Love is always beyond calculation & the message of God's love. 6/28/15. Miami.

Dear Devotees,

A big hug from Miami Mandir,

The divine principle of fault comes into all of our minds on great frequencies of life; sometimes it gets stuck there, continuously. love is a need. Love is a thirst, more intensive than thirst itself. Love is life, and life is air. And if your love for air is much, as high, as your love for love, then you know which way to go. As soon as someone chokes us we pray, “air, air,...give me one breath of air otherwise I will perish.” So if you compare air with love what is more important? Air you get life after life, again and again, but love is what we are looking for. air we hardly even notice we don’t pay attention to it unless we lose it then it becomes worshipable at once, but love is the sum and substance of each jiva and each soul’s search. It is a very intensive inner process and  we don’t know much about it because we are in the world of sensual perceptions, captivated by egotistic sense gratification, which has turned our idea of love into lust. And the scriptures emphasize this again and again ‘lust is the opposite of love’, don’t equate the two or you get the wrong idea. Caitanya Caritamrta. deals with this subject, Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam,

anyabhilasita-sunyam

jnana-karmady-anavrtam

anukulyena krsnanu-

silanam bhaktir uttama

(BRS 1.1.11)

sa vai puḿsāḿ paro dharmo

yato bhaktir adhokṣaje

ahaituky apratihatā

yayātmā suprasīdati

(S.B. 1.2.6)

So many slokas deal with the quality of love being something exclusive, something to strive for, something to give everything for. And what do we have to give? We have to give up our ego, our selfish planning, very tough, very tough. there is a story in the mahabharata about one family who was in peril. That peril could be solved by one person sacrificing himself and they all wanted to sacrifice themselves for the family because they loved everybody so much and someone question that and the son answered, “yes to save a family you have to sacrifice one member, to save a village you have to sacrifice an entire family, to save a country you may have to sacrifice one entire village, and to save yourself you have to sacrifice the whole world.” That is the analogy given in the mahabh. so what does it mean to sacrifice the whole world? Sacrifice your desire to enjoy and control the world. you renounce the world by saying yes i want to serve the lord, serve the love that maintains the world, i want to see the world god centered, i want to see the world in connection with its original cause. The original cause of this world is also love. we need to understand that the principle of love is absolute cosmic tattva, prema tattva, cosmic tattva means it's inside the gene of every soul of everybody of everywhere it is omnipotent, it is omnipresent that need for love. and for that love we have to give up the entire world. That is called self realization, it’s really incredible no? Can you in a catalog that you can get, a little love dose? No. Love is always beyond calculation. even the perverted reflections of love is beyond that. You cannot tell another person how much can i pay you that you will love me? People get the wrong idea that ‘I can pay someone to have sex with me that means i can pay someone to love me.’ that is bogus, pure b.s. you cannot even buy the love of a dog. well, they say that when you give them dog food and the dog is wagging the tail and jumping happily, “i love you, i love you”, but he is not saying i love you he is saying i love your food.

Srila Prabhupada tells a story which is not so funny: When people die in the street in some places, then the dog comes first to find the dead body, they bite off the nose tip because it so soft, they lick the skin because it's salty and they bite the nose. So when the dog comes to lick you, oh he loves me so much giving me kisses, but he is just licking the salt of your skin, he is a dog. I don’t know if he will eat your nose when you’re nose when you’re dead. I don’t know i can’t tell that, if there is some sympathy from the dog because you gave him so much food. Interracial feelings, interspecies feeling, they cannot satisfy. even though it sometimes looks like it. For example, we celebrate the dolphin which apparently loves, or the dog, the cat, the horse, there are so many stories but interspecies, to a certain degree, is an invasion in the privacy of others. Does the little dog want to be carried in the arm of the lady? Is the dog really comfortable there? You would have to ask the dog, but the dog sees another dog, and he wants to play with another dog, because that’s what a dog life is all about. imagine they pick you and put you, for your whole life, playing with rhinoceros, how would you feel? So it is a question, that here we see that there’s an incredible drive inside of us, and that drive is looking for love, and if you don’t find divine love, you will try to find it in any area, anything goes.

When you’re mad for love and you don’t know how to go about it..and then we hear from the scriptures that you can only get love if you only give your heart completely, if you surrender to love, otherwise there is no possibility, it’s like you’re asking for a deal, that i give you 5 and you give me 5,000, people look at you, what’s happening to you? how can you expect I give you 5000 and you only give 5? what kind of deal is that? so love means you have to give everything. in marriage you have to give 50/50, by the law. you get married, ok 50% of your stuff, whatever you have, now goes to her. and now a days they try to avoid that by all kinds of law, but that was the tradition. when you want to relate in the highest love, it’s not 50/50 it’s 100, you have to give yourself 100%, fight your ego 100%. That's divine love a relationship with god. no reservation, no need, He already knows what’s best for you, that's why the son never asks the mother, hey mother so how much i owe you? Can you imagine a son asking that to his mother? mother, can you write me a bill for the last 20 years? The mother will feel so insulted with such a question, so insulted. You want to put a price tag on my love? Sorry, i don’t go for that hmm. you agree with me? Its impossible to evaluate a mother’s love, and so many other’s, mundane examples, mundane in a sense because it’s temporary,worldly, because at some point the mother or child dies, and over the years the feeling becomes less intense. Its something you have to give full recognition to and to love itself you have to give the fullest recognition. That’s what the holy scriptures teach us.

Love thy Lord above everything, with all thy mind, intelligence, heart and soul.Love Him with everything. And don't forget your neighbors, love thy neighbor as thyself. That is a very good one. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Isn’t that beautiful? Why not love another person like yourself, if they are your brothers and sisters. How does it work? You can love them like this when you love god above everything then this is easy because then we all become like a fraternity. The deepest and deepest felt fraternity like an eternal brotherhood./sisterhood. We don’t aspire for friendship, for example, take this krsna nanda das there, I know him now for almost 20 years, maybe less, but for quite a while, but do I only what to know him in this lifetime, or do I want to know about his welfare next lifetime? If there is some deep appreciation, you want welfare for everybody not just in this lifetime but for the next. That is why the devotees have transcendental philosophy. They want the best for everyone and that’s why we are trying to connect to the divine.

Only in the divine world is this type of generosity to be found where we all belong to each other and we should always belong to each other. Whatever i have i want to share with you, that's a very high state of consciousness. Now, do i want to share my dress with you? no because it is only a one person dress. its not a question of physical things. sharing is on a higher level. Of course, I may want to share my food with you, that's fine, but really sharing, means the higher things, the loving issues, which concern me forever in the highest level, that I want to share, and I want you to have and that is something that connect us eternally because then we can really rejoice the higher substance if we are ready to share it eternally.if there is no way no way I can let you go. god does that with us, He says, “there is no way I can let you go, I give you free will, but I go with you as Supersoul and I will be with you, and look after you, and I will bring you back home, back to Godhead, only if you are willing to come, I am ready to help you.” This is something which we can observe from the scriptures:

sarvasya cāhaḿ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo

mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaḿ ca

vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo

vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham

(Bhagavad Gita 15.15)

“I am in your heart, i give you knowledge, i give you memory, i let you forget if you wish so, and I give you the knowledge about Myself, and I will give you that knowledge by all the Vedas from which I am to be known, and I am the knower of Vedanta and I am the giver of Vedanta, I am everything. I am everything for you, and you are everything for Me, but I am the Lord of Lord, the origin of everything which exists in every individual. Therefore, I am love personified.”

How can you not love the one who has given life to all of us. What do you mean love? ‘Oh reverence, I believe He is so great, so admirable, i have no words to find for the marvels of His existence. and then He responds, “You know what I don’t want your awe and reverence. I want your feeling, i want your bhava. I have come to this world as baby krsna and that you will fall in love with me, or I am dancing with the gopis, come on join our dance. All full of divine loving feeling, the Lord is inviting us. Awe and reverence is okay, we can have it, yes yes, why not, but it’s not to the liking of the Lover. Father, father, when the little son stands in front of him, “father you are so great, you are so unbelievable.” perhaps the father feels flatter for a moment, but then he says, come on shut up and sit on my lap so I can kiss you. This awe and reverence gets in the way. One time, my guru explained that, the viceroy of India, he was in his office, and the prime minister came, and the prime minister came to say something important. The viceroy is like the representative of the king, and the prime minister came into the office and the secretary said, “sorry he gave strict orders that no one can disturb him.” So the prime minister said, “but i am the prime minister, I need to talk to him.” Sorry he gave me strict orders that no one can disturb him.” So the prime minister is pacing up and down and again asked, and again she said no, and then he loses his patience, and walks by the secretary and opens the door to the viceroy’s office and what does he see? The viceroy is on the carpet on all fours,arms and legs, like a horse, and his grandson is sitting on his back saying, “run horse, run horse!”  The prime minister thought, “that was the secret, that’s why i was not suppose to disturb. Our supreme commander is playing horse, a very intimate issue.” So do you think God has intimate issues? Do you think He has something, that He wants to be close to you, why not? You want to be close to everybody. its not enough to say hi to Giri, no, hi Giri, that’s just a hello.

Nowadays people give each other hugs and hopefully people know what that means, when they go heart to heart. Not just a fashion. We want to hug someone, we want to nurture someone, care for someone, that is the nature of the relationships. That's why the fingers have such an incredible sense of touch because you can just sense someone when you touch them with a finger. and you feel some pleasant response, they have accepted their affection. of course this is just the skin touching. I am not talking about the transcendental level because at that level it is the highest of all and it cannot be conceived by words. Words are very poor unless they are words about god, krsna katha,thats a different story. When you are talking about God, it enters into a different realm, called sabda brahma . And if you’re lucky you can receive sabda brahma and feel a higher energy which emanates from that which is not produced by sound vibrating instrument, but produced by the heart called sphurta vana. Sphurta Vana is beyond the realm of science, its spiritual science. It is the inner vibration, the inner love, the inner care, and that care for the Lord for us is so incredibly high. That’s why He has given His own love into our heart. Man is made under the image of God, so there is a potential in us of love giving up everything for our love, sacrificing everything that is there, and that is required. You want a cheaper version, well, then get a sticker on your car that says, “I love New York.” Okay you love New York, very nice. But the love you are looking for is divine love, face the facts and act upon them. You want a cheaper version, no doubt you can get many cheaper versions. And with those cheaper version we are suffering because we know they are cheaper versions.

Srila Guru Maharaja used to say told us don’t settle for less, you are the son of nectar, you are born by the origin impulse of nectar, you are destined to taste the divine nectar of love, don’t settle for less, but be ready to give everything from yourself and pray, its all prayer, we can only be saved by this divine prayer, repentance for our devious activities and attempts to find another type of love. Selfish love, what is selfish love? A very strange thing, it’s just having fun, enjoying the moment, a peak sensation, taken in intoxication, masturbation, oh now I love myself, it is really cheap, but it is capturing the mind because of the lack of real love. When there is real love and there is real sacrifice there is no time for such silly things. Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu have brought us some understanding of real love by sharing with us, that they are committed to this highest love, by sharing whatever we can with whomever we can regarding that highest love. That is why I have chosen this subject: Real love, sacrifice for it and sharing it, and then you will be busy for the rest of your life. And there is no time to turn back, there is no reason for it, and there is no remorse that it will ever come to you, not possible that when you go into the light that you will end up in darkness. So when you are going for the nectar of love you will not end up being lost somewhere, but watch out tests will come, many type of tests along the way, the more you advance the more tests will come to finally check you out. Are your real? Is that what you want? What did you want before? Oh, you want love, divine love, you want? Wonderful.

Then the Lord will definitely send someone to you to teach you about this divine love. And he will teach you about atma nivedana, atma means the soul, and nivedana means the soul surrendered. You know what soul surrender is? What means surrender? That is a very very heavy term. It means we are in a fight, a big fight, and already so many of our family have died in the fight because we were really fighting, fighting, fighting, he wanted to kill me, and i wanted to kill him and then he decides to surrender. What does he do? He takes a white cloth of his dhoti and hangs it on his roof. Surrender! And that means when he comes out, his hands are up, and now I am surrendered. Hmm..okay he surrendered, so now what are we going to do with the guy? Feed him, because he is almost dead, perhaps he surrendered because there was no more food, who knows, but now he is under my shelter. A moment ago I wanted to kill him and now I have to feed him, educate him, look after his children, see what his health situation is, and even provide him with a house. Something like that. Any questions? I know this is a very intensive subject. And I don’t seem very qualified to speak about it or listen about it, but it is too hot to drink, but too sweet to leave. Something like that. Divine topics of our inner higher identity is very taxing. And the most amazing thing which catches me is that when you understand that loving God is so high, then you come to grip with the idea that the similar love intensity can and should be applied to each other because you show your love to Him by showing love to the people around you. It’s not, “Oh I love God, I love God, He is so great, sorry the rest of the people I don’t care so much for.” Like one of my friends, he says, ‘the more I know about man the more I love my dogs and that is not fair because you should love your dogs and you should love man, you should love everyone. That’s the message of God’s love, it’s not that you have your preferences.

I thank you very much for coming here today, I need all your love to go with me to Cuba. To distribute love to Cuba I don’t have much experience, but I can imagine how much love is required, I can just imagine. It is the same everywhere it just has a Cuban flair, and the Cuban history. In my heart I went there many many times because there are our dearest brothers there, because in Miami we are half Cuban anyways. There are so many Cubans here, so those who live in Miami, must know something. But Cuba is another side of the story and like I said I have been there many times in my mind, in my plans, I have had quite a few Cuban students in Miami, in South America, in Mexico, students who studied in Cuba, so how to give divine love freely to the Cubans is the task which I am praying to find the answer.

Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya!

Your always well wisher,
Ba Paramadvaiti Swami

Meditation on S.B. 4.25.12 on 4/5/2015

Dear devotees:
Today I share with you this meditation from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 4 ch. 25 Text 12 (http://vedabase.net/sb/4/25/12/en1)

Just as the living entity tries to obtain more and more gratification, so he continues to bind himself more and more. Puranjana, the living entity, his situation is very clear. If you're eager for sexual activity, you will feel that marrying is not enough. So in your next life you will get an ape body and you have a girl in every tree. Or as a rooster calling his chickens. They say they have 50 hens. You can have self-gratification in the body of different living species. The fish dies by mouth, because what we he eats is from the water. Whatever species you are, a lusty snake, cock or a man is the same thing. It's only variety. You can get a variety of bodies life after life, but never feel satisfied. Because the longing for love that is required can not be met in material circumstances. But the Lord is Love personified. Just to look back to Him one has transcendental pleasure. Is it sensual? Yes, transcendental sensuality.

Prasadam is sensual, dancing, feeling a devotee. We are not against the senses, Krsna is Hrsikesh, He gives us the senses. Even the reproductive organ is a sacred body part to bring more of us here. Everything is perfect. We should not become confused. We are confused by lust, promiscuity, but do not become confused with the marriage. We welcome young people to have wonderful marriages. Every marriage is celebrated in Vaishnavism. Sure, with austerity. In the Asram of grhasthas, the woman is who cares for everything. The difference between bramacari ashram and grhasta ashram is that there is a woman behind this. It's like heaven and hell. With this sense and order, grhasta is heaven.

Almost every woman, when she have a house makes it look like a heavenly little place. Where do women get this from? The Visnu Priya Ashrams are in the middle. What we are learning here is that we can never be satisfied . Vrindavan is the Divine Family, it is not a mess of bramacharis, it is the place of divine pleasure of the gopis and gopas. And that's what Krishna likes; He loves clean rivers, jumping into rivers from the trees, He also likes flowers and fruits, jewelry and stones, and Govardhan Hill, and vines, climbing the walls doing everything green. If we talk about aesthetics, Krsna is the best. There is no accumulation of unnecessary things. Everything is there for the pleasure of Krsna, it is good, it is useful, and can be accommodated. Thus, the beauty of Vrindavan is that it's a place you do not want to leave and you only  want to help make it more beautiful. And everything in the world of Krsna is organic, everything is real, real silk, real bamboo, real gold. Nothing is false. Life is a fantasy for them. Today everything is false-costume jewelry.

But this is real, this flower, the designer put a lot of patience. So we want to enjoy, but we never feel satisfaction. Nothing in this world will give us complete satisfaction. Sometimes humans are very extreme with their commitments. For example, it is common for people with lots of money to have personal protective armor. It's not uncommon. As a man gets a lot of money, he starts buying weapons to protect his wealth. What is the purpose of the weapons if you do not use them? So you need your own army. Starting with a band of people in the neighborhood who end up being real criminals. There is no comfort here, but the temple of Krsna is wonderful.

Srila Prabhupada Ki Jay!

Your always well wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami

I pray to Krsna that you regain this appreciation 03/23/14 From Miami

                                                           Conference.

My dear devotees , Greetings from Miami Mandir.
Happy to meet again with the devotees of Miami, after nearly two months of many activities in India.

To keep a family together in Vaishnavism, it is very important that the people that you do service with know that you appreciate what they do. And more importantly, that you continue appreciating what the spiritual master is doing and a lot of that depends on your good example.

If, perhaps for years or other reasons, a devotee loses interest in what the spiritual master does and stops listening to his lectures and stops reading his weekly messages, it means that one way or another something inside him needs attention: what if you have a girlfriend in your life, she sent you a letter and you, you don't even read it?

In relationships of heart to heart one should tell one another all the time " I love you, I'm happy that you exist, I am grateful that you care about me, I feel that you are for me the encouragement that makes me get up in the morning and encourages me to do things again and again."

Just as when the spiritual master receives the disciple with a hug, with a smiling face and words of encouragement. He wants to know how you been, what you need to be happy. The fact that the spiritual master has this concern about every devotee makes one remember the direct presence of Krishna within us. Do not forget that along with the spiritual master is the entire spiritual family: the spiritual brothers, spiritual uncles, the spiritual grandfather, the spiritual great grandfather, the holy scriptures, the deities that the spiritual master installed and installed so that we can worship, the holy name, devotional songs, the gayatri mantra ... a beautiful and unique culture of its kind.

If I lose appreciation for all that or if I feel bored (most likely it is due to bad association), something starts to die inside me and I start to get into an area of ​​danger. At that point I have to wonder how I will recover and feel the beautiful things I felt when I danced in the kirtans with my brothers or when I would go do Sankirtan for extra hours to connect more people with Krishna Consciousness. When I endured the discomfort of a cold and still got up at mangal artik not wanting to spend a day without receiving the darshan of the Deity in the morning. Those beautiful moments when I did not have my mind invaded on negative thoughts and justifications, in bad times usually caused by bad circumstances or living with other devotees.

You know, even among brothers there are fights for no reason when they are children, and so cohabitation always has hard times, trials and hardships, but those details do not matter to the Supreme Grace that is Krishna Consciousness. That is why contact with the spiritual master is so important, not only with the spiritual master but also with other devotees who love and appreciate your work, and those who are encouraging you to do the same. Do not forget that the spiritual master has the task of transforming you into a spiritual master also. Such a task when one has to observe his own consciousness!

Therefore, how will he transform you into a spiritual master if you do not even notice that one's teacher is working in such a way?What reason could one give to stay away from your spiritual master? Could it be that there was some misunderstanding? Is is that you really talked to him for an explanation of what you did not understand? Did you give your spiritual master the chance to show you the affection that you need?

Or was it your material desires that flourished and that made ​​you decide not to go to your spiritual master or to his devotees because they expected some contribution toward the plans of Krishna Consciousness? While you had no desire to contribute anything.What was the trap of Maya that got you?

Well remember that Krishna just wants your heart, he wants nothing material from us, yet He allows us to participate in His many marvels that he is organizing on this Planet Earth. Wonderful and varied things. Just seeing what has been done in Vrinda family and other missions for the expansion of Krishna Consciousness is so wonderful. Sure, there will always be imperfections, but problems exist to solve them one: that's why problems ultimately are blessings. But let's move ahead anyway, because as they say in South America:"do not go back not even to build momentum".

We will always strive to make something beautiful, because if we do not do something nice then we only do something ugly and that's not good. Furthermore, if you're not preaching, you're not giving others a chance to feel love for Sri Guru and the Vaisnavas, so you're not communicating the message nor allowing other people to connect. Then your life has no meaning nor can you produce much joy for others. Your life is a precious diamond which can brighten the darkest places and thus give life to the hearts of others. Chances are you are suffering from loneliness, and he who does not give something very deep and significant to others will not have any company committed to him. Well, even families get bored and move away from one another when there is no concern in the relationship. So loneliness, especially in old age is a terrible thing.

What is the solution against that?

Always speak about Krishna and surround yourself with people of any age who want to share in an arati, in prasadam, the guru 's mission and the latest instructions from him.

People watch news and read the newspaper every day, meaningless news like someone who made a goal somewhere in the world and a name of someone you do not even know. Yet people look at such mindless news--all those things that you consume. Well of course we need to hear news, but the soul needs spiritual development, devotees like Yuga Dharma and Thakur distributed 600 Srimad Bhagavatams in a single day in Venezuela, that should be a reason to jump for joy and so we should congratulate these devotees who are on the street preaching intensely in Venezuela. But if you do not hear or find out about what the brothers of your spiritual family are doing, if you do not contact them, then loneliness and boredom will invade you and only the karmic news is going to generate some kind of satisfaction. Sure, the world news only reports things so ugly that when you read them you think "there, luckily this is not me and things aren't going so wrong in life", but that's just more nonsense.

In other words, the nectar of the devotees, the nectar of the latest publications of SEVA, preaching nectar, the nectar of the worship of the deity (like Syama Mohini and Vishvanath and La Merced in Mexico that made a beautiful onyx altar), such news is worthy and should be celebrated, jumping and dancing.

I pray to Krishna for you to regain this appreciation and that you spend time to know what happens in your family. Our spiritual family has grown a lot and every time I visit all the temples less ( although I wish I could visit more), I can not even visit all countries that there are temples, nor can I write very long letters to the devotees. I remembered disciples of Srila Prabhupada, at the end of his life, started recording because he could not go to their countries.

More service and more expansion of the mission requires more advanced devotees to put the energy into more place where a siksa guru is needed. Because the diksa guru can no longer appear. And as the diksa guru and siksa guru go in the same direction, then the devotees will naturally feel gratitude to perceive that there are people who are sacrificing themselves for the beautiful cause of bhakti. With these words I leave you today, I hope that it does not sound trite to say things you may have heard many times. When I repeat it, it's only because it is the inspiration that comes to me at the time. Thanks for reading these lines.

If you want to make me a special favor, I ask you to distribute this letter that comes from my heart to all of the devotees who are not as connected at this time.

Thank you for accompanying me on this journey of service to my Gurudeva.

With all my affection.
Jay Srila Prabhupada!
Your always wisher,
B. A. Swami Paramadvaiti .

Ten Years in Chat via Hotline 11/10/13 From India

Topic : Ten Years of Chat via Hotline . From India. 10/11/13

                                 Conference from Yamuna Kunja .

Sri Vrindavan Parikrama , ki jay !

Vrindavan is very beautiful , very wonderful . If you knew a little more of the story, you could feel a bit of what I feel . The temple that we recently visited ( Chaitanya Mission) looks like a replica of a real temple of Jagannath Puri. I was doing service there a few weeks before, and then I realized that Srila Bhakti Vaibhav Puri Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada 's spiritual brother, was in town wanted to buy that building. At that time I was a little sad because the temple had been there for 8 years, even had bought it ... It was a simple temple at that time and now it has become one of the most beautiful temples in Vrindavan thanks to the wonderful work of the sadhus who have made this temple so astonishing. Now it is a cultural wonder what has happened in Vrindavan .

Today is our traditional Sunday Chat from Yamuna Kunja . I remember many years ago when we first had our first Chat Sunday from this place, which was coordinated by Gour Kesava and I was very impressed that from the place of the 6 goswamis I could sit and give a lecture to all the devotees of South America. We are celebrating the 10 years of Chat via hotline . First of all we must say a big " All glories to Pancatattwa prabhu " and here we are giving a big hand to him for creating this platform chat . And yet we continue to use the same software, which is still wonderful.

My message today to all of you is this ...

Ten years of chat via hotline is an incredible achievement, which allowed me to keep in touch with my spiritual family around the world for ten years continuously . So, for 10 years we have been able to send messages to all of you. I am very grateful to you for having read these messages and more grateful to implement those messages.

Thank you very much for helping me create a family that has no limits, where each country welcomes us ... where each friend who wants to become a guardian of Mother Nature can enjoy the company of you Many thanks to all of you for giving this message of love to others. Thank you very much for being brahmacaris, vishnupriyas, grihastas, vanaprasthas, maharanis or sannyasis . Thank you very much for chanting Hare Krishna, I know that you yourselves are the biggest beneficiaries of them, but still I thank you, because thanks to your chanting you make it possible for us today to have a spiritual family .

This is really a center of the Gaudiya Math in Vrindavan ( Yamuna Kunja ) because one can hear the divine songs coming from every corner. I thank also those who distribute books everywhere, I thank Pancatattwa for creating this communication system, because thanks to him I can share my heart with all the devotees. I also thank all the chefs who have cooked both prasadam to all the devotees.

Thanks to all the devotees living in the Eco Villages and work for them. Thank you very much to all who serve as pujaris with faith in the deities. Our kind of worship is so simple and humble compared to other types of worship, but if I think of people like Prem Kishor in Berlin , my dear Radha Tulasi  en Varsana, we could continue to worship Krishna in many places and, by the mercy of Radharani, we can continue worshiping .

Thank you very much to all those who make the dresses for the deities, to all who make websites and keep them alive to so that we can all know what everyone is doing for Krishna and learn from them and gain more inspiration.

Thank you very much to all those who work hard at their jobs and do not forget Krishna and rather give donations to expand Krishna Consciousness . Your contribution is very important and greatly appreciated. Thank you very much to all children who give us their wonderful company. They have had a special fortune to be born in Krishna Consciousness and now, they are growing, they must decide what kind of responsibilities take in Krishna Consciousness.

All these children have given us their very beautiful company. The other day I spoke with Nimai , the son of prabhu Kanka and mother Vrindavanesvari, who has been with me since birth and is now he is a father and is working to take care of his family, his mother, his sister and expand Krishna Consciousness ... who is always near and dear to my heart. What else I can say , there are many people so talented and great artists ...

These children have given us many joys ... to see them grow around us is a joy .

I also ask forgiveness from our children, because in this movement have not taken the time for you and we have not been able to establish the education that you deserve ...Even you have grown and can see how much we love you though and everything I've done in my life has been for you. So you can understand that we have not forgotten you. I pray to Krishna that future generations can devote time to children.

I want to start organizing soon good schools, under the House of Wisdom, not only Krishna schools , but schools that preach the love of God, that can not be destroyed by sectarian people . For that we need highly qualified people in the Vrinda Mission to run it. Thank you very much to all sannyasis, that even with a few years old, have accepted the renounced order to support the Vrinda family within their capabilities .

You have given me what I am trying to give my Guru, beautiful years of existence in the form of devotional service to establish the glories of Lord Caitanya in this world. That's a big sacrifice, especially when everyone is running after money , sense gratification , etc. . You have given the valuable years of your life to establish the Vedic culture in different cities. I am grateful to all of you on behalf of Srila Prabhupada.

Just as Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa from Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaj, who took sannyas from Srila Sridhar Maharaj and I also took sannyas from Srila Sridhar Maharaja and you have taken sannyas from me, it has become a very intense relationship. Of course, I must thank all our previous acaryas and all the writers of beautiful songs .

I also thank Srila Harijan Maharaj who gave me so much love and Atulananda Acharya, such a wonderful devotee as well as a great writer and poet . What more can I say about someone who accompanied me on this journey of love.

I can not think of a single time I had been displeased with Srila Harijan Maharaj and neither Atulananda I can say that . Instead, whenever I found them my heart felt the same joy as though I was coming in contact with Srila Prabhupada again. Srila Prabhupada gave us so much, it is unimaginable how such a man can give so much to everyone. He gave us Vrindavan ... and now we are here in Vrindavan, there is no place like Vrindavan worldwide. You know, we want to clean Vrindavan and offer to unveil even more of its beauty, but beyond that, there is no other place in the world as Vrindavan .

Srila Prabhupada gave us the task of going through the world as Krishna's representatives. He gave us such incredible faith, even if we do not understand much, yet we speak and preach to others. What can I say, Srila Prabhupada knew what he was doing and he made ​​a deal with Krishna... He told Krishna 'Krishna , if you do not help me in this mission , I'm going to complain to Srimati Radharani.'

I believe that Krishna was scared of it and said : Ok, Ok , I'll help you to do the impossible.

Srila Prabhupada gave us Vrindavan and gave the world . ... and then gave us the task of bringing Vrindavan to the world , and then gave us the task of bringing everyone to Vrindavan.

Jay , Jay , Jay

He gave us the Maha Mantra .

He gave us the purification of our existence.

He gave us an over abundance of prasadam.

He gave us our best friends.

We got the most beautiful architecture .

He gave us the wonderful dancers for Krishna .

Many forms of worship of Krishna, all from the Srimad Bhagavatam.

Someone who has been so generous to us, how can we forget it ?

I do not think that I can repay my debt to Prabhupada in this life, it will continue for life. Well without him I could not have known Krishna.

Therefore I  want to do something for Srila Prabhupada with blessings from you.

With the blessings of the Vaishnavas . I want to push any good idea that comes to us for the service of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna . And to all those who help me in the offices that are doing the work that I could not do for myself, you have become essential for this. I know that sometimes I have tired you with my insistence, but still, you continue helping me with this, now all I can give at this time is a small piece of dokla (Indian pie ) to celebrate this wonderful meeting at Yamuna kunja in celebration of  the 10 years of the Hotline Chat .

I pray for many years to come , where we share the news of the progress of the conditioned souls who are trying to become pure bhaktas .

Appreciativeness is not a  Vaishnava act, it is an incomplete thank ... instead of thanking one should say, I belong to you, do with me what you want ... so I put myself in service to you so that I may serve my Gurudeva :)

Haribol !

Hare Krishna , Hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna , Hare Hare

Hare Rama , Hare Rama , Rama Rama , Hare Hare

I want to remind all the family members Vrinda we decided to close all personal facebooks not have anything to do with a special service with a program.

Well that only 20 people are present in the Chat is very little, if they are on Facebook and are so in Maya , that they prefer to listen to the instructions of their spiritual master and that seems to be a very dangerous symptom. That is a decision we make and if anyone has any desire to use a facebook, it should represent a project. As the theme must be really in devotional service.

Before closing one's facebook  one should explain to all readers who are transforming their facebook to a Facebook dedicated to service and they do not want to lose their life in this game of "likes " and " do not like" .

With these words we close the chat's session today from Yamuna Kunja .

                                                                                                                                 

Your always well wisher,
Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti .

Project of Gouranga Radha Vrajesvara From India 10/27/13

Dear devotees

Because you are all Vrinda Family members, today I will talk about one of the major projects we are developing : The project of completing our offering to Their Lordships Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara . This is an offering, most of all, artistic and loving, despite heavy expenditure involved in the construction and development of the ceilings, etc. . , it is completely a gift of love from the entire mission.

You know, I like architecture of natural style, simple. For me, we should all live in natural caves, but there are not many caves for it. Only Siddhanti Maharaj in Spain has a cave which is a great temple in Palma de Mallorca, we also have a temple of Sri Nrishimhadeva in Eco Truly Park, but not enough for all to live there :) Also, in cities like Medellín we have built our own caves or oasis of Krishna Consciousness . However, the temple of Gauranga Radha Vrajesvar is different , because it is the birthplace of the Vrinda Family and therefore it is very important.

By Krishna's  arrangements and unexpectedly, as it was , the idea of making an offering a temple to the Worshiipable Lordships that, and at the same time, it is an art installation with the pastime of Gopakumar travelling history . The same way that the realization of project of the Yoga Planetarium in Peru which came years ago and gave us much joy in its result..It ended up being something very appealing that has touched the hearts of many people . Now that the Vrinda mission has expanded to many parts, it would be a very nice service for everyone to identify and participate in one way or another in this great task, with the heart in the service of Sri Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara . It does not deal with Lakshmi or arts themselves , is something from the heart , as we are building this beautiful temple with no employees, only with devotees who are currently involved.

The temple of Sri Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara is the site of many important meetings, for example, now in January next year we will host the international meeting of the Eco Villages of America, where all the people who are seeking a more natural life come and are going to gather in Varsana. Before that, in December will make a kiwa (meaning the temple of the heart of Mother Earth ), a temple style that originated in ancient Mexican tradition which will towns will participate throughout the Americas . It is of utter historical importance that the people of America come together and build a temple of worship to Mother Nature in Varsana , 8 meters from the Temple of our beloved Lordships. Sure, we support this and gave all the facilities to do so, but it was not our decision , it was theirs.

Then , we must realize that Sri Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara is opening another dimension to touching the hearts of people around the world, so the temple construction work is crucial, whose importance has not yet been completely understood by the devotees of Bogota and Colombia, not even by our promoters of Inbound tours who are very good but have not yet grasped the value of this project for the Yoga process itself. It is so important because the aim of this Yoga Planetarium is to demonstrate the development process of love of God, Bhakti Yoga , which will cause a lot of impact on people . It will help to involve people in the development of consciousness, in spiritual growth, commitment to Mother Earth and animals. It's as if all eyes are going towards to Varsana . It's of so much potential that it can unite the loving spirit to protect our planet.

You can see something important and Varsana is a sanctuary to the Huisca tradition, a place of worship that is very important even for native people. And the formation of stones we have in what is now the park "Krsna, the winner of obstacles " is also of great importance . It is a Huisca sanctuary Huisca also. When I was in the Sierra Nevada of Colombia and met the shrines of the Arhuacos I realized that the Varsana site was really important and the mamos and the grandparent huiscas confirmed it as well. As a place of prayer, invocation and payment, it is always a very special place .

Therefore, the act of putting the story of Gopa Kumar as an offering to Mother Earth into art made ​​by a sincere and wonderful group of artists is something very special. Artists of the stature of Braja Mohan prabhu, Yadu Kumar, mother Radha Vilasini and many others of great capacity. A group of true artists of a spectacular category in skill nor do I know where they appeared from, but they were sent by Krishna . They are truly of level and quality. With all this you can see that it is a very special project .

Sure, the Vrinda Mission in Colombia is not alone, we have centers in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, over here in India with Paramahamsa Maharaj but Varsana is the center of our mission and there are key sites there such as the Samadhi of Srila Harijan Maharaj and many historical sites that mark our family .

Today, in this sacred precinct of Vrinda Kunja in Vrindavan , I was inspired to invite you to be part of the wonderful project of offering a temple to Radha Vrajesvar Gauranga . In truth , I'm not much to build great temples, I like to build sanctuaries to Mother Nature, build communities, build homes which are of rather pleasant atmospheres . I like the temples in big old houses with courtyards and gardens where you can grow and make a nice community. But in the end, the place where devotees chant the Maha Mantra and hear the Srimad Bhagavatam is a temple, whether it is a garage or anything . A sanctuary is the site of where sadhana is performed. Also, the temple of Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara is a site of sadhana where Nitya Kirtan Prabhu  is protecting the Yoga monastery, a sanctuary of human quality .

From Vrinda Kunja to Varsana I want to send this message to inspire one another about the wonderful things the devotees are doing ther. Varsana is the name of the place where Srimati Radharani lived , then the mere thought that our main temple has that place can transform the heart of anyone. I invite each of you who are reading this message to think about how they want to participate in the project of the Yoga Planetarium in Varsana . Personally I guarantee that all donations that are sent to it will be handled carefully and transparently. This is not a fundraising methodology, but it is an effort to unite our hearts around a beautiful cause .

Varsana has a long life and next year we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of our Vrinda Family, which was born in Varsana with the appearance of Their Lordships Sri Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara. This is what I share with you . You can participate in many ways, even spreading this same message. Thus energy and focus can help finish this offering . That would be something beautiful and wonderful you will be very happy because you are connecting with something that is really worth while. There is something that you have to remember and that is that the opulence of Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara is in all places where you carry the holy name of Krishna, it is not solely in Granada - Cundinamarca , but it is in any Planet no matter how far as long as the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is there. The opulence of Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara are all of you and the message that is being preaching in connection, in Santa Catarina , in Majorca or wherever  Lord Krishna has sent you, either as brahmacaris as grhastas as vanaprasthas or sannyasis, all that matter is that you are to be connected to Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara  and where Krishna has manifested for us , this is even difficult to understand for me, but Sri Krishna one can not understand, one can only admire, adore and be fascinated with Him.

My dear , the project of Gauranga Radha Vrajesvara is a bit slow, because there are many details to cover. Practically what we need to finish are the following:

- Finish the floor around the planetarium which is a very large area.
- Complete 16 secondary altars that mark the journey of Gopakumar and his teachings and a meditation on Krishna Consciousness . Each of these altars is double-sided (front and back)
- Finish the main truly and the main altar. Currently is at an early stage but already has 1.60 meters, which is a great start . Vijay Prabhu and Bhakta Prabhu who are building there are very dedicated devotees with special ability to do so. They have been very courageous in carrying out this project .
- Finish the job of every truly ceiling. We have been thinking about different options for these ceilings , there is nothing definite yet but recently commissioned some materials to try. Something a little modern but very nice that we can decorate .
- Complete coverage of the entire area of ​​the Planetarium .
- Produce gardening work throughout the surrounding area .
- Organize the parking area and reception.

That's more or less what is left to do is lot of work , but our way of building has been as "a living art workshop " therefore anyone who visits can see the Planetarium and also the work that these artists are doing. We do not want to be a construction site, but a large art studio where they can see the artists in action. So everyone is invited , from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego to participate in this beautiful offering. We are keeping all the records of those who have participated in one way or another, either as personal or representing their Yatras .

A beautiful divine plan, a plan for Krishna .

Today, from Vrinda Kunja , I wanted to share with you the hope that this project vibrates with our whole family, in every corner, with the greatest joy of life. Just as today we are with so much joy doing international Braj Mandal Parikrama this year has been totally blessed by many devotees who purchased economical tickets and could get here. That was a great mercy . Everyone talks of crisis, the crisis here and there, but with all crises and we have over 70 people in India doing parikrama . These are Krishna 's plans. The only crisis we have is to lose the desire to serve and lose the desire to chant Hare Krishna. That is a real crisis. The rest of the material world crises are usable by the department of " every cloud has a silver lining ." So we hope you are encouraged . You are invited to Varsana , if you want to drop by and give a little hand, we have volunteer groups organized by Prabhu Askalita weekly.

Thank you very much to all of you for sharing these words today .

I leave all my affection from Sri Vrindavan Dham .

Jay Srila Prabhupada!

Your Always Well Wisher,
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti

Institutional Authority vs. Authority of the Spiritual Master 7/7/13

Today I want to talk about a very delicate subject: institutional authority vs. the authority of the spiritual master. I read that in one Vaishnava institution the institutional authorities released a new rule, in which they say that the spiritual master should always be under the administrative and governmental rules of the institution.

Of course, we do recognize that spiritual masters are not independent. They depend on their own spiritual master’s blessings, on the sadhus’ criteria and on the scriptures in order to draw a truthful authority of conclusion. And of course, there is the inner consciousness, which is of top importance in any circumstance of life. Our inner consciousness, is not independent either - it has to associate, compare and check itself with guru, with sadhu and with sastra.

Why is this topic important? It is very simple: because people can commit mistakes. Even if they are sitting on the chair of the teacher – be it siksa guru or diksa guru, they can still commit errors. This is the reason why the scriptures have given this indication of assisted checking for when there is a question and there is a doubt, so to be saved from what we may call arbitrary speculation of an individual. Now, we may think “All Glories to Democracy”, because in this case we have a group of people who vote on a topic and in this way they supposedly come up with the right solution. If the democracy is a democracy amongst true and very sincere sadhus, it will actually have validity - the sadhu democracy may work up to a certain point. But if they are not, then we can see that even groups of people with voting powers can still make errors. In other words, they are not a guarantee that you will never commit a mistake.

Srila Prabhuhada, our most beloved spiritual master, is so extraordinary that he continued receiving titles even after his departure - such as Senapati (chosen empowered agent by Lord Chaitanya) and Shakti Avesa Avatar (empowered incarnation of Lord Nityananda’s spreading love potency). He has been recognized for his extraordinary contribution to the world.

Nevertheless, if you want to pick on Srila Pabhupada and find fault in him, you may actually be able to do so. If he gave sannyas to a person, who later failed in his sannyas, you could say –if he was trikalajna, somebody who has knowledge about the past, the present and the future, could he not have foreseen what would happen? Or what about his establishment of cow protection farms, which due to the circumstances later turned out to be unsustainable? Or how about establishing Gurukulas, where later some degraded individuals abused children?Didn’t he see that, didn’t he know that?

My personal answer to this is that Srila Pabhupada worked for his ideal with whoever Krishna sent to him and he gave them a chance – by telling them what to do and by giving the right example how to do it. So you could say that Srila Pabhupada never failed us. He gave us the love of his guru. But because he was preaching in the Western world, there was an incredible risk taken.

Whether you are in business, in politics or in a spiritual community, there are always trust issues: you have to give the keys to somebody; you have to give the management of the funds to somebody. In human life there are always trust positions which could be powerfully utilized for truly beautiful things, but which could also be misused. So considering this fundamental condition, we are very concerned to find some security measures to counteract abusive situations.

Fortunately, we have one safeguard in our system and this is Parameshvara – the supreme controller Lord Krishna. He knows everything and he is the benefactor judge of everyone. In other words, if you do wrong, he’ll judge you, but for your benefit. He will still make some arrangements, which will favour you in some way - and save you from your own faults. But even there we see that sometimes Krishna loses his patience - if we may dare say so, my dear Lord Govinda. In a sense He says: “This or that person’s earthly chance has come to an end for this round. He has to go and come again.” It’s up to Him, He is the supreme controller – and we are in safe hands with Lord Krishna. He sent us our spiritual master Srila Pabhupada, so that we have a solid foundation of how to practice Krishna Consciousness even in the degraded Western circumstances, as long as we stick to his safeguard instructions:
Number 1 is chanting Hare Krishna.
Number 2 – follow the 4 regulative principles,
Number 3 – keep reading the scriptures and
Number 4 – do service.

Without service even the chanting becomes a kind of “I’m asking for service, I’m asking for service - but when the service comes I’m not available anymore”.So the question of having an institution ruling above the guru has to be analyzed very carefully and also very generously. After Srila Pabhupada left this world and some of his leaders stopped working properly (to say it in soft words), some devotees suggested that it was best to eliminate the spiritual master function, and have Prabhupada as a huge major spiritual master of all present and coming devotees.

This proposal, that every initiation after Prabhupada would be a ritvik initiation, where the actual guru Srila Prabhupada, would practically equalize Krishna Consciousness with Christianity. There is the Son of God, he saved us all - of course we don’t accept that he died for our sins, so that we could keep sinning, this is another degradation of true spirituality. According to Christianity, you are connected to Jesus by coming in contact with one of His institutions with several different practitioners, of whom you may like some or be inspired by some, but they never become that fully important, because the fully important position is given to Jesus.

So the suggestion of putting an institution over the Guru is a very strange proposal in a sense. If you analyze it, it is not ritvik of Srila Pabhupada – it would be a representational initiation on behalf of an institution. Where is Prabhupada there? The institution has already shown faulty judgements on many past occasions – for example, faulty judgements in respect to Vaishanvas who belong to other Vaishnava institutions and are initiated by spiritual masters from the same lineage, but not from the same institutional framework.

There are plenty of other examples of grand institutional misjudgment that causes quite some havoc both in the individual life as well as in the structural thinking of the people who are educated under such a system. Excuse me for the comparison, but when the socialists created a system about educating their children, they gave them a kind of a package for dealing with life according to the socialist parameters. A capitalist existence gives another type of frame, and a totalitarian military dictatorship has another framework. And if there is a king, he might be like a dictator in one way, but may also happen to be much beloved and caring to all his subjects – all these circumstances put another framework of psychological guidance towards behaviors in that system.

So when institutions cast judgements which end up becoming systems, rules or regulations, it creates an impact upon the people who have to live under the influence of such judgements. It is different when you have a guru, be it siksa or diksa guru. Mark my words, I say both of them have the same validity to a certain degree – and Prabhupada wrote (or quoted Srila Jiva Gosvami) that it is an offense to see a difference between siksa and diksa guru. So this is a very important point.

I will tell you something from my own spiritual family, the Vrinda family. I initiate devotees, it is my service in this family, and then I move on my journey as a beggar of love to the next destination. The people I initiated stay behind with the diverse qualities of siksa gurus who are hopefully of the highest quality, but may not always be. They take care of the new devotees for the period of 364 days until I come back for 1 day. Of course, people can have contact with me in many ways through my teachings, and my question and answer sessions, which I continuously try to supply to the devotees, but nevertheless many devotees in our mission see me once a year for a day – and many of them even less, because I can’t visit every place for a day each and every year.

So who is looking after the devotee, who’s delivering the guru tattva? These are the siksa gurus, those very wonderfully surrendered devotees and good examples, who have taken Krishna to heart, like I took Prabhupada to heart – hopefully. I wish it may be so, because taking your guru to heart makes you a transparent via medium of what he is to you through the authority and supervision of Sri Paramatma, the Lord in the Heart. You have to understand one thing – all glories to Srila Pabhupada, but he is not the Paramatma. Being the greatest and the most beautiful of all spiritual masters in the history, never ever he had impressed upon us, that he is identical to Paramatma - and as a matter of fact he is not.

So this is a very interesting thing to take into consideration: that the final guide, quality guarantee and quality control of Guru Tattva rests in Sri Paramatma, Chaitya Guru, and all the others have a chance to participate by divine grace to deliver the divine goods of their Guru Tattva as they were able to appreciate them and as they were able to preserve them, and as they were able to deliver them to you and as you are able to receive them.

So there are quite a few steps built into the system, which are somewhat faulty, but because of the quality control and the quality guarantee of Sri Paramatma for his devotee, there is nothing to be feared. Just we have to know how to deal with the diverse circumstances as we proceed. And when my Gurudeva said that he wanted all his disciples to become spiritual masters, he was not joking. And also I can only second it, because to me everyone who has come to me is actually a disciple of Srila Pabhupada. That they are under my guidance and can maybe be inspired in their service by my existence is a special mercy upon me, so that I can be somehow useful for the Divine purpose. I don’t feel that it is more than that, but I don’t feel that this is little.

I feel that it is far, far high and incredible mercy if we can be an instrument of His love – that’s what we always pray for: Oh my Lord, please let me be an instrument of your love!”
This is what it’s all about. Anyhow – just as much as I can be so, you can be and shall be so too, if you are ready to go along with the requirements. It is like when you give a class in front of an audience, you are not the one who is doing the talking – at least you are not supposed to be – you are supposed to be the transparent via medium for your Guru’s message to be delivered. That’s why I always say “My dear Friends, please try to be a speaker on behalf of Krishna, because Krishna has given you the mouth so that you can deliver beautiful speeches on his behalf on Harikatha or even on Prabhupada Lila, for example. Krishna Lila Amrita, Prabhupad Lila Amrita – yes, to hear the glories of the devotees is very dear to the Lord.
Srimad Bhagavatam is full of stories about the glories of the devotees - and don’t think that telling the story of Prabhupada is any less ecstatic than hearing the story of Dhruva Maharaj. These are the extraordinary features that we are coming in contact with the high delivery of the mercy – and whoever gets the mercy, that’s a beautiful story, makes up for another conversion.

Of course, if I have been a Muslim before I met the devotees, this doesn’t make me immediately Haridas Thakur. There are a lot more certain things in the divine planning department, which is the plan that Haridas Thakur was Brahma, who by the mercy of Lord Gauranga had the chance to appear in His lila as the Nam Acharya but still, when Muslims convert to the love of Vaishnavism we rejoice. It as an extraordinary beautiful thing to happen. The whole world is one family. We all belong to one another. All sectarian “I am better than you” thoughts are not appropriate or applicable of how to deal with others in this world - something, which is often forgotten in institutional law making, and which is not so spiritual.

Like when an institution releases a law, which says: “You are not allowed to take siksa instruction from somebody, who is outside of our institution”. It sounds very similar to some political systems where you are not even allowed to know what the opposition proposes, otherwise you will be considered a betrayer and will be dealt with like a traitor. In a time of conflict traitors are shot, and in a spiritual institution those considered traitors are shunt, rejected, badly spoken about and denounced.

So philosophers and spiritual intellectuals have to deal with everything, including opposing views. If you are a Brahmin or a sannyasi and cannot deal lovingly with opposing views, then you become a frog-in-a-well kind of philosopher. You think “All that is happening in my well is my wisdom” but you know what Prabhupada said about the frog-in-the-well philosophers. If there are opposing views, we have to think about them and either refute them, according to Guru, Sastra and Sadhu, or accept them with constructive criticism of what we are doing.

If the truth is approaching in the form of an opposition towards my misgivings, then shall I reject the truth because it doesn’t come within the institutional frame? This is a very dangerous attitude. It means that you create a philosophical jail, where you are limited to the conception of often polluted interests of law makers, which then contaminate the whole possibility of having a transcendental vision - and it is exactly here where the spiritual master comes in. The spiritual master is a free thinker. He is a person with an individual personal realization and criteria, who can evaluate faithfully, according to Guru, Sastra and Sadhu, whatever he sees, plus he can adopt to time, place and circumstance to whatever circumstance presents itself, which can be even new to what his Guru had explained.

One of the best examples about it is called Facebook. Facebook definitely did not exist at the time of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Shridhar Maharaja. When I last saw my mother, who used to be illiterate about computers, she knew more about Facebook than me. I was very surprised but Facebook is a great Maya, a great illusion. It can really serve for getting Krishna, for losing Krishna, for wasting your time to an extreme. But at the same time Facebook can be considered a fantastic tool for announcing temple activities and for active communication with other people in the world.

So, we have Zuckerberg, the inventor of Facebook. He is a human being who became the instrument of delivering a technology, which is putting people in contact with each other like never before. And it became a disease - there are Facebook clinics already. There are people, who lose contact with the external world because they became too mesmerized with the technology and the “I like you”/“You like me” business.
The real substance of propagating Krishna Consciousness through Facebook gets lost, because such a person is not even practicing it at that point. But if a temple or a project uses Facebook to announce to thousand, two thousand, three thousand people their next activity, it becomes a very useful and appreciated tool. It’s a double sided sword, which can cut the right thing and the wrong thing.

Srila Prabhupada didn’t say anything about Facebook. So, does that mean that the new spiritual master shouldn’t say anything about it either, just because they should only say what Srila Prabhupada has already said? Such type of a concept kills the whole thing. The spiritual master has to have criteria of how to utilize the new technology. I am giving only one example but there are plenty of examples.

Time, place and circumstances may be favorable for development of Krishna Consciousness. The individual realization is the last checking point and that cannot be safely checked, when it is obvious that there is a deviation from the principles of Bhakti. I will give you a very extreme example but here we are talking the naked truth.

There was a guy, who considered himself a spiritual master, so he went from India to one Latin American country and started to give initiations. He was a nice looking young man and many of the girls he initiated fell in love with him and he also fell in love with them. But not only with one devotee - he fell in love with a few of them. He became lusty after several of them. He was with several of them. It is very embarrassing for a spiritual master but of course he was not a real spiritual master. One, who falls down for illicit sex life is not a spiritual master. The girls eventually found out that he was not falling down with only one of them, but with many. They felt cheated and, of course, they were cheated. Probably, he told each of them “You are the star of my life” and everybody wants to be the only star on the sky. When they found out that they were one out of many, the girls went together and denounced him at the immigration office, so he was kicked out of the country. His own disciples kicked him out of the country. You may talk about democracy, vox populi or whatever, but the truth is that his own disciples kicked him out of the country. The girls later took shelter from a very sincere senior devotee and continued their spiritual life.

So, yes, failure can be there in the individual spiritual master, and failure can be there in an entire institutional group of GBCs, coming together and casting the vote for this or that. Myself, I went through a period of my spiritual life, when I was under the voting system of such an advisory board. At that time there was a rule that nobody could be removed from the top system unless there was 75 % of the vote against him. I went through the list and realized that more than 25% of them were in questionable condition. Whatever they would vote about, they would not come up to 75% to remove somebody with faulty behavior, because more than 25% were with faulty behavior.

They killed themselves. They had created a system, whose guard process could not function anymore. There was no real safeguard - on the contrary, it was releasing faulty legislations and faulty guidelines. It was then that I decided to search for a Sadhu who can guide me, because I didn’t want my life restricted and limited to the faulty judgments of people, who prohibited me from following my own heart and understanding of what Srila Prabhupada wanted me to do.

Now I read that this absolutism was also applied to the individual spiritual master. Spiritual masters were demoted to be really just ritualistic mantra deliverers, because you can get the mantra from a tape recorder or from the mouth of anybody. Recordings have been used by Srila Prabhupada himself for some of the second initiations, when he was not personally present.

Some people said: Well, since it has been done while Prabhupada was there, why not do it also now, when he is not here anymore - it is still the same mantra with the same power. Yes, that’s true, it is the same mantra with the same power but the element of accepting the spiritual master is to surrender to somebody and to serve somebody. You say – no, you don’t have to serve Guru, you only have to serve the institution of the Paramaguru. That means all your service has been put in the framework of the abstract connection because you do not trust anybody completely.

This is another deficiency because the element of love and trust is instrumental. It is the key to giving yourself and being enthusiastic for spiritual life. And it goes both ways - the guru loves and trusts you because otherwise how would he tell you to go out and preach? If the guru thinks that you are just a bogus and you will talk nonsense or cheat people, is he going to tell you to go out and preach? Am I going to tell you to give a daily class about Krishna, if I know that all you are going to say is lies that confuse people? I would be suicidal then. So, I say, give the message of Srila Prabhupada with love and trust, you are capable, and Krishna may agree to speak through you. Who knows, tomorrow when you are out there and preach about Krishna, somebody might say: “I love what you say. I have 10 000 dollars and I’m not doing anything with them. Can you use them for Krishna?” Why not? Is it prohibited to receive a donation for Krishna? No, it is not. So he comes and gives it to you because you gave a class that deeply touched him. Now you have 10 000 dollars. Thank you!

If you, in that moment, think that the money is yours, well, you fall down right there. You have received this on behalf of Krishna and you are supposed to use every penny for Krishna, otherwise you are cheating. But when I speak about love and trust, I mean that the guru trusts you to do this properly. If somebody does not do it properly, it is up to their reaction. In other words, the disciple has to be responsible. But I cannot base my whole life on mistrust, because if I mistrust everybody, then I cannot preach. I cannot say - there is something very secret, very sacred, very beautiful, and very incredible and I would almost give it to you but the problem is that I cannot trust you. This maha something, it can be shhh something, and you have to figure it out by your own inner realization. No, it is not like this. As soon as I preach the maha mantra, I’m giving somebody a chance to get rid of all the sinful activities and to enter into spiritual understanding - and this is the power of the mantra, not the power of my words. It is all the power of grace. So, when you don’t trust people you are in bad shape. Now, vice versa, the trust also goes that I give you my time and you also trust me.

Spiritual life is a trust relationship. Even an ordinary marriage is a trust relationship because you work together, you put your money together and you sleep next to one another, which means that while you are sleeping, the other one could theoretically pull a knife. Nobody has a bodyguard next to their husband or wife. If marriage is a 100% trust relationship, so how cannot a guru-disciple relationship be a trust one? And there is no institution, which stands above the husband and wife relationship, except the court. Sometimes husband and wife end up in court and she says that he did this and that, and the court may judge on the relationship, but who is the court above the guru? Where is that court? The disciple surrenders to the guru and says: “Please, give me the mantra! Please, give me service! Please, accept me! I want to be your spiritual son!” And the guru says: “Yes, I accept you as my child and I accept you to be a part of my family.”
There is a very intimate personal connection. Who is going to judge that? Of course, the truth will judge, Paramatma will judge, the history will judge but in that personal private connection, who is going to be the judge? If there is anything going wrong, only Krishna himself can straighten it out. Because if you say there is a guru, there is a disciple but above them there is a Sadhu Samaj, GBC and if you have a problem you speak to them and the guru has nothing to say, he can only repeat what the advisory board has said, then that means that the advisory board doesn’t trust the guru. So how come that the disciple is supposed to trust the guru then?

The advisory board says: we don’t trust the guru. Just take the mantra from him but don’t trust him. But you should trust us with our criteria because we have put the guru and we can also remove him. We will give you a substitute guru if one fails. We have some spare gurus for such cases but everything rests in the advisory board, it doesn’t rest in the guru’s position. But this is not the presentation sustained by Bhagavad Gita (4.34), where it says:
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
You should approach a guru, ask him humbly questions, you should offer your obeisance and become very humble, put your head on the ground and serve him and he will instruct you, when he sees your sincerity. He will teach you the truth, which he has seen. This is the question: has he seen it or has he not seen it? Well, we believe he has seen it if he has met Srila Prabhupada and lives in Srila Prabhupada’s service. And if he has not seen it, then Srila Prabhupada and Krishna have seen it and they will be in charge of this.

Coming back to the point of siksa guru - it is such a powerful institution and it is sometimes given to people such as temple presidents who have only spent two years in Krishna Consciousness. Sometimes people just have to take over the temple management duties. When I became a temple president in Denmark, I scarcely had two and a half years in the movement and out of a sudden a whole temple was depending on me. So we have to see the practical side of it as well. And we have to see how important are love and trust. If we are going to eliminate love and trust from the transaction of the spiritual organizations, spiritual master, representative of the spiritual master and want to make the whole thing institutionally governed, then we are not following the tradition of our spiritual Paramapara.

In our tradition the ritvik system is in the heart of the devotee because he feels that his guru is the real guru. This is appropriate. But institutional connection, even the institutional formal diksa guru connection, has been rejected in some of the cases in our Guru Parampara.

Like when Bhaktivinod Thakur declared his main connection to be Srila Jagannath das Babaji Maharaja and he was not his diksa connection but he gave a preference of the siksa guru connection over the diksa connection. And there are other examples like that, where Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Maharaja explains that this is Siksa Guru Parampara. So, this is one of the considerations here. And if you reflect upon it, you will find that institutional Parampara is not prepared very well. Or I may ask you, where is the institutional Parampara of Srila Rupa Goswami in the Radha Govinda mandir of Vrindavan, or the institutional Parampara of Sanatan Goswami in the Radha Madan Mohan temple, or the institutional Parampara of Ragunath das Goswami, Madhu Pandit? Where are they? Virtually they are absent. Some people claim that it is a family right thing and others see that the buildings are administrated by the Indian archeological society. So, where is the Parampara? The institutional Paramparas have practically disappeared or there are some people, who practically claim that they have it. At least we can see that they haven’t done much work. And in the case of Srila Prabhupada, he had to go against the institutional Parampara because there was no connection available. When he went to the west he actually tried to represent one of the Indian teachers, who had higher position in the institution of his guru but Krishna didn’t want it. So Srila Prabhupada had to start his own institution but don’t forget that he also said: “There are many institutions, which are for saving people from ignorance and giving them Krishna and my institution is one of them.” Srila Prabhupada never said: “My institution is the only institution and all the other institutions are invalidated and we should go against them” - or anything like this. Or: “They are deviations because they are not coming to surrender to my institutional framework.”

Whoever comes up with such ideas, I must honestly say, is bogus. He is sectarian, he is fanatic and even worse, he may have become a Vaishnava aparadhi and if you practice or teach Vaisnava aparadha, what good fortune will come to you? It is the elephant offense – diminish, minimize, criticize and mistreat people who are connected to other spiritual families. These are all different types of Vaisnava aparadha. So, only individuals can save us because they can imbibe, what is called love and trust and they can get personal realization, which we hope they will get.

I hope all my disciples will be so qualified siksa gurus that they will deliver the mercy of my diksa guru in 100% quality. This is quite an expectation from those beloved friends of my soul. I want them to represent 100% of something that I cannot understand myself. Good question, no? But do I understand Krishna? No. Do I understand Srila Prabhupada? No. I love him! I feel grateful! I try to do, what he told me to do but I don’t want to lie that I understand Srila Prabhupada. Do I understand Srila Shridhar Maharaja? No.I have heard that Krishna doesn’t understand himself. So then I don’t feel that bad that I don’t understand Him either. But simply because Krishna doesn’t understand Himself, it doesn’t make Him less Krishna or His mission less important for the world. I don’t think so. This is the domain of love and trust. In love and trust sometimes you do not understand.

I do not understand the power of the Maha Mantra but I have seen it. I have seen how it works on people. I am very grateful for the power of the Maha Mantra, but understanding it? Understanding the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam? I read them every day. I think it is really great stuff, which is taught there, but do I understand Shrimad Bhagavatam?

aham vedmi suko vetti
vyaso vetti na vetti va
bhaktya bhagavatam grahyam
na buddhya na ca tikaya

Lord Siva said; "I know the meaning of the Bhagavat and I know that Sukadeva knows it also. But for Vyasadeva he may or may not know it. The Bhagavat can only be known through bhakti, not by mundane intelligence or by reading many commentaries."

On the whole, Srimad Bhagavatam, the spotless Purana, can be learned only through devotional service, not by material intelligence, speculative methods or imaginary commentaries. Sukadeva Goswami understood the Srimad Bhagavatam. Vyasadeva maybe understood it but maybe not. How come that he did not understand it when he wrote it down? How would he not understand? Because sometimes, Srila Shridhar Maharaja says, things descend in a special way through somebody to somebody else. The one in between, does not understand but the one, who receives it, understands. That’s what Srila Sridhar Maharaja wanted to say. That’s what we love and that’s what we trust.

We love and trust that this mission is Krishna’s mission and if anything goes wrong, He will come and intervene. And still, we teach people to love their diksa and siksa gurus because if we do not tell them to love and trust their siksa gurus, they will not be inspired. They will not have enthusiasm to serve their diksa and siksa gurus, to participate from the core of their heart, to risk themselves like their gurus are risking themselves for them and for the service of their guru.

At the end Shrila Prabhupada said: the gurus are self revealed. They are acting on behalf of their Lord, their spiritual master and their own consciousness. And if divine grace descends upon them, then they will be able to show some incredible transformation, either in quantity or in quality, or in both. Otherwise not, krsna sakti vina nahe tara pravartana. Those empowered will be recognized as genuine representatives of Parampara and of their spiritual master. And what will they say if you approach them and ask them personally about this?

They will say: no, no, no, I am not empowered. What is happening here is the power of my guru. All glories to him! Me and you are all depending on his grace but this is not ritvik, it is representative.
Through the humble representative and through that chain or succession this whole movement has continued and is alive. The institutions can do some check and balance; they can organize things that cannot be done by as easy individuals - for example, the Vishva Vaishnava Raja Sabha. It invites all the Vaisnava groups to help clean the holy dham together. If you only clean 100 or 200 m in each direction of your beautiful Mandir, we already have a clean Vrindavan. There are so many temples now everywhere. So we have the spirit of doing things together, of helping each other. For example, if one devotee publishes a beautiful book on science of spirituality (like one devotee called Govardhan did in Mayapur – he showed the importance of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and the evidence, found in the scientific discoveries for the transcendental teachings), will it not be appreciated and used by all Vaisnavas? Can science or social work be restricted to one institution? Would any Vaisnava make charitable medical service and restrict the charitable help only to people who belong to his institution? When scientists, philosophers and charitable people become sectarian, then you can surely tell that this is the end of spirituality.

Therefore in the department of spiritual philosophy and also, where this philosophy is applied in practical decision making, there has to be freedom, there has to be individual criteria and there has to be love and trust. Otherwise, there will be no joy and no progress.

If these observations were for the benefit of anybody who listens to them, I will be greatly rewarded, because my only ambition is to become servant of the servant of the servants of those wonderful Vaisnavas. We have to develop taste for Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Thank you.

Your always well wisher,
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti