Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa
Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.28.33
Srila Prabhupada glorifies Srila Sanatana Goswami
Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa
Srila Sanatana Goswami Tirobhava Tithi [disappearance day]
First Month of Caturmasa
Vyasa-Purnima
Tuesday, July 19, 2016 Mayapura, West Bengal time]
anupama-vallabha, śrī-rūpa, sanātana
ei tina śākhā vṛkṣera paścime sarvottama
SYNONYMS
TRANSLATION
PURPORT
Śrī Anupama was the father of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī and youngest brother of Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī and Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī. His former name was Vallabha, but after Lord Caitanya met him He gave him the name Anupama. Because of working in the Muslim government, these three brothers were given the title Mullik. Our personal family is connected with the Mulliks of Mahatma Gandhi Road in Calcutta, and we often used to visit their Rādhā–Govinda temple. They belong to the same family as we do. (Our family gotra, or original genealogical line, is the Gautama–gotra, or line of disciples of Gautama Muni, and our surname is De.) But due to their accepting the posts of Zamindars in the Muslim government, they received the title Mullik. Similarly, Rūpa, Sanātana and Vallabha were also given the title Mullik. Mullik means “lord.” Just as the English government gives rich and respectable persons the title “lord,” so the Muslims give the title Mullik to rich, respectable families that have intimate connections with the government. The title Mullik is found not only among the Hindu aristocracy but also among Muslims. This title is not restricted to a particular family but is given to different families and castes. The qualifications for receiving it are wealth and respectabilityi
Srila Prabhupada explains his first Ratha-Yatra in Calcuta as a child
Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa
Srila Prabhupadad: And that is the inspiration of my devotional life. Then I asked my father that “Give me Radha-Govinda Deity; I shall worship.” So my father was also Vaisnava. He gave me small Radha-Govinda Deity. I was worshiping in my house. Whatever I was eating, I was offering, and I was following the ceremonies of this Radha-Govinda with my small Deity. That Deity is still existing. I have given to my sister. So then I introduced Ratha-yatra. So I… My Ratha-yatra was being performed very gloriously. My father used to spend money. In those days ten rupees, twenty rupees was sufficient. I hired one kirtana party, and a small friends, they…, I think the brother of the present generation, and there was another De family here, so we performed this Ratha-yatra ceremony. According to our children’s imagination, it was very gorgeous. So I think our present Manmohan… His name is? Gabhur Bhavana? [Bengali] Gopishvara Mullik. That Gopishvara Mullik was my father’s friend. So he was criticizing my father that “You are performing Ratha-yatra ceremony and you are not inviting us.” [laughter] So my father said, “That is children’s play. What shall I invite you? You are very big man.” So, “Oh, so you are avoiding. In the name of children you are avoiding us.” On the whole, this Ratha-yatra festival was very gorgeously… Then imitating me, the other, my brother like, Kangalu[?], he also introduced Ratha-yatra. And… Kangalu. [Bengali] So all of them introduced Ratha-yatra, and the destination was this Thakurbari, from there. So practically what I am doing now, the same thing, Radha-Krsna worship and introduction of Ratha-yatra. I am not doing anything else. You know very well. We are now performing Ratha-yatra ceremony practically in all big cities of the world: in San Francisco, in…
Srila Prabhupāda: Philadelphia, London…
10 Conclusions to BG by Srila Prabhupada in a 1947 letter
Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa
Ten Conclusions of Bhagavad-gita- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
To summarise the conclusions of Bhagavad-gītā, it may be said that:
1) God is one and everything is in him and he is in everything.
- To render transcendental service unto God is to serve everything that be, just like to water the root of the tree is to water the different branches and numerous leaves of the tree, or [just like] to supply food to the stomach is to vitalize all the senses and the sense organs of the body.
- The parts are automatically served when the whole is served, but when [only] the parts are served the whole may not be served.
- The parts and the whole [are] eternally related, [thus] it is the eternal duty of the parts to render service to the whole.
- God is sat-cit-ananda-vigraha, the all-attractive cognizant and all-blissful eternal personality. He is a recipient of the services of his parts [the living entities]. He can reveal himself by his own potency, without any help of the external potency called māyā, in order to be cognizable by the limited potency of the parts, and as such he is not only the greatest of all but he is also the smallest of all. That is his prerogative.
- ) He is better realized when by his causeless mercy he agrees to descend in this mortal world, but he is never realized by the speculations of the empiric philosophers, however systematic and long-termed their speculations may be.
- Sri Krishna is the Personality of Godhead and is the summum bonum cause of all causes, proved by facts and figures in the statements of Bhagavad-gītā, but he reserves the right of not being exposed to the sensual speculations of the empiric philosophers.
- 8) One should therefore surrender unto him if one wants to know him as he is. That is the real process for the infinitesimals to approach the infinite.
Issue - Sri Krishna is easily available by the religion of love, i.e. by love and service as conceived by the damsels of Vraja, who had practically no education whatsoever, much less any claim for high class birth-right.
- The highest service that can be rendered to mankind is, therefore, to preach the philosophy and religion of Bhagavad-gītā at all times, in all places, and by all people. — Letter to Raja Mohendra Pratap, 13 July 1947.
Srila Prabhupada regarding the only qualification for Krishna Consciousness
Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa
Srila Prabhupada letter, February 13, 1969
The Universal Conception of Sri Guru
Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa
His Divine Grace Abhay Charan Das (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)
The Universal Conception of Sri Guru
The following speech was given by Abhay Charan Das before the members of the Sri Gaudiya Matha in Bombay, in February 1936, on the occasion of the appearance anniversary of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.
– The Universal Teacher –
saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair / uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya / vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya / vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
“In the revealed scriptures it is declared that the spiritual master should be worshiped like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this injunction is obeyed by pure devotees of the Lord. The spiritual master is the most confidential servant of the Lord. Thus let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of our spiritual master.”
Gentlemen, on behalf of the members of the Bombay branch of the Gaudiya Matha, let me welcome you all because you have so kindly joined us tonight in our congregational offerings of homage to the lotus feet of the world teacher, Acaryadeva, who is the founder of this Gaudiya Mission and the president-acarya of Sri Sri Visva-vaisnava Raja-sabha—
I mean my eternal divine master, Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja.
I mean my eternal divine master, Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja.
Sixty-two years ago, on this auspicious day, the Acaryadeva made his appearance by the call of Thakura Bhaktivinoda at Sri-ksetra, Jagannatha-dhama at Puri.
Gentlemen, the offering of such an homage as has been arranged this evening to the Acaryadeva is not a sectarian concern, for when we speak of the fundamental principle of gurudeva, or acaryadeva, we speak of something that is of universal application. There does not arise any question of discriminating my guru from yours or anyone else’s. There is only one guru, who appears in an infinity of forms to teach you, me and all others.
The guru, or acaryadeva, as we learn from the bona fide scriptures, delivers the message of the absolute world, the transcendental abode of the Absolute Personality, where everything nondifferentially serves the Absolute Truth. We have heard so many times: mahajano yena gatah sa panthah (“Traverse the trail which your previous acarya has passed”), but we have hardly tried to understand the real purport of this sloka. If we scrutinizingly study this proposition, we can understand that the mahajana is one, and the royal road to the transcendental world is also one. In the Mundaka Upanisad [1.2.12] it is said:
tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigaccet
samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham
samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham
too young, too much in love, too busy, too old, too late
Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa
SB 2.1`.2
Those persons who are materially engrossed, being blind to the knowledge of ultimate truth, leave many subject matters for hearing in human society, O Emperor.
PURPORT
In the revealed scriptures there are two nomenclatures for the householder’s life. One is gṛhastha, and the other is gṛhamedhī. The gṛhasthas are those who live together with wife and children but live transcendentally for realizing the ultimate truth. The gṛhamedhīs, however, are those who live only for the benefit of the family members, extended or centralized, and thus are envious of others. The word medhī indicates jealousy of others. The gṛhamedhīs, being interested in family affairs only, are certainly envious of others. Therefore, one gṛhamedhī is not on good terms with another gṛhamedhī, and in the extended form, one community, society or nation is not on good terms with another counterpart of selfish interest. In the age of Kali, all the householders are jealous of one another because they are blind to the knowledge of ultimate truth. They have many subject matters for hearing-political, scientific, social, economic and so on-but due to a poor fund of knowledge, they set aside the question of the ultimate miseries of life, namely miseries of birth, death, old age and disease. Factually, the human life is meant for making an ultimate solution to birth, death, old age and disease, but the gṛhamedhīs, being illusioned by the material nature, forget everything about self-realization. The ultimate solution to the problems of life is to go back home, back to Godhead, and thus, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.16), the miseries of material existence-birth, death, old age and disease-are removed.
The process of going back home, back to Godhead, is to hear about the Supreme Lord and His name, form, attributes, pastimes, paraphernalia and variegatedness. Foolish people do not know this. They want to hear something about the name, form, etc., of everything temporary, and they do not know how to utilize this propensity of hearing for the ultimate good. Misguided as they are, they also create some false literatures about the name, form, attributes, etc., of the ultimate truth. One should not, therefore, become a gṛhamedhī simply to exist for envying others; one should become a real householder in terms of the scriptural injunctions.
The Wheels of Life-Birth Death Old Age and Disease —
Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa
“Here, everything in the material world, everything is born, it remains for some time, it grows then dwindles then vanishes. So this is not very desirable. But unfortunately, the modern civilization, they do not know. They are very much proud of advancement of knowledge, but they do not know that the cause of suffering is this body. They do not know. And they do not know how to make a solution of this material existence. Therefore parābhava. Bhāgavata says all their so-called, nonsense advancement of civilization is defeat. Defeat. Lord Jesus Christ also said like that, that “If one gains everything and then loses his own soul, what does he gain?” Similarly, parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. A man’s life is defeat only. However he may be very expert in driving motorcar day and night, this way and that way, very busy man, but if he does not inquire about his self—”What I am? Where from I have come? Where I have to go to? Why I am suffering? Why I am put to this disadvantageous position?”—when one does not inquire for all these things, then his activities are defeat, only defeat. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness will save not only humanity but the living entities from this disastrous position of repeated birth and death. The Bhagavad-gītā, therefore, they stress on this point. Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam:[Bg. 13.9] “You are very much proud of your knowledge, but if you want to be at all a man of knowledge, a man of wisdom, then you should first of all keep before you the problems of birth, death, old age and disease, because your so-called advancement of knowledge cannot make a solution of this birth, death, old age and disease.”
LA lecture Jan 13 1969
Srila Prabhupada: Parampara Means to Accept The Prominent Acarya
Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa
Parampara Means to Accept The Prominent Acarya
Guru-Parampara – the disciplic succession
Spiritual knowledge descends through the disciplic succession from Krishna. The representatives of the disciplic succession can not change anything, add anything or subtract anything. Otherwise the disciplic succession will be broken and their preaching will have no potency. Many times in the history this disciplic succession has been broken because the representatives of the disciplic succession did not correctly pass on the knowledge to their students.
We can understand how perfect knowledge can be received. This information is given to us by Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the Bhagavad Gita, particularly in Chapter 4 Text 1 and Text 2
1) Kṛṣṇa, 2) Brahmā, 3) Nārada; 4) Vyāsa, 5) Madhva, 6) Padmanābha, 7) Nṛhari, 8) Mādhava, 9) Akṣobhya, 10) Jayatīrtha, 11) Jñānasindhu, 12) Dayānidhi, 13) Vidyānidhi, 14) Rājendra, 15) Jayadharma, 16) Puruṣottama, 17) Brahmaṇyatīrtha, 18) Vyāsatīrtha, 19) Lakṣmīpati, 20) Mādhavendra Purī, 21) Īśvara Purī, (Nityānanda, Advaita), 22) Lord Caitanya, 23) Rūpa (Svarūpa, Sanātana), 24) Raghunātha, Jīva, 25) Kṛṣṇadāsa, 26) Narottama, 27) Viśvanātha, 28) (Baladeva) Jagannātha, 29) Bhaktivinode, 30) Gaurakiśora, 31) Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, 32) His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. (Introduction to “Bhagavad-gita As It Is”)
Srila Prabhupada’s Divine Lotus Feet
Submitted by: Padmapani Dasa
“The lotus feet of our spiritual master are the only way by which we can attain pure devotional service. I bow to his lotus feet with great awe and reverence. By his grace one can cross the ocean of material suffering and obtain the mercy of Krishna.”
(Sri Guru-vandana Verse 1, Srila Narottama dasa Thakura)
“The dust of the feet of a devotee, the water that has washed the feet of a devotee, and the remnants of food left by a devotee are three very powerful substances. By rendering service to these three, one attains the supreme goal of ecstatic love for Krishna. In all the revealed scriptures this is loudly declared again and again. Therefore, my dear devotees, please hear from me, for I insist again and again: please keep faith in these three and render service to them without hesitation. From these three one achieves the highest goal of life — ecstatic love of Krishna. This is the greatest mercy of Lord Krishna.”
(Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya-lila 16.60-63)