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Re: Hare Krsnas fake?


kallisti@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu (Jamie Pemantell) wrote:



>In article <cassidy.85.0001A93D@inetdirect.net>,

>cassidy <cassidy@inetdirect.net> wrote:



>>by true spiritual masters? which ones?



>My teachers were unjudging, selfless, completely self-realized, loving 

>people. They never had a negative word to say about anyone. However, when 

>it came to the Krishna Consciousness movement, they viewed it as a 

>perversion of an otherwise beautiful and plentiful system of beliefs, 

>just like modern Christianity. Granted some individuals will excel and 

>adhere to the quest for truth, but this is the exception to the rule. 



Who were your teachers? Who is your guru? You are not saying. I am clearly

saying I am simply aspiring to serve His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada. I have practically realized his teachings [at least in a

small, but very real, way]. I have seriously accepted the instructions and

the process of Saddhana Bhakti, Krishna consciousness, as taught by Srila

Prabhupada and I have practically experienced the results. A symptom of

making a little advancement in Krishna consciousness is detachment from

material desires. This is a scientific process. If you follow the process

of Saddhana Bhakti the results will come. So I have seen in my life I am

now not very attached to material things at all. Before I came to Krishna

consciousness I was always looking for sex and intoxication. These were

important parts of my life... but now simply as an automatic by-product of

Krishna consciousness I am not so interested in these things. It's not

that we have to force ourselves to give up eating meat while harboring a

desire to eat meat... Krishna consciousness is the higher taste. It is

completely satisfying. When I am fully engaged in serving Srila Prabhupada

and Krishna I experience real, tangable pleasure, pleasure so great that

the sex pleasure I thought was so important in the past seems like

something distasteful. So this is the point. 



Srila Prabhupada has presented the real thing. He hasn't presented some

soft watered down version for the Americans. Who would have thought he

could have succeeded? He came to New York in 1965 with seven dollars! He

first landed in Boston and he saw the red-light district there around the

docks. That was his first view of America. Amid the brothels and the

hotels he penned a very beautiful poem (here are a few verses only):



"My dear Lord Krishna, you are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do

not know why You have brought me here. Now you can do whatever You like

with me. But I guess You have some business here, otherwise why would You

bring me to this terrible place?



"Most of the population here is covered by the material modes of ignorance

and passion, absorbed in material life they think themselves very happy

and satisfied and therefore they have no taste for the transcendental

message of Vasudeva, Krishna. I do not know how they will be able to

understand it, but I know that Your causeless mercy can make anything

possible because You are the most expert mystic.



"O spiritual master of all the worlds, I can simply repeat Your messages,

so if You like You can make my power of speaking suitable for their

understanding. Only by Your causeless mercy will my words become pure.



"O Lord, I am just like a puppet in Your hands, so if You have brought me

here to dance, make me dance, make me dance my Lord. Make me dance as You

like.



"I have no devotion, nor do I have any knowledge, but I have strong faith

in the holy name of Krishna, I have been designated as Bhaktivedanta and

now if You like You can fulfill the real purport of Bhaktivedanta."



So Srila Prabhupada did not compromise. His friends in India told him he

would have to water-down the philosophy, that the Americans would not give

up eating meat, taking intoxication, gambling and illicit sex, but

Prabhupada was undeterred. He wanted to preach pure Krishna consciousness,

that was his duty to his spiritual master and Krishna, he didn't mind if

nobody followed him. And who would have thought he would have been

successful? He went to the Bowery in New York, skid-row, and later to the

Lower East side where the hippy sub-culture was just about to bloom. Young

people were converging on the Lower East Side of New York from everywhere

to do exactly what Srila Prabhupada wanted them to give up. So in the

middle of so much sex, drugs and rock and roll, Srila Prabhupada, one lone

old Indian man did something no one thought possible. He turned so many of

the drug-crazed hippies into pure devotees of Krishna. 



So the point is he didn't compromise. Everyone else compromised. You can't

find any group now that recommends one give up all forms of intoxication,

give up sex except for having children in marriage, give up meat eating...

These are very unpopular things, but they are required if you want to make

spiritual advancement. If we want to advance spiritually we have to become

detached from matter so these regulative principles are essential. But

everyone else is ignoring them because people don't like them. That is why

your "guru" doesn't like Srila Prabhupada. Because he is telling the

truth. But we want to be cheated. We want someone to tell us: "Oh, It's

all right, just go on with sex, that is healthy..." We like that sort of

guru very much. But it is nonsense. In reality to make spiritual

advancement tapasya, austerity is required. We have to follow the

regulative principles. Srila Prabhupada was the only guru who was brave

enough to tell us this. No one else has ever come from India and told the

truth in these matters...









Thank you. Hare Krishna!



Madhudvisa dasa       

(madhudvisa@krishna.org)      

                                

All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
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