Letter by Girirāja dāsa Brahmacārī (ISKCON—Bombay)

As a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and a student of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, I wish to reply to several letters which have appeared concerning our Hare Krsna movement and the work of our spiritual master.

The main point is that our Society is teaching, "here is God," and some people do not like that. Generally people are trying to kill God, to push Him out of the picture. But we are advertising for God: "Here is Krsna." Therefore persons who are envious of God, who want to be God, become our enemies. They see that we are publishing books, acquiring property and gaining members, and they find fault. But our movement is authorized, scientific and practical, and it will continue to grow no matter how many speculators raise arguments against us.

In His instructions in the Gita Sri Krsna authorizes devotional service to the Lord as the only way to realize God, and He demonstrates how to practice devotional service in this age in His incarnation of Lord Caitanya. According to Bhagavatam, "the path of religion is directly enunciated by the Lord" and is passed on through the parampara chain of spiritual masters, from Krsna, Brahma, Narada, and Vyasa on through Lord Caitanya, Rūpa Gosvami, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, and now His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is therefore the supreme authority on religion. As the present acarya of the Gauḍiya-Vaisnava Sampradaya, His Divine Grace is simply passing on the perfect teachings of his predecessors, without change or interpretation, save that he is now making these teachings available to the whole world. This eternal science of Krsna or God is universal and nonsectarian and has nothing to do with any of the faiths that have some historical beginning or end. Krsna is God; God is God; He is not "Hindu" or any other faith.

Similarly the sahkirtana movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the scientific process for realizing God in this age of quarrel; it is not a sentimental pastime, as has been suggested. Lord Caitanya was the greatest scholar in India, and He converted many Mayavadis and jnanis to His cult of bhakti by logical argument and scriptural reference. He cited evidence in the Brhan-Naradiya-Purana that "in this Age of Kali the only way to realize God is to chant the holy name of God," and the Narada Pancaratra, that "all Vedic mantras, rituals and understanding are compressed into eight words-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare." While chanting is a practical way for everyone to reach God, for those who are so inclined there is vast philosophical literature, and His Divine Grace is now making this transcendental knowledge available to the world and has translated fifteen big books into English already.

Lord Caitanya also taught that one is a brahmana by qualification, not by birth, as has been suggested. In Bhagavad-gita Krsna states: "Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness-these are the qualities by which the brahmanas work." Rūpa Gosvami further cites the Padma Purana: "Everyone has the right to execute devotional service, just as he has the right to take early bath … Lower caste people who are considered less than sūdras are also initiated into the Vaisnava cult … They surpass the ordinary brahmanas." Actually the Vaisnava, who is transcendental, is better than a brahmana, who may be conditioned by goodness. But we accept the proposal of Lord Caitanya: "I am neither Hindu, nor brahmana, nor sannyasi-I am the servant of the servant of the servant of God."

We are Vaisnavas because we act like Vaisnavas, not because we have taken to wearing saris and churning butter. We are very serious in our endeavor; this is not a sporadic fad of sentimentalists, as has been suggested. How can our movement be sporadic when this science was taught in the Gita five thousand years ago and instructed to the sun-god millions of years before that? How can it be called sporadic when our activity is sanatana-dharma, the eternal occupation of the living entity? Would faddists give up all meat-eating, intoxicants, illicit sex and gambling for over five years now? Would faddists give up friends, family and money and get up at 4:00 A.M. daily, ready to go to any country in the world and preach in any conditions immediately on the request of their spiritual master?

To become a devotee of the Lord is a rare thing, and everyone knows that there will never be a problem of too many people taking to Krsna consciousness. Actually there can be no scarcity in God's creation: the only scarcity can be Krsna consciousness. Therefore we urge people to change their consciousness, not their occupations. In our ISKCON communities we are following the teachings of Lord Caitanya practically both individually and collectively, and we are being satisfied spiritually and materially. We are working, each person according to his natural capacity, for the pleasure of the Supreme Lord. Thus some are running our printing presses and some teaching university courses in Krsna consciousness; some are operating an ideal farm community modeled after Vrndavana and sheltering hundreds of cows in the U.S.A., while others are preparing the krsna-prasadam we serve to thousands of persons daily; some are on sahkirtana and circulating 500,000 Back to Godhead magazines per month in six languages, and still others are maintaining our fifty centers with Radha-Krsna Deity worship all over the world. Actually we are working harder than anyone, but because we are working for Krsna, and not maya, our work is joyful and free from anxiety. Thousands of new Vaisnavas, who are considered already liberated, are doing the work of India, which is to present the gift of Krsna consciousness, and thereby save the world from gliding to hell. Not only can everyone do this, but they must do it. For this reason we are traveling to all countries of the world and begging all people to revive their love of God and sing the glories of His name.