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All Glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga My Mission
sri guru charanakamalebhyo namah
The nature of Lord Krsna is that He sees one’s devotional attitude while they’re performing devotional service. He does not acknowledge anything external of His devotee. If Lord Krsna finds a real devotee He helps them further improve their faith in Him, thus making them feel spiritual ecstasy and also makes seemingly impossible things possible for that devotee. A devotee should not have ulterior motives while executing devotional service. Sometimes a person is externally seen practicing devotional life very impressively, but in their heart they’re carrying other motives, which Lord Krsna does not appreciate. For example, there was young lady who loved her young husband very much, but he got sick and one day told his wife that if he dies to please not remarry at least until his grave dries off. After some time, he died and was buried. His wife then obtained a fan and began fanning his grave. Anyone who witnessed this show of dedication appreciated and glorified her. They would say she is an example of a real wife, affirmed by her serving her husband after his demise. One smart man approached her and asked why she was so devoted to her deceased husband. She said, “ I reached an agreement with my husband to not remarry until his grave dries. Therefore, I am fanning the grave so that it dries quickly so that I am free to find another man and live happily.” This example helps illustrate that the Lord does not reward spiritual bliss to people that worship Him with ulterior motives. One must be perfect inside and out to be appreciated by the Lord. Scheming, maneuvering, endeavoring and politicking to discredit someone socially is not the work of a real devotee. A real devotee does not change the statements of the scriptures just to suite their whims, but rather adheres to the scriptures. Our mission is to reinstate the process of devotional service correctly, because if the right things are done rightly, interested people can know the right spiritual path and how to follow it. Following the right spiritual life wrongly does not reap the right result, one has to follow the right spiritual path rightly, and informing others of this is our mission. The Vedic scriptures were written five thousand years ago. There are many Sanskrit commentaries written on them by authentic authorities that give us the right instruction on how to follow the spiritual path to obtain spiritual success in life, or at least substantial progress. No one’s personal whim or personal interpretation of scriptural statements can award any success on the spiritual path. One should be very careful not to interpolate their personal whims on scriptural evidence. There are only eighteen categories of Vedic scriptures, called the lore in Vedic civilization and they were all written in Sanskrit. Besides these Vedic scriptures, all other Vedic books regardless of who wrote them in whatever language, are not called Vedic scripture. The complete list of lore is given in the introduction to our Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God. Whatever is right and whatever is wrong, either materially or spiritually, is written in these scriptures. Anyone who follows their statements rightly becomes the right instrument to receive the Lord’s blessings. One may wonder why traditional Brahmana devotees are considered so important? The answer is stated in the Yajurveda, (one of the most ancient books of knowledge in this world), brahmanosya mukham asit, “Traditional Brahmanas are the mouth of the Supreme Lord.” At the time of the creation of this universe, when the Lord took His universal form, Brahmanas emanated from His mouth, which is why Brahmanas were addressed as mukhya, or chiefs, or the topmost people in human civilization. Such people whose very existence is the epitome of Vedic life should not be offended even unknowingly. As Lord Krsna Himself tells His children in this volume (10-64-39). A genuine devotee is never envious of anyone and in no circumstance will he knowingly mislead anyone in any way. If humbly approached, he will even guide an enemy about what is right and how to follow the right path rightly, thus clearing their every spiritual question. For example, occasionally some of our god-brothers, and devotees who mistakenly took initiation from our god-brothers, visit stealthily at night to see us and ask spiritual questions. We answer them correctly and rightly. We do not mislead them in any way, because misleading anyone will lead us to Yamaraja, as well as it would anyone else who misleads. Recently a Bengali god-brother came at night with another Bengali devotee we also knew. At the time of their visit there was a blackout, no electricity. The only light emanated from the Temple, which used power from a loud generator, therefore we suggested they come during the daytime. Our god-brother did not like the unsatisfactory meeting situation at that time or the idea of returning during the day; hence he discarded his transparent veil of humility and abruptly left after making an unpleasant remark. Sometimes humility is just external and such humility is dangerous for spiritual advancement, but we tried to help. Why these people don’t come in the light of day is anybody’s guess. A real devotee never compromises the scriptural statements and is always frank in his dealings, even though his dealings may seem rough, they are wanted in the Vedic civilization because the end result of their guidance is liberation from this material world. The Niti Sastra states: Narikela samakarah drsyante bhuvi sajjanahAnye badarikakara bahir eva manoharah“Real devotees on earth are compared to coconuts, whose outer shell is very hard but are filled with nectar. Whatever way they deal with others results in liberation because they always remain fixed in devotion to the Lord. Whereas those who externally act nicely, behave socially correct and speak soothingly making a show of devotion, but whose statements and actions do not exactly coincide with the codes of the ancient scriptures, are compared to jujubes or forest plums, whose external appearance is beautiful but are filled with disease.” It is not wise to be fond of making an external show of devotion. One’s sole interest should be obtaining the desired result, liberation, which is possible by following a real devotee whose very life is the embodiment of spiritual life. Previously people only sought out real devotees and followed what they said. To help illustrate, an example from over two thousand years ago is comparable. At that time a king named Vikramaditya ruled who had many learned Brahmanas in his assembly that advised him, one of which was named Kalidasa. One day the king told him, “You are very learned and sing very nicely, but you would be even better if you were handsome as well.” Kalidasa was not beautiful in appearance. Upon hearing this remark, Kalidasa was reticent and waited for the right time to advise the king of what is of more importance. Once the king asked Kalidasa to bring him some water to drink. Kalidasa obeyed and brought the king water in two different cups, one made of clay and one of gold. The king drank the water from the clay cup and thanked him. Kalidasa then asked the king why he chose to drink from the clay cup, as the gold cup is more opulent. The king replied, “The water in the clay cup was cool and soothing, whereas the water in the gold cup would be warm and less satisfying.” Hearing this Kalidasa suggested to the king, “It is always best to consider the outcome of a situation and not just the external appearance or the way of dealing of a person, because an external performance of a showboat may lead to degradation. A deceiver will lead you astray from the right path and even drill you to convince you that the right thing is wrong.” Due to illusion, at times the wrong thing seems to be right and right thing seems to be wrong. For example, Banasura arrested Aniruddha for taking the virginity of his daughter, Usa. There was also some truth in this rumor, but it was Usa’s desire to have Aniruddha with her, which is why Lord Krsna punished Banasura and did not even criticize Aniruddha. Banasura’s punishing Aniruddha seemed correct and Aniruddha’s act seemed wrong, but Lord Krsna did not take it that way, which is why He saved Aniruddha and punished Banasura. Lord Krsna is the autocrat and acted correctly; because the forth expansion of Lord Krsna’s quadruple expansions is Anirudda, who is here functioning as Lord Krsna’s grandson. Therefore when it is understood who Anirudda is, Lord Krsna’s action is just. Lord Krsna’s decisions are the ultimate truths and they are stated in the ancient scriptures of India and should be followed without misinterpretation or interpolation. Another incident took place in Hastinapura where Jambavati’s son, Samba, kidnapped Duryodhana’s daughter, Laksmana, against her will. He even fought vigorously with Bhismadeva and other warriors, but was later arrested. Lord Balaram was sent to clear the situation. Even though Samba’s act seemed incorrect, still Lord Balaram became furious with the Kauravas, and using His weapons, Lord Balaram began dragging the whole city of Hastinapura to submerge it in the Ganges River. Lord Balaram was not supporting a wrong person, in His eyes the Kauravas were wrong and Samba was right, because a lower cause is sacrificed for a higher cause. Using this scriptural example, Lord Balaram was punishing the Kauravas because they arrested a devotee. Lord Balaram released Samba who later married the kidnapped Laksmana. Again, even though Samba’s actions seemed inappropriate, in the eyes of the scriptures he is a pure devotee and above social material customs. People bad by nature do not give up bad things easily, just as good people do not give up doing good things. For example, we participated as a member of ISKCON, but later resigned because we differed on the spiritual injunctions. Our resignation letter was presented to GBC chairman, Sivarama Swami, and was unanimously passed through their GBC meeting and the resolution was printed and distributed. But they fabricated the resolution advertising that they kicked us out because we were a great offender. One of our Anglo Saxon disciples, Mukunda das, was told by ISKCON people that we are a very bad person and not a devotee, and practice black magic to control people. But we do not know any black magic or white magic and have not looted anyone for anything. One may wonder why we resigned from our Guru’s movement? To this the Niti Sastra states, Apadam apatantinam hito’pyayatya hetutam, “Artificial devotees and artificial friends turn against a person when their time to experience some bad situation arrives.” Looking back, considering the spiritual status of our god-brothers, its actually not surprising how we were dealt with. The Subhasitani states, strisu vivadam asajjanasya seva laghutam upayati, “A person that argues with ladies and a person who serves hypocrites and artificial devotees, are prone to be humiliated one day.” This logical rule is one reason that compelled us to resign. Traditional Vaisnava rules of spiritual life have been thoroughly deviated from in our Guru’s movement because they are all misusing our Guru’s name. In about the year 1980 we had told many of our god-brothers a time will come when power hungry leaders will make our Guru a messiah, the Jesus of ISKCON, which is not recommended in Vaisnava tradition and is gravely offensive. Srila Prabhupada came down in the unbroken chain of Vaisnava disciplic succession and should be treated in that same traditional manner as his predecessors and not used as the basis for postulating false Vedic tradition. The chain of Vaisnava tradition should not be broken in any way. ISKCON leaders are so spiritually impotent that just to keep a grip on power they’ve used their Guru’s name as the basis for their non-Vaisnava like behavior. To keep control of their followers they say, “Srila Prabhupada said this, Srila Prabhupada did not say that, do it for Srila Prabhupada, I am taking you to Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada is the sole Guru of everyone, we must follow Srila Prabhupada etc.” In this way they hide behind Srila Prabhupada using these slogans thus taking service and worship for themselves. This is not how the traditional Vaisnava system works. Srila Prabhupada or his predecessor Gurus never repeated any such slogans. For example, Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter to one of his disciples, Tusta Krsna Swami, in December 02, 1975 saying that as a matter of etiquette it is the custom that during the lifetime of the Spiritual Master a disciple brings prospective disciples to him, and only after his departure does a qualified disciple accept disciples without limitation. This is the law of disciplic succession. Now we see there are two factions in our Guru’s movement—one supports inauthentic Gurus and the other states Srila Prabhupada is the Guru of everyone. Both parties are ignorant to the spiritual rules of Vaisnava tradition. The first party is unaware of the rule that Vaisnavism is based on the ancient scriptures and the scriptures authorize a qualified devotee to function as a Guru for those coming for initiation into Vaisnavaism. The second party is wrong because they are unaware that a physically departed Guru cannot guide a living disciple. Therefore both parties are wasting their valuable time and life in the name of following the spiritual path. It is well known to spiritualists outside of ISKCON that our Guru’s movement is filled with spiritual hypocrites and he must be crying because they are using his name to propagate their hypocrisy. This is another reason we resigned from ISKCON. Hypocrites cannot stop acting maliciously or acting against real devotees because it’s their nature. If a person’s nature is to run crooked like a snake, no matter what anyone says they will continue their crooked ways. Such people convert to the straight and narrow path of righteousness only after their death. One night in 1986 one of our Jewish-born swami god-brothers called us to his room and told us that India has no history, only the west has a history. We said India has the age-old history of Mahabharat written five thousand years ago and the Ramayana. He said that is not history and feigningly laughed. It was a surprise for us to hear a leading, initiating guru swami, member of the GBC saying something as hypocritical as this. Just after this, another of our Jewish-born swami god-brothers approached us to ask our opinion of a drama he was writing. This happened to be one of our favorite god-brothers and we sincerely wanted to help him. He gave us the manuscript to read for our opinion. We glanced over it beginning with the starting pages and the ending pages. The ending had Narada Muni, Tulasidevi, Bhaktidevi and some other personalities discussing welcoming Srila Prabhupada back into the spiritual world. When he approached us again and asked our opinion, we suggested to add in the beginning of the drama how Narada Muni, Tulasidevi, Bhaktidevi and the others had discussed sending Srila Prabhupada from the spiritual world to this world, so the ending of the drama about welcoming him back is justified. Otherwise why would people think these characters were added at the end? We said your drama may be thought to be a speculation because unless you state that Srila Prabhupada was sent from the spiritual world, how can you say that Srila Prabhupada was being welcomed back into the spiritual world. We also informed them that a drama about one’s own Guru has never been written by any disciple, because usually a drama includes some speculation, which is why no one ever wrote any drama involving their Guru. After hearing our remarks he became petulant and suddenly stood up and abruptly left. We were genuinely trying to help him, thinking he came to us for a traditional Vaisnava viewpoint, but coming from India we were novice to western diplomacy and western social etiquette, thus our sincere attempt to help was misunderstood and our trouble started for us. During our problem, one day in Vrindaban in 1989, we had a discussion with one of our Jewish-born swami god-brothers. We could tell he had a predisposition about his determination before we spoke, because when a point came about how rejecting one person to save a community is just, he abruptly stood up and left saying, “You do not need to convince me any further, I am convinced now.” He didn’t bother to consider rejecting a person to save a community only pertains on the material plane and not on the spiritual platform. On the spiritual platform a devotee is never rejected. Then, a few of our Jewish-born god-brothers conducted a meeting in Vrindaban to convince the complete GBC to pass a resolution in the upcoming meeting against us, without our being present. When we reached Los Angeles with our disciple, Nanda Kumar, this same god-brother practically danced with anger, while we both calmly watched. He stated our photo should be placed in every temple, with a subtext stating we are a bad person and we should not be allowed into any ISKCON temple. He also said many un-devotional things we need not mention. We are not sure of their real reason for acting so malicious against us. It is not because of any woman, it is something else. We heard it is because they feel uneasy and humiliated in our presence, which is why they wanted us out of ISKCON. In that way they could feel relaxed so they could continue misleading innocent people under the veil of ostentation with little chance of being revealed. Even though we had left them many years ago and have nothing to do with them, they have not stopped criticizing us to the public. It seems they will never stop because they do not believe in devotional life or scriptural evidence, which plainly state one should not criticize a devotee who has dedicated his life to spread the Lord’s glories all over the world. Devotional service and philosophy should not become merely lip service, it should be practiced as a spiritual lifestyle. If they consider the scriptures merely a theory and not a guide to a lifestyle, they are hypocrites and agents of Kaliyuga. As stated in the Bhavisya Purana: Bagiccarotsavam matram tat-kriya kartum aksamahKalau vedantino bhanti phalgune balahak iva
“Those who dress like devotees and memorize spiritual philosophy but do not apply it to their day-to-day lives, but rather use philosophy to preach to others or simply as a topic to speak on, are agents of Kaliyuga. They should not be taken seriously in any way, just as children using abusive words or playing with colored water and powders are not taken seriously at the time of the Holi festival of colors.” The Niti Sastra also states, durjanena saham sakhyam dvesam capi na karayet, “It is always best to avoid bad people, because one should not keep friendship with hypocrites or rascals, nor keep enmity with them.” Therefore we do not want to have anything to do such people. We do not plot against or even think about them, but we carry on with our devotional service given to us by our Spiritual Master. But it seems such rascals do not leave us alone because they want all the learned people to know that they in fact are rascals. They may think that they are inviolable, but Yamaraja is registering their every act, which they will have to face after death. Real devotees remain cautious of committing offenses, whereas rascals love committing offenses and think, “Oh how wonderful, we are keeping him on the hot seat.” Who is that sane person in this world who thinks such people are real devotees? Only those who are bitten by the mad dog-like influence of Kaliyuga can think these people are truly and sincerely practicing devotional service. These obstinate reckless people will not stop wrongly defaming us. Recently while returning to Vrindaban from Ahmedabad, two Indian born disciples of our western born god-brother climbed onto our coach at the Vadodara station. They had never seen us before and hence asked us who we were and we told them. They immediately said, “Oh, you are that Krsna Balaram, we had heard a lot of talk against you.” We asked who was spreading these rumors and they said their Guru had. We said, “Just see, you had never met us and do not know anything about us, still you were told so many bad things about us. It is not intelligent to come to decision by hearing just one side of a story. Search out the other side as well, and then make your decision.” We gave them a small booklet written in Hindi and told them to come to Vrindaban to our place and spend some time with us. Sri Sukadeva Goswami spoke about King Paundraka, who disguised himself to look exactly like Lord Krsna to fool people in order to usurp Lord Krsna’s position. Paundraka’s father had given him the name Vasudeva. Paundraka, having a demonic nature thought to gain adoration by falsely advertising himself as the real Vasudeva, Krsna. He acted like Lord Krsna and proclaimed he was the real Vasudeva, as foretold in the scriptures. He knew he was an imposter, but he wanted Lord Krsna’s exalted position. This history is similar to the unauthorized gurus with questionable background today who are misleading people by initiating disciples on the spiritual path. They are knowingly occupying the duty of someone else. Even though it is known that they drank wine, ate meat and done everything disgustingly imaginable before turning to devotional life, because of their sinful upbringing they have the audacity to profess that there is no one other than them qualified to initiate candidates into Krsna Consciousness. They say there are no real Brahmanas or devotees in this world other than them and only they can go to the spiritual world and no one else. This shallow mindedness of limiting the availability to the spiritual world reveals they are targeting the less intelligent to usurp their wealth and live their materially oppolulent lifestyle. They are proclaiming that devotees in the four sampradayas, the age-old spiritual schools in India, where spiritual life has been practiced seriously for hundreds of years, cannot go to the spiritual world. This is a hard slap in the face to others in their own Guru’s sampradaya. People should beware of people like Paundraka who said there is no god besides him, that he is the real god and everyone should worship him. Our god-brothers know they are not real devotees and know they have a long way to go a to transform into real devotees, still they reject all the scriptural statements and spiritual authorities. The scriptures state anyone who has knowingly eaten meat even once or knowingly drank wine even once cannot initiate disciples and function as Guru on the spiritual platform. Srila Sridhara Swami of the fourteenth century also stated the same thing in his commentaries. As Lord Krsna did not tolerate Paundraka, the imposter Vasudeva, and destroyed him, similarly the liberation of imposter gurus are in jeopardy unless they straighten their ways. Anyone who has even once eaten meat or drank wine should seriously work for their own liberation and let others take charge of initiating candidates. Why take over another’s responsibility and become punished after death? This volume illustrates how to avoid offenses and how to reserve a seat in the spiritual world. We must learn to follow scriptural guidelines seriously. Another incident depicting an unpredictable outcome occurred to the very pious King Nrga. He worshipped Brahmanas and gave them cows in charity. He was not malicious in any way. He had mistakenly given a cow to a Brahmana that had already been given to a different Brahmana. Immediately upon becoming aware of his mistake, He tried to pacify the Brahmanas by giving hundreds or thousands of cows to them, but the Brahmanas did not agree. They felt hurt and thinking the king to be an unjust person, left. Although the king was righteous and adhered to all social, political, managerial, moral and religious rules and thus seemed like a good person, and the Brahmanas actions seemed trivial, when the king died he had to face Yamaraja in hell and take a birth on earth as a lizard. No amount of social, political, moral, philanthropic or religious acts can thoroughly correct ones wrongs. The divine personality decides one’s fate after one’s death. Our decisions are not always right merely because we look like devotees, chant Japa, read spiritual books and live in the temple. Lord Krsna says even the learned become bewildered about what is right, therefore how foolish are we to believe that our whims are always right. Those who do not align their thinking with the ancient scriptures are indisputably wrong, and such people commit big offenses. Anyone who slanders or puts a real devotee down in any way, helps others to slander a real devotee, tells others to slander a real devotee, instigates others to slander a real devotee or someone that does not attempt to stop others under their command from slandering a real devotee, are all equally guilty of slandering a real devotee. The Nyaya Sastra states, “One may tolerate scorching heat upon their head, but they cannot bear it on the soles of their bare feet.” Therefore a devotee may be reticent for committed offenses against themselves, but Lord Krsna carefully watches all happenings pertaining to His devotees. We are not against anyone, but we earnestly desire to remain a devotee. As a fruit-bearing tree supplies fruit to even those who cut its branches, we want to help even those who disturb us in our devotion to Krsna. It is in our blood to help others spiritually. For example, a call came from our god-brother to us in Vrindaban inquiring what they should do with the body of a Swami who died in a vehicle accident. They asked if he should be placed in a Samadhi (tomb). We replied no and said that a Samadhi is constructed for exalted spiritualists who passed naturally from this world, not for someone who died a traumatic unnatural death. But if due to envy or difference a scripturally authentic Guru or a pure devotee is somehow killed, then his Samadhi tomb can be constructed. We advised that he should take the body to Mayapur and burn it on the banks of the Ganges and throw the ashes into the Ganges. His disciples can build a Samadhi using his belongings. The next day we received another call informing us that a young woman died with Swamiji when their car hit a tree, but the driver survived. He also said that Swamiji’s eyes were stuck wide open, as if he saw the Yamadutas, and his head had to be cut in order to close the eyes. I suggested that they prepare a feast for after the burning of the body. Per the scriptures, ordinarily unnatural death results in the person becoming a ghost, but by burning the body on the banks of the Ganges the allotted time as a ghost is reduced. Therefore, in this case it is advised that a Samadhi should not be built containing his body, but the body should be cremated to best help the deceased. After some time that same god-brother visited us in Vrindaban and told us that they built a Samadhi. Again, it is difficult to discern what is right or wrong, therefore we consult the ancient scriptures. We are not against anyone, our duty is to speak what the scriptures state, and if others do not listen, what can we do. If we were against them we would have been pleased to hear of the death of a person who despised us more than anyone else, but we closed our temple to visitors for a day to grieve and skipped a worship to show our condolences. We spoke with our devotees about how great our god-brother was and the valuable service he had done for Srila Prabhupada to spread Krsna Consciousness, so they could understand why we had forsaken worship and closed the temple for a day. I don’t think the ISKCON temple was closed for his demise, but we honored him. Our desire is to help everyone spiritually and we are not against anyone in any way. We simply want to carry on with our preaching mission and wish that our god-brothers and their disciples would leave us alone. Let us all be devotees. This volume clears discrepancies regarding how to act properly. This knowledge is revealed in histories told by Sri Sukadeva Goswami to King Pariksit, and it will help teach people desiring to reach the spiritual world to become careful on the spiritual path. Seeing, touching respectfully, reading, hearing and/or worshipping Srimad Bhagavatam pleases the Lord. There is no difference between Srimad Bhagavatam and Lord Krsna. In the age of Kaliyuga Srimad Bhagavatam is the incarnation of God. What to speak of respectfully reading or worshipping Srimad Bhagavatam, even if someone just donates a complete copy of Srimad Bhagavatam to a traditional and learned Brahmana they go to live in Heaven. Srimad Bhagavatam is like a bag of sugar, because anywhere you poke a hole sugar comes out. Similarly, for anyone who reads any verse from any part of Srimad Bhagavatam, the sugar-like blessings of Lord Krsna will come. As stated in the Padma Purana: slokardham sloka-padam va nityam bhagavatodbhavampaöhayasva sva mukhena’pi yadicchasi bhavaksayam “As a daily routine, if a person studies Srimad Bhagavatam—just half a verse or even just a quarter of a verse, he/she can severe their tie to this material world and achieve liberation.” This verse is very inspiring to sincere devotees, but it is unfortunate that most of our god-brothers do not believe in the spiritual process properly and thus don’t take advantage of such an opportunity. When we printed our first volume of the tenth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, we sent one of our non-English speaking disciples to Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi with a volume to place before his Samdhi for a minute as an offering. He did so, but one of our Sanyasi god-brothers was present and saw the volume of Srimad Bhagavatam with our name on it and threw the volume in the air, insulted the Brahmachari devotee and said that such nonsense books should not be brought there. We do not take such incidents as a personal offense, but are surprised how a devotee can throw Srimad Bhagavatam, which includes Sanskrit verses. From that day, we do not take any books there to show Srila Prabhupada, because Srila Prabhupada is with his honest devotee who is trying to follow what the scriptures dictate. Lord Krsna takes birth in the first volume of the tenth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, and Srimad Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of God in the age of Kaliyuga. Touching or seeing Srimad Bhagavatam with honor brings the Lord’s blessings. Our god-brother touched Srimad Bhagavatam, but in an unfavorable way—he threw it—which surprised us. Sometime ago when we went to Mayapur we saw disciples of that god-brother celebrating his birthday as vyasapuja day. What a devotee, just imagine, a devotee who wears saffron and initiates disciples, also throws Srimad Bhagavatam because it is written by his god-brother whom he does not like. We wonder why he does not like us, we never even sat at one place together. Our service to our Guru was different, our living area, our language, our way of doing things are all totally different. We never spoke about him, why he should react in such a ghastly manner is a surprise to us. Such acts by our god-brothers makes us doubt they believe in the spiritual process at all. There is a Vedic advice for spiritualists who cannot agree that states, if one devotee disagrees with another devotee they should avoid each other and not harm the other devotee in any way. But our god-brothers are slandering us and directing their students to do the same. They do not instruct their disciples not to speak bad about us, but instead directly and indirectly encourage them to vilify us. We direct our devotees not to speak anything against any ISKCON devotees, but to respect them when they come. This is the rule of the ancient scriptures and we are trying to follow. It is found in the scriptures that even demons respected and honored qualified traditional Brahmanas. But in modern days we find people who act as devotees relentlessly criticize, find faults, and even vilify learned pure authentic Brahmana devotees. It is common social, political, material, and religious custom, as well as a spiritual rule that if a Brahmana devotee is not disturbing them, they should not disturb him in any way. We humbly request our god-brothers to leave us alone as we have left them alone. While writing, we have to speak what is scriptural truth, and if that disturbs them then they have to amend the scriptures. We cannot and will not change the scriptures, it is not in our blood. One Sunday we received a call from New York from an Indian man who said, “Your book, The Vaisnava Kantha Hara, was thrown by a devotee and landed on the walkway where I was standing and talking with friends. When I lifted the book the devotee who threw the book said, ‘Don’t touch that book, it is bogus, nonsense. It is written by a demon.’” Upon hearing this from the Indian man we said, “Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is on the front cover and the book is filled with verses from the ancient scriptures. Anyway, keep it with you.” We did not take that book to their temple. Someone must have bought it and brought it there, but instead of respectfully treating the book and mailing it back to us, they threw it on the walkway. This lack of devotion, ill treatment and bombastic attitude need change. This volume, if read sincerely, will teach one how to develop the right quality of devotion to Krsna. These are but a few of the non-vaisnava incidents we have experienced from our god-brothers. The scriptures state that anyone who has eaten meat even once or drank even a drop of wine knowingly should not be accepted as their initiating Guru and those who abide by this rule obtain success in their spiritual practice. Let us all give up our pride of social, political, material or communal differences and follow this rule. If anyone accepted initiation from an unauthorized Guru they should reform themselves and disregard any social stigma and accept re-initiation from a scripturally authentic Guru and obtain spiritual success. One should not be obstinate regarding spiritual reform if they find that they are following a scripturally inauthentic Guru. One should change an unauthorized Guru as soon as possible, thus adhering the advice of the Vedic scriptures. When our disciple, Nanda Kumar, presented his inability to do editing work this year, we became a little morose. We prayed to Lord Krsna so a volume of Srimad Bhagavatam can come out. The scriptures state, Lord Krsna helps His sincere devotee, therefore He sent Mrs. Vicky Knowles to volunteer to do the editing work thus, not only one, but two volumes are done. See how amazingly Lord Krsna works! Our god-brother, Kaviraja Prabhu, kindly helped us in many ways to bring out this volume. Our disciple Mukunda das and Nanda Kumar das proofread the volume. As always, all of our disciples in Vrindaban and elsewhere extended their input in this endeavor. May Lord Sri Sri Radha Govindadevaji whom we pray with our one pointed intelligence bless them all and fulfill their each and every desire. Jai Sri Radhe. dasanudas,
Krsna Balaram Swami Vyasapurnima day, 2008 Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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