(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Honolulu, January 20, 1974)
“If you love these material things, then you should know that you are not in love with God. If you are in love with God, then you’ll forget material love. That is the test. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). Bhakti, love of Godhead, the symptom is that he’s no more in love with material things. That is the test. You cannot… Just like you cannot love two persons. That is divided. One love concentrated, that is perfect love. Similarly, another example is given that we are all hankering after love. Because we do not find whom to love, therefore we place our love even cats and dogs. We love a dog. Anyone who has no other object to love — no children, no family, no wife — all right, keep a cat, keep a dog. But love is there.
So that love is deserved for Krishna, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So more we learn how to love the Supreme Lord, that is perfection of life. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ. And what kind of love? Ahaituky apratihatā: that love is not motivated, that ‘I want this thing; therefore I shall love.’ Here in this material world the so-called love, lust, is motivated: ‘I’ll get so much sense gratification; therefore I love a boy or a girl.’ That is not love; that is lust. Love means without any motive. Without any motive. Ahaitukī. And that, that love cannot be checked by any material impediments. Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā samprasīdati (SB 1.2.6). If you can reach that love of Godhead, then you’ll feel, ‘Oh, I am so fortunate.’ Otherwise we remain unfortunate. So love is there everywhere. Even in cats’ and dogs’ love there is love. But the perfection is when you actually find out the person to love and you actually do it, that is perfection.“
june 27 1976 New Vrndavana
When I was in India I heard it that if you go to see an important businessman, his secretary, while talking with that man, the secretary gives you a card that “This Mr. such and such cannot spare more than two minutes.” Is it a fact? Huh? Anyway, we should not waste our time, either you act materially or spiritually. But materially we have no business, although we have taken it the material business as very important and spiritual business has no meaning. This is the sum and substance of modern civilization. But so far we are concerned, not only we, everyone, the human life is only meant for spiritual purpose. Not for material purpose.
Today we have so many devotees who have opinions different than those of the founder of this Hare Krsna Movement, Srila Prabhupada. Some may say it wasn’t Prabhupada who began this movement, it was Sri Caitanya and all others in the param para. Of course Sri Caitanya began this movement in the modern age and Srila Prabhupada and no other , was the only one who took it out of India, and spread it worldwide. He is the one who is directly empowered at present, by the Supreme Lord and the param para, to spread the chanting and the philosophy behind how to chant and how to work in this world. If anybody has a problem with that, then they are simply envious of Srila Prabhupada. Let them go out and do what he did in 12 years, or even more.
Isopanishad 9 ––Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
PURPORT-This mantra offers a comparative study of vidyā and avidyā. Avidyā, or ignorance, is undoubtedly dangerous, but vidyā, or knowledge, is even more dangerous when mistaken or misguided. This mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad is more applicable today than at any time in the past. Modern civilization has advanced considerably in the field of mass education, but the result is that people are more unhappy than ever before because of the stress placed on material advancement to the exclusion of the most important part of life, the spiritual aspect.
Adi 12.9-Some of the disciples strictly accepted the orders of the ācārya, and others deviated, independently concocting their own opinions under the spell of daivī-māyā.
PURPORT-This verse describes the beginning of a schism. When disciples do not stick to the principle of accepting the order of their spiritual master, immediately there are two opinions. Any opinion different from the opinion of the spiritual master is useless. One cannot infiltrate materially concocted ideas into spiritual advancement. That is deviation. There is no scope for adjusting spiritual advancement to material ideas.
Some Final Conclusions-From the above two verses and purports we can see how a schism develops-the followers do not follow their leader anymore, thinking they know better, even though none of us is even a firefly compared to the Sun of Srila Prabhuapada’s radiance and influence. And then from these deviating ideas the so called followers develop by their mental speculation, the seeds of a schism due to having opinions different than Srila Prabhupadas. You can take 10 different devotees, and ask them how to answer a spiritual question, and probably get 10 different answers-if none of them refers back to what Srila Prabhupada had to say on that particular item.
Today it has become fashionable to just give your own opinion and not quote Srila Prabhupada. This deviance is most noticeable in the so called leaders of today. The overall proof that modern day Hare Krsna Movement has degraded back into materialism is that the so called followers no longer can follow the basic rules and regulations. Srila Prabhupada mentions above about loving God, or Krsna and if we do not have Him to love, then we will love some cat or dog because the propensity to love something or somebody is in every living entity. And that is exactly what we are seeing today. Some 50 years ago when Srila Prabhupada began his preaching here in the USA, a few random devotees had cats or dogs-before they joined up. Once a devotee began the process of bhakti or devotional service, the desire for a filthy cat or dog went far away. Back then nobody had a cat or dog. It was unthinkable. Now today, at least in USA, the majority , from what I have heard, have these cats and dogs. So what does that say about placing the loving propensity upon God? If it is misplaced, and it is at present, especially among our devotees, then how can love of God take place? This means, just from this one example that the devotees are not becoming cleansed, but are becoming more and more contaminated by materialistic associations.
What to do? All this can be changed and corrected immediately , at least individually, if each person simply follows the Acaryas orders in the matters for purification. He told us, everything is there in his books, all his instructions for all of us. We simply have to follow them
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
