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| Srila Gurudeva in Italy |
My dear devotees, receive all my love from Italy. Today I want to talk about a subject called "Being careful with words". The words of a Vaisnava or brahmana should be used to instill enthusiasm. Not to challenge or seek confrontation. Nor to scold someone. Even a philosophical debate can be solved with kind words. We must be careful not to enter into a state of arrogance, believing ourselves to be better than others, thinking we know things better than others and that gives us the reason above others. That ruins all relationships and it is wrong.
A Vaishnava pronounce only sweet words that help to conquer hearts. Sometimes Vaishnavas use humor. Even Krishna makes jokes about his friend Madhu Mangal's addiction to ladhus when He misses him. Meanwhile, Madhu Mangal also mocks Krishna and says, "If you do not give me more of Mother Yasoda's ladhus, then I will not give you blessings so that you meet Srimati Radharani" Then Krishna becomes scared and gives all the ladhus that Madhu Mangal asks for.
In the pastimes of Krishna we can see very amusing situations in terms of words. But we will not find abuse. In the Bhagavad Gita, even Krishna explains to Arjuna everything from a philosophical point, be He never gives anyone ill. Not even to the demons. As Rama, the Supreme Lord told Ravana repeatedly to return Sita. And since Ravana did not agree, then the Lord had to kill him.
This also happened with Hiranyakasipu. Sri Krishna sent Narada Muni to preach, to his son Prahlad, to his wife Kayadu, yet the devil did not want to stop and kept trying to kill Prahlad. That forced the Lord to appear as Nrshimhadev.
We can clearly see that the Lord is always very polite. Mahaprabhu Himself was always very polite. Lord Caitanya did not argue, but he did conquer all with His humility. That is how He conquered the mayavadis from Varanasi: He sat down where they would put their shoes and when the mayavadis saw him, they called Him. The Lord said that He was very insignificant and that His place was with the shoes. But they insisted on calling Him over. Only with His humility was the Lord able to make all the sannyasis and mayavadi followers of Prakasananda to become Vaishnavas. And Mahaprabhu did not scold them.
When asked why Mahaprabhu sang the Maha-mantra, He said that when He got the mantra He could not stop singing and dancing. At that time He went to where his guru and said He was going crazy because He did not understand the scriptures, but He rather wanted to sing and dance. His guru told him that was very good and by already doing that He was in the perfection of life and should continue to do the same.
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was also conquered by Mahaprabhu. Särvabhauma was a very learned brahmana, but an impersonalist. Mahaprabhu came to hear from him for several days, without giving a commentary. Then Bhattacharya was surprised because Mahaprabhu did not make any comment and then the Lord said it was because He understood the verses, but Sarvabhauma's explanations were very confusing. Särvabhauma was very surprised by this and then Mahaprabhu gave 18 different explanations of the same verses that Bhattacharya had explained before, but this time everything had personal overtones. These are examples of the Lord's lilas that remind us again and again that we must protect our mouth. Never talk in a way that makes others sad.
On another occasion, Mahaprabhu was on a boat and read a comment that He Himself had written when he realized that one of the devotees was crying. He asked the devotee why he was crying and the devotee replied that he had also written a treatise, but now after listening to Mahaprabhu's his writing no longer had any value. Then Mahaprabhu through what He had written to the river so the devotee would no longer cry and said that "the most important thing is not who is right, but the most important thing is love" Therefore, my dears, be very aware of your words. Beware of the Internet because the virtual communications and virtual relationships of today people speak very ugly and easily make others feel bad. That is an offense. One should strive to become caring and sweet, sweet, sweet ... Krishna of course is the Lord of all sweetness.
Madhuram, madhuram, madhuram
madhurādhi-pater akhilaḿ madhuraḿ
(Song Name: Adharam Madhuram
Official Name: Sri Madhurastakam
Author: Vallabhacarya)
The Lord is sweet. His words are sweet. Their representatives are sweet. I hope you understand, my dear. From Italy I want to send you all a special hug. We want to strengthen the bond between the devotees of the Vrinda family, especially in the time that the 30th anniversary is celebrated. That is why the sweetness of which I speak is very important. I'll even share a tip with you: If someone provokes you or simply we do not tolerate the way they do things then we must get out of this relationship quietly, avoiding as much contact with that person. But always in a mature way, not leaving in an extreme manner (please) that you stop relating to your spiritual master because the other person is near.
It's very nice to correct someone who is wrong, but to be able to do that you must develop a special ability and really reach the heart of the other person, helping them understand your point of view without getting angry. Otherwise, it is better to say nothing. Our family is very large and obviously there are going to be conflicts at different times, but from the bottom of my heart I wish that things are handled and always guided by the compass of the will of Krishna. Even marriages. And do not handle things with the compass of the individual ego, because that only ensures conflict.
How then do we know what is the will of Krishna? How to receive His divine will?
It takes praying and meditating on the Lord, in your spiritual master and in the sadhus who care for the community seeking the welfare of all. So, this momentous compass will reveal the right path to follow. Always looking for the welfare of all. Principally the youth (children).
These 30 years have been pure mercy of Krishna and Prabhupada. Although we were heartbroken from the departure of Srila Harijan Maharaj, we managed to remain standing due to causeless mercy. So I want to state that all the devotees of the Lord are wonderful. If for some reason they do something that is the opposite of wonderful, we must try to forgive and preach to help them out of that mud. We know that there is much mud in this world and we should not condemn people who have been there.
Do not forget that we are completely dependent on the mercy of the devotees, we depend on them when we make a mistake in life. Even if someone has lost the association of devotees, all he did for Krishna is not in vain. Krishna never forgets His devotee. Devotees also never forget those who are in trouble. The correct view is that all devotees are wonderful and even those who are not devotees, they are in energy. This will help us to always preach with enthusiasm and love. Therefore, your mind will never have reason to be angry with other devotees. To be angry with others only discourages us in spiritual life. These are just tricks of Maya Devi. So, as I said in the beginning: Take care of your words always. Be very sweet and always preach. Preach and preach.
Have conferences at different levels, at each point of Planet Earth, in order to transmit to others all about transcendence. Teaching that everything they have can be used to serve Krishna. Do not forget, preaching is life. The opposite of preaching is inertia, selfishness, regression and boredom. What do I mean? Have a conference in the temples, in Nama-hatas, everywhere. And if you feel unable to give a lecture and preach, then presents videos of your spiritual teachers and distributes prasada; teach people to become vegetarians and offer food, show them the books and materials from SEVA .
We have great variety of materials. My service is to provide you all with the training materials you need, such as "healing sounds" and there are more than 100 different musical productions, Vrinda conferences in mp3, videos with Vedic teachings, conscious films. That worked very hard. If you do not have these materials in your preaching centers or in their homes, then you are deceiving people. You are not being true representatives of Vrinda.
People deserve and need all these materials. It is an educational issue. Krishna consciousness is not only presented with Sri Isopanisad. Srila Prabhupada wrote many books and it is the duty of every grhasta, every friend, every member of the temple to have all these materials available. If not, how do you think they are going to be distributed? The material of transcendental nectar is not sold in supermarkets and advertised on TV. You yourself are the representative of all that nectar. Be encouraged to preach, lest you end up dead.
Srila Prabhupada told the devotees that if they did not always continue preaching they would become hippies again. Imagine that. Those who have not begun to preach, those who have not done nama-hata programs in their homes, those who have not taken advantage of the yoga school for preaching, etc.. They have not been able to taste the nectar of the inspiration of Krishna in their heart and are unable to share it with others
If you do not preach, it is difficult to have a superior taste. There are three key points:
- Preaching.
- No pride (not feeling superior to others).
- Keep plenty of materials for preaching accessible.
Furthermore, you should be constantly learning about the latest news of the service mission of the spiritual master. And become an enthusiastic follower of the mission.
By the way, I want to share news about what we're working on in Varsana. At this time, in the temple of our Ishtadev in Colombia, they are building Trulys for their Lordships. We are all trembling with joy. We are trying to offer the most beautiful temples and all of you should be part of this service. It is something that will occur only once in the history of the Vrinda family, build a temple for our Supreme Lord, the founder of the mission.
This will be something historic and exciting. All that is needed is for the devotees to commit. That they all put in the effort. I myself have not been able to collect much for this project, but I'd give the opportunity to every devotee of the Vrinda family to participate, at least, with a donation of $5. Of course, it depends on your heart if you want to donate more. We are currently working in various parts of the temple, the devotees are doing a marathon in carving stones. It's really very important.
The other news I wanted to share is that in Sweden, the darling Manah siksa just released a beautiful new production that combines the beautiful poem "Reason for being" of Gurudeva Atulananda and his beautiful musical composition. This production is perfect, a perfect gift of consciousness. Ideal for distribution in sankirtan. Be whoever receives it that they will definitely marvel at it. I really loved it. Manah siksa actually did something unexpected with his beautiful angelic voice. This is an example of a Vrinda production of very good quality that should be present in any Chaski Fest event, in any Nama-hata and in any temple.
Those are some of the announcements of what is happening in the world of Vrinda. In the world of preaching and service. The service must always be sweet. Always positive and never doing harm to others. With these words I say goodbye for today. I just long for all my initiated children read this message. Perhaps I tire you all with many weekly posts, but what I do? I have the burning desire to share what my spiritual master gave me. Preaching is life and I want to live in that joy ... up to the point of
perfection.
Jay Srila Prabhupada!
Your always well wisher,
Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti.
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