Tridandisvami Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta
Narayana Maharaja
After the Morning Walk
San Francisco, California: June 13, 2007
[Sripad Sajjan Maharaja:] One of my god-brothers has a sentimental relationship
with another god-brother and accepts him as a siksa-guru. He is in saffron
cloth. His siksa-guru wants him to put on white cloth and engage in business and
get married. He is worried that he will have to give up being a brahmacari. He
is now attracted to your teachings.
I heard that if the guru tells you to get married, you can reject his order. Is
this true? Or, would the bona fide guru never give this instruction?
[Srila Narayana Maharaja:] Why is that guru saying this? If he were a bona fide
guru, he would not say this. He would say this only if he were not bona fide.
Reject him.
[Sripad Sajjan Maharaja:] Now this devotee is rejecting his siksa-guru and
accepting you.
[Srila Narayana Maharaja:] Why would a bona fide guru say, Oh, you are a
brahmacari; you should get married? No bona-fide guru has done this. Has Srila
Swami Maharaja told this? No; and I would never tell this. *(See endnote)
The bona-fide guru laments for that disciple, thinking, I warned him, but still
he married. Our estimation of him will be diminished. Understand?
If a person is engaged in Krsnas service and hearing sweet pastimes of Krsna
the life history of Prahlada Maharaja, the glories of Hanuman, the Pandavas, and
Uddhava, and superior to him, the gopis he should be able to give up material
life forever, as Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Srila Rupa Gosvami, Srila
Sanatana Gosvami, and Srila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami have done. We should follow
them.
We inspire disciples to give up worldly life and come here, and they do the
opposite. They take sannyasa and again marry.
If we actually preach the mission of our guru-parampara, we cannot deviate. If
you are chanting, but not preaching and not hearing hari-katha from superiors,
you must become weak.
[Bhagavat dasa:] In Badger 2004, you said that even if someone is worshipping
one hundred salagrama-silas every day, but he has no taste for hearing
hari-katha, then he will go down.
[Srila Narayana Maharaja:] Yes, he will distribute his salagramas.
[Sripad Srauti Maharaja:] You said it is like cutting a tree and giving water to
the different parts. Then nothing will happen.
[Srila Narayana Maharaja:]
yatha taror mula-nisecanena
trpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopasakhah
pranopaharac ca yathendriyanam
tathaiva sarvarhanam acyutejya
[As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs
and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses
and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead
through devotional service automatically satisfies the demigods, who are parts
of that Supreme Personality. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.31.14)]
If you give water to the leaves and flowers of a tree, but not to the root, the
leaves and flowers must die.
If you give water only to the root of the tree, the leaves and flowers
everywhere will be watered. If you give water to both the roots and flowers, the
flowers will rot. If you give food to your mouth and also to your eyes, what
will happen? It is better to put food in the mouth and not in any other part of
the body.
[Bhagavat dasa:] But Krsna can eat with His eyes.
[Srila Narayana Maharaja:] This has been told about the jivas (we living beings
of this world).
It has been said in the Vedic scriptures that Acyuta (a name of Sri Krsna
meaning infallible) is the root of the entire world. If you please, worship,
and serve Krsna, then the entire world is benefited.
[Speaking with Krsna-devi didi from Italy, who has just called on the phone:]
Hare Krsna. My heartly blessings to you, your daughter, and your sons. I was
just asking your husband about you. I think you are translating one of my books
now? You should preach and translate books.
Your daughter is okay? What is she doing now? I want to come again to Italy and
have a hari-katha festival there on the lake. It is very beautiful there. I have
just told your prabhu (husband) to arrange this, and we may come in the
summer-time. When your prabhu returns, discuss this with each other and make a
plan.
[Srila Narayana Maharaja to Sripad Srauti Maharaja:] You should preach boldly.
When you give class, think that those in the audience are like dry trees. Think
that they do not know anything. Then you can speak; otherwise, you cannot (you
will be too shy).
[* Endnote Brahmacari, the Homonym
From the beginning of the Krsna consciousness movement in the West in the 1960s
and 1970s, there was no real brahmachari asrama in Iskcon. Srila Prabhupada had
to gradually bring a very fallen material society to the point where the people
in general could follow varnasrama dharma. He did the miraculous feat of
sing-handedly introducing varnasrama dharma.
He gave saffron cloth to a man or boy from his very first day in the temple. He
wanted to encourage and strengthen the newcomers in Vedic living, and he wanted
to give society at large some semblance of a practical conception of varnasrama
(wherein young boys from all walks of life would live for some years in the
asrama of the guru, be trained in brahmacari life, and then decide when he would
become of marriageable age whether he would remain brahmacari or become a
householder).
Most of Srila Prabhupadas male and female followers were living together or
with many lovers in immorality. He wanted to bring them to a civilized life of
marriage, and to help them to become Krsna conscious in their married asrama,
and therefore he introduced the system of brahmacari training at first.
The standard of the brahmacari in Iskcon is different from the traditional
Gaudiya Matha standards. In traditional Gaudiya Matha practices, one wears white
cloth until one desires to become a full time or permanent resident of the Matha
(temple). Only after some time (some years) is he given saffron, when the
spiritual master sees that he understands the real meaning of bhakti, and
detachment from the world is manifesting in his heart. At that time he takes a
vow never to marry and to remain celibate. This is the standard of brahmacari
which Srila Narayana Maharaja is referring to, and Srila Prabhupada would never
approve of such a brahmacari marrying. ed. (based on Srila Prabhupadas books,
conversations, and lectures)
Editorial Advisors: Pujyapad Madhava
Maharaja, Sripad Brajanath dasa and Sri Prema Prayojana dasa
Editor: Syamarani dasi
Transcriber: Vasanti dasi
Typist: Anita dasi
Proofreader: Krsna-kamini dasi
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