Letting Go of the Sack of Stones: Tapasya, Guru, and the Holy Name as the Path to Serving Krishna in True Freedom

niśamya tad-vaktṛ-didṛkṣayā diśo
vilokya tatrānyad apaśyamānaḥ
svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya vimṛśya tad-dhitaṁ
tapasy upādiṣṭa ivādadhe manaḥ

When he heard that sound, he tried to find the person who had produced it, looking in all directions. But seeing no one other than himself, he thought that it would be more reasonable to remain steadily seated on his lotus seat and concentrate on performing austerity, in accordance with the instruction he had received.

Śrīla Prabhupāda says that in order to be successful in life, we should follow the example of Lord Brahmā. We can imagine that Lord Brahmā’s situation was very exceptional. He was completely alone in the universe. And suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, he hears a voice and receives this instruction to perform tapasya.

Being the most intelligent person, Lord Brahmā could understand that he should take this instruction very seriously. Of course, he was curious: “Where does this sound, this instruction, come from?” He had, as you know, four heads, so he went down along the lotus and looked around with his four heads: “Where did this come from?” But he could not see any source. Still, he took it seriously: “All right, I am to perform austerity. Why not?”

Nowadays people give so many arguments why they should not practice austerity. When we explain that for a human being it is appropriate to be vegetarian, they have lots of arguments why one should not be a vegetarian. And it is the same with all the regulative principles. People have so many excuses. But devotees are able to appreciate them: “Oh, these principles make sense. It is reasonable for me to control my senses, to restrict my activities, my senses.”

The natural tendency of conditioned souls is to engage in sinful activities. In one sense that is natural, but in another sense it is not. In other words, the tendency is there, but a human being is expected to restrain it, to control it. This control of the senses is simply preliminary, preparatory work for spiritual life. By following these regulative principles one does not yet become a transcendentalist. There is nothing so special in itself about being a vegetarian. So many animals—pigeons, elephants and monkeys—are also vegetarians. But monkeys are not very advanced spiritually. Monkeys are monkeys.

Similarly with the other regulative principles. Avoiding illicit sex is not, in itself, spiritual. In fact, many animals lead a much more regulated sexual life than human beings. If we analyse it, we will see that many human activities, compared with the activities of animals, should be considered lower than animal standards. For example, we do not see animals smoking cigarettes. And yet people think, “Oh, this is so advanced. I am a very advanced person—I smoke a cigarette.” Or a pipe. Sometimes we see a man with a pipe, looking very thoughtful and philosophical.

In any case, tapasya—we are discussing how Lord Brahmā accepted this instruction and took it up without any discussion, without difficulty. He sat down and performed tapasya. And, as will be explained in the next verse, he did not do this for five minutes. No, he did it for a thousand years by the calculation of the demigods. That is a very long time. In other words, Lord Brahmā was not impatient.

Rūpa Gosvāmī says: utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt—you should be very enthusiastic in practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And you should be convinced that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a fact—that Kṛṣṇa exists, that the spiritual world exists, that we are the soul and not this body. Basic things like that—we should have firm conviction in them.

Then, niścayād and dhairyāt—one should have patience. Actually, these three qualities are qualities of the soul, the pure spiritual being. We understand that the soul is sat-cit-ānanda, just as Kṛṣṇa is sat-cit-ānanda. The soul is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of happiness.

So, since the pure spiritual being has this quality of eternality, its nature is to be patient. And since it has the quality of full transcendental knowledge or understanding, the nature of the soul is also to be convinced, to have firm conviction. And ānanda—the soul, being full of happiness, is naturally enthusiastic as well.

Thus the practices of tapasya are meant to help us remove our conditioning so that these qualities can manifest. And under such conditions we can serve Kṛṣṇa without any obstacles.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

On the brahma-bhūta platform, the spiritual platform, one can engage in devotional service. And what is it like on that platform? What do you experience there? Prasannātmā—you become very happy, very joyful.

The conditioned soul is always carrying a heavy burden. What is that burden? It is the burden of karma. So many sinful acts, so many actions that bring so many reactions. The soul carries the weight of this life of action and reaction.

There is a story about a man carrying a sack of stones. He carried his sack of stones his whole life. He is walking along… What is the main river in Bulgaria called? The Danube. He is walking along the Danube, on one side. He looks and sees the other bank. He sees that there are some people there who do not have any stones. No sacks of stones at all! His experience had always been that whoever he saw was carrying a sack of stones. “This is very strange, they don’t have any stones.”

And they look across to the other bank at the man with the stones and call out: “Hey, what are you doing with all those stones? What are you doing with that sack?”

“Oh, this is my sack of stones.”
“Really? And what do you do with it?”
“I don’t know, I’ve always had a sack of stones. Everyone has a sack of stones.”

So they say, “That’s ridiculous. Why don’t you just get rid of that sack? Why don’t you come across and join us? We are chanting and dancing. You don’t have to carry stones.”
“What? Give up my sack of stones? Impossible!”

In this way people go on carrying their burden, the burden of karma.

parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto
yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam
yāvat kriyās tāvad idaṁ mano vai
karmātmakaṁ yena śarīra-bandhaḥ

In the Bhāgavatam it is said: parābhava—everyone is defeated. No matter what he does, he will be defeated by his activities. And why? Because he does not become serious about inquiring into ātma-tattva, the nature of the self. yāvat kriyās tāvad idaṁ mano vai karmātmakaṁ—he maintains the mentality of acting for fruitive results. He wants results for his actions. And the result is śarīra-bandhaḥ—he simply remains bound by the bodily conception of life.

Śarīra—this word in Sanskrit literally means “that which falls down.” One day our body will fall down. However hard we try to keep it in good condition, at some point it will collapse. So tapasya is meant to purify this karmātmaka mentality and to bring us to the platform on which one is pure, free from the burden of karma, in such a way that one can serve Kṛṣṇa without obstacles.

Prabhupāda here speaks about the system of initiation and the disciplic succession. He explains that Brahmā was initiated by Kṛṣṇa Himself. tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye—ādi-kavi refers to Lord Brahmā, the original kavi or philosopher. And tene brahma hṛdā means that knowledge was revealed to him, or that he received this knowledge from within his heart, from Kṛṣṇa.

Many people think: “Yes, God is in my heart, so I will just realize God by myself, within my heart. Kṛṣṇa is the original guru; I will simply go directly to Him.”

There are also others who say: “Well, I am my own guru. I have full faith in myself as guru. I will just take instruction from myself and everything will be fine. I don’t need anyone else.” So guru and disciple are the same person. Hmm… this is a bit problematic.

It is said that a person who thinks he is his own guru has accepted a fool as his disciple. He is his own guru, and therefore he is his own disciple. What kind of disciple is that? All right, maybe you are a guru—but then a fool is your disciple. And who is the disciple? It is you. Therefore you are the fool.

People invent many ways to obtain spiritual knowledge. In the last century there was a certain person in Bengal. When this man was very young, his parents thought their son must be very special. “Maybe he is an incarnation of God? Or rather,” they became convinced, “he is certainly an incarnation of God.”

When the boy grew up, he accepted a guru. His guru was a śākta-guru, a worshiper of Kālī. So he learned the whole process of sādhana for worshiping Kālī. When he decided that he had become perfect in that, he found a Vaiṣṇava-guru. He took initiation from him and learned from him how to worship Kṛṣṇa. Later, when that did not satisfy him, he found a Māyāvādī guru, an Advaita Vedāntist, and took initiation from him. He learned how to meditate that in reality he is one with Brahman, that he is Brahman, and so on.

While he was meditating like this—although people thought he was God and he himself also thought, “I am God”—still he felt he had to meditate in order to realize that he is God. After all of this he found a certain Christian priest and learned from him how to perform Christian sādhana. And when he felt he had become good at that, he found a Muslim (whatever they are called) priest and learned from him how to be a Muslim.

In this way he became a miś-māś yogī. [Laughter.] Do you know this word? — Yes — International miś-māś. And now in Bengal everyone worships him, thinking, “Oh, he was such a great saint.”

And the result is that everyone thinks he is his own guru and can worship whomever he likes—or not worship anyone at all—and can do whatever he likes. You can be a debauchee, a rogue, a rascal; it doesn’t matter, because you are actually God. In this way, nowadays Bengal, and India in general, have to a large extent become degraded—because of this rascal and the similar rascals who follow in his so-called disciplic succession.

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta Prabhupāda explains that there are different kinds of mahājanas. The Vaiṣṇavas have their mahājanas, who are listed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:

svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ
kumāraḥ kapilo manuḥ
prahlādo janako bhīṣmo...

I always forget this verse. There are twelve of them—twelve mahājanas: prahlādo janako bhīṣmaḥ—twelve great souls glorified by the authorities in self-realization.

But the demons also have their mahājanas. They worship Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu—these are their mahājanas. Or Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Bakāsura and Pauṇḍraka—all these figures, all these rogues, all these gangsters. Gangster—you know this word? So the gangsters have their mahājanas—gangsters.

Kṛṣṇa explains in the Bhagavad-gītā: yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ—whatever a great man does, others follow. Among the demons, too, there are so-called great persons. They are outstanding demons. Therefore, naturally, people—since they know nothing better—follow those who are prominent. And at present we have the unfortunate situation that most people are being led by false mahājanas.

śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ –
everyone follows and glorifies people who in reality are no better than hogs, dogs, camels and asses. Because they do not listen to Kṛṣṇa; they do not spend any time, they make no effort to hear about Kṛṣṇa.

The devotees are not destroyed or disturbed by false gurus. Rather, we follow Lord Brahmā and his disciplic succession. We follow, we do not imitate. We do not say, “Oh, Lord Brahmā just heard from within the heart, so I will also hear from within my heart.” No—we follow the representatives of Lord Brahmā, and in this way we benefit just as if we were directly following Lord Brahmā.

And by following Lord Brahmā we engage in tapasya—very enthusiastic tapasya, not gloomy tapasya. Devotees should not walk around with sad faces. Devotees should not always look as if they are constantly eating lemons. Because our tapasya is actually not very severe. We simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. In fact, that is our tapasya.

When Lord Caitanya accepted initiation from Īśvara Purī, Śrīpāda Īśvara Purī told Him: mūrkha tumi, tomāra nāhika vedānta-adhikāra—
He said, “Actually, You are a fool. You have no qualification to study Vedānta.” Of course, all of this was Lord Caitanya’s arrangement in order to teach us. Lord Caitanya is indisputably the Supreme Lord. Who is more qualified than He to study Vedānta? But Īśvara Purī said, “You have no qualification; therefore You should simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

So Lord Caitanya did not argue with him. He did not say, “Hey, just a moment, I am God! I know everything; I am the source of Vedānta—vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ.” He did not say that. “Vedānta-kṛt—I am the one who established Vedānta.” No, He did not argue. He very humbly accepted it: “Yes, I am the number one fool.” And with great enthusiasm He took up the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa.

And of course we know what happened when He chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa—He became overwhelmed with ecstasy. So He went back to Īśvara Purī and said, “I am not sure, but I think something is wrong. I am chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, but I am becoming mad. I am not sure I am doing it properly. I simply go mad when I chant.”

Īśvara Purī said, “Wonderful! You should go mad when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That indicates that you are making progress.”

Of course, one of the twenty-six qualities of a bhakta is apramatta, which means that he is not mad, he does not act crazy—he is very sober and reasonable. Still, there is a certain kind of transcendental madness that can appear on a very advanced platform of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Naturally, in order to come to that platform, we have to, as they say in English, “do our homework.” We cannot just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for five minutes, or five weeks, or maybe even five years, maybe twenty-five years, and expect immediate results—the transcendental symptoms that Lord Caitanya experienced.

But at the same time, every day when we chant, we have to practice. We must have the mentality of practising chanting. Do we have anyone here who is a musician? Who plays some instrument? Or someone who used to? What do you play? The piano! Did you just sit down one day and suddenly you could play perfectly? No, you practised, right? Every day a bit of practice, practice. And every day some improvement, improvement, improvement—becoming more and more expert.

There is a certain famous Indian musician who plays the sitar, Ravi Shankar. Śrīla Prabhupāda once commented—at least we have heard that he said this—that Ravi Shankar must have been practising for the last six lifetimes.

So we want to learn to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in a perfect way. We want to become virtuosos of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we have to practice. Every day we should have in mind: “O.K., today I am going to improve my chanting. I will not just do it to get it over with.” If we have that mentality, then it might take much more than six lifetimes to reach perfection in chanting. But if we think, “I am practising; I am trying to attain perfection in chanting,” then it may happen very quickly.

Question: I have two questions. The first concerns saṅkīrtana. Is it true that in the beginning Kṛṣṇa gives us a certain nectar so that we may develop a taste for it, but later a period of tests comes? How can we understand whether those tests are Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, or the result of our māyā?

The second question: How can we improve our chanting when sometimes we have to chant in strange conditions and we cannot concentrate?

ŚKKP: Well, as far as this question is concerned, chanting is a kind of prayer to Kṛṣṇa. We have to have this understanding, and when the circumstances are difficult you can express this to Kṛṣṇa: “My dear Lord, these circumstances are so difficult. In any case I am trying to chant; please kindly help me.”

We should also understand that the circumstances may be difficult, but this is also a good opportunity for practice. Śrīla Prabhupāda gives the example of a weightlifter. He takes a calf and practices lifting by lifting the calf. Later the calf grows, becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, and when it becomes a cow, bigger and heavier, he still lifts it. And as the cow or bull becomes heavier, he becomes stronger.

In just this way, material life becomes difficult, but it is also Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement to help us become strong.

As for the difficulties of saṅkīrtana, we, as bhaktas, should always accept everything as Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement. We must understand everything as Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement. This is our duty. We accept everything as Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement meant to help us make progress.

Part of Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement is that we have our karma. We may have performed many sinful activities in the past and we are receiving reactions for them, but these reactions are welcome to a bhakta. He becomes very happy when some misfortune comes. He becomes enlivened, because he thinks: “Oh, this must be the result of so many sinful activities, now minimized, and I am getting rid of it.”

And when some happy situation comes, the bhakta becomes a little worried: “Ohhh, some happiness has come, some good situation. I hope that because of this I won’t fall into māyā.”

A bhakta is qualified by the fact that he accepts everything as Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. This is his special qualification as a bhakta. In the Bhāgavatam there is a famous verse about this:

tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo
bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
hṛd-vāk-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

One becomes eligible for liberation when one has this attitude of accepting everything as Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.

In the Bhagavad-gītā almost Kṛṣṇa’s first instruction is: “Learn to tolerate — āgamāpāyino ’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata.” This instruction is a negative kind of instruction: just tolerate. Whatever happens, just grit your teeth and tolerate it.

But the positive side of this is the understanding that whatever difficulty appears is Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement. And in fact it is an opportunity for me to glorify Kṛṣṇa. hṛd-vāk-vapurbhir vidadhan — with one’s heart, one’s words, and one’s body one simply offers obeisances to Kṛṣṇa and glorifies Him. And such a bhakta actually sees more and more of Kṛṣṇa’s mercy everywhere.

Jīva Gosvāmī gives a long explanation of this verse in the Sandarbhas and says that the word su-samīkṣamāṇaḥ has two meanings. One is that the bhakta is always patient. He patiently waits for Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. He has this faith: “Sooner or later Kṛṣṇa will bestow His mercy upon me.” It also means that he constantly, non-stop, sees Kṛṣṇa’s mercy everywhere. In both cases, for the bhakta there is no problem.

Of course, I know that on saṅkīrtana this is very difficult. Still, I once learned something wonderful from one of my Godbrothers, Bhakti Tīrtha Swami. For several weeks I was traveling with him in Eastern Europe. He was distributing books to libraries, full sets of books. He was receiving orders from libraries, and I was assisting him.

He explained to me that always, wherever he is, in whatever situation, he tries to think that it is Kṛṣṇa who has placed him in this particular situation at this particular time. Therefore Kṛṣṇa must have some plan. Otherwise, why would He have put me here? I am not here to waste time. I have transcendental knowledge, I have these books, and they are meant to be given to someone. Kṛṣṇa has put me here as an instrument to deliver these books. Let me simply find out what His plan is. Who is meant to receive this transcendental literature?

With such conviction, with this attitude from the outset, he always experienced this, and we can see how Kṛṣṇa arranged many amazing things so that someone would receive those books. We can understand: “Oh, Kṛṣṇa made this whole arrangement so that this person could receive these books.”

I also learned something wonderful from another senior Godbrother, Hṛdayānanda Gosvāmī. He said:

“As soon as a bhakta who distributes books makes the decision, ‘Today I will go out and distribute books,’ Kṛṣṇa immediately begins to make all kinds of special arrangements as the Supersoul in the heart of each person who will meet you. That person will meet the book distributor that day. He will say to someone, ‘All right, usually you go to work along this particular route, but today you will change your mind and decide to go that way instead, and as a result you will meet a devotee.’

And to someone else He says, ‘Oh, you are just running out of… whatever it is. You need batteries for the radio, so you had better go to the shop and buy some batteries for your radio.’ And that person goes out and on the way meets a devotee. In this way Kṛṣṇa makes small, small arrangements in many hearts—as soon as you decide, ‘Today I will go out.’

If you think in this way, then saṅkīrtana can become very joyful. But if you think, ‘I went out—what am I doing here? Nobody cares that I am here. Everyone just walks by and doesn’t care whether I am here or not,’ then not much will happen. We have to accept that what you are doing is actually a very important and exalted activity.

And even though the books you distribute may not even be read by the person who receives them, they may be passed on to someone else, who may pass them on to yet another person. In this way they will come into the hands of someone who will take them seriously. Some people actually take books very seriously.

I received a letter from a certain lady. She told how she was distributing books and met an elderly woman who began to glorify these books. She said to this lady, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful. So you read these books, yes?’ And the woman replied, ‘No, I don’t read them. I study them!’”

Question: I have a technical question about the books on the altar.

ŚKKP: Aha, what books are those?

Question: I want to ask how many volumes those books have and how they can be obtained.

ŚKKP: Well, just these two volumes. This is the first volume and a supplement to the first volume. Hm, it is a book about Deity worship, and we finally printed it in Māyāpur. I think some devotees from here who have been in Māyāpur will have a few copies. I hope they will obtain some copies and bring them back with them. Otherwise, I don’t know exactly; I suppose they can be obtained by ordering from England or from Germany. I don’t know.

Question: Why can we not hear our own heart, as Brahmā heard? I had a certain situation with one evangelist lady. She said, “Oh, you should listen to your heart. There is a certain spiritual language, etc., and it is the best guru.”

ŚKKP: We can hear the guidance of God from within the heart if we are sufficiently purified to hear it. If we are not, then what may seem to us like information from Paramātmā may simply be information from our mind.

There is a funny story about this that Suhotra Svāmī told. In Michigan, in the United States, there were three girls who thought they were Christians – I think they are called evangelicals. One night one of these girls, a teenager, felt something that she took to be inspiration from within the heart. God in the heart was telling her that she and her two friends should go and steal a car. Have you heard Suhotra Mahārāja tell this? A typical Suhotra Mahārāja story. It is a true story; it was written about in the newspapers.

So the vehicle was a food truck, a delivery truck – the kind that drives up in front of a factory and sells food to the workers in the factory. All kinds of horrible food, like hamburgers, you know… In any case, they got hold of this truck and were driving around, having a great time. And while they were driving, they took off all their clothes and took that sauce we call mustard. They smeared their whole bodies with mustard. And then some tomato sauce, ketchup – they smeared their whole bodies with that as well. And they drove around in circles, having a wonderful time, being “inspired by God in the heart”.

After some time they were stopped and caught by the police. They had a stolen vehicle. The police saw these naked girls, completely covered with this… and said, “Could you please explain what you are doing?” And they explained, quite sincerely, that they had been inspired by God in the heart to do this.

So many people think they have been inspired by God to do all sorts of crazy things. Because we are in the age of Kali, people are very bewildered.

prāyeṇālpayuṣaḥ sabhya
kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ
mandāḥ sumanda-matayo
manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ

In this age, people have short lives; they are lazy, especially for spiritual life; they are misguided, unfortunate, and always disturbed by so many troubles.

In this way, the heart can be compared to a lake. If we look into its water, but there are many waves on it, we cannot see down through the water, because there is so much reflected light, so many disturbances.

So, in order to see or properly perceive the message from Paramātmā, we need some help. Kṛṣṇa knows this, and therefore He sends us a spiritual master, who helps us accept the guidance of the Supersoul. In fact, the guru wants us to learn how to accept guidance from the Supersoul. He does not want us to remain in ignorance forever. Therefore he gives instruction: “Do this, and accept guidance on how to do it from your intelligence, which you receive from the Supersoul.”

Question: How can we overcome our carelessness and hypocrisy in relationships with others so that we can cooperate and serve together?

ŚKKP: Well, this is the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. So first we have to notice that we are all under its influence. This is the first step in overcoming anything—to notice that you are under its influence, that it is within us. It is also a matter of practice. Instead of being hypocritical or deceitful, we have to practice truthfulness. And instead of carelessness we have to practice being enthusiastic to make progress. And we do this by taking example from others who are sincere and not careless.

Question: I wanted to ask… Oh, I forgot my question… [Laughter]

Question: In Bulgaria there are devotees who distribute very few books in our country—one a day. However, when they go to another country, they distribute many books there. The saṅkīrtana results in Bulgaria are very low, which is also Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement. So I would like to ask: should we simply accept these facts, or should we do something? Why is it that these same devotees, with the same qualities, cannot distribute in one country, whereas in other countries they distribute many?

ŚKKP: For example, to go somewhere else where you can distribute more?

Question: No. What can we do in this country? Why do people with the same qualities, in this country distribute less than in other countries?

ŚKKP: I don’t know. It is mysterious. There are mysteries in this world.

Question: Someone said—probably some Christian—that Bulgaria is the equivalent of a certain “power.” Maybe it is so?

ŚKKP: Maybe…

Question: I have two questions…

ŚKKP: She has a list of questions…

Question: First — sinful reactions are in the form of seeds until the moment they bear fruit. They go through four stages… (inaudible)

Next — very often we say “spiritual soul.” Does that mean that at some point the soul can become material? Why do we say “spiritual soul”?

Translator: In Bulgarian the words “spiritual” and “soul” have the same root, and she is confused why we say “spiritual soul.”

ŚKKP: Oh, that is a translation problem.

Devotee: We solved it, we got rid of it…

ŚKKP: Oh, in the new translations you have a new system. So — nyama problem! No problem!

Question: In yesterday’s lecture you said that… (unclear, something about false ego and being careful not to become proud)…

ŚKKP: …who always puts us in our place. He is a great expert in recognizing when you are becoming proud. And when he sees pride, he takes various instruments to cut down that pride. He has many different instruments for this purpose—various kinds of clubs, hammers, knives, scissors… and very strong words.

It can also be that certain arrangements are made by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa to reduce your pride. That is another point. We were speaking about noticing Kṛṣṇa’s mercy everywhere, but at the same time we should also see the mercy of guru—how, through other persons, we receive guidance from our spiritual master.

It may be someone else; it may be a Godbrother, someone on the street; it may be a policeman who comes and harasses you. There are many ways. We should recognize the help coming from our spiritual master.

Yes, there is this danger, and therefore spiritual life is sometimes compared to the edge of a razor. We must therefore keep our balance. And that requires intelligence—and for intelligence we have śāstra.

Śāstra is like… You have probably seen someone in a circus walking on a tightrope, yes? They always hold a big, long pole. Why do they hold it? Yes, it helps them keep their balance. If you don’t have such a pole, you automatically stretch out your arms because… I don’t know the physical explanation, but somehow it helps.

Śāstra is exactly like that—a long pole. We have to keep hold of it as we walk.

Question: We know that when one is on parikramā in Māyāpur one always has some realizations. Could you share with us some of your realizations from this year’s parikramā?

ŚKKP: Hm. My realizations from the parikramā are very modest. First of all, I only spent two and a half days there. Of course, one always feels in Māyāpur or in Navadvīpa that it is not an ordinary place. One feels that in some way blessings touch everyone who goes on parikramā or comes to Māyāpur, because it is the place of Lord Caitanya’s appearance. And one can always experience that parikramā requires humility. This is indicated already by the simple fact that one walks barefoot, because in the material world the whole arrangement of false ego begins from the feet—from wearing shoes.

When we walk down the street in our big shoes or big boots, we go thump, thump, thump, and we have the tendency to think, “I am the lord of everything I see!” Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp. [Laughter]

In Māyāpur, in Navadvīpa, you take off those shoes. That is the beginning of taking off the false ego. There is ahaṁtā and mamatā—the “I” and “mine” mentality. In the holy dhāma we feel very small, very insignificant. And we begin to get a little understanding of what it means to see every living being as a part of Kṛṣṇa.

It is very wonderful, very purifying, but purification usually has an element of pain. There is some pain connected with it. Besides the pain caused by walking barefoot on hot or stony ground, there is also a certain kind of pain in the heart. However, it is the fire of purification, which brings relief.

One of my favourite places during this parikramā is a place called Campā-haṭṭi, where there is the Deity of Lord Caitanya and Gadādhara. It is a very beautiful place. It is explained that Lalitā-devī comes there every day from Vṛndāvana to pick campaka flowers and offer them to Kṛṣṇa. Sorry, it is probably Campaka-latā who comes there—that is another gopī.

It is wonderful to go on parikramā and experience that this culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is an actual, tangible reality. On the other side of the Jalāṅgī, very close to our temple in Māyāpur, there is the house of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. You can go into the room where he sat and wrote books. There is the house, there is the room, there is the table, the bed in which he slept—everything is there. You feel, “Yes, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is also here.”

Similarly with many of Lord Caitanya’s associates. Another wonderful experience with Māyāpur—where I go every year and spend a few months—is that Māyāpur is gradually becoming my home. For me, who was born in America, that is not my home; Māyāpur is my home.

It is also wonderful to visit other places to which I travel, because wherever we go there are devotees. Māyāpur is very inspiring because it is the place of the great project established by Śrīla Prabhupāda. It is gradually developing, year by year. Finally, after many years, this year the GBC approved the plan for the great temple. There was an anonymous vote about relying on the architects. When you see this design, you will be very inspired. It is extremely beautiful. And the top of the temple, the śikhara, is higher than the dome of St Peter’s in Rome. It is enormous.

And Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Puṣpa-samādhi is already almost completed. Perhaps they will open it next year, at the time of Gaura-pūrṇimā.

Question: We know that on the occasion of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Centennial we should increase our awareness in relation to his person. How can we do this?

ŚKKP: Oh, in very many ways. One thing you can do is read Prabhupāda’s biography. You probably have that abridged version in Bulgarian. There is also the unabridged version, consisting of six—or actually seven—volumes in English. If there is someone who could read it aloud and translate, that is wonderful.

There is also a two-volume edition. The second volume comes from the diary of Hari-Śauri Prabhu. And there are many more books by various devotees who stayed in the association of Prabhupāda.

There have also been many discussions in Māyāpur about the observance of the Centennial. There are many different plans. The general principle is that we want to increase everything. Whatever it is, we want to increase it.

There are many different programs that are to be carried out during 1996. Some of them will be international. For example, there is to be an International Holy Name Day. On one particular day, for 24 hours, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra will be chanted in the temple.