brain behind

And he went on in this way. Srila Prabhupada didn't say a word. Kirtanananda finally ran down, and Srila Prabhupada asked, "Are you finished now?" When Kirtanananda acknowledged that he was, Srila Prabhupada suddenly began to roar like the lion incarnation. "Krsna is standing right before you and He says, 'You worship Me,' and you mean to say you do not worship Krsna? You mean worship some void, unborn? Krsna is before Arjuna and He says, 'On Me fix thy mind. To Me be devoted. Worship Me!' You do not understand? A nonsense rascal says it is not to Krsna, so you want to worship such a nonsense rascal? 'Not to the personal Krsna,' he says, and Krsna says, 'Worship Me.'" We all sat in shocked silence. Kirtanananda didn't say another word. I remember that I thought this attack very harsh, but Umapati thought it was justified. "He's right," Umapati said afterwards. "None of the commentators mention worshiping Krsna, but Krsna clearly says, 'Worship Me.' You've read Bhagavad-gita before. Have you ever thought of worshiping Krsna?" I had to admit that although I had read Gita three or four times before, worshiping Krsna had never entered my mind. Later I came to understand that most scholars and swamis avoid the clear command of this verse, although they teach from Bhagavad-gita. Indeed, the following year in San Francisco I bluntly asked one celebrated Swami Mayananda, "Do you worship Krsna?" He was sitting in a chair, and I was standing over him when I asked the question, and he jumped to his feet and shouted, "No! Why should I?" His eyes flashed, and he was furious and he chided me that Krsna is nothing but the Self that is within all of us.    (More...)