Category Archives: Srila Swami Maharaja Articles

Articles by Srila Swami Maharaja.

Enjoying Election Day in the USA

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Today we are observing the disappearance of His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktvedanta Swami. It is also the day voters in the USA will vote to elect their next President. Remembering the many things Srila Prabhupada had to say about democratic elections, observance of first event led to remembrance of the next and I took a look to see what Srila Prabhupada had to say about these matters.

I recall once hearing about Srila Sridhara Maharaja speak to the question of how we should vote. He said this: ”Vote against the Communist.”

In the following talk Srila Prabhupada expands on the same point. I found reading it to be very enjoyable. I  became quite happy doing so. I hope you will have the same experience.

Swami B.K. Giri

”So if the world becomes full of Communists, then the human civilization will be finished.”

Prabhupāda: …two classes of men = the Communist and the non-Communist. Not exactly Communist and Capitalist, but Communist and non-Communist. Out of these two, the Communist are going to be powerful. This is the world tendency. So if the world becomes full of Communists, then the human civilization will be finished. All rogues and rascals, that’s all. The American government wants to check this tendency.… Read More...

Gandhi? Yes. Mahatma? No! His God was charka not Kṛṣṇa.

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Yes; there was a Gandhi, but he was no mahatma. Srila Prabhupada explains—

Guest: What about the argument, not [indistinct], but India we see that every great saint personality has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, even Mahatma Gandhi?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, no.

Guest: He was also taking his…

Prabhupāda: No, no. Don’t say like that. Surrender of Kṛṣṇa is different. Then you have to understand what is surrender. Mahatma never surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. He surrendered to yourself; therefore you killed him. [Indian laughs] He surrendered to his countrymen, and his countrymen killed him. He was working for his countrymen. That’s all. He never worked for Kṛṣṇa.

Guest: But the Gītā was always with him.

Prabhupāda: But, but, no “but.” You see from the action.

Guest: I also read Gītā. What’s the difference? I mean, Mahatma Gandhi…

Prabhupāda: He never surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. I wrote him letter, “Mahatma Gandhi, you have got so much influence. You just preach the gospel of Kṛṣṇa…, Bhagavad-gītā. Now we have attained svarāj. You don’t be in politics.” But he was still in politics after attainment of svarāj. And his assistants became disgusted because he was interfering, and therefore he was killed.… Read More...

Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami “Not For the Public”

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The following is an excerpt from a room conversation with His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and some of his disciples.

Date: Aug. 8, 1972
Location: London
Orginal Source and Audio

Prabhupāda: Now after few hours millions of germs are coming out. They were not visible when the body was not dead. Now where they were?

Revatīnandana: They were within the body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly, in everything there is living entity.

Śyāmasundara: Yeah. But…

Prabhupāda: They will be visible in due course of time.

Śyāmasundara: What, what he was telling me was that this table itself has a jīva soul, as if the table…

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Śyāmasundara: …is a person. Oh.

Revatīnandana: So that’s what I was asking when I said, “Does the table have a jīva soul?” I was trying to ask that question.

Śyāmasundara: That’s what completely threw me off. I thought, oh…

Revatīnandana: That, that threw us all.

Śyāmasundara: That means the table is a person, this is a person…

Prabhupāda: A particular jīva soul was in that body. That it, it is also proof that every jīva soul is individual, although they are living combinedly. Everything is individual.

Revatīnandana: Well that’s…, that’s all right then.… Read More...

Srila Prabhupada on Spiritualization, Civilization, Militarization, War & Peace

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vande ‘haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca

śrī-rūpam sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam

sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ

śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca

The man having forgotten himself as the son of Godhead, has forsaken his real constitutional nature. He has misidentified himself with everything non-godly and therefore manipulates a material existence conducted by the mind and the six instrumental senses. He is concerned only with his material coverings of gross body and the subtle mind but cannot see either himself or his so-called numerous fellowmen. This is what we mean by Nescience which is darkness. The man having designated himself with the relation of his vehicular body and the finer elements of mind and ego etc., like the motor-car driver who has identified himself wrongly with the motor-car itself, has manufactured a civilization which is self contradictory and self denial.

His so-called rationality having not gone far above the rationality of the lower animals, he laments at the death of his fellowmen or at the loss of his own things which he has never witnessed by real experience. This is what we mean by Nescience which is darkness. He slightly feels only and that after the death of his fellowmen that the body loses something that moves it just like the driver moves the motor-car, but still due to the darkness of Nescience he never concerns himself with the driver of the body but takes care superficially only for the body or the mechanical car.… Read More...

How God Takes birth?

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One may argue that “How God takes birth?” There are many [indistinct]. And the answer is, “Why God will not take birth?” If God is all-powerful, why this power should be denied to Him, that “You cannot take birth”? Is God under the direction of any human being, that some philosophers think that God cannot take birth, therefore God will be obliged by his conception that He will not take birth? No. God is omnipotent, all-powerful—He can take birth as many times as He likes and wherever He likes. That is God’s position: full independence, in whatever form He likes.

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.

Bs. 5.33

 

— Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Janmāṣṭamī Lecture, Aug. 13, 1971, London

The Materialistic Demeanor Collides with the Spiritual Mountain

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The materialistic demeanor cannot possibly stretch to the transcendental autocrat who is ever inviting the fallen conditioned souls to associate with Him through devotion or eternal serving mood. The phenomenal attractions are often found to tempt sentient beings to enjoy the variegated position which is opposed to undifferenced monism. People are so much apt to indulge in transitory speculations even when they are to educate themselves on a situation beyond their empiric area or experiencing jurisdiction. The esoteric aspect often knocks them to trace out immanence in their outward inspection of transitory and transformable things. This impulse moves them to fix the position of the immanent to an indeterminate impersonal entity, no clue of which could be discerned by moving earth and heaven through their organic senses.

— Siddhānta Sarasvatī, Shree Gaudiya Math, Calcutta, the 1st August, 1932.

A clear illustration of the above can be found in the interview that follows. Therein one may note the questioners’ preconceived notions cannot stretch so far as to accommodate the beauty, magnificence and magnanimity of the transcendental plane they have approached while yet standing on the desert below.

I pray you, my dear readers, will appreciate the beauty and truth of these talks at least as much, if not more, than I have during the last nearly fifty years, even after hearing them again and again.… Read More...

“A Miracle”: Gaura-pūrṇimā, 1973

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L-R Govinda Maharaja, Srila Sridhara Maharaja, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
 
 

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, our Swami Mahārāja has done a miracle! [laughingly] He has done a miracle!


Prabhupāda: [laughter] [indistinct]


Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What Bhaktivinoda conceived and Prabhupāda tried to, according to his conception, to translate into action in his last days. Anyhow, we find that through Swami Mahārāja these revelations have been fulfilled. We are happy. We are glad. We are proud of Swami Mahārāja, with love to all.

[The following transcript is taken from talks given on Gaura-pūrṇimā day, March 17, 1973, the day of the inauguration of the ISKCON Candrodaya Mandira in Māyāpur, India].

(Note: Some of the text in brackets (“[]”) indicate bkg’s corrections.)

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: [indistinct], conceived the inner most [indistinct], this is wonderful, [indistinct], I am rather [indistinct], this is not a chance confident eh? Not a matter of the minute …this sort of [indistinct] is being conferred on me… [indistinct] permanent settlement [indistinct] conceived in this world [indistinct]

[break] …we are very eager to get some happiness, that even a point is very much dear to us—even a speck of happiness of the Infinite. Our Professor Sanyal, he told when he was a boy in…, he was a man of Faridpur, and there the Ganges water is very dear.

… Read More...

Mass Murder: Cause & Cure

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8/5/19

During the past weekend two more mass murder incidents occurred. This time in the USA, one in Dayton, Ohio and one in El Paso, Texas.

What is the cause and what is the cure?

Srila Prabhupada addressed both these points in the following conversation.

Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: Room Conversation with Lt. Mozee, Policeman

Date: July 5, 1975
Location: Chicago

Śrī Govinda [now Śrīpāda Nyasi Maharaja] : Lieutenant Mozee.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Yes. [indistinct]

Śrī Govinda: He’s with the Chicago police department, and he’s in charge of developing their relationship with the media. And I was thinking there could be nice discussion with him concerning your ideas about stopping crime.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? Yes. So I shall explain, or he will enquire?

Jayatīrtha: [to Lieutenant] Would you like to ask some questions or have him explain?

Lt. Mozee: Well, no. I understood the spiritual leader had some ideas on how to prevent crime, to prevent do these things. I might inquire after he gives his ideas. I understand you read the…

Prabhupāda: It is not idea; it is fact that one man is very pious and one man is very vicious. What is the difference? The difference is = one is dirty in his heart and one is pure in his heart.… Read More...

A Letter to Srila Govinda Maharaja From Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami (1955)

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Dated: Sept. 16, 1955
Location: New Delhi
Letter to: Govinda Maharaja

His Holiness Sripada Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaja
Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math
Kolergunj
P.O. Navadvipa,
Dist. Nadia (W.Beng.)

My dear Sripada Govinda Maharaja,

This morning I received two copies of your “Gaudiya Darshan” and I was very glad to see its appearance. When I was at Mathura I heard from Spd. Kesava Maharaja and so also I heard it from Spd Goswami Maharaja that His Holiness Sripada Sridhara Maharaja is going to publish “Gaudiya Darshan” and today I find it actually in hand. I cannot but offer my congratulations to your holiness. Because I know if anything has been done it is due to your energy. I can understand now why Sripada Sridhara Maharaja bestowed all his mercy upon you. He rightly found in you some dormant energy for future action and we can see that it is now fructifying duly.

I have read with great interest your article especially the one which is named as “CHALAR PATHE.” It is not only very amusing but also instructive. Simple dry philosophical arguments will not be appealing now a days to people in general. They will like to read such articles as written by you with greater relish.… Read More...

The Process for Carrying Out Srila Prabhupada’s Desires for Future Initiations.

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Note

The paper presented below was prepared by ISKCON’s GBC after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance and sent to all ISKCON temple presidents in 1978. I read the paper carefully at that time and was astonished to see that my Godbrothers apparently had so much knowledge of the matters presented therein. I remained puzzled, however, at how they had gained such insight and by the phrase “in consultation with higher authorities.” Who were these “higher authorities”? Years later I leaned “they” were Srila Sridhara Maharaja; the one from whom the GBC, at Srila Prabhupada’s direction, sought advice on the most crucial matters that would affect his disciples after his disappearance.

[Addressing Srila Sridhara Maharaja]

Jayapataka Mj: After the departure of our beloved spiritual master we came to offer our respects to you as well as to hear your very esteemed upadesa on certain matters if you would be kind enough.
. . .
Jayapataka Maharaja: He has given explicit desires, but he told us that, on other technical points and other matters of philosophy, it there was question we should approach you.

—ISKCON GBC Consulting Srila Sridhara Maharaja, 78.03. _ . A [GBC]

Swami B.K. Giri

The process for carrying out Srila Prabhupada’s desires for future initiations.… Read More...