In2-MeC

Amsterdam, the Netherlands
8 June 2004

A Vaisnava is. . .

krpalu, akrta-droha, satya-sara, sama
nidosa, vadanya, mrdu, suci, akincana
sarvopakaraka, santa, krsnaika-sarana
akama, aniha, sthira, vijita-sad-guna
mita-bhuk, apramatta, manada, amani
gambhira, karuna, maitra, kavi, daksa, mauni

Devotees are always merciful, humble, truthful, equal to all, faultless,
magnanimous, mild and clean. They are without material possessions, and
they perform welfare work for everyone. They are peaceful, surrendered to
Krsna and desireless. They are indifferent to material acquisitions and
are fixed in devotional service. They completely control the six bad
qualities--lust, anger, greed and so forth. They eat only as much as
required, and they are not inebriated. They are respectful, grave,
compassionate and without false prestige. They are friendly, poetic,
expert and silent.

-- CC. Madhya 22. 78-80

Silent

"Devotee: "What does it mean that the devotee sometimes speaks and sometimes is silent?" Srila Prabhupada: "It means he is not obliged. "

--From Vaisnava Behavior and The Twenty-Six Qualities of a Devotee, by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, page 199

Srila Prabhupada is. . .

kecit kevalaya bhaktya
vasudeva-parayanah
agham dhunvanti kartsnyena
niharam iva bhaskarah

Only a real person who has adopted complete, unalloyed devotional service to Krsna can uproot the weeds of sinful actions with no possibility that they will revive. He can do this simply by discharging devotional service, just as the sun can immediately dissipate fog by its rays.

-- Srimad-Bhagavatam 6. 1. 15

During a room conversation in 1976, Srila Prabhupada was instructing his disciples in the logic of the lame man and the blind man: " Andha-pangu-nyaya. . . both of them are useless separately, and when they combine in Krsna consciousness, they are all useful. It is a very good example. And there is another example, that of a piece of wire falling, rotting, and a piece of bamboo, rotting, and a piece of squash skin rotting. And one gentleman collected them. He nicely trimmed the piece of wire and dried the squash, the outer portion, and took the bamboo and nicely cut it and joined the string and this became a sitar: �Ting, ting, ting. ' So it is the intelligent person who joins all these things and makes it very useful. These are examples. The bamboo alone is useless, and a small piece of wire, useless, and a thrown out squash skin, useless, but if you can join them together,. . . you can �ting, ting. ' Similarly, andha-pangu-nyaya, here is a lame man, here is a blind man. All right, combine together and use them. That is wanted. "

Understanding that these instructions perfectly coincided with Srila Prabhupada's own actions, his disciples immediately responded, "We were all useless in the West, but you have come and then engaged us. " In humility Srila Prabhupada replied, "It is Krsna's desire. Nobody is useless. I was also useless. I could not do in India alone anything. Two useless makes useful. "

Srila Prabhupada should be recognized and honored because he is a mahatma. His Krsna consciousness is so deep and broad that he possesses the ability to engage everybody and everything in the service of Lord Krsna.

Again the sitar provides a useful analogy for understanding the qualities of Srila Prabhupada. There are two types of strings on a sitar: main strings and sympathetic strings. The unique quality of a main string is its ability to create resonance, and increase the intensity of sound by setting off vibrations in the sympathetic strings. The vibration of the main strings contain such a wide range of sound that all the sympathetic strings respond even though set to different intonations.

Similarly, Srila Prabhupada's Krsna consciousness resonates so fully that people from different cultures, religions, races, social and economic classes, and psycho-physiological natures can all easily take to Krsna consciousness. That he created a house in which the whole world can live is not sentimental glorification of Srila Prabhupada but a practical assessment of his ability to influence others.

Srila Prabhupada should be recognized and honored because he is a true friend to everyone. Perfectly following in the footsteps of the previous acaryas, Srila Prabhupada exhibits compassion on a level equaled only by the six Goswamis of Vrndavana.

The six Goswamis are glorified by Srinivasa Acarya:

krsnot kirtana-gana nartana-parau premamrtambho-nidhi
dhiradhira-jana-priyau priya-karau nirmatsarau pujitau
sri-caitanya-krpa-bharau bhuvi bhuvo bharavahantarakau
vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri-jiva-gopalakau

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the six Gosvamis, namely Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Sri Jiva Gosvami, and Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, who are always engaged in chanting the holy name of Krsna and dancing. They are just like the ocean of love of God, and they are popular both with the gentle and with the ruffians because they are not envious of anyone. Whatever they do, they are all-pleasing to everyone, and they are fully blessed by Lord Caitanya. Thus they are engaged in missionary activities meant to deliver all the conditioned souls in the material universe.

At a very advanced age, Srila Prabhupada gave up his peaceful life in Vrndavana and traveled alone to America. His mission was to fulfill the order of his spiritual master to spread Krsna consciousness, love of God, to the English-speaking people of the world. In accomplishing this arduous task, not only did Srila Prabhupada dance and chant with his young followers, giving them the highest goal of life, but he personally cared for them. He gave them shelter from the turbulent troubles of material life by providing good counsel on virtually every aspect of their lives, material and spiritual.

As time passed and his preaching movement grew, Srila Prabhupada was never too busy to be personally concerned for anyone, be he a devotee or non-devotee. On morning walks he would greet non-devotees with "Hello" or "Good morning" so as to make them feel comfortable. He was always concerned about the arrangements for visitors to his temples, personally inquiring about their comfort or instructing that the devotees be prepared to greet guests twenty-four hours a day with hot prasadam. He wrote thousands of letters, which provided individual instructions and guidance in the lives of his thousands of disciples and followers.

Srila Prabhupada tirelessly traveled, circling the globe thirteen times in twelve years, to give all living beings the opportunity to receive Lord Caitanya's message of deliverance. Although constantly traveling, Srila Prabhupada would rise early each morning and work throughout the night translating the Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrta, books which will continue to give humanity true knowledge of God, the self, and the nature of this material world for thousands of years to come.

For these and countless other reasons, members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness request the entire world to join in honoring Srila Prabhupada during his Centennial Celebration. It is a chance for all of us to better understand who is Srila Prabhupada.

Milestones in the life of Srila Prabhupada

1896  Srila Prabhupada appeared in Calcutta. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sends to the West the first book on genuine Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy.

1901  Srila Prabhupada began Rathayatra festivals

1902  Srila Prabhupada began worshiping Radha-Krsna

1916  Student of Philosophy at Scottish Churches' College

1918  Entered married life (grhastha asrama)

1920  Appeared in BA exam

1921  Appointed assistant manager of Bose Laboratory. Joined Gandhi's movement

1922  Met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who ordered him to preach in English in the West

1925  Visited Vrndavana for the first time

1928  Assisted in establishing Allahabad center of Gaudiya Matha

1932  Initiated by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

1934  Helped establish Gowalia Tank center of Gaudiya Matha

1935  Instructed by his spiritual master on publishing books and constructing temples

1936  Final order from his spiritual master to preach in the West

1939  Honored with the title "Bhaktivedanta" by society of Gaudiya Vaisnavas

1944  Started Back to Godhead Magazine

1953  Started League of Devotees in Jhansi. Initiated his first disciple, Acarya Prabhakar

1954  Retired from family life, adopting vanaprastha (retired) order of life

1959  Accepted renounced order of life (sannyasa)

1960  Published first book, Easy Journey to Other Planets

1962  Published Volume 1 of First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam

1965  Journeyed to USA in order to fulfill the order of his spiritual master

1966  Established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

1967  Completed translation and commentary of Bhagavad-gita As It Is

1968  Bhagavad-gita As It Is published by Macmillan Company

1972  Established the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust for publishing his books

1975  Completed translation of and published Sri Caitanya-caritamrta in 17 volumes

1976  Established the Bhaktivedanta Institute for scientific preaching

1977  Disappearance from this mortal world

1986  Inauguration of the Samadhi Memorial at Vrndavana

1995  Inauguration of the Puspa Samadhi Memorial at Mayapura

1996  Centennial Celebration

Today's photos of Salagrama silas

This morning, having returned to Bhakta Michael's flat from our Radhadesa weekend, I did an elaborate puja for the Salagrama silas in my care. The photos show Them decorated with chandana. Patita Pavana Sri Jagannatha is decorated according to the natural contours of His lotus eyes and jolly smile.

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