Paris June 14 1974 Conversations
Devotee: I was raised up a very strict Catholic, going through Catholic school till I was fifteen years old, but I could not… They were trying to teach love of God, but I could not see that they were also loving God. Even the head priest, he was found having illicit sex relationships with one of the young nuns, and she became pregnant by that and he had to leave. They quietly sent him away without anybody knowing, but later on it came out.
Prabhupāda: That is going on everywhere.
Note–I was also raised up in Catholic schools and witnessed a priest who blooped the church with one of our high school nuns. At the end of our senior year all the boys/men had to go to some monastery for a weekend “retreat” for “purification” by attending rituals and going to mass daily and hearing the priests lecture to us. It was so boring, myself and one other decided to cause some mischief and we both got kicked out from there and had to go see our Parish priest-some Jesuit priest. When I got there he was smoking a very long and smelly cigar, we talked for 3 hours and he could not answer so many questions I posed to him. I concluded then that these people have practically no knowledge of God nor do they practice what they preach.
Devotee: And I saw, “What is the point? They are not even loving God.” They were teaching loving God, but I could not see it.
Prabhupāda: He said that Vivekananda was doing that. You said? Just tell him.
Nitāi: That once I met a little old lady on the streets of Denver when I was distributing books.
Prabhupāda: Old lady.
Nitāi: Very old. She was walking down the street. She was all bent over. And she asked me what I was doing, and I showed her our magazine and explained that we were teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and she said, “Oh, is this yoga? I remember way back when Vivekananda came here. Have you ever heard of him?” So we began talking about Vivekananda. She said that she was there when he made his tour. She was in Denver when he made his tour of the United States, and that he stopped there for one week and lectured. And she went there to see that meeting, but she said that all in all she was disgusted with him because he was so much attracted to the women. She said that he was victimized by the women. They were all trying to get him, and she said so when he went back to India he was a broken man.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he took with him three women. One of them was Sister Nivedita.
Devotee: Also you told us in India about Aurobindo and Ramakrishna. Aurobindo went also. Aurobindo, when that French woman came, he also fell to her, but just to cover it up he has called her “Mother” because in India, when you call someone “Mother...”
Prabhupāda: No, everyone knows he is mother and he is father.
Devotee: Yeah, right. And they don’t think… There is no question of sex. When they think of mother and father, they don’t think of these things. Also with Ramakrishna. He also had his divine mother. You told us a story in Calcutta that he was very debauched. In a village he used to chase the young women. And his brother actually made him famous.
Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to, not to be victimized by woman. It is very difficult.
Yogeśvara: Unless you are victimized by Kṛṣṇa first.
Prabhupāda: Yes. One who is, I means, what is called, captivated by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa, then he is not victimized.
yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde
nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt
tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne
bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca
Madana-mohana. Madana-dāhana and Madana-mohana. Unless one is captivated by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa he will be troubled by the arrows of the Cupid. Madana-dāhana. The Cupid is known. He has got arrow. If it pierces, then he becomes victim.
SB 1.7.7
yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ
kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣe
bhaktir utpadyate puṁsaḥ
śoka-moha-bhayāpahā
SYNONYMS
TRANSLATION
Simply by giving aural reception to this Vedic literature, the feeling for loving devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sprouts up at once to extinguish the fire of lamentation, illusion and fearfulness.