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Archive for July, 2025

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #31 – Rubies, Diamonds, Rings, and Pearls

July 28th, 2025

“Rubies, diamonds, rings, and pearls

Just to attract fools to the spiritual world

Dashing, handsome, and carefree

Bhavānanda Goswami”

 

Those days were wild!

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda had just left this world. Devotees, barely thirty years old, practically none with even ten years in the Hare Krishna Movement, had taken up the service of succeeding him. They were lavished with worship and opulence by their followers. I personally believe most were very sincere, but how was it possible for such young people, relatively inexperienced in Krishna consciousness, to digest the opulence and adoration that was bestowed upon them? It wasn’t. Except for very rare exceptions, they failed.

 

It was 1978, at Śrīla Prabhupda’s first disappearance festival. Haṁsadūta Swami, one of those devotees, made his homage to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He came with his guitar and strummed a folk song glorifying the new “ācāryas’’ with a stanza he composed for each. It seemed out of place, but I guess he saw it as a kind of offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda to tout the attainment of his followers. The above stanza dedicated to Bhavānanda particularly stuck in my mind. As a leader at the time, I found him very personal and empowering. He was, however, awash with cash from his new followers. His strategy to spread Krishna consciousness seemed to have as much to do with his attachments as his mood of service. He would attract people to the path of bhakti by making Krishna consciousness as luxurious as possible, including his own lifestyle. Unfortunately, like most in his situation, the opulence and worship eventually dragged him down from his position.

 

At around the same time, we especially became concerned with another one of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s “successors” who was buying huge castles in Europe. In the one castle I visited, his vyāsāsana, the guru’s traditional seat of authority, was over five feet high!

 

A group of us went to Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja to express our concern:

 

“If he is attached to sitting on a big seat, will he fall?”

 

I loved his answer.

 

“He is already fallen!”

 

And soon he did.

 

Personal opulence therefore is usually seen as an obstacle in Krishna consciousness. It is often described as a fever, the outward symptom of an inner disease.

 

“The material covering of the pure spirit soul is an external feature, as much as fever is an external feature of the unhealthy body. The general process is to decrease the degree of the fever and not to aggravate it by maltreatment.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.26 purport

 

Conversely, material impoverishment is lauded on the path of bhakti.

 

“Sometimes it is seen that spiritually advanced persons become materially impoverished. This is no discouragement. On the other hand, such impoverishment is a good sign as much as the falling of temperature is a good sign.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.26 purport, continued

 

But does material opulence have to be a sign, or an external feature, of an unhealthy consciousness?

 

No. In fact, it could also be a sign of the opposite.

 

I am studying Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta every day with a friend. We noticed that as Gopa-kumāra ascends to higher and higher planets, not only does the spiritual attainment of its residents substantially increase, but so does their standard of material happiness and opulence. We reconciled the two ideas as follows:

 

Bhakti means to offer the best to Śrī Krishna. Therefore, while Śrī Krishna is often reluctant to lavish his devotees with opulence, he also may benedict them with opulence if they can offer it to Krishna in a mood of pure devotion. Śrīmatī Radhika is the perfect example of this. She is mahābhāva-svarūpā, the form (svarūpā) of the highest devotion (mahābhāva). Everything about her svarūpā therefore, from her beauty to her talents, is the best or most excellent as a pure offering of the highest devotion for the pleasure of Śrī Krishna.”

 

I recently heard that my Godbrother Ambarish dasa is in critical condition. We should all offer our prayers for him. He is a scion of the Ford family, the great grandson of Henry Ford. I am mentioning him here because he is a good example of Śrī Krishna trusting his devotee with His opulence. A substantial part of his wealth has therefore been used to serve Krishna in various ways. Years ago, he purchased the Fisher Mansion for ISKCON Detroit. Presently he serves as the chairman and financial backbone of the TOVP (the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium). Rather than becoming proud, however, he has always remained very humble.

 

Let me finish this post with a memory from one of my early visits to an ISKCON temple, an example that neatly illustrates this fine line between becoming distracted by and appropriately using opulence in the service of Śrī Krishna.

 

During lunch in 1971 at the Brooklyn ISKCON temple, I heard a class over the loudspeaker in which the teacher quoted Śrīla Prabhupāda:

 

“We can take over the world in eighteen days if all my devotees became Krishna conscious.”

 

I thought to myself, “If Krishna ever gave us that level of power, if He gave us the world, the fever of material life would certainly overcome us.” But as Śrīla Prabhupāda indicated, it doesn’t have to be that way. Perhaps we can mature and then sing a different tune:

 

Rubies, diamonds, rings, and pearls.

Just to serve Krishna in the material world!

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #30 – From Drama to Meaning

July 21st, 2025

It’s time to begin writing my next Monday Morning Greetings. I have nothing to write. Realizations are a gift. To gain one I can chant, study, and look at the world through the eyes of sastra, but ultimately only God can give one a worthy inspiration. I was just about resigned to share a reprinted article this week, when a realization came.

 

I have been at the immigration holding room in a foreign country while the immigration officials are checking me out. I guess not many United States citizens come here and the relations with their country have suddenly taken a turn for the worse.[1] I haven’t heard from the officials since they sat me here. That was two hours ago! I am waiting for my fate, and waiting is the greatest surrender.

 

I am not fearful, however, of what will happen, although I was looking forward to the next three weeks. Many good programs have been set up and many good people to see. But not a blade of grass moves without God’s will. I recalled one of my favorite quotes that came from Epictetus, the great Greek stoic. It was sent to me by a friend when I became sick during Covid with a strange non-Covid related sickness that went on for months. It became my mantra:

 

“Happiness and distress, sickness and health, praise and slander. They all come from God. Why should one care?”

 

I try not to care. I’m resigned to whatever Krishna wants, but don’t keep me waiting!

 

But even that, if it is Your will, I know it is best. I feel at peace sitting here.

 

My theme for this week’s Monday Morning Greetings: From drama to meaning.

 

I was toying with that theme anyway. A lot of bad news fell into my lap this week. I heard too many personal stories of horrible illness and cruel personal betrayal, and the list goes on. Life just seems so unfair, and it seems increasingly so.

 

I don’t want to tell those suffering that it’s just Krishna’s mercy, for such counsel often lacks, or appears to lack, empathy. People above all need support. Still, ultimately traditions of wisdom advocate a change of vision for no matter how we cut it, this “temporary world is full of suffering.”

 

I call that change of vision “from drama to meaning.” I’m just tired of the drama for it never ends whether it’s relationship, health, slander, crisis of funds, and so on. And it is meant to be that way.

 

Does this mean we stop trying to improve the quality of our lives? No, we have duties to stabilize our life and the lives of our loved ones. But we never lose sight of the fact that ultimate fulfillment is an internal process. It’s developing a lens of wisdom that does not requires changing the world, but rather our opinion of it.

 

When talking about this subject a friend sent me a relevant talk by Śrīla Bhakti-rakṣaka Śrīdhara Mahārāja which discusses what that change of opinion is. All problems are solved when we transcend our illusory perception of the world in which we see and do everything in terms of our “local” or selfish interest and rise to an understanding of life’s real meaning. Everything moves for the satisfaction of God, which is in everyone’s interest.

 

The whole talk is pertinent to this discussion. I will share just an excerpt:

 

The absolute current goes towards the satisfaction of Ka, but this reading of the environment is not possible for the superficial soul. The soul cannot read, cannot conceive, of the real meaning of everything. The soul sees some meaning, but it is a different reading, a superficial reading, of things, and it is this reading that is māyā. We read in our own way. We read an earthquake or a storm or anything else from our local interest. This is māyā, and it is on this basis that we do so many things.[2]

 

It took me one hour waiting on the immigration line just to get to the immigration booth. After going through the routine check, they told me to just sit outside. “Where?” The official just waved his hand and in broken English indicated I should just go and wait. I waited outside the immigration booth without my passport for an hour. They came for me and a few others with our passports in hand and moved us to the immigration office waiting area. They then disappeared into the offices with our passports, and we waited there for some time. They took us to another place. We stood there for some time until they finally took us to another immigration both. There were about twenty of us.  Another wait. More drama. My patience was drawing thin, but I knew that God protects His devotee. Whatever He does is best.

 

Finally, our passports were stamped, and we left.

 

And that was the gift of realization today.

 

Our only solace is from drama to meaning!

 

 


[1] I prefer not to name the country in writing.

[2] https://nimaihuset.blogspot.com/2015/12/what-is-maya-srila-sridhar-maharaj.html

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #29 – How Truth is Revealed

July 14th, 2025

For those serious about the study of sacred texts, the term sambandha-jñānā is significant. Commonly it is defined as a school’s conception of reality and its means or evidence of affirming its validity. Today, I heard it used in a slightly different way. It slightly re-oriented my approach to studying sacred texts, enough that I would like to share it with you.

 

I heard the term used in a somewhat new light in one lecture from a series of lectures by Śrīla Bhaktivijnana Goswami covering an overview of the Bhāgavatam. There he explained sambandha as one of the four basic prerequisites, anubandha catuṣṭaya, that must be fulfilled for any sacred text to be authorized, at least within a particular school.

 

I will briefly outline this classical description of anubandha catuṣṭaya and then focus on Śrī Jīva’s definition of sambandha as applied to the Bhāgavatam. I will then share what I see as its practical application.

 

Anubandha Catuṣṭaya:

 

Viṣaya—The topic, the subject of the book.

 

Sambandha—The way the subject is revealed to the listener or reader of the text.

 

Abhidhéya—The method or practice which is needed to realize the subject.

 

Prayojana—The result of realizing that subject.

 

Śrī Jīva describes sambandha in relation to the Bhāgavatam as vācya-vācaka sambandha: “Its sambandha (the way its subject is revealed) is that the words (vācaka) themself carry inherent power to reveal what they signify (vācya)”.

 

In other words, the words of the Bhāgavatam themselves are the main way the meaning of the text is revealed independent of an intellectual effort to understand them.

 

But what about our logical understanding of the meaning of the text? How can that be minimized?

 

The sambandha of the Bhāgavatam doesn’t mean that an intellectual comprehension of the text doesn’t help us understand something about the subject (viṣaya) of the text. Without knowledge it is doubtful that one would be inspired with the faith necessary to turn one’s consciousness in a concentrated way towards Bhagavān, which is the subject of the text. It simply means that the prime way in which the subject of the Bhāgavatam is revealed are the words of the text heard in a prayerful and focused way so that they directly enter the heart and reveal the truth.

 

I was still struggling with what seemed like the somewhat “anti-intellectual” approach to the text, until I found the same concept of sambandha described in my weekly group study of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

 

At the beginning of Chapter 14, “Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s Feelings of Separation from Krishna,” we are warned by the author, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, that what he will attempt to describe is beyond the capacity of even the most intelligent person to comprehend. He practically leaves the reader hopeless.

 

“Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s emotion of transcendental madness in separation from Krishna is very deep and mysterious. Even though one is very advanced and learned, he cannot understand it.” Cc Antya 14.5 [emphasis mine]

 

He then quickly reminds us that if we faithfully take these words into our hearts the subject of the text will be revealed:

 

“Please hear faithfully this description of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s ecstatic emotions. Thus you will come to know of His ecstatic love, and ultimately you will achieve love of Godhead.” Cc Antya 14.11 [emphasis mine]

 

Śrī Jīva’s explanation of the word sambandha was enlightening. Although I still deeply study the text, I am more vigilant to the importance of attentively hearing it. I also more deeply understand why Śrīla Prabhupāda gave so much space to the Sanskrit verses. Now first thing in the morning, I relish hearing the Sanskrit of one chapter praying that its words enter my heart and reveal their import. It should be understood, however, that hearing the message in any language from a qualified devotee, such as the commentaries of Śrīla Prabhupāda, are also śabda, transcendental sound. They also carry the potency of the message they represent into the heart when faithfully heard with the same mystical effect.

 

I think this understanding of sambandha also gives an important message to those who are not particularly scholarly. We need not overly worry about understanding the text in that way. Yes, we must study. That is important, but more important is to just hear prayerfully and faithfully with the understanding that vācya-vācaka sambandha: “the words (vācaka) themself carry inherent power to reveal what they signify (vācya ).” Thus the truth of the Bhāgavata is revealed!

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #28 – The Potency that Removes All Contradictions

July 7th, 2025

I was driving my car in Manhattan and made a wrong turn and found myself on the 59th Street bridge heading to Queens. I needed to get to uptown Manhattan quickly for an appointment and I had no idea how to get back. I was concerned that I would be late. When I stopped at the end of the bridge, I therefore politely asked a worker standing there for help.

 

“Sir, I think I’m lost.”

 

The worker was a typically gruff, “what you see is what you get,” “just the facts” New Yorker. He looked at me with disgust.

 

“You’re either lost, or you are not lost!”

 

Brilliant!

 

I don’t think, however, my New Yorker friend’s cold logic would fare well in the spiritual world.

 

“The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.”

 

“Ordinarily, if someone can walk, it is illogical to say he cannot walk. But in reference to God, such a contradiction simply serves to indicate His inconceivable power.” Śrī Īśopaniṣad Verse 5 and purport

 

Presently I am studying Ka-sagati by Sivarama Swami with a friend. Sivarama Swami provides a rendition of Krishna’s pastimes. His introduction is seventy pages long and is meant to prepare the reader to hear those pastimes properly. A lot of the introduction is an attempt to resolve, at least by referencing śāstra, how Krishna leaves Vrindavan at the age of eleven and simultaneously never leaves Vrindavan.

 

The śāstras often give descriptions like this of the spiritual realm that are full of contradictions, but that never bothers me. I think something like this.

 

God must exist beyond time and space. If He is subject to anything more powerful than His will and power, He is not God. Even time? Of course, but how can we logically conceive that there is something that is not limited by past, present and future? We can’t. Logic is based on the laws of cause and effect, including time and space, which are under God’s jurisdiction. So it is reasonable or logical that descriptions of God and his realm are not under the laws of ordinary reason or logic.

 

Since I have understood things in that way, I was thus quite pleased to read these same points in a short essay by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura titled “The Potency that Removes All Contradictions.”

 

“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the embodiment of eternality, absolute knowledge, and unlimited bliss, possesses an inconceivable potency called virodha-bhanjika-śakti (removing all contradictions). By the influence of this potency, all apparently contrary principles and natures are unified and are eternally present. Form and formlessness; omnipresence and localised beautiful physical presence; equal disposition towards all and special favour of mercy towards devotees; birthlessness and taking birth; being the supreme object of everyone’s worship and accepting the position of a cowherd boy; omniscience and accepting the position of a human being; impersonalism and personalism; and many such unlimited contradictory characteristics are wonderfully harmonized and manifest in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s personality. And furthermore, they are engaged in assisting the activities of Śrīmati Rādhikā, the embodiment of the highest spiritual emotions and pleasure-giving potency. Those who doubt and contest this truth are truly deprived. Before one begins a debate, one must consider that human logic is very limited; hence, it has no jurisdiction in the realm of the unlimited, inconceivable principle. The fortunate soul discards dry rhetoric and cultivates faith in the evidence of the revealed scriptures—the Vedas. This seed of faith sprouts and gradually grows into a creeper of devotion to finally rest at Śri Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.”[1]

 

You are either lost or you are not lost!

 

True, but not in the realm of God, where everything is ruled by love.

 

For love He can be gone from Vrindavan and at the same time for love never leave. Everything is possible by His potency that removes all contradictions.

 


[1] This was forwarded to me by a friend. Despite research, I could not find the exact reference where this is found.