Having made their plot, the Buddhists brought a plate of untouchable food before Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and called it maha-prasada. When the contaminated food was offered to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a very large bird appeared on the spot, picked up the plate in its beak and flew away. Indeed, the untouchable food fell upon the Buddhists, and the large bird dropped the plate on the head of the chief Buddhist Stoka Krishna dasa (11-28-03)</STRONG></FONT> Here is an interesting pastime of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taken from the Chaitanya Charitamrita. There are many kinds of philosophers. Some are logicians who follow Gautama or Kanada. Some follow the Mimamsa philosophy of Jaimini. Some follow the Mayavada philosophy of Shankaracarya, and others follow Kapila's Sankhya philosophy or the mystic yoga system of Patanjali. Some follow the smriti-shastra composed of twenty religious scriptures, and others follow the Puranas and the tantra-shastra. In this way there are many different types of philosophers. All of these adherents of various scriptures were ready to present the conclusions of their respective scriptures, but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu broke all their opinions to pieces and established His own cult of bhakti based on the Vedas, Vedanta, the Brahma-sutra and the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu established the devotional cult everywhere. No one could defeat Him. Being thus defeated by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all these philosophers and their followers entered into His cult. In this way Lord Chaitanya made South India into a country of Vaisnavas. When the nonbelievers heard of the erudition of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they came to Him with great pride, bringing their disciples with them. One of them was a leader of the Buddhist cult and was a very learned scholar. To establish the nine philosophical conclusions of Buddhism, he came before the Lord and began to speak. Although the Buddhists are unfit for discussion and should not be seen by Vaisnavas, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spoke to them just to decrease their false pride. The scriptures of the Buddhist cult are chiefly based on argument and logic, and they contain nine chief principles. Because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu defeated them in their argument, they could not establish their cult. The teacher of the Buddhist cult set forth the nine principles, but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu broke them to pieces with His strong logic. All mental speculators and learned scholars were defeated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and when the people began to laugh, the Buddhist philosophers felt both shame and fear. The Buddhists could understand that Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vaisnava, and they returned home very unhappy. Later, however, they began to plot against the Lord. Having made their plot, the Buddhists brought a plate of untouchable food before Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and called it maha-prasada. When the contaminated food was offered to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a very large bird appeared on the spot, picked up the plate in its beak and flew away. Indeed, the untouchable food fell upon the Buddhists, and the large bird dropped the plate on the head of the chief Buddhist teacher. When it fell on his head, it made a big sound. The plate was made of metal, and when its edge hit the head of the teacher, it cut him, and the teacher immediately fell to the ground unconscious. When the teacher fell unconscious, his Buddhist disciples cried aloud and ran to the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for shelter. They all prayed to Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, addressing Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself and saying, "Sir, please excuse our offense. Please have mercy upon us and bring our spiritual master back to life." The Lord then replied to the Buddhist disciples, "You should all chant the names of Krishna and Hari very loudly near the ear of your spiritual master. "By this method your spiritual master will regain his consciousness." Following Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's advice, all the Buddhist disciples began to chant the holy name of Krishna congregationally. When all the disciples chanted the holy names Krishna, Rama and Hari, the Buddhist teacher regained consciousness and immediately began to chant the holy name of Lord Hari. When the spiritual master of the Buddhists began to chant the holy name of Krishna and submitted to Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all the people who were gathered there were astonished. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the son of Sachidevi, then suddenly and humorously disappeared from everyone's sight, and it was impossible for anyone to find Him. End of Story Yours in service of Lord Krishna, Stoka Krishna Dasa.
not specifically but kind of...anyways, it would be more accurate to say Buddha is an avatara of Visnu and not Krishna...Krishna is the source of all avataras but that is not to say that all avataras are Krishna... and too, from the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is not specific whether Buddha is a Plenenary Avatara or a Sakyavesa Avatara (empowered jivatma for specific purpose) and too, even if Buddha is avatara of Krishna...Visnu, Mahaprabhu has clearly delineated that Buddhist philosophy is not Vaisnava [size=+3]Canto 1[/size] [size=+2]Chapter 3[/size] Krishna is the Source of All Incarnations (1) "The Lord as the purusha accepted the universal form of the material world with its sixteen principles of material action to make a start with His creation. (2) Dormant in the water, from that navel sprouted out of the lotus of manifestation Brahmâ, the father of all beings as the creator.[size=+1][/size](3) It is imagined that the purusha, from the excellence of His existence, expanded into all the worlds. (4) His form seen perfectly thus has numerous legs, thighs, arms and faces, with wonderful heads, ears, eyes and noses, all glowing with garlands and dresses. (5) These multifarious incarnations are the indestructible source from which all the godly, human and animal beings originate. (6) At first the sons of Brahmâ [the Kumâras] were disciplined in austerity for the realization of continuation. (7) Incarnated next for the sake of its welfare, He, like a boar, uplifted the world out the lower regions. (8) Thirdly He accepted His presence among the learned (rishis) [as Nârada Muni] for the sake of evolving vedic knowledge for service in devotion without further material motives. (9) Fourth born as the twin sons of king Dharma in the form of Nara-Nârâyana He underwent severe penances to attain control over the senses. (10) Fifth with the name of Kapila He gave an exposition to the brahmin Âsuri on the nature of metaphysics and the elements of creation as through time the knowledge was lost. (11) Sixth, born as the son of Atri from Anasûyâ who prayed for Him, He lectured to Alarka, Prahlâda and others about the transcendental. (12) Seventh born from Âkûti as Yajn'a, the son of Prajâpati Ruci He, assisted by the godly, ruled over the change of the period of Svâyambhuva Manu together with His son Yama and others. (13) Eighth, from the wife of King Nâbhi, Merudevî He took birth as King Rishabha and showed the path of perfection respected by people of all stages of life. (14) Accepting His ninth incarnation from prayers by the sages, He ruled [as Prithu] the earth for the sake of its cultivation and produces, which made it beautifully attractive. (15) Like a fish [Mâtsya] in the water He kept Vaivasvata Manu after the period of Câkshusha Manu on a boat of protection afloat the waters when the world was deeply inundated. (16) Eleventh as a tortoise [Kurma] He sustained the Mandarâcala Hill of the theïsts and atheists which served as a pivot in the ocean. (17) Twelfth was Dhanvantari [Lord of medicine] and thirteenth He appeared as an alluring beautiful woman to the atheists while giving nectar to the godly. (18) His fourteenth incarnation He appeared as Nrsimha, who with His nails half as a Lion on His lap tore apart the king of the atheists like a carpenter does cane. (19) In His sixteenth incarnation [as Bhrigupati] He acted twenty-one times against the ruling class that negated the intelligentsia. (20) Fifteenth He assumed the form of Vâmana [the dwarf-brâhmana] who, from the arena of sacrifice of Mahârâja Bali, begged only for three steps of land, while at heart willing to return to the kingdom of the three worlds. (21) Seeing the common people as being less intelligent He seventeenth incarnated as Vyâsadeva from Satyavatî by Parâs'ara Muni, to divide the desire tree of the Veda into several branches. (22) Next He performed superhuman in controlling the Indian Ocean having assumed the form of a divine human being [Râma] in order to act for the sake of the Godly. (23) Nineteenth as well as twentiest He appeared as Balarâma and Krishna from the Vrishni-family and thus Bhagavân removed the burden from the world. (24) Thereafter in the Age of Kali His birth as Lord Buddha from An'jana in Gayâ will take place in order to delude the ones envious with the theists. (25) Following that at the conjunction of two Yugas when there is hardly a ruler found that is not a plunderer, the Lord of Creation will take birth with the name of Kalki as the son of Vishnu Yas'â.
the story goes that folks were doing animal sacrifices (which are vedic) for the sole purpose of eating meat (which is not vedic) and so Buddha advented himself to deny the Vedas...and too, at this time, vedic thought had deteriorated quite a bit as so many gods and goddesses were worshipped without the understanding on the monotheistic unifying web so Buddha found it easiest to toss out the kit and kaboodle of Vedic thought..."if the Vedas teach this, then I deny the Vedas" and it is Srimad Bhagavatam that directly describes Buddha as Avatara and not Bhagavad Gita
That's the story...wrong book...sorry there... I haven't read the whole Srimad Bhagavatam... (or even made a dent)...but I do remember that story... ...sorry if I misunderstood...
Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj Bhakti Bibudh Bodhayan Though Krishna Das Babaji lived in one tiny corner of the world, his life offers a beacon-like example for all humanity, sending out the powerful message of how everyone can seek out and find happiness in the Divine through taking shelter of the Maha Mantra. HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE. All around the world, everyone is looking for happiness in the various sources of mundane pleasure without understanding that the true fountainhead of pleasure is the Supreme Lord alone. In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the master and controller of ultimate joy has given us a simple and efficient means of achieving spiritual perfection. He has Himself become present in this world in His own names and has set no restrictive rules or regulations for chanting them. His only instruction is to chant these Holy Names always and everywhere. Through the chanting of these Holy Names, all of one’s desires will be fulfilled. Krishna Das Babaji’s extraordinary life is living proof that all this is true. Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj was born a little over a century ago in a respectable family in Bikrampur in the present-day Dhaka district of Bangladesh. He was related to Chittaranjan Das, a famous lawyer and activist for Indian independence. He himself graduated with honors from Dhaka University with a BA degree and seemed headed for an illustrious career in law. However, Krishna Das had a strong thirst for spiritual life. His parents were very pious and made regular pilgrimages to the holy places along the Ganges like Prayag, Benares, Hardwar and Rishikesh. Krishna Das had himself been to Hardwar and Rishikesh several times, but each time returned home disappointed, for he had been searching for a Sat Guru all his life and yet found no solace in the impersonalist doctrines taught by most holy men in these places. In 1920, the founder of the Gaudiya Math, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada, visited Dhaka with his entire preaching party. Krishna Das came to Srila Prabhupada’s program, and as soon as he saw Srila Prabhupada immediately recognized him as his eternal spiritual master and decided to take initiation from him. It was as though his desires to find a genuine spiritual teacher were fulfilled at the very moment he was losing all hope of doing so. Saraswati Thakur’s discourses were for him like the final arrival of the rains after a long, parching dry summer. A year later, Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur accepted him as his disciple and gave him the brahmachari name of Sadhikananda Das. Sadhikananda had always been independent-minded and after initiation decided to commit himself fully to the practice of chanting the Holy Name, following the example of Lord Chaitanya’s associate Hari Das Thakur. He came to stay at the Chaitanya Math in Mayapur where he would remain in the brahmachari dormitory all day long to chant the Maha Mantra non-stop behind closed doors. All of this was, of course, in line with Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, but Sadhikananda was soon put to the test, not from outside forces, but from his own godbrothers. Such is the nature of the age we live in. Many of the other devotees felt that Sadhikananda was neglecting the other menial tasks around the Math usually given to the brahmacharis and thought that his imitation of Hari Das Thakur’s exalted example was artificial. Sadhikananda was eating the math’s food but not making a contribution to its upkeep. They complained to Srila Prabhupada and were surprised to hear the master defend his disciple. One day, after having heard these complaints again and again, Srila Prabhupada said, “If any of you are able to chant like Sadhikananda, you will get all your food and board without any other obligation. Krishna is the proprietor of all things. Taking complete shelter of His holy names means to take full shelter of Him. I want all of you to take shelter of the Lord and His name. If we can do this, then the Lord Himself will us send more of His servants to take care of the other aspects of temple service.” On hearing Srila Prabhupada’s words, some of the complainers tried to imitate Sadhikananda, but none was able to match his natural enthusiasm for chanting. Within a few days, all of them had returned to their habitual service. As a result, all their criticisms stopped. Even so, Sadhikananda felt uneasy about staying in the math after this incident. Fearing that the master would again be pestered by those critical of his activities, he one night quietly paid his obeisances to Srila Prabhupada and set off on foot for Rishikesh, a famous holy place where impersonalist renunciates go to meditate. His intention was to devote himself exclusively to the chanting of the Holy Name and set an example for the Mayavadis. His message was: “Give up your idea that worshiping the Lord is imaginary. The Lord has descended as His own holy name. So just take shelter of the Maha Mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. This way you will achieve success in your efforts at perfecting spiritual life.” In the meantime, Srila Prabhupada was distressed by Sadhikananda’s departure and asked his disciples to do whatever they could to bring him back. Srila Bon Maharaj, an unparallelled orator to whom Srila Prabhupada first confided the task of preaching Lord Chaitanya’s message in the West, went to Hardwar and told Sadhikananda that Prabhupada wanted him to come back to Sri Mayapur. Sadhikananda could not disobey and returned to Mayapur with Bon Maharaj. On his return, Srila Prabhupada gave Sadhikananda a separate room and told him clearly that his only duty was to chant Hare Krishna. With Srila Prabhupada’s blessings, Sadhikananda would chant the Holy Names in kirtan for eight hours every day and then on his beads for the remaining sixteen. A few devotees did not believe that he was really chanting for all twenty-four hours of every day and decided to investigate; but were astonished to find that it was indeed true. Some others again tried to imitate his lifestyle, but were still unable to do so. No one could understand how Sadhikananda could chant for twenty-four hours a day, but the mercy of the spiritual master is such that it makes all things possible -- the dumb become eloquent and the lame climb mountains. After reciting the Srimad Bhagavatam for a full seven days, Srila Shukadeva Goswami asked Parikshit Maharaj whether he was hungry or tired. Parikshit replied, “The Srimad Bhagavatam is the wish-fulfilling tree of the Vedas, the essence of all Upanishads. Hearing it gives me the sweetest taste of fruit nectar, rasa malai. By your grace, I have been drinking this rasa malai over the past seven days, so I am not feeling hungry at all.” The nectar of the Holy Name is such that when one gets a taste for it, one forgets even food and sleep. Sadhikananda Brahmachari thus had no interest in eating fine prasadam or wearing opulent clothes. He used to wear a very short dhoti. He lived according to Mahaprabhu’s instruction to Raghunath Das Goswami: bhälo nä khäibe, bhälo nä paribe, which means not to eat or dress well. After initiation, Sadhikananda Brahmachari was ready to refuse any opulent food or dress for the rest of his life. Instead of seeking material comforts, he chanted very carefully, like Hari Das Thakur, teaching us all that chanting the Holy Name is the essence of human life in Kali Yuga. Approximately two or three months before Srila Prabhupada’s physical departure from this world, Sadhikananda had a very significant dream. He saw a great procession of devotees led by an elephant and followed by thousands of golden chariots, winding from Calcutta to Mayapur. Heading this procession was Ananta Vasudeva Prabhu, who sat on the elephant. Ananta Vasudeva was a learned scholar, known as Srila Prabhupada’s right-hand man. Some called him Ganesh, because he served as Prabhupada’s amanuensis, copying down his lectures for posterity. In the dream, Ananta Vasudeva was being followed by the rest of his godbrothers on the golden chariots. Everyone was engaged in an ecstatic kirtan. Before they passed through the Sri Chaitanya Math’s gate, however, the elephant went mad and picked up Ananta Vasudeva with its trunk, threw him onto the ground, and crushed him under its feet. Panic spread through the other devotees and the joyful chanting was completely disrupted. Sadhikananda saw the same dream for two days at different times. I recently heard about this dream from Sripad Hariprasad Das Babaji of Nandagram, a disciple of Bhakti Vilasa Tirtha Maharaj who was Babaji Maharaj’s personal assistant and served him over the last few months of his life. Sadhikananda recognized that the dream was warning him of what was to take place in the Gaudiya Math after Srila Prabhupada’s departure. While he was wondering what he would do in that eventuality, Srila Prabhupada did indeed enter the eternal pastimes of Radha and Govinda on the morning of January 1, 1937. All the clocks in the Bagh Bazaar Gaudiya Math in Calcutta miraculously stopped at 5:30 marking the exact moment of his divine departure.
In the turmoil following Srila Prabhupada’s entry into maha samadhi, Sadhikananda kept aloof from all the politics and refused to join any of the various factions. He left Sri Chaitanya Math and began to wander throughout India, visiting many holy places and living on madhukari. For much of this time he was accompanied by my Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj. The two friends would joyfully engage in Harinam Sankirtan on their voyages. Finally, Sadhikananda Das decided to settle in Vrindavan to continue the service of constant chanting given him by Srila Prabhupada. He chose Davanala Kund in Vrindavan to be his place of bhajan. He found a cave near the Kund for living and chanting, like Hari Das Thakur when he resided near Shantipur in a cave inhabited by a poisonous snake. By living in this way, Hari Das Thakur showed us that the Holy Name is our ultimate protector in the Kali Yuga. Similarly, our Srila Sadhikananda Brahmachari gave us the same example by living in a cave near Davanala Kund for six years. While there, he used to take prasad from the nearby math of one of his Godbrothers, Jachak Maharaj. Sadhikananda Brahmachari then moved to Nanda Maharaj’s garden (Nanda Bagicha), halfway between Teri Kadamba and Nandagram, where he stayed for the next six years, continuing to follow the same lifestyle. After that, he established himself at Sanatan Goswami Prabhu’s bhajan kutir near Pavan Sarovar. This became his permanent base for the rest of his life, even though he frequently traveled to the various different holy places of Vraja and Gaura Mandals. After many years of life in full commitment to the Holy Name, Sadhikananda one day had a dream in which Vamsi Das Babaji Maharaj ordered him to take the dress of a renunciate, or babaji. Sadhikananda followed Vamsi Das’s order and accepted the babaji dress at Sanatan Goswami’s bhajan kutir at Nandagram in front of a picture of Srila Prabhupada. After taking the renounced order of life, Sadhikananda adopted the name Krishna Das, “servant of Krishna.” By the grace of the Holy Name, he became well known throughout the whole of Vraja Mandal by this name. Even so, for a long time after taking the babaji dress, he hardly spoke at all with anyone except to utter the Holy Name. As a result, many of the villagers used to call him Mauni Baba. Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj came to know of his original form as a friend of Krishna through the chanting of Holy Name. It happened in the following way: On one of his parikramas around Vraja Mandal, Krishna Das stopped at the Dauji temple near Gokul. Just like Madhavendra Puri in Remuna, Babaji Maharaj sat down to chant and was dozing off when he suddenly woke with a start and began loudly shouting, “Please take me with you! Please take me with you!” He then fell senseless. The Brahmin servants of Dauji saw Babaji Maharaj lying unconscious and took proper care of him, bringing him back to his senses. When they asked him what had happened, he gave no answer. Later, however, he told some close friends what had transpired. He had seen Krishna and Balaram appear from the temple and head for the pasture with a herd of cows. But as they were leaving him behind, Krishna Das had started shouting to them to wait for him. After this incident, Babaji Maharaj always thought of himself as Krishna’s cowherd friend and preferred to sing kirtans connected to the mood of friendship (sakhya). Not only that, but he also cultivated a mood of friendship with all of his godbrothers. In keeping with this mood of friendship, Babaji Maharaj always moved between the two Holy Dhams, Vrindavan and Nabadwip, the hidden Vrindavan in Bengal. He would spend six months of the year, from January to June, at different maths in Bengal. He mostly stayed at Sri Chaitanya Math, which had been established by his gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada, and in other maths established by his godbrothers, such as Sri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaj, Sri Chaitanya Saraswata Math of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Deva Goswami Maharaj, Sri Devananda Gaudiya Math of Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshava Goswami Maharaj, the Gaura Nityananda temple established by Bhakti Saranga Goswami Maharaj, and Sri Bhajan Ashram of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Hridoy Bon Maharaj. He would spend the other six months of the year in the different places in Vraja Mandal mentioned above. While staying in the various maths of his godbrothers, Srila Babaji Maharaj would serve the Vaishnavas by leading the kirtans and playing the mridanga. The rest of time, he would chant the Holy Name on his beads. Through this service and his perennially jolly mood, Babaji Maharaj kept on friendly terms with all of his godbrothers. He had no enemy in the entire Vaishnava community. Everyone eagerly accepted his services; indeed, they all felt extremely fortunate whenever he came to stay in their math, even if it was just for a short while. The above account shows that the Vaishnava’s curse is never really a curse, but a blessing. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, the Vaishnavas’ most beloved scripture, the story is told of how Nalakuvera and Manigriva, the sons of Kuvera, were cursed by Narada Muni to become trees. They stayed rooted to the ground in this form for a hundred years, at the end of which they were to be delivered from the curse by the grace of the Supreme Lord Krishna, the soul of all the universes. When Lord Krishna appeared, His devotee’s words bore fruit during His däma-bandhana-lélä. One day, after Krishna had done some naughty childish prank, His mother Yashoda punished Him by tying Him to a mortar near her husband Nanda’s barn. The words däma-bandhana-lélä are broken down as follows: däma means rope, bandhana means binding, and lélä means pastime. After Mother Yashoda had bound Krishna around the waist with a rope and tied Him to a mortar near the two arjun trees, which were in fact Nalakuvera and Manigriva, she left to do her duties in Nanda’s palace. The child Krishna took this opportunity to crawl between the two trees, dragging the heavy mortar behind Him. The mortar got caught and when Krishna tugged on it with His superhuman strength, the two trees crashed down to the ground in a moment with a great sound, frightening all the residents of the cowherd settlement. As soon as they had fallen, Nalakuvera and Manigriva were freed from Narada’s curse and regained their past forms along with the memory of their past life. They paid their obeisances to Krishna and offered Him prayers before happily returning to their original heavenly homes. Similarly, though Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj was originally shunned by a few of his godbrothers, this mistreatment actually made him even more beloved of his gurudeva and attracted his special mercy. Through his constant chanting of the Holy Name, Babaji Maharaj was able to realize his original form as a cowherd companion of the Lord, associating with Him eteranally in His abode, Goloka. Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj frequently travelled with his godbrothers when they called on him. In those days, my gurudeva, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj, had no math or society of his own, so on occasion Srila Babaji Maharaj liked to go on pilgrimage with him, all the while maintaining his own bhajan practice. On one such pilgrimage, he accompanied my gurudeva and another godbrother, Srila Ratha Prabhu (who wrote many Vaishnava poems and was later known as Srila Bhakti Kamal Abadhut Maharaj) to Ayodhya, the land of Lord Ramachandra. One day, Ratha Prabhu got very hungry and bought a few guavas in the market for the three of them to eat. There were many Ramanandi sages in the same place, each of whom had his own kamandalu (a metal water pot with a spout). Unaware that the Ramanandi sadhus prohibited anyone else from touching their water pots, Ratha Prabhu quite innocently took one of them to wash his guavas, without first asking for permission. As soon as he touched the kamandalu, however, its owner rushed up to him, snatched it and began to rebuke him in the most impolite language. The other assembled Ramanandi sadhus surrounded Ratha Prabhu and threatened to beat him up for his action. However, Srila Gurudeva and Srila Babaji Maharaj’s spiritual power took effect. They asked the sadhus why they were so angry. The Ramanandi answered, “If you fish-eating Bengalis touch my pot, it becomes contaminated and that will ruin my spiritual practice.” My spiritual master said, “You are mistaken. This man is our godbrother and a saintly man who strictly follows a vegetarian diet. No harmful effects will come from his touching your water pot.”
Some of the Ramanandis said, “Maybe he doesn’t eat fish, but his father surely did.” Guru Maharaj and Babaji Maharaj began to quote from various scriptures to prove that such an understanding was completely false, but they did it in such a humble and polite way that the Ramanandis calmed down and forgot their complaint. The spiritual strength of Srila Prabhupada’s three disciples and the scriptural arguments of Srila Puri Maharaj defused the situation and the Ramanandis left them alone. This anecdote illustrates how Babaji Maharaj preached the glories of his spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, and how he chanted the Holy Names purely. It also reminds us of how Sriman Mahaprabhu converted the Kazi and the victory of Srila Hari Das Thakur over his oppressors. Once Srila Hari Das Thakur was beaten by the soldiers of the local Muslim magistrate, the Kazi, because Hari Das would not comply with his order to stop chanting the Holy Name. The Kazi then told his followers to beat Hari Das Thakur in the twenty-one public squares under his jurisdiction. The grace of the Lord’s holy name protected Srila Hari Das Thakur from suffering any harm from this cruel punishment. In another incident, the Kazi of Nabadwip broke the mridanga drum used in kirtan at Srivas Pandit’s house and prohibited the public chanting of the Holy Names. As the representative of the Muslim king, the Kazi was feared by all the citizens of Nabadwip, but after he broke the mridanga, Mahaprabhu challenged him by organizing all His devotees into a large sankirtan party and leading them to the Kazi’s house to protest the ban. The Kazi became so afraid that he finally surrendered to Mahaprabhu’s lotus feet. Thus the Kazi became a full-fledged devotee of Mahaprabhu, even though he had been born in a Muslim family. Similarly, Babaji Maharaj’s pure devotional attitude had a transformative power over negative energies like anger. By the grace of Srila Prabhupada and the Holy Name, Srila Babaji Maharaj was totally free from any kind of mundane attachment. He once bought a piece of land in Raman Reti in Vrindavan in order to establish his own preaching centre or math for the benefit of conditioned individuals like ourselves. He had received some financial backing from a householder devotee and began to buy building materials like bricks and sand, which were meant for a wall and a small building. When Babaji Maharaj went to his plot with a surveyor, however, he saw that the owner of the neighboring property had encroached on his land, appropriating about a foot of it from one side. When Babaji Maharaj complained, his neighbor would not agree to give up even an inch of the land he had taken. Babaji Maharaj became downcast to see such mundane aggressiveness and realized that the desire to own property was at the root of so many problems in life, especially if one wants to engage in bhajan. He immediately told the person, “My land and whatever materials are stored here are yours. I don’t want to get involved in mundane quarrels. Please take it all and do whatever you like with it.” The greedy neighbor was astonished to receive the magnanimity of Babaji Maharaj, and indeed was shamed by it. With this action Babaji Maharaj demonstrated the futility of fighting for acquisitions like land and buildings. The real value in our short lifespan comes from engaging in Hari bhajan. Though Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj never swerved from Srila Prabhupada’s instruction to live simply and in full commitment to hearing, chanting and meditating on Lord Krishna, one cannot say that he did not serve his spiritual master’s preaching mission. I heard the following story from Sri Banwarilal Singhania, a businessman devotee based in Calcutta. Banwarilal and his entire family were very much drawn to Babaji Maharaj’s perfect Vaishnava humility and desired to render some service to his lotus feet, Babaji Maharaj repeatedly refused to take any form of service from them, but in accordance with his lifelong vow. Nevertheless, when Banwarilal approached him one day in his bhajan kutir at Pavan Sarovar and asked him once again how he could serve him, Babaji Maharaj replied that he would certainly engage him in his most worshipful spiritual master’s service when his gurudeva inspired him. This opportune moment did indeed come a short time thereafter. Babaji Maharaj happened to be visiting Calcutta on a day when the Vaishnava calendar reported a total solar eclipse. He was staying at a grihastha Vaishnava’s temple and had committed himself to performing kirtan throughout the duration of the solar eclipse as is recommended in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. Banwarilal heard about this and went to the temple with two friends to join Srila Babaji Maharaj in the kirtan. When the eclipse and the exhilarating kirtan came to an end, Srila Babaji Maharaj went to take a shower, chanting the prayers to the lotus feet of his Gurudeva composed by Srila B. R. Sridhar Maharaj (sujanArbudArAdhita-pAda-yugam). When he returned, he stood before Banwarilal and his friends with folded hands and said, “According to Vedic tradition, it is very auspicious to give in charity to a poor Brahmin. Although I am not a Brahmin…” Before he could finish his sentence, Sri Banwarilal got up, very excited and full of anticipation. He asked what he, an ordinary businessman, could possibly give in charity to a great devotee like Srila Babaji Maharaj. Maharaj humbly replied that whereas all his godbrothers had over the years rendered valuable service to his worshipful spiritual master and his transcendental preaching mission, he himself had spent his days as a parasite, simply eating and sleeping at the expense of his Gurudeva’s mission. On this day, however, he had been inspired by his spiritual master to be instrumental in whatever way he could to assist his godbrother Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaj in recovering the birth site of his spiritual master on the Grand Road in Jagannath Puri and building a monument there.
Banwarilal was so overwhelmed by Srila Babaji Maharaj’s humility and the wonderful opportunity to serve an eternal associate of the Supreme Lord that he immediately fell down at Babaji Maharaj’s lotus feet. He committed himself to becoming one of the most important contributors to the construction of the temple and sankirtan hall on the site. The cornerstone was laid on March 24, 1980 and the beautiful skyscraping temple, which houses Sriman Mahaprabhu and His alter ego, Jagannath Deva, was officially consecrated on February 5, 1982, the holy advent anniversary of Srila Prabhupada. To this day Banwarilal is ever grateful to Srila Babaji Maharaj for having engaged him in this transcendental service. It may be said that we Gaudiya Vaishnavas who are spiritual descendants of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the Sri Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Saraswata Sampradaya, are today able to offer our respect and obeisances to his lotus feet on the site of his birth through the direct mercy of Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj. Towards the end of his sojourn in this world, Babaji Maharaj manifested the pastime of appearing ill and was so taken by his well-wishers to the Agra Hospital. When the doctor examined him with his stethoscope, he was astonished to hear the Holy Name vibrating in the stethoscope instead of the sounds of Babaji Maharaj's breath and heartbeat as expected. All he heard was the sound of the Maha Mantra: HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE. The doctor was puzzled and examined him again, with the same results. He then called his associates to also examine Babaji Maharaj, but everyone heard same holy sound emanating from his chest. Unable to find any illness, they released Babaji Maharaj and he returned to Pavan Sarovar. Through this and other pastimes Srila Babaji Maharaj personified Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s teachings, as found his kirtan, Jiva jago— jivana anitya jAnaha sAr tAhe nAnA vidha vipada bhAr nAmAzraya kori yatane tumi thAkaha Apana kAje Life is temporary and full of so many dangers. The body will be destroyed either today or tomorrow, so, don’t waste your time just doing your mundane work. We have to do our eternal job in order to reach the ultimate goal of life. Chanting the Holy Name alone is eternal in the universe. So please take shelter of the Holy Name and engage peacefully in service connected to the Holy Name. In the Chaitanya Charitamrita, it is said that whatever seems to be distress in a Vaishnava’s life is in fact the greatest joy. jata dekho vaiSNavera vyavahAra duHkha nizcaya-i jAnibe tAhA parAnanda sukha I once saw Babaji Maharaj and Bhakti Srirupa Siddhanti Maharaj get into an argument. Though it looked pretty serious, it was only a friendly quarrel. Though Babaji Maharaj chanted three lakhs of Holy Names every day, when in Nabadwip, he sometimes went to listen to the lila kirtans put on by the Sahajiyas. Siddhanti Maharaj teased him, saying, “O three-lakhs-a-day Babaji Mahashay! You don’t get enough Krishna lila from chanting three lakhs of Krishna’s names? You need to go listen to the Sahajiyas’ kirtan? Why are you making a mockery of Srila Prabhupada’s standards?” Babaji Maharaj said nothing in response to his godbrother’s criticisms, but returned immediately to Sanatan Goswami’s bhajan kutir where he started to fast. Bon Maharaj, Sridhar Maharaj and many other godbrothers wrote him letters and sent messengers asking him to stop his fast and to return to his normal life. However, it was all to no avail. The Supreme Lord decided to withdraw him from our mortal vision and take him to His own bosom. On Monday, April 12, 1982, at 9:00 in the morning, Srila Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj entered the Lord’s cowherding pastimes, casting us all into an ocean of bereavement. Many devotees still make the trip to Pavan Sarovar just to see Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj’s samadhi temple, which is being taken care of by some members of the Gaudiya Math in the renounced order. We also pray for his blessings: May he grant us love for the Holy Name and affection for the association of Vaishnavas!
The goal is to love Krishna, not to know Him. Just know yourself so u can know how to love Him. if u knew Him, you'd be greater than Him. And that's just total phantasmagoria. Knowledge is limited, devotion is not.
But how can we love what we don't know? In the Gita, Krishna says hardly anyone knows him, I don't think He says no-one knows Him. The knowledge of the discursive intellect is limited, but there is a higher modes of knowledge, jnana. Krishna does say that one who follows the path of Bhakti gets the results of the other yogas, so knowledge would seem to be included in this.
Chapter 7. Knowledge of the AbsoluteTEXT 1 sri-bhagavan uvaca mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi tac chrnu SYNONYMS sri-bhagavan uvaca--the Supreme Lord said; mayi--unto Me; asakta-manah--mind attached; partha--O son of Prtha; yogam--self-realization; yunjan--so practicing; mat-asrayah--in consciousness of Me (Krsna consciousness); asamsayam--without doubt; samagram--completely; mam--unto Me; yatha--as much as; jnasyasi--you can know; tat--that; srnu--try to hear. TRANSLATION Now hear, O son of Prtha [Arjuna], how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free from doubt.
Even Krishna doesn't know Himself! That's what I meant. If u want to become God, what is the use of your knowledge? hey, check this out. I really like this one. I found it on http://www.krishna.org Why do we hesitate to tell a new comer who is searching for a guru that Srila Prabhupada, the best guru the world has ever seen, is still here, and one can surrender unto him and go back to Godhead very easily? When we have such a great good fortune, why do we not take full advantage of it? Bhakti Caru Swami (08-24-04) </STRONG></FONT> ...Prabhupada did not say anything and then in a very soft voice he told me, "Didn't I teach you that the spirit soul is eternal and he never dies?" That one statement gave me a profound realization: how could the person who taught me that the spirit soul never dies ever die himself? He will always be with us, although some day he may disappear from our mundane vision. But today, when I look back, I can see that soon after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance we took it for granted that Srila Prabhupada is not here any more - like any other mortal, as he left his body, he is no more. I very strongly feel that this is the greatest mistake we have made. And as a result, ISKCON today is in such a critical condition. Now that we assembled here to celebrate Srila Prabhupada's disappearance pastime, once and for all let us recognize that Srila Prabhupada has not gone away. Rather, he has simply disappeared from our vision. Although we are not able to see him any more with our mundane vision, he is very much there, watching us from the spiritual sky. He will always be there to guide us, provided we remain fixed up at his lotus feet. He will reward us when we please him and he will chastise us if we make mistake. It is due to the mistake of considering that Srila Prabhupada is gone we are facing all these difficulties. During his last days on this planet, Srila Prabhupada told his leading disciples many times, "Just maintain what I have given you." At that time we thought it would be such an easy thing to do. However, today we see how miserably we failed to fulfill that instruction. Srila Prabhupada's greatest asset was his devotees, and that asset we started to lose first. Now we are about to lose everything else that His Divine Grace gave us to maintain. I do not want to blame anyone for all the mistakes that were made, but we must nonetheless recognize them and learn our lesson from them. Therefore, with all sincerity, I say that we are losing everything because we had been thinking that Srila Prabhupada is now dead and gone, and we started to claim our shares of our inheritance. This morning, during her speech, mother Daivisakti pointed out how natural it is to see that Srila Prabhupada is 'the guru' of ISKCON, still today. It occurred to me how clear a fact that is. Still, how seldom we act according to that understanding! Or do we ever act at all with that understanding? Nevertheless, everyday, in all the temples of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada is worshipped by everyone. Then why do we hesitate to tell a new comer who is searching for a guru that Srila Prabhupada, the best guru the world has ever seen, is still here, and one can surrender unto him and go back to Godhead very easily? When we have such a great good fortune, why do we not take full advantage of it? It is only when we do so that the glorious days of ISKCON will come back again and we will witness Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's sankirtan movement starting to spread in leaps and bounds all over the world. If we really love ISKCON and if we sincerely want the Krsna Consciousness movement to spread all over the world in every town and village, then let us broadcast all over the world that Srila Prabhupada is still with us and that anyone who wants to receive his mercy can approach him and establish his eternal relationship with him. On this day when Srila Prabhupada has apparently left this planet, let us take up the solemn responsibility to recognize the fact that Srila Prabhupada is always present in his ISKCON, and that whoever wants to can come and meet him here, still today. As his humble servants, let us help them to establish their relationship with His Divine Grace. Bhakti Caru Swami </STRONG></FONT>
Chief, I'm not sure about that.Perhaps the difficulty comes through the definition of the word 'knowledge'. What does it mean to know God? Not an intellectual knowledge, thats certain, because all such is relativistic. But a higher mode of knowledge - vidya, or jnana? How about Krishna's Self-revealing to his devotee? Knowledge through Grace? Also, wasn't the distress of the Gopi's at Krishna's departure because they'd known Krishna intimately, and now their direct knowing of Him was to be interupted? Can their be love without some knowledge? And Jiva - I'm not trying to become God ! I hardly think that would be possible, since the post is already filled! But to place a limit on Krishna's knowledge by saying He doesn't know Himself can't be right - Krishna is the supreme Brahman - His body is constituted of Knowledge, Bliss and infinite consciousness. It may appear like that here - that Krishna doesn't have full knowledge, but thats just part of the Lila, the play. In reality His knowledge must surely be perfect and complete.
hahaha, I'm sorry I can't find the quote, but I read it. I didn't make it up. Have u seen the picture where Krishna sees His reflection on the floor and becomes captivated? That's something similar. I didn't say you are trying to become God, I was just talking to everybody. Especially about buddhists. yeah, u got the good point. What is knowledge? If u know things and you utilize them for your satisfaction instead of satisfying Krishna, what is wise about that? U are slave anyhow. I'd call it mystic powers, lot of people like to have them just becuz they want to be Gods themselves. The real knowledge is to know the Supreme controller and then to surrender to Him. The real knowledge is to explain others how to love Krsna. U used the word relativistic -that's very accurate. We can't say what is knowledge. There is also a moment when Krsna shows Arjuna His Universal form and Arjuna is scared, he doesn't wanna! He just want see Krishna as his two handed friend. The same with Vrndavana's citizens, they didn't treat Him like a Supreme God, they just loved Him without any knowledge. The sincerity is what counts. If u love Krsna for no reason, thats a perfection. And if u can explain why you love Him for no reason, then it is a knowledge. Do u agree? take care haribol!
"ignorance is bliss"... i was making a funny but too, the highest rasa with Krishna is love and attraction for the boy and not the God
found this on the net concerning the "long hairs" conversation with S. P. and devotee 1 and devotee 2 (This letter was apparently too long for one posting, so I'll put it in 4 parts) My eternal friends. My name was/is Kanupriya. I was invited to participate in a discussion on this site, which I did not know existed, by a member named bangli, who knew me long ago in LA, and who just happened to have my number, so he called me up and told me a story and I looked up the site and here I am. I am quite amazed that there would be a group of people who are interested in the infamous conversation I had with Bhaktivedanta in June of 1975, or that anyone has even heard of and knows about this conversation, what to speak of that portions of the transcript are on web sites. I’ve spent a bit of time looking over the site, reading a bunch of postings and looking at the profiles of the most active members, and most of you seem relatively sane, and certainly truth seekers, and I even know a few of you, and I like the site, so I’ll be happy to assist you in any way I can towards your further enlightenment. I read all the postings regarding the conversation including what’s posted of the conversation itself, and all of your speculations and comments. I have a copy of the transcription of the conversation. What has been posted of the conversation on this site is about 11 pages out of 23, from pages 7 to 18, so there’s more of the conversation than has been posted here. The beginning part is the most important because it sets the tone for the rest, but it is alluded to in a later part of the conversation that is posted regarding the issue of you can’t be a disciple if you have long hair, which is a much larger issue than just long hair, which I’ll tell you all about in due course, cause this is gonna’ to be a long long letter. On the transcript, I am Devotee 1 and Jamadagni is Devotee 2. In order to understand how this conversation came about, what the significance or importance of it is, and how I happened to be there, it is necessary to know the circumstances that led up to it, which I can only tell you from my personal side, so I’ll begin with telling you who I am and what my experiences were with Bhaktivedanta, ISKCON, Jamadagni and the other players in the play, for I have a perspective in all this that no one else could have, since I knew Bhaktivedanta quite well and spent a considerable amount of personal time with him compared to all but a small hand full of devotees. In fact, at one point in 1972, for several months I spent three hours a day with him, an hour of which each day we were alone together most of the times, and I got to ask him all kinds of questions and get all kinds of answers that as far as I can see he never gave to anyone else, or wrote in any of his books, or told in any of his lectures. All I can tell you is that he always told me the truth in response to my questions, but many of the truths he told me are not the same as he wrote in his books or preached in his lectures, as you shall see. I have only love in my heart for all beings, not because I necessarily actually like everyone or the things they do, but because it’s my natural state of being to flow the energy of love, and I like being there, so I don’t crimp the energy. I have no resentments, nor animosity toward, nor axes to grind with Bhaktivedanta or ISKCON or anything else I have experienced and created in my life, for after all, I’m an astrologer, and according to my chart, I apparently was willing to go through whatever was necessary to attain the state of enlightenment I desired. I promise to tell you the truth of all this as I remember it, for this was all over 30 years ago, but I have a pretty good memory. I have never told this full story to anyone before, nor would I have ever written down what I am going to be telling you of my relationship with Bhaktivedanta and my experiences in Hare Krishna Land and post it on a web site, nor am I asking you to believe anything I am telling you, or to accept my particular philosophical take on reality, or my interpretations of the meanings of the various things Bhaktivedanta said to me, or even my interpretations of this conversation, but I was requested to provide this information and I see no reason not to do so, and I can only present it from my own point of view, plus it might be of some benefit to someone, and I like being helpful if I can. I’m certainly finding it interesting to be revealing this entire story to anyone for the first time, and even more interesting that anyone’s actually interested! I’m going to provide you with quite a bit of information here regarding the early history of ISKCON, at least what I know and experienced of it from Jan 69 till Mar 73 while I was there, as well as a bunch of stories of my experiences and conversations with Bhaktivedanta, presented in a way that might give you some insights into his character as I perceived it, and thus a better understanding of my relationship with him and what this conversation was all about. I hope you find it interesting. I read many of your bio’s, and I’m sure quite a few of you will be able to relate to my adventures in Hare Krishna Land. I was initiated by mail by Bhaktivedanta in Jan 1969 when I was living in my home town Buffalo NY, at which time I moved into the temple there after going there for about four months. I had just turned 20. For the prior couple of years, I had been studying Western astrology, Hatha Yoga, Indian philosophy, meditation, etc. and was a vegetarian, so it seemed like moving into a happy little yoga ashram was my next logical step. The temple had been started by Rupanuga, who was one of the original 12 initiated disciples in New York, and was one of only a half dozen or so temples at the time. There were only a few of us there as the temple had only been there a year; my friends Jagadisha and Praladananda who I knew from college, plus Trivikram and Bhorjan, It was a nice little temple. I worked at the Buffalo library. Rupanuga was a social worker. Jag and Pralad went to college. We had a daily arti and kirtan and class from 7 to 8 am, a kirtan in the evening on Weds. and a feast on Sun. There was no Sankirtan and no book distribution.. “Aaah! The good old days! Chant Hare Krishna and your life will be sublime! A happy little universal prayer that anyone can do without having to change anything else in their lives!” Later in that year Bhagavan and his wife Krishna Bhamani, both of whom I knew in High School, joined along with my High School friend Narottamananda. Nityananda too. Gargamuni and Brahmananda were in charge of the NY temple, Tamal in LA, Satsvarup in Boston. The big three of Mukunda, Guru das and Shyamasundar along with their wives had just left LA and gone to start the temple in England. At the time I joined, only the Gita and the first canto of SB had been published, and then TLC was published that year. I read the books, but from the very beginning, my interpretations of the books and understandings of the philosophy seemed to be vastly different from everyone else’s, and everyone gave me a hard time about it, especially about my understanding of how you could communicate with Krishna and hear Him talking back to you, and since they were my senior god brothers since they’d been there longer, they were supposed to know better than I, so I was in somewhat of a quandary over quite a few philosophical concepts.
I first met Bhaktivedanta when he came to Buffalo for a couple of weeks in the early spring of 69 to visit the temple and do a bunch of college and other presentations that had been arranged. Everyone else but me went to meet him at the airport, but as I was the cook, I stayed at the temple to prepare the feast for later in the day, after the scheduled event at the local university, which I went to. So the first time I saw him, I was sitting on the stage at the university at the harmonium, as I was the harmonium player, and he walked up on the stage and sat down, and someone handed him a drum, and he looked over at me and nodded his head and smiled and said, “Lets go” and began to play the drum and I followed at the harmonium, and we were just a couple of musicians doing the show, and it was like that at a dozen other kirtans and presentations we did while he was there. I also went and saw him several times where he was staying, so I got to know him a bit, and he certainly knew who I was. The second time I met him was at a huge kirtan in an auditorium he did with Allen Ginsberg at Columbus OH university in around April 69, which was so wild with thousands of totally insane college students jumping up and down and pounding on chairs and screaming Hare Krishna that it made the national evening news channels. After that he went and spent a couple of weeks in New Vrindaban, and I went there too. He gave a class every morning so I saw him every day. One day, he came outside in the late afternoon and was sitting on the grass on a little hill and a few of us devotees went and sat with him. I said, “Prabhupada, can I ask you a question?” He said, “yes”, so I said, ”Prabhupada, how do you tell which of the thoughts of the mind are which? Which are the thoughts of the spirit soul, which are the thoughts of the material mind, and which are the thoughts of the Paramatma?” It was kind of a cloudy evening, and he said, “The material mind is like the clouds in the sky. The Sun is on the other side of the clouds, but since we’re on this side we can’t see the Sun. The spirit soul is like the Sun, since it is the source of the energy, so all thoughts originate with the spirit soul. Any thought that comes through that is a ‘Krishna thought’, which is viewing the world from the perception of spirit, is the original thought of the spirit soul. Any thought that comes through not viewing the world from a spiritual point of view, is the original thought of the spirit soul that got clouded by the material mind. And it is very difficult to tell the difference between the thoughts of the spirit soul and those of the Paramatma, since both are made of knowledge and are essentially the same.” I said, “Thank-you very much. That was also my conclusion”, but Kirtanananda and Rupanuga and all the other devotees there all totally freaked out from this answer, “Oh no! Prabhupad’s preaching mayavadi philosophy that there’s no difference between the jiva and the Paramatma! Oh no! This does not compute! This does not compute! System meltdown!” After having Bhaktivedanta confirm my understanding, which was vastly different from all the other devotee’s understandings from reading the same books, and everyone having told me my interpretations were incorrect, from that point on, none of my so-called more advanced older devotees could tell me anything. I just concluded that I had a particular type of intelligence that gave me the ability to pick out the truths and to understand the secret meanings behind everything, and after that I trusted exclusively my own intelligence and intuition. Like I said before, Bhaktivedanta always told me the truth in response to the many questions I asked him, even though what he told me contradicted what he told everyone else and what he wrote in his books, but then I knew the right questions to ask. Everything was nice for a while until Aug of 69 when the big street Sankirtan and book distribution and money collecting programs began in LA & NY. I was sent to NY in Aug to get my Brahmins’ initiation since Bhaktivedanta was visiting NY at the time, plus I was supposed to learn how to do the Sankirtan stuff so we could do it back in Buffalo. So we began street Sankirtan in Buffalo, and in my opinion, it was at this time that the whole movement began its rapid descent into drama and chaos. The little temple was no longer good enough as there were now many more devotees and people coming to the temple, so of course we had to get a much bigger temple with a much bigger overhead which created a lot of financial pressure. When I found myself in Buffalo NY in the winter standing on street corners wearing a skirt in blinding snow storms trying to sell sticks of incense for a quarter, my thought was, “This is not what I signed up for. I want out of here!” so I asked Rupanuga if I could be transferred to another temple, preferably in a warmer climate, and he said he’d see what he could arrange. A couple of weeks later when I asked him if he’d made any progress in finding another temple I could go to, he said, “Yeah. I called up all the other temple presidents and told them about you and they all said they’d be glad to have you, but that it would take at least three of their devotees in trade to replace you and they didn’t have that much manpower.” I said, “What do ya mean?” He said, “Well, you’re the cook, and a great cook at that, and you’re the only one who knows how to play all the musical instruments and who knows all the bhajans and you lead the kirtans, plus you know all the books backwards and forwards and teach the classes, plus you’re trained as a pujari, plus you’re the temple commander and lead the Sankirtan parties. So everyone said they’d be glad to have you but they had no devotee who even came close to being able to do all those things and they’d have to send at least two or three devotees to replace you. So I guess you’re stuck here for a while.” The whole stressful situation started to make me quite depressed, and it wasn’t just being on the streets in blinding snow storms, it was a whole lot more, so in Jan 1970, I just took off and a week later ended up in LA where Bhaktivedanta was, and moved into the LA temple. Tamal had gone to England so Gargamuni had come from NY and was the temple president while his brother Brahmananda stayed in charge in NY, and it was from this point that everything really started going to hell, ending up with in Aug 1970, Bhaktivedanta accusing Gargamuni and Brahmananda of keeping him prisoner in LA, trying to take over the movement, fasting for a week because he thought they were trying to poison him, and ending up creating a huge scene wherein Gargamuni and Brahmananda were removed from their positions, forced to become sanyassi’s if they wanted to still participate in the movement, and Bhaktivedanta leaving and going back to India. A member on this site, a good old friend of mine named Subal, can provide you with more detailed information regarding this particular fiasco than I can, if you’re interested, and if he has any inclination to tell you about it, since he was there, whereas I had left LA a week earlier before all this came down and had gone to Detroit temple which was run by my friend Bhagavan. I do have an interesting perspective on this whole episode however, as I was in a unique position in the LA temple from Jan 70 till Aug 70, during which time Bhaktivedanta remained in LA. The original temple in LA was on La Cienega, and it was in the late spring of that year they got the current temple on Watseka. Prior to the move, Bhaktivedanta had a separate apartment but after the move he lived in his quarters in the new temple. I was one of the two pujaris in LA, and since I did the late evening arti, I kept a different schedule than everyone else, and as a consequence, I was given my own private quarters in one of two rooms behind the old temple room just below Bhaktivedanta’s quarters. The room adjoining mine was the room where Bhaktivedanta met with visitors, and during July and early Aug of 70, he had all the GBC guys and temple presidents come to LA and met them in this room, and as the walls were thin, I got to hear all these conversations from my room. I could tell from these conversations that something was definitely rotten in Denmark and Bhaktivedanta was not pleased with a lot of stuff, although I did not know the extent of it. One evening in early July, Bhaktivedanta sent for me to come up to his quarters. We chatted for a while and then he showed me how he wanted the harmonium played for the morning kirtan we did every morning after his class, so from that point on I would play the harmonium and begin the kirtan and then he would take over, so in my personal experiences I was having a pretty good time, but the entire atmosphere was becoming more and more stressful. Towards mid August, I confronted Gargamuni at a temple meeting with all the other devotees there, and accused him of a bunch of the things he had been doing, which is probably where whatever reputation I got as a rebel against the temple authorities began. As a result of this, Gargamuni threw me out of LA temple and that’s why I ended up in Detroit. By the time I got there was when the whole thing came down in LA and Bhagavan and all the GBC and temple presidents were called to LA. I guess my personal vindication in the whole sordid affair was that within two weeks of Gargamuni throwing me out of LA, Bhaktivedanta threw him out of LA too. This whole thing was far too much drama for my taste, I really don’t care for soap operas, and it continued at some huge meeting all the devotees, temple presidents and GBC guys had at New Vrindaban a few weeks later, which I attended as I was by then close by in Detroit. I found it comical to have all the big wigs being hysterical and blaming everyone else for all their own misdoings. Bunch of total lunatics.
It was at the Detroit temple that I first met Jamadagni and we became good friends. We had both studied astrology before becoming devotees so we had a lot in common. I stayed at the Detroit temple from Sept 70 to Dec 70, at which time I was offered the opportunity to go start a temple in Trinidad with another married devotee couple. By this time I was married to the most mismatched to me, true believer rule following devotee girl in existence, who didn’t quite appreciate my unique understandings of the philosophy, so we never got along very well. But I liked the idea of getting away from ISKCON and going to a small island to start a temple, figured everyone would just leave me alone, so off to Trinidad. Quite an experience. In case you don’t know, Trinidad is a little island off the northeast coast of South America. It has about a million people, around half of whom are Hindus whose ancestors were brought to Trinidad from India by the English in the 1800’s. The language is English. It’s a prosperous little country and most people are well educated. The Hindu’s were quite organized and had their little villages all over the island and various Hindu temples and schools. We created quite a sensation to say the least. When we went and did street Sankirtan, we had hundreds of people gather and chant with us and throw us money. The newspaper put our pictures on the front page of the paper and billed us as the American Hindus come to save the lost Hindus of Trinidad. We stayed at a large temple in Port of Spain, and the Hindu organization arranged for us to do a tour of all the various Hindu villages, temples and schools, doing kirtans and lectures and Sunday feasts. Lot’s of fun being a guru. We’d go to various villages and they’d have young girls throw rose petals in our path, and the teenage girls all lined up and put garlands around our necks. Lot’s of fun being a guru, but I did myself in by doing too well. After being there around six months, I had been taking orders from people for books and sets of books, and I called in my rather large order to the book dep’t in NY so they could ship the books. A few days later, the head of the book dep’t. called me back and asked me if I really needed so many books. I said, “Yeah. There’s a half million Hindus who live here who all speak English and these books are already ordered and sold.” And he said, “Your book order represents approximately 25% of all the books ordered for the month by the entire movement! Trinidad is a gold mine! We’re going to immediately send all of our best book distributors there! We’ll make millions!” And they did, and I split. Back to LA in July 71, but this time as a householder so it wasn’t quite so bad since I was a bit more independent, but as far as I could see, the movement as a whole was not any different than it had been before the whole mess in LA when Bhaktivedanta had gone back to India. I stayed in LA and in early 72 Bhaktivedanta came back and stayed there too. One day, he wanted to do some recordings of some bhajans and he wanted a tampura on the recordings, and as I was the only one at the temple who had a tampura, I was called to go play the tampura at the recording. At the end of the recording, it was time for his daily massage, but his personal servant at the time, my friend Nanda Kumar, was out tripping around in Venice, and when Bhaktivedanta was informed that Nanda Kumar wasn’t back yet, he looked around the room at the few of us and said, “Who will do my massage?” So I of course immediately volunteered as I knew a bit of massage, so I did his massage for the day. At the end, I bowed down and he patted me on the head and said I did a good job, so I asked if I could come back each day while he was in LA and do his massage for him, and he said that would be nice, and this is how I got to spend an hour alone with him each day for several months. Each day for several months, we would do a recording for around an hour, then he had a private class in his quarters for an hour, which I got to attend, where a devotee was reading the philosophies of various philosophers and he would comment on the philosophies, then we’d do the massage. You have to try and understand what a unique relationship it was to be his masseur compared to any other relationship any devotee may have had with him, which was always a rather formal guru to disciple relationship, whereas doing a massage for someone is a comparatively informal relationship, so he didn’t treat me the way he treated everyone else. The first day I did his massage, before hand I was of course somewhat nervous, but I thought to myself that if I wanted to do a good job, which I did, that I had to put aside any fears I might have of this person, so I did and just went in and did the massage. Bhaktivedanta got his massage sitting up on a mat on the floor, just wearing a loincloth. Most of the times we were alone during the massage, but sometimes he would see visiting temple presidents, GBC guys and various devotees, so I got to see how he dealt with everyone, and sometimes when the person left we would talk about it and he would tell me why he had said what he said to the person. The basic jist of how he dealt with everyone, and what he told me of how he dealt with everyone, would be something like this: He knew he was very intimidating to everyone, and devotees were always bringing him various projects and ideas they had, and he really didn’t have the time to evaluate all the different projects, so what he did was to intimidate the hell out of everyone, and most buckled, but if anyone could stand up to him and actually present any rational logic that they had thought about what they were doing, he figured they were capable of doing it, so he let them. It was during this time that I got to ask him all my questions, the answers to which I’m not going to include at this point, except for one. One morning he gave a lecture in which he said that if someone comes and visits the temple even without knowing what it’s all about, they will still have some spiritual benefit. That morning I asked him about that during the massage, and he said, “I know I said that, but actually you should never do anything that your own intelligence does not understand, for how can you even know what to do if you don’t know why you’re doing it.”