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Archive for the 'Monday Morning Greetings' Category

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #20 – Queen Kuntī was Right!

May 12th, 2025

When I grew up in Krishna consciousness, we were very sympathetic to the Vaiṣṇavas in the former Soviet Union. After all they were persecuted, jailed, and tortured by the KGB, but they were seemingly indomitable and couldn’t be broken. In 1991, however, the Soviet Union disbanded and we soon received word that the first group of Russian devotees would come to India.

 

Kesava Bharati Maharaja was one of the Vaiṣṇavas who greeted them in Calcutta when they first arrived. He told me a touching story:

 

“When the devotees from the Soviet Union came, we offered them a big feast. I sat next to one humble soul. He looked at his plate and picked up a piece of papaya in his hand raised it up and turned to me and asked, ‘A fruit?’ I nodded. He bit it and cried. I was shocked that his previous existence was so seemingly deprived.”

 

When the first contingent of devotees from the former Soviet Union visited Vrindavan, we met them at Bhaktivedanta Gate on Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg and then ushered them into the temple for kirtan. As they approached the front entrance to the temple, we showered them with rose petals from above.

 

Sivarama Swami and Govinda Swami were especially eager to honor them, and Govinda Swami, a gourmet Hare Krishna cook among his many talents, made them an amazing feast which they served in Tamal Krishna’s house. They had a plan to honor them for their sacrifice. When I describe it, it may seem strange, but their plan represents how much we honored these devotees’ courage, and the sacrifice they underwent to spread the mission of Śrī Caitanya. Their plan was as follows.

 

The two maharajas would serve them so much prasadam that their plates would be piled with their remnants. They also placed sand in front of the doorway so that when they left “the dust of their lotus feet” would mix with that sand. After the Russian devotees left, they would eat their remnants and bathe in the dust of their lotus feet. And they did!

 

As for me, I was housing arguably the most persecuted and toughest of the Russian devotees, three Armenian brothers—Sannyasa Dasa, Kamala Mala,  and a third brother whose name I forget. After the feast at Tamal Krishna’s house, Sannyasa, who was tortured in prison, started to complain to me. He was disturbed when he found out that the maharajas had eaten their remnants and bathed in the dust of their feet. In general, the high level of respect he received since coming to India upset him. In broken English with a heavy Russian accent he expressed his feelings about it.

 

“I think it is even more dangerous here than in prison. In prison they can only harm your body, but here with all this worship they can kill your bhakti!

 

Just as he was griping about the worship he was enduring, Kamala Mala, a very tall imposing person, was walking by and overheard what his brother was saying. He, stopped and turned his head to me and in a very heavy tone commented:

 

“Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

For those unfamiliar with that reference, he was referring to the famous statement by Queen Kuntī. She lamented that Krishna was leaving because the horrible war which called for His presence, and caused her family untold suffering, had now ended.

 

“I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.25

 

We generally feel closer to God in times of tragedy, but how many of us value God’s presence and shelter to that degree?

 

Dear Śrī Lord Krishna, I pray that one day I can value your presence in my life so much that I too may proclaim:

 

“Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #19 – Is Forgiveness the Most Important Quality of an Aspiring Yogi?

May 5th, 2025

Recently I gave a talk on forgiveness titled “How to give up justified hate?” While giving the talk it dawned on me how important it is for one on the path of yoga to be forgiving. My reasoning, which connected yoga with forgiveness, was based on a quote that connected the two:

 

“The shadows of resentment keep our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are.”[1]

 

Yoga means to bring the mind to sattva, literally the original state of being. The mind is like a lens or mirror. Its original state of being, the state of sattva, appears therefore when it’s clean and not distorted. This is accomplished by meditation which means concentrating on one thing, usually a mantra. By doing so, the other disruptive thoughts emerging from the ego, which distort or sully the mind, are quelled. The mind then naturally moves toward sattva, its natural state, where the lens of the mind is clear and we can perceive or experience who we really are.

 

Meditation means controlling the mind. It begins with rules or instructions on how to control the mind’s activity in relationship to others. Such rules are called yamas. The first and most important yama is ahi, nonviolence, and it takes precedence over all other rules and regulations. For example, one can even lie and transcend the second yama of satya (truthfulness) if the intention is to protect another from violence. In that way ahi takes precedence over every other yogic ethical rule and is thus the foundation of yoga. If you can’t control the mind to the extent that violence against others physically, verbally, or even in your thoughts, is restrained, you haven’t even attained the most rudimentary platform of yoga.

 

Forgiveness means “to give up resentment against, to give up desire to punish, stop being angry with, pardon, to overlook.”

 

What about a situation in which someone has done something horrible to you or others? There is certainly a discussion to be had about when it’s appropriate to drop one’s resentment, or if there is a psychologically needed period of moral outrage required for one who has faced or witnessed such abuse. That is a deep subject beyond the scope of this post. Still, any type of hate, even “justified hate,” “keeps our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are.” A yogi must therefore be forgiving and rid the heart of resentment.

 

There are many good reasons to forgive. A thorough discussion of the topic would certainly cover many of them. The ultimate reason to forgive, however is simply spiritual. Resentment deters our movement towards a clear mind and the realization of the self. It’s often a great challenge. But a yogi must forgive, even when our hate is “justified”!

 

“Forgiveness means to give up all hope for a better past!”

 


[1] I had been careless taking notes and as a result I often there have forgotten to put the attribution to the citations I collected. Therefore, in my posts occasionally I list a citation without citing its source. I have two such instances in this post.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #18 – Perception, Contentment and Fake News

April 28th, 2025

Perception, Contentment and Fake News[1]

 

The black snake was still sitting on the last step of the ghāṭa. It hadn’t moved one inch since I initially saw it when descending the stairs for my bath. A little fearful, I stopped suddenly and walked fifty meters to a safer spot. I didn’t have my glasses, so I had to squint to see why the snake was seemingly motionless. Oh, it was just a ripped black tire! I had an epiphany.

 

All problems are perceptual and not actual. I felt threatened by the black snake, but what was my problem? Was it a matter of what was actually there or rather something perceptual—what I thought was there?

 

The best example of a perceptual problem is death. When we lose what we are attached to, we suffer. At death we seemingly lose our very existence. We are, however, eternal. Therefore, death itself is only the illusion of non-existence and, in that sense, not an actual problem.

 

Every school of spirituality and self-improvement is based on overcoming perceptual or illusory problems. For example, the focus of the yogic process is to conquer distress and invoke contentment by purifying one’s perception, which is distorted by the static of thoughts born of ego.

 

Yoga corrects one’s vision by bringing the mind to sattva, which means the true nature of being. The original nature of the mind, which is like a mirror or lens, is one that is not distorted or dirty. The yogic technique for cleaning the mirror of the mind and bringing it to its true state is called meditation. By concentrating on one thought, the thoughts which distort the mind are quelled. The lens of the mind thus gradually moves to the platform of sattva, a higher level of perception and contentment, which are the main symptoms of sattva.

 

Similarly, in its own way, modern psychology seeks to help solve one’s mental problems by giving one a higher perspective to encounter them. Traumas, phobias, and anxieties, for example, are distortions of one’s thinking and perception. An expert in psychology may help one to identify the irrational patterns of thought that skew one’s perception and cause distress. He or she then helps one to change those patterns of thought hoping to bring one to a higher level of perception and contentment.

 

The purpose of the law of karma is also to elevate our vision by putting us in situations that teach us lessons to help us better understand ourselves. In that way, all spiritual schools of thought serve a singular purpose: to enlighten us or to elevate our perception to make us content or happy.

 

I was initially inspired to write this Monday Morning Greetings highlighting how all problems are perceptual not actual by reflecting on the perils of the internet. It skews people’s perception, forcing them to live in polarized views imbued with hate and misery. When it is used in this way it is certainly not a pramāṇa, a valid means of knowing meant to help us increase our perception and contentment. And it is surely not the world where the saintly reside. Śrīla Prabhupāda therefore condemned such media strongly:

 

“To read ordinary literature and books or newspapers is compared to the pleasure place of crows. The crows, they are very much attached to the rejected refuse, garbage.” (Lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.3.17, Los Angeles, July 12, 1969)

 

 


[1] This is an edited reprint of February 24, 2020.

 

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

 

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