By B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami - http://www.vrindavan.org

It is wonderful to meet again in this way by the mercy of Srila Rupa Goswami and of course Srila Prabhupada, our savior. My life has meaning through the mercy of my spiritual master and through the existence of all of you.

To control the mind is something extremely difficult as Arjuna confirmed, and only to be occupied in devotional service without stopping, can check on that crazy mind. The theme of today is a theme of relations. Krishna consciousness is the consciousness of relations. Loving relations. We are here to learn loving relations, with the ambition to have loving relations. Imagine, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead! So it is of absolute importance to learn to make our relations perfect.

Srila Rupa Goswami in Upadesamrta gave us the principle norms for all kind of relations. Above all, he distinguishes on basis of spiritual advance of the person, but without any difference regarding to do extremely kind to everybody. The difference is, that for a person with less advancement, one reaches out the hand with fatherly/motherly love. For a person at the same level, one extends the love on a brotherly level, and a person who is advanced who has not the relation to criticize, who appreciate the form in which the holy name has come to us, we attend him/her with great respect, possibly taking our refuge to him/her as siksa guru. Of course this kind of advanced person is the person who makes my love growing for my Guru and for Krishna, at the contrary it is better to maintain a certain distance from those persons, advanced in knowledge but in lack of sensibility for the condition of my own little plant of bhakti. But amiability and respect , to love , not disturbing the other devotees is a mystical spiritual rule, and common sense (the less common among senses)

To help them not to forget these wise instructions from Srila Rupa Goswami, exists the custom among the Vaishnavas to address each other with big words like prabhu , raja, maestro mathaji, my little mother, didi my little sister. That are very big words . In India a brother would die to protect his sister, it is not like here in the west where the sisters sometimes are in danger because of such brothers... And the mother, imagine my mother is the most holy that exists for me after Krishna and the Spiritual Master and in reality before Krishna and the Spiritual Master. She is the first whom I know and if I today adore Krishna and my Guru, it is because of my mother. If I call a woman mathaji, it means that I practically fall to her feet. And this is the proper way, a gentleman sees all women as if they were his own mother with the exception of his own wife. The wife, should be seen as a gopi of Krishna, whom Krishna in His mercy has put under ones protection. And to say the word prabhu, in occasions the devotees addresses the very Personality of God , as prabhu. Or Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu means Prabhu Krishna in combination with Bhava Srimati Radharani Hladini Sakti in the personality of Sri Caitanya. So, the word prabhu does not only mean master, but rather it means the master’s representative of the Supreme Master. How should it be then, the correct use of these words in our daily relations, where the passion and ignorance very often wants to invade and where one can hear the word prabhu with a condescending sound. Vaishnava relations should be something extraordinary , at the contrary it is not very much Vaishnava relations.

What encourages a person in Krishna consciousness is a group of loving devotees among them, and very enthusiastic for their spiritual master, to serve him, and to receive continuously new instructions from his part for to become perfect in this human life, how to get out of Maya and how to help the rest of the world. And for them to know well how to behave, they should be very humble, strict with themselves and merciful to the others. At the contrary, their capacity to represent their spiritual master is limited to the same grade as their limitations. Therefore it is the duty of a disciple to become a good devotee to be able to represent his/her spiritual master.

And besides that, for the leader, or the leaders, it is very important that they have a program, they should be kind and loving and caring for the best of everybody in the community or whoever that is approaching the community. This is the real prabhu, not anyone who is absorbed in his own (rollos?), who does not attend to the necessities or who forget to defend the cause of the spiritual master for some reason.

To become a prabhu or rather a surrendered servant of ones spiritual master, is not an easy or small task. However, in this world nothing is easy. To be a leader of an enterprise with many employed is not easy. Neither to be an excellent painter or musician is easy. All kind of excellence requires extra ordinary effort, and the triumph in life always depends on a great determination and a great mercy.

We should not be so sure of the mercy if we do not make a big effort. It is said that one can judge a tree from its fruit, and the quality of a servant can be understood from the holy goals for which he is fighting sincerely. Certainly many new devotees are far away from understanding the seriousity of the transcendental compromise, many are maybe going away suffering, and simply searching a place where to eat and sleep is not so complicated as out there. Others are running from drugs or betrayed lovers, meanwhile the others are trying to find out which is the business of the devotees to try to copy it, there is everything in the vina of the Lord, and even like that, it is our duty to treat the others lovingly, because perhaps, with the mercy of some Vaishnava, some of them will become real Vaishnavas. Do not look for the beam in the eye of your neighbor and forget the balk in you own eye.

Fortunately we have extremely appropriate guides. The examples that our Gurudevas have given are simply wonderful. There is no way to thank them enough. And it is appropriate for a disciple to try mo make austerities in the same way as the spiritual master has done. Of course, this seems impossible, thinking about Srila Prabhupada, but where there is no try one will not find any result. So the example of Srila Prabhupada will shine eternally. To come and stay without any money among the wild Americans, hippies and people addicted to drugs.. He came to them, and accepted them as beloved children, took them out of the different dirties of ours, without any discrimination. Tolerating our differences and training them with his humble example They called him Swamiji and they left him in a queue to use the bathroom, and so many other adventures that Srila Prabhupada had to go through, but he never lost his enthusiasm. Only sometimes he commented that to preach in the West, was like washing coal, and yet he continued to wash coal for the rest of his life, and because of that we are still here.

Therefore he is our Prabhu, or rather our Prabhupada. Prabhupada means such a big personality that all prabhus without any discuss, gather to listen to the words of his lotus lips, to purify their conscience and learn the secrets of bhakti yoga. Only a prabhu has the capacity to transmit the eternal message, always fresh and with new realizations without changing the substance. This is the mercy of Krishna.

When one sits down to give a conference and prays to the spiritual master, one can feel his presence. And sometimes in the preaching, one happen to say things that oneself find amazing to even have mentioned. Therefore, one of the most important things for the devotees, is to look for how and where to give conferences from the holy scriptures. In this connection, the Vaishnava academy has been a big progress, for many devotees feel the responsibility to prepare themselves well and give nice classes of bhakti yoga.

Prabhupada himself in his introduction to S.B… Somebody is looking for the complete verse, where it is said that the transcendental message, even if incomplete, has an absolute effect. The mercy of Krishna cannot be monopolized and not limited. Only Krishna knows where, when, to whom or who will distribute his mercy. Only extremely limited persons want to limit the distribution of the mercy.

They say: “Only this master can give bhakti, only this prabhu give good conferences, only this devotee sings nicely the Holy Name”. What the others do does not mean anything, at least it means less. This kind of mentality is very arrongant because only Krishna knows who is His representant, to whom He wants to give His power, who He permits to be His transparent medium. And how many wonderful persons have not given conferences encouraging many new people to become devotees, even if no one else know them. Even though they do not appear on the list of Guru Parampara and have not written any book.

Meanwhile others exist who have written several books about Vaishnavism and yet after that are not able to follow the four principles. In other words, it is an unnecessary discussion to want to limit the preaching, one simply should appreciate everybody and oneself make the best try to represent ones spiritual master with enthusiasm, gratefulness, compassion and joy. Under no circumstances, we should permit our mind to minimize the effort to make new devotees or depreciate the faith they might have in other spiritual masters. To commit these rudenesses, our will threaten very own little plant of bhakti. There is nothing worse than this. We are eternally dependent of the infinite causeless mercy. How strange then, when another person apparently receive mercy and somebody askes for the reason.

Therefore, to call all the Vaishnavas prabhus, mathatjis or didis is extremely significant and not a habit or a tradition that nobody understands. And we have to keep this alive in our own conscience. What the others think and feel has no importance for you. Important for you is what you think and what you feel is beneficial or not. Your spiritual advance depends on this.

Srila Prabhupada said: “Do not be surprised for that they are going away from those who come from Krishna consciousness. Be surprised for those who stay.” We have to follow the brave souls who, in the fight against maya, continue in the front-line of the preaching with the Holy Names on their lips. Guru and Vaishnavas over their head, against wind and rain. Them we have to follow and have compassion for the others.

The prabhus are everyone who accept this message form the heart. Even if in certain parts they have problems to realize the things perfectly.

The life in a temple is a big mercy. And the life of a renounced bramacary has immense advantages, but not all the devotees have the privilege to have this all the life. And not all temples are equals. Some temples have restaurants, they do not have the same manner of living as a big temple with deities installed by the community. A pioneer center of two devotees opening a center in some town, does not work the same way as a yoga monastery where bramacaries study the scriptures practically without any monthly expenses. Not everything is equal, and not everything has to be judged equal. Bhakti yoga of a mother of four kids is not the same as of a sannyasi who goes to the forest in the south of India. But in the eyes of Krishna we are all equals, and the only thing Krishna wants to see is our sincere prayer for his mercy and our effort to serve our spiritual master and humanity. Like that, anyone of us, if Krishna so wants, can receive the greatest mercy. As it seems to us.

It is quite mystic this process, and if we think about it carefully, the most sure is that we understand less. And if someone thinks that he does not understand anything, he is surely realizing something important, that the glories of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga is always shining on our heads, like star that brings us to the rough path to Vrindavan. May the Vaishnavas be favorable with us, after all we are made of the mercy from them. May pride and envy not continue to invade us to make us minimize other vaishnavas. May the Vishnu Priya Ashrams always be supported by the mature devotees, not by machos.

May the glories of the Vrinda family be the unconditionally loving devotees. May the significant of the holy scriptures be revealed in our heart and may we not be invaded by the pride of our short studies or memorized slokas. May everyone who comes be welcome at the time of prasadam. And may that the chanting of the holy name on japas, the kirtans and the bhajans in the temple, the preaching everywhere, the harinam sankirtan in the streets all over the world, always go on increasing.

May the TV lose its influence in our families, especially in the case of the grihastas and that we rather give attention to the immaculate messages of our masters or the contributions of conscious art from the most different origins, like for example Osmosis Jones or Pollos en Fuga. May we always appreciate the innovation efforts of the preaching, like for instance the Internet chats with the spiritual master and the sadhus all

over the world. Even today there are persons who do not know that Krishna is really the universal Lord without limits, and who becomes very happy when he hears a vallenato composition glorifying His mercy. May we not be delayed, thinking that what i do not know does not matter, that it is another form of arrogance. In Germany it is a say that the farmer does not know not to eat.

In India exist so many styles of kirtana. In a concert i heard, with the famous singer Anup Jalota, i discovered many vallenato style elements. Do not put your limitations over Narada Muni, only because Srila Prabhupada didn't come with a vina. Many acaryas have brought innovations to increase the glories of our Lord, and it will go on being like this. It is wonderful. It is possible because we are going in the world of prabhus inspired of Srila Prabhupada and Mahaprabhu. Here finishes the official chat.