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Archive for the 'Monday Morning Greetings' Category

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #17 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III

April 21st, 2025

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III[1]

 

4. Is Pro-active

 

Intelligent leaders don’t just react to problems. They understand the problems that may arise in the future and make the appropriate adjustments to prevent them before they arise. In the talk I gave to a gathering of almost eighty “preachers,” I noticed that the audience was at least two-thirds women. I pointed that out and asked, “Don’t you see the problems that will arise in establishing a community if there is such gender disparity in it?” I think the answer was obvious. After my talk one of the teachers belonging to a Bhagavad-gītā university asked my blessings to start a Gītā class just for men. It seems their leader, being pro-active, had already understood the problem. An effective preacher must be pro-active for even today’s success may be tomorrow’s challenge as the world and how people understand things rapidly change.

 

5. Gives Vrindavan

 

Good experiences create our objectives or goals. We therefore initially develop faith in the goal of bhakti by a sublime devotional or “religious” experience. To move forward in bhakti with determination, however, especially during life challenges and the doubts that may arise, it is essential that such powerful experiences be renewed. I think that is why Śrīla Prabhupāda established centers in Mayapur and Vrindavan. It is in those places, in my experience, that pilgrims can most readily have the sublime devotional experiences that can deepen and renew their faith. A leader on the path of devotion must be expert in giving Vrindavan. If visiting Vrindavan is not possible, leading deep devotional retreats can also renew our faith, especially if they are based on the teachings, stories, songs and prayers of our lineage, which are based on Vrindavan.

 

6. Imbibes and teaches the culture of bhakti

 

I like the following definition of culture, “an environment that is organized to give impressions in consciousness to effectively relate, learn and communicate.”[2] Culture is thus essential on the path of bhakti. Without understanding how to relate appropriately to other Vaiṣṇavas, including elders who should receive natural respect, it is not only hard to learn and develop a sense of community, but more importantly it is difficult to avoid misunderstanding and offense. It is the duty of preachers to embody and teach how to properly relate, communicate and learn. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta is a guidebook for such behavior.

 

7. Empowers the Next Generation

 

The main way devotional movements expand is through families that inspire their children to naturally follow their path. Often spiritual movements become enthusiastic about new people but lose focus on inspiring their children in bhakti. They fail to create the appropriate environment and programs for children to grow in devotion. A successful leader never loses sight of the importance of serving the needs of the families within their tradition in a way that ensures that the tradition’s teachings are carried forward by generations of devotees and not just new converts.

 

 


[1] I can’t claim that these are “the” seven habits of highly effective preachers. I was asked to share my realization to a gathering of devotees dedicated to teaching and sharing bhakti. They already had many seminars on the subject. These are what I thought I could add to the gathering by my experience.

[2] I found that definition of culture in my notes, but it wasn’t cited, and I don’t remember where I got it.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #16 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part II

April 14th, 2025

2. Empowering

 

A person who wants to widely communicate an important message needs people to assist in that work. It is therefore important to also empower others as preachers. That was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s example. Even though his followers were young and inexperienced, he inspired so many of them to effectively carry on his teachings, even in his lifetime. In other words, he was expert at seeing devotees’ potential, encouraging them, and then engaging them to actualize their potential, even though they were immature in so many ways. Perhaps today we can afford to better prepare and train devotees before we empower them to fully represent the mission. Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda had no choice but to quickly put his fledgling disciples on the front lines, but he did demonstrate a powerful point—as an effective preacher, he did not hesitate to empower others to expand his mission.

 

When I traveled and preached in south India in the summer of 1978, everywhere I went the people would tell me that “we have heard of your Acyutananda Swami.” He was so impressive—a young Vaiṣṇava in his mid-twenties who spoke their language, could sing their songs, and expertly presented the philosophy. I remarked at the time that those people, although they had heard of Acyutananda Swami, didn’t seem to know who Śrīla Prabhupāda was yet. I saw, however, no fault in that. Powerful teachers empower students and are happy even if the students surpass them.  Of course, Acyutananda achieved influence in just one part of India, while Śrīla Prabhupāda was preaching all over the world. He was also planting the seeds of an extraordinary preaching mission that would continue after he left. Unlike most missions started by a charismatic leader and carried into the next generation by a single appointed successor, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s plan was to inspire countless devotees, men and women, to take up the mantle of his mission and even manage it after he left.  There were challenges that appeared after his passing, which could be expected. But one cannot deny that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s movement inspired innumerable devotees who have successfully carried his legacy in an unprecedented way, establishing almost 1,000 temples of Krishna worldwide. A preacher must be empowering.

 

3. Nonsectarian

 

A preacher should respect all senior Vaiṣṇavas and as far as possible welcome their help as long as they can properly respect and represent one’s lineage. This sometimes can be misunderstood to mean that a saṅga should have an open-door policy, and that one is therefore sectarian if one doesn’t give a seat in their saṅga to any powerful Vaiṣṇava who requests a visit. The term sectarian, however, has another definition. It is also sectarian to enter another saṅga with one’s own agenda rather than serve the place which has welcomed one. It is therefore not sectarian to keep such people out. I try to be non-sectarian and welcome advanced Vaiṣṇavas to enlighten my saṅga and also serve their mission wherever I am invited to theirs. I will relate my experience in this regard.

 

Too often, I am disappointed. I have welcomed others that request to visit my saṅga and speak but found out their only intention was to serve their own mission. For example, I hosted one mahārāja and some of his followers, only later to be shown text messages sent to one young lady in my saṅga from our guests proclaiming this visiting sannyāsī was the real “rasikā” guru and others were less qualified. Obviously, that person or his followers will never be welcomed again.

 

We had several good experiences also with welcoming sādhus. I arranged a program in New York City for the respected Vaiṣṇava author Simon Haas (Sundar Gopal), a disciple of Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja. It soon became clear that his only objective was to nourish our faith. He not only refused to accept any donations but left the proceeds from the sale of his own books and any donations he got personally with us. Later I co-hosted several retreats with him in Colombia and our experience was the same—his single intention was to serve us. A preacher should be intelligently nonsectarian.

 

Next week I will cover the other four remaining qualities of a highly effective preachers—being pro-active, giving Vrindavan, transmitting culture, and preparing the next generation.

 

As a good leader is one
who can achieve
many great tasks,
much better is one
who can empower others
to also perform great tasks,
and even better is one
who can inspire others
to simply love Krishna!

—Jamuna Jivana Baba (dedicated follower of Śrīla Prabhupāda)—Radha Kunda Harinam Saṅga

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #15 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part I

April 7th, 2025

A group of devotees gathered to hone their skills in communicating krishna-bhakti, and I was asked to give a talk based on what makes a preacher effective. I thought about it deeply. This is what I came up with:

 

1. Personal Realization

 

Most importantly, a preacher must have personal realization in order to effectively communicate Krishna consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda defines personal realization:

 

“Personal realization does not mean that one should, out of vanity, attempt to show one’s own learning by trying to surpass the previous ācārya. He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time he must realize the subject so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.4.1, purport

 

But how does one get personal realization? It is obtained by a depth of understanding of the philosophy of krishna-bhakti as taught in one’s spiritual lineage and the sincere practice of what one has understood.

 

Without such personal realization, preachers will do one of two things. They will either keep the subject in the language in which they received it, even if their audience has a different frame of reference for interpreting that language. Or they will reformat the message for the understanding of the audience and lose its original meaning. An expert preacher, however, must be able format the message for a particular circumstance, as Śrīla Prabhupāda said, without losing its original intent. There is no doubt one of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s most important assets in successfully sharing krishna-bhakti around the world was his personal realization.

 

Eleven days after Śrīla Prabhupāda left the world, the traditional ceremony to commemorate the passing of a great soul was held at the Krishna Balarama Temple. Customarily, the most senior Vaiṣṇava present is chosen to preside over the function. In this case, a sannyāsī godbrother from an aristocratic brāhmaṇa family, who had gone to the West before Śrīla Prabhupāda, was chosen. Although he was highly lauded for bringing back two Germans whom he had converted to krishna-bhakti, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s accomplishment in preaching in the West far exceeded his own and this seemed to disturb him. That became apparent when he gave the invocation and appeared to minimize Śrīla Prabhupāda in his talk. “I could have done what Śrīla Prabhupāda had done, but I didn’t have the mentality to preach to the hippies.” Although it appeared to be an insult, at the time I somehow was able to reinterpret what he said as a compliment. I considered “What is ‘the mentality to preach to the hippies?’ It’s the deepest level of personal realization that enabled Śrīla Prabhupāda to communicate Krishna consciousness, a very high subject couched in a foreign culture, to those, possessing very little frame of reference to comprehend it.”

 

Although I think deep personal realization is essential for preaching krishna-bhakti carefully, we must also be careful not to make an absolute correlation between one’s ability to communicate Krishna consciousness and one’s level of spiritual advancement. There are devotees fixed in Krishna consciousness who simply lack the personal nature, communication skills, or emotional intelligence to effectively speak as a preacher to all people. One’s generational, gender, ethnic, or social experience may also be a factor in relating to certain groups. While Śrīla Prabhupāda could transcend that, not all preachers can. However, they may be able to effectively communicate to those groups that are more suited to their characteristics and experience. Still, a level of personal realization is still essential.

 

Because I consider personal realization as the most essential quality of a preacher, I have spent a whole post on this one quality. Next week I will discuss my experience of the six other habits of highly effective preachers—empowering, nonsectarian, proactive, giving Vrindavan, transmitting culture, and preparing the next generation.

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #14 – Mahābhāva Dhāma

March 31st, 2025

Mahābhāva Dhāma[1]

 

Mahābhāva Dhāma may be Govardhan’s best kept secret. It’s simply a room in the house of a humble devotee who lives near me here in the dhāma, a happily married man with three children from somewhere in the former Soviet Union.

 

Gauranga Nam has deep affection for the Vaiṣṇavas. Besides hosting Śrī Śrī Radha Shyamsundara in his temple room, his altar is home to over 150 finely hand-crafted deities of Vaiṣṇavas in the Gauḍīya tradition. They include both contemporary devotees and all the eternal associates of Śrī Caitanya going way back to His līlā. And that ocean is constantly expanding. The last time I visited him nineteen new deities had just arrived. Words just can’t describe their beauty.

 

Indeed, the deity one chooses to worship first manifests within one’s heart. Gauranga Nam’s heart is very big. While the heart of a kaniṣṭha (neophyte) barely has room there for God, and certainly not for His devotees, Gauranga Nam’s heart is filled with devotees. Isn’t that the bhakti philosophy?

 

A devotee is one who takes the mood of his guru. And what is that mood? It is the energy of pure devotion. That sentiment is personified in Śrī Radha and Her expansions, embodied in the heart of Śrī Caitanya and His dear associates and finally carried to the present day by His lineage of pure devotees. Mahābhāva Dhāma materializes that history of gaura-līlā in the exquisite mūrti forms of the devotees who have carried the waves of devotion to this world.

 

The special treat for me in visiting Mahābhāva Dhāma is association with Gauranga Nam. With deep devotion he explains his altar. He traces the bhāva-rūpā (the form of devotion) and how it flows in waves throughout the world from one generation of devotees to the next, culminating in “the final tsunami of prema inundating the world through Śrīla Prabhupāda and his followers.”

 

His appreciation for Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples is profound. In the modern world, we often get hung up on the failings of those whom we trusted and the hurt they caused. There is certainly a reason for that. Gauranga Nam, however, never sees the faults of dedicated devotees as their whole person, and especially not in the case of those who had dedicated their life to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission. A small deity of Harikeśa Mahārāja (now Hari) just arrived. He is sitting before the stacks of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books that he gave his life to publish. Resting on them there is even a facsimile of the microphone he famously would hold to record Śrīla Prabhupāda’s words when he served as his secretary.

 

I also like the deity of Aindra dasa with his harmonium right behind the deity of Nāmācārya Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura with both seemingly chanting for Śrī Radha and her intimate devotees, the aṣṭakasakhīs and their mañjarīs, who are also on the altar in their deity forms. I could go on and on. There are so many beautifully done figures of profound devotion. The deity of Yamuna devi is stunning.

 

Gauranga Nam is quite creative. Another deity that caught my eye is the new deity of Nṛsiṁha Brahmacārī before the beautiful path of jewels and flowers that he manifested in his mind for taking Śrī Caitanya to Vrindavan. I also loved the newly arrived deity of Rāghava Paṇḍita sitting before the bags of prasādam that he would bring to Puri for Śrī Caitanya, expertly cooked by his sister Damayantī, whose deity is also there.

 

Gauranga Nam has deep loyalty to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his lineage. That is reflected in the way his altar flows from Radha-Krishna to gaura-līlā culminating in over fifty deities of Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples, including prominent grand-disciples like Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chaitanya Chandra Prabhu and others. He bursts with devotion as he describes the waves of gaura-līlā flooding the world through the members of ISKCON. But Gauranga Nam is nonsectarian. Śrīla Prabhupāda has commented in his books that there are many pure devotees of different lineages wandering in Vrindavan. Gauranga Nam has also a small section for those, whom he reveres also as the modern-day protectors of prema-bhakti. He knows several of them.

 

The deity of the famous Braja saint Vinod Baba is a masterpiece that not only reflects his saintly form but seems to perfectly express his bhāva. “How did you do that!?” Even that great saint of Varsana was amazed when Gauranga Nam showed him a picture of his own deity.

 

Nava Kisor Baba took a type of kṣetra-sannyāsa. It seems he vowed never to leave Radha Kunda or at least was reluctant to do so. Somehow Gauranga Nam had befriended this saint, and they seemingly became close. Still, when Gauranga Nam would beg him to come see Mahābhāva Dhāma at his residence in Govardhan, he would refuse. Finally, out of frustration Gauranga Nam told him that if Baba would not visit his kuṭira, then he would no longer visit his. Out of affection for Gauranga Nam, the humble Vaiṣṇava relented and came. When Nava Kisor Baba saw the ocean of devotees all united in the service of gaura-līlā including Śrīla Prabhupāda’s followers and a small group of contemporary saints, including his own form and that of Prana Krishna Baba, his revered guru, he fainted on the spot.

 

Where to stop? Each deity has a story which Gauranga Nam shares. He joyfully describes the qualities of the devotees on his altar and how each is profoundly connected to the waves of Gaura-līlā that flood the world. Each time you visit him he highlights different devotees as he spontaneously moves from one deity to another. What stays the same, however, is his deep regard for all the Lord’s devotees. And isn’t that our philosophy?

 

“‘The Supreme is present in every living entity.’ We should better take note of this particular verse from the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura instead of following the interpretation of unauthorized persons who deride Kṛṣṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī, commenting on this verse, says that Krishna, in His plenary expansion as Paramātmā, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the arcā-mūrti, the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple. There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected. A devotee should see that because Krishna is present in everyone’s heart as Paramātmā, every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord; so as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in which the Paramātmā dwells. Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected.” (Gītā 9.11, purport)

 

 


[1] I am not sure Gauranga Nam has a name for his temple, other than perhaps Radha Shyamsundara Mandir but one time he told me he likes to call it Mahābhāva Dhāma.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #13 – Is There Love in the Material World?

March 24th, 2025

Is There Love in the Material World?[1]

 

While attending a lecture, I was skeptical of the apparent conclusion of the class that the only true love is bhakti, love for God, and consequently there is unequivocally no love in the material world. I respectfully raised a question and a discussion ensued.

 

For argument’s sake, even if we accept that bhakti is only for Krishna, isn’t there a danger in the application of that principle? There are studies done that show that people who adhere to movements promoting such transcendence are in general less empathetic than those that do not. Although, granted, according to the same studies 20 percent who deeply understand the tenets of such teachings are much more empathetic. Whether this study is accurate or not, doesn’t such preaching pose a danger of being misunderstood and making us more hard-hearted?

 

An intense discussion followed the morning class by Jaya Jagannath, and the discussion continued throughout the second day of our Bhakti Immersion retreat. His class was excellent and his points reasonably well argued, as was the push back to his ideas. The exchange is worth reproducing here in the form of a summary of Jaya Jagannath’s basic view, the push back or opposing view, and what I think is the correct view, which is a kind of synthesis.

 

A summary of Jaya’s view:

 

Jaya’s class was based on a verse from the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where Krishna explains that it is only in relation with the self that anything becomes dear and thus there can be nothing dearer than the self. (Bhāgavatam 10.23.27) He gave many good examples to support this principle, like how things are treasured or loved only because we perceive that they belong to us, not in and of themselves, and how even love of family and sacrifice for country is only extending our concept of the self beyond ourselves to others. In other words, as long as love is based on the body, there is at least some element of ego involved antithetical to pure love and thus love in this world is suspect.

 

I cannot do justice to his presentation in such a short summary, but even those who disagreed with his conclusion, or wanted to modify it, appreciated the insight, logic, and shastric reference that he offered in support of his view. Continuing his argument, he then referenced a verse from the same chapter, where Krishna stated that those who understand their real self-interest render unalloyed devotion to Him because He is ātma-priya, most dear to the soul. (Bhāgavatam 10.23.26)

 

In other words, as we love or hold things dear because they belong us, and thus our self or soul is dearer than our body and its possessions, similarly Krishna, who is the soul of the soul, is the most dear object of devotion. Srila Prabhupada emphatically concurs in his purport: “Lord Kṛṣṇa is ātma-priya, the real object of love for everyone.”

 

Jaya Jagannath’s main objective, which he clarified later, was that the term bhakti has basically been bastardized in the New Age and yoga communities to include every sentiment of affection as bhakti, and that unless we understand that the true of object of bhakti is God, we will be mired in a falsely exclusive sense of love. We will then never experience real bhakti until we finally transcend or become frustrated with the mundane. His talk was thus entitled, “Love, Lust, Loss, and Beatitude”—“beatitude” meaning the state of the utmost bliss.

 

Opposing view

 

There seem to be some problems with the view that bhakti is only for God and no one else in this world, for this view inevitably limits our conception and vision of Krishna. Krishna is described in the Bhāgavatam as advayam jñāna—consciousness that is inclusive of everything. If we thus separate things from Krishna in this way, don’t we risk developing a vision that things are separate from God, the basic illusion at the foundation of material enjoyment? In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu Krishna is generally defined as just His personality and expansions, but in his commentary Nectar of Devotion Srila Prabhupada explains that Krishna also means His parts and parcels and His different energies. So why can’t a devotee in the proper consciousness love everyone as part of Krishna?[2]

 

And isn’t genuine affection for people a part of bhakti when affection is actually our duty or service to Krishna? Would a mother be a better devotee if she loved only Krishna and just dutifully served her children without affection because she wants to transcend it? That seems absurd. Her natural affection is part of her service. Can’t that affection then be called love, especially if she sees her child as belonging to God and her service to love or care for the child? Is it illusion to have genuine friendships in Krishna consciousness, even though we are not yet liberated, and if not, what do we call such affection? Is it not a type of love?[3] Certainly, love for Krishna can’t mean only directing our devotion at the deity and withdrawing our affection from everyone else.

 

This argument can be taken even further by stating that a theistic conception is not even an absolute requisite for love. If our dharma, or intrinsic quality, is to serve, then does sincere affection in some way reflect the soul regardless of one’s belief, and if so, then how can we possibly argue that that there is no love in the material world?

 

Synthesis

 

The next day during class, Jaya Jagannath clarified his point. He said that the distinction he wanted to make was distinguishing bhakti as love with a capital L and love in this world as love with a lower-case l. I think the synthesis rests there. I think confusion initially with the presentation was that this distinction wasn’t made more clearly. That yes, bhakti is for Krishna, but that doesn’t mean that love does not exist even if it is not bhakti. A good definition of love will help further clarify this point: “unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.”[4] In this sense, certainly people do have love and even sacrifice their lives for others, even at times for strangers who have no bodily connection to them. I thus think it is a mistake to equate that all exchanges of love in this world are purely based on ego or abject self-interest, for if we do, we also lose the ability to distinguish even benevolence from cruelty even in the face of great examples of altruism or sincere benevolent relationships.

 

In other words, the distinction that bhakti is the topmost love, as described by the great teachers such as Narada and others, does not negate that there is also love in the material world. Rather, it proves it, for by deeming bhakti as the pinnacle of love, it also acknowledges a spectrum of love before that. Furthermore, if we deny the existence of such love in the world, we fall at a loss to explain on what basis the Bhāgavatam expects us to have at least a preliminarily frame of reference to understand and appreciate the descriptions of affection between Krishna and His devotees. Of course, it is not that all affectionate relationships in this world are love. Perhaps even most of what we see today, especially in romance, are just selfish relationships that people enter only in the name of love. That doesn’t discount, however, that we do have the capacity, even while still impure and bound in this world, to have sincere love or concern for others. I just heard a story about Srila Prabhupada that synthesizes the point quite neatly:

 

“Srila Prabhupada was sitting outside on the grass speaking to a group of devotees at New Vrindavan. In front of him were some baby kittens playing and wrestling in front of him and he was just watching them. Suddenly he commented, ‘You see? There is love in this material world.’ He paused and then added that although there is concern and benevolence in this world it will never be enough to full satisfy the soul just as someone in the desert cannot be satisfied with a few drops of water.”[5]

 

In conclusion, love is a general loyalty and affection in relationships and it exists in this world, but only when that affection is extended to the Supreme Lord is it bhakti and fully universal, but bhakti can also be extended to others when we see them and serve them as connected to the Divine. Therefore, it is important for all devotees to understand and meditate on how they can connect their relationships to Krishna.

 

 


[1] Originally published August 21, 2017.

[2] When we speak of “Krishna” we refer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead along with His many expansions. He is expanded by His plenary parts and parcels, His differentiated parts and parcels, and His different energies. “Krishna,” in other words, means everything and includes everything. Generally, however, we should understand “Krishna” to mean Krishna and His personal expansions.

[3] In the Śrī Upadeśāmṛta by Srila Rupa Gosvami, an important book in our tradition that Srila Prabhupada translated as the Nectar of Instruction, he summarizes the essence of our teachings in just twelve verses, wherein one whole verse is devoted to the description of loving exchanges between devotees. The exact word used is prīti, or love.

[4] Merriam-Webster Dictionary

[5] Recounted by my godsister Rukmini Devi during Jaya Jagannath’s class.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #12 – Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy

March 17th, 2025

Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy[1]

 

I spoke to a Vaiṣṇava scholar in Vrindavan recently who described his perspective on rāgānugā-bhakti. He depicted it as a challenging path. Śrīla Prabhupāda also taught us that the path is for those who are advanced in bhakti. That scholar’s explanation:

 

The most important thing in perfecting one’s devotion is chanting the holy name properly. One day my guru maharaja called me into his room when he was chanting and asked me to sit with him. He sat like a statue totally absorbed for three hours. That made a deep impression on me. Since then, I tried to follow his example. Every day I try to sit up motionless for hours to make sure my mind is not diverted away from the holy name to my body.

 

“When one is absorbed in this way, eventually the Lord’s rūpa (form) appears within the mind. Continuing in this way, then the lord’s guṇa, his sixty-four qualities, manifest within the name. Eventually while chanting, the Lord’s eternal associates spontaneously appear. While chanting one then observes those devotees all intensely focused on different aspects of the Lord’s form (rūpa) and various qualities (guṇa).

 

“Ultimately by chanting in this way a desire awakens within the heart to perceive, serve, and follow Krishna in the same way as one of these eternal associates, and naturally in the same relationship that devotee has with Krishna. Such devotees whose very essence or state of being (ātmikā) is intense devotional passion (rāga) are called also rāgātmikā bhaktas (perfected devotees. Rāgānugā-bhakti is thus the practice of devotion that arises from the spontaneous desire to follow (anuga) the intense yearnings (rāga) of such rāgātmikā bhaktas, obviously a practice that awakens at an advanced stage of devotion.”

 

For many reasons, spontaneous (rāga) devotion (bhakti) is generally for those who can execute devotion with very deep taste and are thus not ruled by the scriptural injunctions of obligatory (vaidhī) devotion (bhakti). Śrī Caitanya specifically came to give the experience of spontaneous devotion, and Śrī Jīva gave some encouragement for those still on the level of vaidhī-bhakti. He recommended that one should consciously cultivate a taste for Vraja (rāgānugā-bhakti) while remaining determinedly fixed in one’s spiritual practices out of duty (vaidhī-bhakti) by reading about Krishna’s pastimes in books like the Bhāgavatam and singing songs about Krishna. One then can naturally think of Krishna and his associates while performing devotional activities. He called this ajāta-ruci-rāgānugā-bhakti (following in the wake of spontaneous devotion before the taste has awoken).

 

This process requires some determined effort. But compared to the more advanced practices of rāgānuga-bhakti, it is simple, so I call this “rāgānugā-bhakti made easy.” This post outlines rāgānuga-bhakti in a way that offers encouragement to the reader to take up the path along the lines Śrī Jīva recommended.

 

Here are some excerpts from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary on the beginning of the dāmodara-līlā, where Mother Yasoda’s churning of yogurt into butter is described.

 

“While churning the butter, mother Yaśodā was singing about the childhood activities of Krishna. It was formerly a custom that if one wanted to remember something constantly, he would transform it into poetry or have this done by a professional poet. It appears that mother Yaśodā did not want to forget Krishna’s activities at any time. Therefore she poeticized all of Krishna’s childhood activities, such as the killing of Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Śakaṭāsura and Tṛṇāvarta, and while churning the butter, she sang about these activities in poetical form. This should be the practice of persons eager to remain Krishna conscious twenty-four hours a day. This incident shows how Krishna conscious mother Yaśodā was. To stay in Krishna consciousness, we should follow such persons.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.8.1-2, purport)

 

Anyone who desires to be Krishna conscious in motherly affection or parental affection should contemplate the bodily features of mother Yaśodā. […] Advanced devotees must cherish this description, always thinking of mother Yaśodā’s features — how she was dressed, how she was working and perspiring, how beautifully the flowers were arranged in her hair, and so on. One should take advantage of the full description provided here by thinking of mother Yaśodā in maternal affection for Krishna.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.8.3, purport)

 

Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary describing the practice of rāgānugā-bhakti indicates that a serious attraction for Krishna’s pastimes is still required. But it is described in a way that is accessible for those who have not yet attained such a spontaneous (rāga) mood. Therefore why not follow Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrī Jīva, embrace their mercy, and take the path of “rāgānugā-bhakti made easy”.

 

 


[1] According to my inspiration during the week I write a post for Monday Morning Greetings. Sometimes the subjects are more generic and sometimes they deal with subjects more esoteric. This week my inspiration is to write about rāgānugā-bhakti, a more esoteric subject. If one wants to understand the subject more deeply or if some of the terms used in the article are unfamiliar, I have written a more comprehensive article on the subject: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/srila-bhaktisiddhanta-and-rāganuga-sadhana-bhakti/.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #11 – The Genius of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Principle of Intrapreneurship

March 10th, 2025

In my last article “Build Devotees, Not Temples,” I opined that institutions like ISKCON need to spend more resources supporting and empowering its people, especially those that are creators and doers, to successfully carry its mission into the future. I shared this article with a friend who was a business consultant. He was intrigued by the article and shared with me something from his own experience in the business world that he thought was relevant to the topic at hand. He described the concept of intrapreneurship. In this post, I will briefly share his experience and show how it inspired me to even further realize Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius.

 

My friend worked for Adobe as a consultant. They had basically one product, Photoshop, and the engineers who had developed the company had improved it as far as it could go. The CEO became concerned. He saw that this one-product company was gradually losing the culture of initiative that initially spurred its success. He knew the history of several successful companies developed by self-motivated and creative people who gradually ceded their authority to technicians and managers only to see the company become stagnant and fail. He became concerned.

 

He thought of Kodak, for example, who were pioneers in the technology of photography. It went from an established major company to bankruptcy. Led by bureaucrats resistant to internal change, they lost their ability to keep up with smaller, more nimble competitors that could innovate quickly and respond to changing market trends.

 

The CEO realized he needed to do something. He decided to apply the principle of intrapreneurship.

 

Intrapreneurship refers to a system within an organization that enables creative and innovative people to take the initiative to develop pioneering products and services. And to encourage such creativity and risk-taking, the company not only empowers the employees to innovate but ensures the “intrapreneurs” that they will not be held accountable for any failures or losses as a result of their experiment. It’s called intrapreneurship because it gives the same creative freedom to people within a corporation or organization that independent entrepreneurs have.

 

It has been seen that companies who find ways to allow the self-motivated to leverage their creativity and ingenuity are more likely to survive and grow, especially in the rapidly changing modern world. One of many such examples of success include Google’s “20% time program” which allowed their employees to allot a fifth of their worktime to freely engage in intrapreneurship. The result: Gmail.

 

When listening to my friend’s experience of intrapreneurship I thought of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius in setting up ISKCON along similar principles by encouraging a system of management that would empower independently thoughtful and creative devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s understanding of the principle of intrapreneurship is outlined in his famous letter to Karandhara dasa.[1] Below is a relevant excerpt:

 

“Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard from Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralisation of management, taxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at all approve of such plan. Do not centralise anything. Each temple must remain independent and self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very beginning, why you are thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do something centralising with your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the whole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits, centralisation–these are all nonsense proposals. Only thing I wanted was that books printing and distribution should be centralised, therefore I appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it. Otherwise, management, everything, should be done locally by local men. Accounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that should be each temple’s concern, not yours. Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they do nothing but beg from you and you provide.” [emphasis mine]

 

Genius? At least, it’s quite remarkable that more than fifty years ago at the beginning of his fledgling movement he so clearly understood these principles of empowerment and tried to set up his movement on principles of intrapreneurship that only became prominent in modern corporate leadership over thirty years later.

 

It is frustrating that when Śrīla Prabhupāda so clearly promoted the spirit of individual striving, especially within a movement based on the principles of bhakti, centralization and bureaucracy still pose a threat to his legacy. Let us all honor in our own capacity the genius of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the principle of intrapreneurship.

 


[1] https://vanisource.org/wiki/721222_-_Letter_to_Karandhara_written_from_Bombay

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #10 – The Supreme Personality of Rice

March 3rd, 2025

The Supreme Personality of Rice [1]

If you look at my astrological chart, you will see that my Venus is debilitated. I joke sometimes that even if you buy me a new set of silk clothes, as soon as I put them on I will walk out the door and somehow my pocket will get caught in the doorknob and my fine clothes will be torn. I don’t know much about astrology, but I know that, among other things, Venus rules very fine things. It’s just not my karma to procure, possess, or be surrounded by fine things. I surmise that’s a good thing in general for a sannyāsi, for if one overly makes demands on the environment for fine things it would be difficult for one to remain an honest renunciate. Now on to the “Supreme Personality of Rice”.

 

Narma Sakhi from the Middle East invited me to lunch and the rice preparation was so fine it was almost like I had never had rice before. The imported rice itself was so fragrant that just keeping it in the room, even before cooking it, seemed almost like lighting incense. It was perfectly cooked and mixed with finely sliced almonds and pistachios, raisin sized pieces of fried paneer, and bright saffron. It was all of the finest quality ingredients and the taste was simultaneously incredibly rich and subtle with flavors. What to speak of the walnut/pomegranate sauce served on top! It was so ambrosial that after the meal I joked that I just had the supreme personality of rice.[2]

 

 

I am by no means a connoisseur of food, but boy was that rice good! And how much I enjoyed not just the taste, but also the aesthetic of it. It was so fine and perfect in every way, from the texture and color to the fragrance and taste. So here is the question: Is it good or bad to like fine things? Or perhaps a better question would be what is the role of fine things in society? First, we need a definition of culture to give us a foundation to understand the proper role of fine things in life. Here’s one that I particularly like:

 

Culture is the deliberate organization of society for the purpose of creating impressions in the consciousness to help one learn, communicate, and relate better.[3]

 

The key point here in the definition to help us understand fine things is the aspect of helping one relate better. Fine things are an essential part of exchanging love or relating better with others because love means offering the best to one’s beloved. A proper culture therefore evolves fine music, art, and so on, as well as fine cuisine in order to, among other reasons, enhance the expression of affection for others, including one’s devotion to God.

 

Another aspect of the necessity of fine things is the effect fine things can have on elevating the consciousness to transcendence. Things like art, music, or even great natural beauty elevate the consciousness by impassioning one with an undeniable feeling of meaning and truth in life, whether one believes in God or is secular. Leonard Bernstein, the great American conductor and composer, expressed this concept beautifully in relation to hearing properly composed music, but it can be applied to all finely created things:

 

Beethoven turned out pieces of breath-taking rightness. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never let us down.

 

Also, in relation to music, in The Republic Plato discusses how good music puts order in a child’s soul by training the child to have proper emotions even before he or she can intellectually understand them. He thus speaks of quality music as educating “through habits, by imparting by the melody a certain harmony of spirit that is not science, and by rhythm, measure and grace” and affirms its instrumental educational role “because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way into the inmost soul and take strongest hold upon it.”

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda makes the same point not just about music, but the effect of fine things in general in his commentary on verse 1.11.12 in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where the beauty of Krishna’s city of Dvārakā is described. There he comments how “beautiful gardens, parks and reservoirs of water with ducks and swans playing in the midst of lotus flowers […] are essential for developing the finer tissues of the human body.” In contrast he described how congested, run down industrial cities “deteriorate the finer sentiments of the human being and society to form a dungeon of demons.”

 

Of note here is that the fine things of culture are never just limited to those of economic status. It was the duty of the government to provide an environment of fine architecture and nature, and the duty of those with money to especially construct beautiful temples and churches to soothe and elevate the consciousness of all the citizens, regardless of caste or creed. Of course, deep poverty can ruin all good qualities, and the government needs to assure a minimum sense of decency. If people have even a simple standard of living, they can keep their immediate environment and behavior fine and clean in order to deepen their spirituality, from how they keep their home to the music they listen to and so on.

 

Back to our original question: Should one in spiritual life dedicated to simple living surround oneself with fine things? Like all enjoyment in life, the value of fine things, as described above, is determined by how it is used. In other words, fine things, like most things in life, when applied appropriately and according to one’s nature and ashram, can help purify the consciousness. But when they are used ostentatiously or indulgently they can degrade it.

 

It should be noted that one in bhakti-yoga who has a propensity for fine things and has the means to procure them can become absorbed in deity worship where, according to one’s means, one can procure the best for Krishna. And by offering them to Krishna we can see, smell, and taste the finest things, not in the consciousness of selfish enjoyment, but in devotion. One can also exchange lovely gifts and finely cooked prasādam with the devotees to enhance the culture of loving exchanges so necessary in opening the heart for bhakti.

 

Certainly, as a renunciate I should cultivate detachment to anything not directly used in Krishna’s service, and not seek fine tastes and food, but boy was the supreme personality of rice good!

 

 


[1] Originally published December 17, 2018.

[2] Morassa Pulao (Nuts Rice)

Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • Rice, 6 cups
  • Oil, 8 tablespoons
  • Water, 10 cups
  • Salt, 6 teaspoons
  • Powdered saffron, 1 tablespoon
  • Curd cheese (paneer), chopped into 1 cm cubes, 2 cups
  • Chopped pistachios, 1 cup
  • Chopped almonds, 1 cup
  • Barberries (washed and drained), 1 cup
  • Cooking raisins (washed and drained), 1 cup

 

Directions:

  1. Wash and drain the rice.
  2. Heat 4 tablespoons. of oil over medium heat in a large pan and fry the rice for two minutes. Then add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Place the lid on the pan and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes.
  3. Add a little hot water to the powdered saffron in a small bowl
  4. Heat the rest of the oil in a pan and slightly fry the curd cheese. Fry the chopped pistachios and almonds together with the barberries and raisins for 5 minutes and add the saffron to the mix. Mix all the ingredients with the rice and let it cook for further 10 minutes.

 

[3] I remember reading this definition of culture, but offhand don’t remember where it came from.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #9 – Build Devotees, Not Temples

February 24th, 2025

Recently I was inspired by an article by Bhakti Vijñāna Gosvāmī titled “How Not to Turn ISKCON Into a Religion.” My initial desire was to write a review for this week’s Monday Morning Greetings. I soon realized that to do it justice was beyond the scope of a post. His article was very comprehensive. I thought it was better to just share my own realizations on the same subject and leave a link to his article so my readers can read it in full.[1]

 

First, a short introduction to his piece. His article is a detailed analysis of what the philosopher Max Weber calls “the routinization of charisma” as applied to ISKCON. The “routinization of charisma” is when a charismatic spiritual movement seeks to preserve its legacy by making the structure and organization (the routinization) more important than its initial spiritual inspiration and objectives (its charisma). In his article he outlines carefully how this adversely affects the spiritual depth and enthusiasm of its members, the vision and quality of its leadership, and its relationship with other spiritual and religious sects.

 

The purpose of an institution is to carry its culture—what is right, real, and of value—into the future.[2] What I would like to discuss in this post, inspired by Mahārāja’s article, is how the institutionalization of a movement fails in moving its objective forward if not done very carefully. I will do that through a brief analysis of the concept of empowerment and then briefly discuss my own plan to temper the over-routinization of a movement.

 

I define empowerment as recognizing, encouraging, and facilitating a person’s abilities and then setting broad parameters describing where that person’s service is to function. I describe disempowerment as when the single focus of those in charge is not someone’s abilities and initiative but the parameters in which one is to serve. This often manifests in an emphasis on bureaucracy which inevitably leads to the imbalanced focus on the structure and organization of the institution over the empowerment and support of its people. In this way, by not sufficiently recognizing and encouraging its members, such bureaucracy discourages and disempowers them, and most unfortunately, especially those with the charisma and initiative to carry on its initial inspiration and objectives. The institution thus meant to carry forward its culture loses it.

 

When I look back at my life, I see how I have also fallen into this same prioritization of the structure of an institution over service to its members, especially at the beginning of my devotional career. I want to do something different now. I just see too many qualified people without the encouragement and support needed to reach their potential. In that regard I started The Yoga Maya Fund: Build Devotees, Not Temples —started with a kind donation by Yudhisthira dasa, the former long-time secretary of Śrīla Tamal Krishna Mahārāja. It is not that I have anything against building temples. They also perform an important function in serving and expanding the bhakti movement. I just see exorbitant amounts of money spent on so many temples, when a miniscule amount could allow us to accomplish so much more by supporting qualified people who have the potential to share the path of bhakti with others.

 

This year I was able to bring four such devotees to India, two from South America and two from the Middle East. They are all dedicated to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission and gifted in sharing it with others. They could not, however, afford to come to the holy dhāma to get the inspiration they needed to achieve their full potential. With a little help, they made the trip, and they left India with renewed vigor to serve the mission of Śrī Caitanya. It was more than worth it to sponsor their pilgrimage.

 

“How Not to Turn ISKCON Into a Religion” is a comprehensive analysis of the challenges ISKCON faces in preserving the purity of and fidelity to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s original vision. Bhakti Vijñāna Gosvāmī concludes with a description of “things that can and should be done if we want to establish bhakti as the science of God and ISKCON as an international educational institution dedicated to teaching this great science.” I was much inspired by his article and within the confines of just a weekly post now share my own limited inspiration after reading it. I think we all should do our part according to our capacity to understand Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission so his revolutionary movement never degrades into just another disempowering ‘religion.”

 

Build devotees, not temples!

 


[1] https://articles.goswami.ru/en

[2] Joseph T. O’Connell’s article on the subject, “Movement or Mission”—https://gaudiyadiscussions.gaudiya.com/topic_1446.html

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #8 – The Mission of Śrī Caitanya and the Genius of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Presenting It

February 17th, 2025

I have written an article before about the genius of Sanātana Gosvāmī in presenting the mission of Śrī Caitanya in the first book of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. The mission of Śrī Caitanya is to give spontaneous love for Krishna (rāgānugā-bhakti) to the world. I was in awe of how creatively Śrī Sanātana did this. First, he weaved the plot of the book to build a foundation to help us understand its esoteric subject. Then, he highlighted the spontaneous love of the gopīs for Krishna through various dramatic exchanges between the devotees of Dvārakā in the last chapter. I recently saw the same type of literary brilliance of highlighting an essential point in various creative ways in the first chapter of the Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja.

 

Before I continue, a disclaimer: I like to write, but I am hardly an authority in literature. I suppose every classic has themes that are presented in various ways, often by telling, showing and dramatizing as found in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Still, I found these works exceptional. The authors not only insert their points through the texts in dramatic and creative ways but do it in verse form. The genius of their presentation certainly shone through to me and I’ll try to share some of that here with you.

 

The Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the story of the last eighteen years of Śrī Caitanya’s life as he settles in Puri to fulfill the internal reason for his descent (his personal objective rather than his contribution to the world)—to relish the love of his topmost devotee, Śrī Radha, at the height of her love. It is the most esoteric subject in Krishna bhakti, and we are told throughout the book that it is impossible to grasp it simply by the force of one’s intellect. How then to enter the Antya-līlā , where this subject will be extensively discussed? We need the mercy of God and His pure devotees. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja establishes this point throughout the first chapter in a myriad of ways. I found the way he did it quite brilliant. Here are some of the ways he approaches the subject.

 

By direct declaration, as we are informed in the first verse that the impossible is made possible by mercy:

 

“I offer my respectful obeisances to Śrī Krishna Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even a lame man can cross over a mountain and a dumb man recite Vedic literature.” (Antya-līlā 1.1)

 

By his personal example:

 

At the beginning of the Madhya-līlā (the middle pastimes), only one third through the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he decides to summarize the pastimes of Śrī Caitanya, which were practically known only to himself due to his direct service and access to Svarūpa Dāmodara, the Lord’s personal confidante. He begins composing one verse for each pastime, and having completed that, hopefully plans to unpack each verse to tell the full story of Śrī Caitanya’s life as far as he can go. His fear is that he is old, nearly blind and invalid, and that he will either die or become incapacitated before he completes the book. Imagine his daunting task. He had to create one verse after another in Bengali in his mind, encapsulating his subject within strict poetic parameters, and then having only one shot to put it to paper. Somehow, however, he completes the Madhya-līlā and now he is faced with an even more daunting task, to approach the Antya-līlā , which describes the most esoteric part of Śrī Caitanya’s life and philosophy in verse form. His hope:

 

“My path is very difficult. I am blind, and my feet are slipping again and again. Therefore, may the saints help me by granting me the stick of their mercy as my support.” (Antya-līlā 1.2)

 

Through the story line as he presents it:

 

Śrī Caitanya has just returned from Vrindavan to fulfill the internal reason for his descent. His devotees get word of his return and proceed on the long journey from Bengal to Puri to join him under the leadership of Śivānanda Sena. On their journey Śivānanda gives shelter to a stray dog who joins the party. It’s a long story about how this dog was cared for by Śivānanda, and the story ends with the dog going back to Godhead. The message is clear: The impossible is possible by the mercy of God’s devotees. We too can enter, or understand, the Antya-līlā by their mercy. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary encourages us:

 

“We may conclude that even as dogs we must take shelter of a Vaiṣṇava. The benefit will be the same as that which accrues to an advanced devotee under a Vaiṣṇava’s care.” (Antya-līlā 1.24, purport)

 

I could continue how expertly this theme of entering Antya-līlā for Śrī Caitanya, His devotees, the author, and the reader are expertly woven into the text, but it’s beyond the scope of a brief post. I haven’t even recounted the epiphany of Śrī Rupa on his journey to Puri that reveals the essence of the Antya-līlā and our entrance to the subject through him. I wanted to give just a glimpse of the literary genius of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in giving us the method of entrance to the heart of Śrī Caitanya and what He has given us and the world. Without a doubt, he’s a kavirāja, a genius of wordcraft.

 

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