there in Moscow.
So this is this is their impression. Why?
Exactly because of this reason because there is some external pressure and you have to you know to to be devotee in Russia you have to uh you know do some resistance against this external pressure.
When the situation is too comfortable and too easy, too cosy, then kind of people they become little complacent.
So, uh, really to become real devotee, you have to go to Russia and preach in Russia, or go to Africa, or go to some other place where it's not so comfortable because the external pressure helps you to become to grow internally.
It's like this when a child grows, if the his situation is too comfortable, he will never become a strong person. You know, he has to undergo some difficulties to become stronger. So some difficulties have to be there.
And Russia is a good place. It's still a very difficult place. Śrīla Prabhupāda, when he came for the first time and the only time in Russia, he wrote a very interesting letter to all his leaders.
He sent this letter to many, many leaders, the same letter, about his impression about Russia. And he said, people are good, but the government is bad. So, and that's a very good combination.
When the people are good, it means they are receptive, they are spiritual seekers, they really sincere and the government is bad.
So it's a very good combination because people are good and you you feel some, you know, success in your preaching, government is bad, you feel some pressure and you're not so free and you have to do some tricks and something like this and you always have to be careful and you are you know you're becoming stronger.
So in India now government is good, but people maybe not so good. Well, of course there are many nice people. but um yeah uh difficulties they help, no doubt about it.
Uh, Hare Krishna, Maharaja, there are three more questions if you have time that we can take. Yes please.
Overcoming the desire for leadership
Quickly we can take. So there is one question. How can uh we develop this attitude to just help devotees in their service to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
As I always seek opportunity to be lead, then sir, I will lead, you all assist. Please guide and bless to overcome this attitude.
Yeah, that's what I said, that's matsarya. Matsarya, I am the first, I am the leader, you follow me. You know, you cooperate with me, I am a devotee, cooperate with me for the sake of Prabhupada's mission.
Cooperate means cooperate with me, yes. So, it's, you know, I don't think I will say something which you didn't hear for at least a thousand and eight times in your life.
Just try, try to do it, try to become humble and to understand that
Krishna will never, it is set in the very second verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, paramo nirmatsaraḥ satāṁ, that Krishna will reveal himself only to somebody who is nirmatsara, who doesn't have matsary. Matsarya means the sense of superiority.
I am better than you. So, therefore, we have to apply conscious endeavors to get rid of it just by helping others, just by just by doing something and becoming happy by doing this.
Just do something for others without any expectation, as Bhakti Charumaraj did, and register the happiness which will be there in the heart.
See, we are programmed by the happiness which comes naturally when we are in a leading position. Yes, when we are leaders, some sense of excitement and happiness comes.
But the trick is that we should reprogram ourselves and for that we should neglect this, underplay this feeling of so-called happiness which comes from our leading role. And we should downplay this.
We should not really take it too seriously. We should not really brush it away.
And at the same time, the nice beautiful feeling which also comes to the heart when we do something in the service of others, inevitably we feel this, we have the experience. This we should emphasize.
We should try to remember these nice feelings, how nice it is when we do what we're supposed to do. So this is our conscious endeavors.
We do something good and we try to remember how Krishna within our heart is pleased when we do this. And because Krishna is pleased, we are also pleased. So we try to remember deeply this feeling.
And when this feeling will become very deep, saṁskāra, this saṁskāra will guide our life. This saṁskāra will help us to serve all the time because now we are driven by the saṁskāras of enjoyment.
We are programmed or used to to derive happiness from the leading position. So now we should reprogram ourselves. And basically it means we have to make this saṁskāra of happiness which comes when we do something for others very deep and very profound.
In this way we will be able to learn this, this is what I can uh recommend to you or answer. Maharaj for wonderful answer and guidance.
Experiencing Krishna as a living presence
Uh one question. Uh Maharaj, can you please share some of your realizations in Krishna consciousness which can help us deepen our conviction in Krishna consciousness?
Basically, initially, when we come to Krishna consciousness, Krishna is more or less you know a concept in our mind. And we definitely have to develop this concept by studying Shastra, studying Bhagavad-gītā, reading Prabhupāda's books.
But we also have to turn this concept into something much more tangible, something more real than just a concept. The concept is nice. It's also a very good thing to start.
But we have to really understand that Krishna is there every day in our life and he is involved very personally in our life.
Like Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, he recommends us to start our day with two mantras or maybe two, three, four, few ślokas he recommends.
The first thing which we should do in the morning when we just wake up, we should immediately say Jaya Gurudeva, chant praṇāma-mantra of our Guru Mahārāja, chant praṇāma-mantra of Śrīla Prabhupāda, praṇāma-mantras of all the guru-paramparā, to reconnect ourselves with them, to reconnect ourselves with this line of teachers through whom the spiritual experience is coming.
And then immediately after that he recommends to chant one
of the last verses of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Jayati jananī vāso devakī janma vādo yadu-vara-pariṣad svayaṁ dor-bhir asyānathārma This is the verse which summarizes Krishna's pastimes in the 10th Canto.
And the most significant element of this verse is the first word, jayati, which is in present tense. Krishna, who is known as the son of Devaki, who is living in
the heart of all living entities and in the heart of all the Vrajavāsīs, he is performing his līlā right now. In the present tense, jayati is in the present tense, as much as the verb charanti in the verse which we read is in the present tense.
The verb jayati is in the present tense. So it basically means that we remind ourselves by chanting this beautiful verse from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we remind ourselves that Krishna is not a concept.
He is not a person, historical person who was there 5,000 years back. He is present right now and he is performing his līlās and he is personally involved in our life.
So, and then if we tune our mind in such a way, we will be able to feel how Krishna is interacting with us. How Krishna is answering our prayers.
How sometimes Krishna comes to us all of a sudden when we chant and the tears start flowing from our eyes, and we realize, yes, Krishna is there.
So it's it's basically this: Krishna is right now here. He is right now where you are with you. He is in your heart and he is there and he is ready to help you and to speak with you as soon as you turn yourself to him.
And this is, you know, little story which I told from my own life shows this: that as soon as you sincerely surrender to Krishna, Krishna is helping you. So that's my recommendation.
Every day of your life, every minute of your life, try to understand. Krishna is there and he is a living force within this world, not just an abstract concept.
Hare Krishna, thank you very much for such wonderful answers. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much. Thank you.