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Lord Caitanya's Message of Tolerance

• Subject: Lord Caitanya's Message of Tolerance
• From: Marutpati das
• Date: Wed Dec 13 10:50:25 1995
• Message-Id: id646

Dear Marutpati das



Thank you for your letter. I notice you are stressing tolerance, and that has to

be there of course [tranad api sunicena...] But tolerance means we have to

tolerate the reactions of the demons when we preach... It doesn't mean stopping

preaching or somehow putting ourselves into some comfortable position where we

don't upset anyone. It is not possible. The demons are VERY attached to sense

gratification for themselves, but we are saying, "Do everything for Krishna...

don't do anything for yourself..." They hate it!!! But still we have to tell the

truth -- and tolerate their attacks and criticism.  Also there is no tolerance if

Krishna or Srila Prabhupada is being criticized. That is a different thing

altogether. What did Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the author of the "tranad api

sunicina..." verse, do when he heard two drunkards were attacking Lord Nityananda

Prabhu? He immediately went to the spot and was ready to kill the offenders... Of

course He didn't kill them, in this age it is not the way, He killed their

demoniac mentality and initiated them into the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-

mantra. That is our business. To get everyone to chant Hare Krishna.



>I pray that Lord Chaitanya is making clear his message of tolerance.



His message is "Hari nam Hare nam...." Chant the name of Hare, the Hare Krishna

maha-mantra, there is no other way, no other way, no other way... But many

devotees are not taking this very seriously, not chanting 16 rounds, not following

the four regulative principles, not reading Srila Prabhupada's books, not

regularly going out on Hari-nam sankirtana and book distribution even. So that is

a problem...



> Prabhupada seemed to be willing to  allow for the propensities of everyone

>and to encourage them.



Prabhupada was emphatic that his disciples only read his books... What is the use

of so many other philosophies, books, etc... It is Prabhupada who will save us,

and everything is in his books. There is no need to look elsewhere.



Srila Prabhupada was expert in engaging every disciple in Krishna's service

according to his particular propensity... But he WAS NOT interested in allowing

for all sorts of different philosophies and mental speculation, at least not among

the devotees.



Of course there are so many "religious" and "spiritual" groups. Some are

mayavadis, some are impersonalists, some are voidists, but most are not spiritual

at all -- completely bogus. Prabhupada exposed them... He didn't tolerate them at

all...



> I recall a tape in which someone asked about Lord

>Buddha and his response was "Are you following Lord Buddha?"





We are not, of course, following the teachings of Lord Buddha, but we glorify him

as an incarnation of Krishna, he appeared to stop the animal killing in the name

of Vedic yajna in Kali-yuga, but his philosophy of ahimsa is not Vedic.



> Without the

>presence of the pure devotee I think that the challenge for his disciples is

>to find a comfortable way



Yes. Everyone wants the comfortable life. Let me sleep through the Brahma-muhurta,

let me have illicit sex, let me do all nonsense -- and at the same time call

myself Srila Prabhupada's disciple!....



> to relate to each other and to the world at large.



Of course devotees see everyone in their relationship with Krishna, as eternal

servants of Krishna, suffering because they have forgotten their relationship with

Krishna. So they try to remind everyone about Krishna... But we have to

reestablish our own relationship with Krishna first. If we are still completely

enchanted by money and sex what is our realization? How can we help anyone else?



> Unfortunately, most devotees whom I come in contact with have the rather ill

>disguised opinion that they are the repositories of all knowledge and that

>everyone else is a fool or a demon.



If we present the knowledge coming in the disciplic succession and follow in our

own lives we can transmit that knowledge. It is not that we are the only source.

It is available to everyone. Anyone can read Srila Prabhupada's books and repeat

the same thing to others. But among devotees I have also noticed the problem you

mention. It has become very difficult these days. There is no standard any more.

When Prabhupada was physically present it was different. He set the standard,

there was only one philosophy. Now every "leader" has his own personal version of

"Krishna consciousness" and the devotees all have different ideas. It can be very

difficult to associate...



> The unwillingness/inability to see the

>world with love and to relate to all its inhabitants in a loving way seems to

>have relegated the devotees to a rather obscure place in the contemporary

>world.



We have no place in the contemporary world. The contemporary world is completely

materialistic. We are meant to be completely spiritual. We want to change the

world... We don't want to become compatible with them, we want to bring them into

our ways...



> My feeling is that the essence of Lord Chaitanya's method is



His method is to chant: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and to encourage everyone else also to

chant and hear about Krishna and His pastimes.



> now in

>the general repositories of knowledge, awaiting the arrival of the soul who

>will grasp it and have the vision and love to spread it once again over the

>face of the earth.



Yes. It requires someone to take it seriously, that is all. most of the devotees

don't take it seriously, manusunam sahas resu kascin mam vetthi tattva, "out of

many thousands of men one may be interested in spiritual life, out of many

interested in spiritual life one may be liberated and out of many liberated souls

hardly one knows Krishna in truth." It is not a cheep thing and it is radically

opposed to the values of todays "contemporary world". Krishna consciousness is

completely transcendental and it will not be directly appreciated by everyone....



I hope I haven't offended you. I also find it difficult associating with devotees

sometimes, but we can't just water everything down so the blooped devotees feel

comfortable in maya. We have to all come to the platform of rising before 4:00am,

attending mangal-aroti, chanting more than 16 rounds, following the four

regulative principles, hearing the Srimad-Bhagavatam and living in the association

of the devotees, regularly going out on Hari-nam sankirtana and book distribution,

etc.





We can't have the comfortable, sense gratification life and become Krishna

conscious at the same time. A little austerity is required, but after a little

while it is not austerity. We like to get out of bed early in the morning to see

the Deities and chant Hare Krishna and the mundane sense pleasures we were once so

attached to become distasteful in comparison to the unlimited bliss which is

available from serving Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.



I hope Srila Prabhupada's transcendental Christmas book-distribution marathon is

going well wherever you are and you are also distributing some books.



Your servant



Madhudvisa dasa

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