wait till dead

Imported quote 16575

That same afternoon, we head for a Cistercian monastery near the small town of Yarra Glen, forty miles northeast of Melbourne. Prabhupada usually wants me to drive him wherever we are. I guess he's trusted my driving since the early days, when we hurtled down the 101 in San Francisco together. Each time we were somewhere different, though, I'd have to sit behind the wheel in some new weird car and try to figure out where the turn signals were, usually hitting the windshield wipers instead. Today, I'm driving a medium-sized Australian Holden sedan, Prabhupada in the passenger seat, heading north in rush-hour traffic on the "wrong" side of the road and trying to follow directions uttered by Upananda from the back seat in his Aussie twang. Eventually the traffic clears, and when we at last turn right up a narrow, winding, gravel road, we find ourselves transported a thousand years into the past. The Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, better known as the Trappists, is an austere order of Catholic monks that traces its roots back to A.D. 1098 The Trappists lead a regulated life of contemplation, prayer, and congregational chanting, with an emphasis on manual labor and self-sufficiency. In 1954, a group of Irish monks moved onto a thousand-acre tract in the rolling hills near Melbourne and called it Tarrawarra Abbey. It's autumn now, harvest season on this side of the world, and as we motor up the mile-long drive lined with giant eucalyptus trees to the hilltop abbey, we're struck by the bountiful countryside around us: sheaves of wheat stacked in the fields, huge baskets of grapes piled at the ends of rows in the vineyards, cows grazing in belly-high grass. "What are those mountains in the distance, Upananda, behind the abbey?" "Those are the Victorian Alps, part of the Great Dividing Range - they're covered in snow in winter." The whole scene looks like an idyllic Romantic pastoral painting. We explain to Prabhupada what little we know about cloistered Christian monks, their place in Western history, and how in isolation they have preserved the strict principles of their faith, and Prabhupada says, "Yes, it is just like our New Vrindaban ashram." As we pull into the courtyard, the sense of returning to a distant time is augmented by the sight of thirty monks, black scapulars over white cassocks, gathered to greet us-one now coming forward to reverently place a garland of fresh-cut roses around Prabhupada's neck and then bow, head to the ground, like the pope has come to visit. Most of the monks bow with him, and we know this is going to be a special occasion. Father Daniel guides Prabhupada to an elaborate, elevated chair in the timber-paneled hall, and the brotherhood assembles before him on simple wooden chairs.

As usual, Prabhupada is amazing. He pitches his words perfectly, finding the common ground. He notes the historical aspects of both our faith and theirs, saying that religion is sanatana-dharma, the "eternal occupation," and that the origins of Krishna consciousness are "practically prehistoric," establishing his precedence in ancient authority. And like you ascetic Catholics, he says, we understand the importance of parampara, the generational handing down of pure religious principles, unchanged, through disciplic succession. We are in rare company. Prabhupada says, "Out of many millions of persons, one is interested to make his life successful. And out of millions of successful persons, one can very rarely understand what is God." And this is our strongest bond, he says: "Our definition of religion is to accept the orders of God. That's all. It doesn't matter what religion you are following. You may be Christian, I may be Hindu, another may be Muhammadan, but the test of religion is how one has developed his God consciousness."

The monks eat it up, seeing that our faith and practices are so similar to theirs, even down to the shaved heads and exotic robes. There is a feeling of instant brotherhood, cross-institutional familiarity. Prabhupada is the dynamic authority, delivering the gospel in a way they understand. These men are well versed in Latin, so Prabhupada's liberal use of Sanskrit only solidifies their conviction that he is for real. Forefinger and thumb of his left hand resting on thigh and curled in a circle, his right hand flows from one powerful gesture to another: two fingers pointing, this way, that way, then clutching the air, then forming his palm in a cup, always moving, in mudras of emphasis. Sometimes he scratches his neck or raises his glasses, closes his eyes tight, then opens them wide and looks into their hearts-and the monks are transfixed. After the lecture, Hanuman Swami opens the floor to ques-tions, and eight monks, some with lilting Irish brogues, stand to make profound queries, like, "How do we know God?" and

"When one becomes sinless, would he then experience the indwelling of God?" Prabhupada answers all questions to their complete satisfaction. We follow with kirtan, which quickly moves from the sub-lime to the boisterous as the monks push their chairs away and clap and dance with us, some laughing with glee despite them-selves, their innocent faces glistening with holy rapture. Ba-boom-BOOM! Kirtan ends, the monks bow down while Prabhupada recites Sanskrit prayers, then rise as one, somewhat stunned. (I'm thinking, "See, it's the same thing, but we have more fun!")

Father Daniel raises his arms, hushes everyone, and says, "We would like to thank Swami Prabhupada for his kindness and extreme gentleness in coming to us. We've listened with respect to the words of life divine, and they have warmed my heart, anyway, and given me hope for a family of human brothers to which we belong. I think we are closer to one another now, to the devotees of the temple. It's very beautiful coming here tonight, and I certainly feel that this little meeting, the human brothers under a common Father, is a particular inspiration for coming in contact with a God whom we're all reaching out for but who has many faces. Thank you very much." After the meeting we gather in the rectory around a long wooden table laden with fresh vegetarian food, a banquet right out of the Middle Ages, with heaps of grapes, platters of baked potatoes, and loaves of fresh-baked bread. I speak with the monk seated next to me, and he tells me there are about four thousand Cistercian monks and nuns living in 170 similar retreats world-wide. "Yeah, we call them ashrams," I say. "You'll find such places all over India."

He describes the monks' daily routine, which surprisingly is much like ours:

4 a.m.: Office of Vigils - reading from scripture 6 a.m.: Office of Lauds - Mass, taking the Eucharist, an hour of prayer, then silent breakfast
8 a.m.: Office of Terce, then work in the fields or buildings for three hours
11:15 a.m.: Office of Sext - followed by main daily meal, silent while someone reads aloud, nap
1:40 p.m.: Office of None followed by four hours of work
6 p.m.: Office of Vespers, then a light evening meal, conversation allowed
8 p.m.: Office of Compline, which is sung in unison in the dark-ness, including Psalm 91:

You set your love on me so I will save you; Protect you for you know my name. When you call I shall answer: "I am with you," I will save you in distress and give you glory.

Followed by a final hymn, "Salve Regina":

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope ... O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

One of the monks points to a picture of Mother Mary hanging on the wall and says with reverence, "She is the object of our love." I say, "Yeah, she looks like Krishna's mother, Yasoda." After eating, Prabhupada is led to a room to meet Dom Kevin O'Farrell, the old abbot of the monastery, who had come here from Ireland in 1959. They appear to be about the same age, but Prabhupada is actually twenty-three years older and, compared to the abbot, he seems like a you (More...)

"Out of many thousands of men, one may endeavor for perfection. And of many such perfected men, hardly one knows Me in truth." So the material world is a very dangerous place. The living beings within the material world are ksatram. They do not know the purpose of life. They are simply interested in their own advancement, somehow or other. So they engage in all kinds of destructive activities which cause harm to themselves and to others. So this is the condition of the material world. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada has stated that this is no place for a gentleman. In the material world everyone is, just as we are observing... I was visiting the Krsna consciousness farm in British Columbia, and on the road we were passing large herds of beef cows. We were discussing that the farmer thinks of these cows not as spirit souls but as commodities. He simply puts them in a field to eat, and when they get big enough, kills them and takes the money for his enjoyment. He doesn't see that these are living entities, spirit souls. So this activity of the human beings, killing the cows, helpless cows by the thousands daily, is causing the..., or is an indication that there is no merciful quality in the human beings. They are simply interested in their own aggrandizement and welfare. If they don't surrender to Krsna, that is the only alternative. (More...)

Jagad-dhitaya krsnaya. Krsna wants welfare of the whole universe. Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati [Bg 4.7]. He comes personally. So we are trying to establish this brahminical culture, go-brahmana-hitaya ca. You'll be very much pleased that in a country where go-hatya is so prominent, now we have established so many farms in Europe and America. We shall show the pictures how we are giving protection to the cows and how we are trying to revive this brahminical culture all over the world. And they are accepting. It is not that they are rejecting. You can see the presence of so many European and American devotees here. And they are very sincere. They are not superficial. They are very sincere. Their countrymen, the priests, the Christian priests, the Jewish priests, priests, they become surprised that "These young boys, they never cared for any religion, or they never cared to come to the church or the synagogue. How they have become so much interested in understanding God as to become a devotee?" (More...)

The general people are all intoxicated and loafers. It is very popular here to impregnate women, and then take them to the doctor and give them an abortion. This is common. They have no lamentation for this. You cannot imagine from there, how difficult it is to make them accept good sadacara (behavior according to scriptural injunctions). It is so much mercy from Srila Prabhupada that this kind of "kirata-hunandhra-pulinda-pulkasa" (lowborn) national people are taking up sadacara. They are giving up illicit relationships with women, intoxication, marijuana, tea, coffee, everything. Having given up meat they are eating dal, capati and rice and are very happy. They do kirtana and harinama every morning and evening, and do sandhya before Srila Mahaprabhu's picture. To honor the guru-varga, as soon as they see me, they pay obeisances. I never expected so much. They are not foolish or inactive. Some are MA and BA, and they are earning three to four thousand rupees per month. Most of them, at least two of them, give me all their money. That is why it is possible to spend so much. It is not possible to beg here. It is not possible to run a matha or temple if money does not come from earnings. Here it is not possible to go from door to door to beg flour and rice. Without notice it is not possible to meet with any gentlemen. It is necessary to make an engagement beforehand. Along with all this inconvenience, in this faraway foreign country, I am working alone, helplessly. My only hope is Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. I have no one else. In my house my wife and son did not help me, so I left my home. I thought the Godbrothers would help me, but even that I did not get. That is why, when you wrote in your letter dated 20.9.66 "I will always be ready to serve you from India in any way I can." And hearing this I was very hopeful. But in your letter, 13.11.66, two months later, you wrote that Tirtha Maharaja was coming to Vrndavana so "if you let me know by letter, he will arrange to send everything to me. Then I will give all of the money into his hand." Thus I was forced to write to you to deposit all the money in the bank. Otherwise there was no other reason. Anyway, forgetting all this, if you can help me from India, you will certainly attain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. In my old age I have taken so much risk, but not to fulfill any of my own desires. Srila Prabhupada had desired this work, and I am trying to fulfill that desire according to my ability. Personally I have no ability. My only hope is Srila Prabhupada. So if you help me in any way, know that it will certainly be all auspicious to you. (More...)

Vidura born in the womb of a Sudra woman was forbidden even to be a party of royal heritage along with his brothers Dhritarastra and Pandu and then how could he occupy the post of a preacher to instruct such learned kings and Kshatriyas like Dhritarastra and Maharaj Yudhisthira. There may be a question like this. The first answer is that even though it is accepted that he was Sudra by birth but because he renounced the world for being spiritually enlightened by such authority like Rishi Moitreya and he was thoroughly educated by him in the transcendental knowledge, he was quite competent to occupy the post of an Acharya or spiritual preceptor. According to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu anyone who is conversant in the transcendental knowledge or the science of Godhead may he be a Brahmin, or a Sudra, a householder or a Sanyasi, is elligible to become a spiritual master. Even in the ordinary moral codes (as it is said by Canakya Pandit the great politician and moralist) there in no harm to take lessons from a person who may be by birth less than a Sudra. This is one part of the answer. The other answer is Vidura was not actually Sudra. He was to play the part of a so called Sudra for one hundred years being cursed by Manduk Muni. He was the incarnation of Yamaraj one of the twelve Mahajans on the level of such exhalted personalities as Brahma, Narada, Shiva, Kapila, Bhisma, Prahlada etc. Being a Mahajan it is the duty of Yamaraj to preach the cult of devotion to the people of the world as Narada, Brahma and other Mahajans do it. But Yamaraja is always busy in his plutonic kingdom for punishing the doers of sinful acts. Yamaraja is deputed by the Lord in a particular planet some lacs of miles away from the planet of earth to take away the corrupted souls after death and convict them in accordance with their respective sinful activities. As such Yamaraja has very little time to take leave from his responsible office of punishing the wrongdoers. The number of wrongdoers is more than that of righteous men. Therefore, Yamaraja has to do more work than other demigods authorised agents of the Supreme Lord. But he wanted to preach the glories of the Lord and therefore by the will of the Lord he got cursed by Manduk Muni to take a chance of coming over the world in the incarnation of Vidura and worked very hard as a great devotee. Such devotee is neither a Sudra nor a Brahmin. They are transcendental to such divisions of the mundane society as much as the Personality of Godhead assumes His incarnation like a hog but he is neither a hog nor a Brahma. He is above all mundane creatures. The Lord and His different authorised devotees sometimes have to play the role of many lower creatures for claiming the conditioned souls but both the Lord and His pure devotees are always in the transcendental position. When Yamaraj thus incarnated himelf as Vidura his post was officiated by acting Aryama one of the many sons of Kasyapa and Aditi. The Adityas are sons of Aditi and there are twelve Adityas. Aryama is one of the twelve Adityas and therefore it was quite possible for him to take charge of the office of Yamaraj during his one hundred years of absence in the form of Vidura. The conclusion is that Vidura was never a Sudra but he was more than the most purest type of a Brahmin. (More...)

"We must have sufficient pasturing ground to feed the animals all year. We have to maintain the animals throughout their lives. We must not make any program for selling them to the slaughterhouses. That is the way of cow protection. Krsna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows, and that should be the main business of New Vrndavana. Vrndavana is also known as Gokula. Go means cows, and kula means congregation. Therefore the special feature of New Vrndavana will be cow protection, and by doing so, we shall not be the losers. In India, of course, a cow is protected, and the cowherdsmen derive sufficient profit by such protection. Cow dung is used for fuel. Cow dung dried in the sunshine is kept in stock for utilization as fuel in the villages. They get wheat and other cereals produced from the field. There is milk and vegetables, and the fuel is cow dung, and thus they are self-sufficient, independent, in every village. There are hand weavers for the cloth. And the country oil-mill (consisting of a bull walking in a circle around two big grinding stones, attached with yoke) grinds the oil seeds into oil. The whole idea is that people residing in New Vrndavana may not have to search for work outside. Arrangements should be such that the residents will be self-satisfied. That will make an ideal asrama. I do not know whether these ideals can be given practical shape, but I think that people may be happy in any place with land and cow without endeavoring for so-called amenities of modern life-which simply increase anxieties for maintenance and proper equipment. The less we are anxious for maintaining our body and soul together, the more we become favorable for advancing in Krsna consciousness." (Srila Prabhupada, Letter, 6/14/68) (More...)

Srila Prabhupada: So if the cow is your mother, how can you support killing her? You take the milk from her, and when she's old and cannot give you milk, you cut her throat. Is that a very humane proposal? In India those who are meat eaters are advised to kill some lower animals like goats, pigs, or even buffalo. But cow killing is the greatest sin. In preaching Krsna consciousness we ask people not to eat any kind of meat, and my disciples strictly follow this principle. But if, under certain circumstances, others are obliged to eat meat, then they should eat the flesh of some lower animal. Don't kill cows. It is the greatest sin. And as long as a man is sinful, he cannot understand God. The human being's main business is to understand God and to love Him. But if you remain sinful, you will never be able to understand God-what to speak of loving Him. (More...)

Imported quote 19459

And He says in the Bhagavad-gita, yoga-bhrastaḥ sanjayate. Sucinam srimatam gehe yoga-bhrastaḥ sanjayate [Bg 6.41]. Bhrastaḥ means one who is fallen from this devotional service. So for them also, it is guaranteed a human life. Not only human life, but in very good family. Sucinam srimatam gehe. Sucinam means by perfectly well behaved, cleansed family, brahmana family. Sucinam. Suci means very clean. So you are becoming all brahmanas. You must remain always very clean. Sucinam. That is called suci. And muci means unclean, cobbler. Suci and muci. So don't become muci. [laughter] Yes. Uncleanliness is muci, cobbler. They are dealing always with skin, and bad smell, and no bathing. So in our country muci, the cobbler, is taken as the lowest of the mankind, naradhamaḥ, because their business is when the cow dies, so the mucis are prepared to take away the dead cow or bull. They eat the flesh, and they take out the skin and the bones for their business. Muci prepare shoes. He gets the skin for nothing, without any payment. He doesn't have to invest his capital, and he nicely cleanses it, tans, and then prepares shoes and sell in the market, so get the money. And the muci class, they eat this flesh, meat. But they are given the opportunity when the cow is dead, not by slaughterhouse. That is not in the Vedic scripture. The dead animal, you can eat. Those who are fond of eating fish and meat, they can eat when the animal is dead. Not killing. That is not very good thing. So the muci class, their business is to take the dead... After all, everyone will die. The animal will die also. Even if we keep the cows, don't kill, it will die. So some cow is dying here, some cow is dying there. Just like the vulture, they eat dead body. So dead body must be there. So they have no scarcity of dead bodies. They can find out dead body. They go three miles above to find out where is the dead body. So that is also sense gratification. (More...)

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