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KC Nectar - Feb 6 | |
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Excerpts from Sri Krishna Kathamrutha Submitted by Krpa "Boil the Milk" Excerpts from the letters of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada You can thin milk by adding water and you can make it thick by boiling. Now is the time for us to begin the boiling process. Now you know everything how to be a Vaisnava brahmana, now you must practice these thing or the whole thing will be a show only. Better to develop the small number of devotees we have, make them truly Krishna conscious boys and girls than to go on getting many followers who do not understand and practice the real principles. Better one moon than many stars. - Letter to Damodara, Honolulu 9 May, 1972 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am very much concerned that the devotees should be given all good instruction and knowledge of Krishna Consciousness, that is the duty of the GBC man. Better to utilize time and train the devotees, especially the responsible officers, and they can go out for preaching to non-devotees and making new devotees. But if they do not have any knowledge, how can they go out and preach? ... I am very much stressing at this point that all of my students shall be very much conversant with the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness, and that they should read our books very diligently at least one or two hours daily and try to understand the subject matter from varieties of angles. We are holding our morning class here in Los Angeles in the temple and I am speaking from 7 to 8 am, and the process is that we are going through some chapters of Srimad Bhagavatam by taking one sloka each day, and reading the Sanskrit aloud, each word is pronounced by me and repeated by the students and then altogether we chant the sloka several times until we have learned it. And then we discuss the subject matter very minutely and inspect it from all angles of approach and savor the new understandings. So you introduce this system in all of the centers in your zone, and you will discover that everyone becomes very much enlivened by these daily classes. Read one sloka and discuss and then go on to the next sloka on the next day, and so on, and even you discuss one verse each day it will take you 50 years to finish Srimad Bhagavatam in this way. So we have got ample stock for acquiring knowledge. And if the students get knowledge more and more, they will automatically become convinced and very easily perform their duties for tapasya or renunciation of the material bondage, and that will be their successful advancement in Krishna Consciousness. - Letter to Madhudvisa, Los Angeles 16 June, 1972 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yes, you have got the right idea when you say that your preaching work shall be directed toward the children and the devotees and not so much to the Dallas public. We may thin the milk till it becomes useless, or we may boil it until it becomes thick and sweet, so now we have got enough followers, let us train them up perfectly in the philosophy and activities of Krishna Consciousness way of life. Unless all of my students become very much fixed up in their spiritual progress, what is the use of so many programs for expansion? So you are the leader at Dallas, now it is your task to become very, very responsible for the spiritual well being of all of the students there, so Krishna will give you all intelligence and facilities to serve Him nicely if you are very much sincere to do so. This will please me very much. - Letter to Stokakrsna, Los Angeles 20 June, 1972. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Wicked Mind By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur From an English Lecture given at The Calcutta Gaudiya Math the evening of 7 Dec 1936 This wicked mind, which is never to be trusted, should be broomsticked every morning with such warnings as, "Be not anxious to find fault with others, or to declare thyself a true sincere, bonafide bhakta, which certainly thou art not!" There is an adage to the effect that "para-carccakera gati nahi kona kale - a man who is habituated to criticize others conduct will never prosper!" Let others do whatever they like, I have no concern for them. I should rather find fault with my own damned mind and think like the vaishnava mahajana [his father Thakur Bhaktivinode, from Saranagati] who sings: amara jibana, sada pape rata nahiko punyera lesa para-sukhe duhkhi, sada mithya-bhasi para-duhkha sukha-karo "Ever engaged in vicious activity... and without the slightest trace of virtue in me. A liar as I am, always sorry at others pleasures and merry at other's sorrows, troubles and cares." We should always remember this song and engage our mind ceaselessly in hari-bhajan. We should not run about attacking others with dissuading policy; such conduct behooves only deceitful persons and not preachers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vaishnava-ksetra Bhubaneswar-dhama Taken From Lectures by Srila Gour Govinda Swami We should not disrespect the demigods, they may not be the Supreme Lord, but they are still the servants of Krishna. Mahaprabhu has especially taught us this about Lord Siva, "Vaisnavanam yatha sambhu - Siva is a great vaisnava." Therefore Mahaprabhu visited Bhubaneswar and offered respects to Sivaji who is known as 'Ksetrapala'- 'He who guards the ksetra. In Vraja-mandala you will also find that nine Ksetrapala Mahadeva murtis are there. In Vrindavan you will find Gopeswar Mahadeva, in Kamyavana you will find Kameswar Mahadeva, and at Govardhan there is Cakreswar Mahadeva. In Nandagrama you will find Nandeswar Mahadeva, and in Mathura you will find Bhuteswar Mahadeva, Gokarneswar, Cakleswar, Brdhyeswar and Rangeswar. Besides these, there are many, many Siva temples in Mathura. In the Adi Varaha Purana it is mentioned how Lord Vishnu ordered Sivaji: "In Mathura you shall become Ksetrapala to guard My ksetra. If someone pays respect to you and has your darsana then he will actually get the result of circumambulating My ksetra." Those who circumambulate Vrindavan, at the beginning and at the end of the Vrindavan parikrama, they visit Bhuteswar Siva in Mathura because; vaisnavanam yatha sambhu - 'Siva is a great Vaisnava.' Bhubaneswar ksetra is also Siva's dhama. That is mentioned in the Caitanya-bhagavata. Therein Sri Vrindavan das Thakura has described Bhubaneswar. When Sriman Mahaprabhu was on His way to Jagannatha Puri He passed through Bhubaneswar. He visited the Lingaraj temple because that Bhubaneswar Lingaraj is a very dear servant of Anantadeva. Caitanya-bhagavat mentions: "Sriman Mahaprabhu came to Bhubaneswar and chanted and danced before Lord Siva in the Bhubaneswar temple." So following in the footsteps of Sriman Mahaprabhu all vaisnavas came here and visited Bhubaneswar to see Lord Siva. They all chanted and danced here. The Skanda Purana also mentions Bhubaneswar ksetra. Once, in Kasi, Varanasi, there was a King who was a great devotee of Lord Siva, but his desires where unfulfilled. That King underwent severe penances in order to conquer Lord Krishna. He was doing tapasya to satisfy Lord Siva with the desire to conquer Krishna. Who can understand the behavior of a vaisnava? Even the demigods cannot understand it, then what to speak of the human beings? Sivaji became pleased with the King's tapasya and told him: "All right. You go and fight against Krishna. I will follow you to support and help you." So that King started for battle, followed by Lord Siva and all his followers. Krishna, who is known as Vasudeva, Devakinandana, could understand all this. Thus He released His sudarsana cakra. Sudarsana first cut off the head of the king, and then that cakra cut off the heads of all the Siva bhaktas of Kasi. Varanasi turned into a crematorium ground with everyone dead. Lord Siva then became very angry and released his pasupata-astra. But what can the pasupata-astra do in front of Krishna's sudarsana cakra? It could not do anything, and at last Siva became frightened. He tried to run away, but where could he go? Then Siva understood, "Except for Krishna, no one can save me now." So he surrendered to the lotus feet of Krishna, Govinda, and offered many prayers. Siva said: "O Lord of my heart, I have only one prayer. I am always very puffed up and I have this great false ego. But now I have understood that I cannot leave You. I cannot stay anywhere else, so please tell me where shall I live now?" This is all described in the Skanda Purana and Sri Vrindavan das Thakura has also written about it in Caitanya-bhagavata. Then Lord Vasudeva says: "My ksetra is there at Purusottama Ksetra, and in the north of that ksetra is a place called 'Ekamra-kanana.' Ekamra-kanana, is a very auspicious place which can give one bhukti and mukti. It is a very nice and beautiful place. You will stay there and be known as 'Bhubaneswar.' I shall give you this Ekamra-kanana. You go and stay there and become the guard of that ksetra - ksetrapala." This Bhubaneswar is known as 'Hemacala', and 'Svarnadi Ksetra.' In this place there are crores and crores, koti lingam, of Sivajis. The eight famous tirthas are also present there. It is superior to Varanasi and more dear to Lord Siva. In the Svarnadi-mahadeva-grantha it is described that once Vyasadeva came here. This Ekamra-kanana is a vaisnava ksetra, so Vyasadeva has described its glories. It is mentioned that once Devi Bhagavati, Goddess Parvati, was hearing the glories of Ekamra-kanana from the lips of Lord Siva. So we know that also Bhagavati-devi came to see this ksetra. She saw the maha-linga, the form in which Siva is worshiped. That Linga has the complexion of half white and half black - sitasita varna. Devi also offered puja to that Maha-linga. One day Devi saw that from a lake hundreds of cows were coming and pouring milk from their udders onto that maha-linga. They circumambulated the linga and then went away. On another day when she saw the same thing again, she assumed the form of a gopalini, a cowherd girl, and followed the cows. At that time, two demon brothers appeared, named Kriti and Vasa. They were very much enchanted by the beauty of Parvati-devi and so they approached her and expressed their desire that they wanted to have her as their wife. Bhagavati-devi disappeared from that place and went to Lord Siva where she narrated everything before her Lord. Lord Siva then assumed the form of a gopa, a cowherd boy, and went there. Lord Siva then understand the history of these two demons. Lord Siva revealed that these two demons Kriti and Vasa were the sons of a raksasa named Drumilla. Drumilla had worshiped many demigods who became pleased and gave him a boon that his two sons could not be killed by any weapon. Sivaji told her, "Now they will be killed by you, O Devi. They will not be killed by any weapons so I cannot kill them, but you will kill them." Thus getting the instruction from Sivaji, Devi in the form of a cowherd girl came before those two demons and said: "All right. I shall fulfill your desires. But I have one condition: He who can carry me on his shoulder or head, I shall become his wife." Then Bhagavati-devi manifested her potency, placing one foot on the shoulder of one demon and the other on the shoulder of the other demon, and she crushed both of them. They were killed as Bhagavati assumed the form of Visvambari, visvambari-rupa. Visva means universe. She expanded herself as Visvambari and crushed the two demons. From that day Sambhu and Devi Bhagavati have stayed in this ksetra known as Ekamra-kanana. (Concluded in the magazine) [BACK] |