Lecture in Hindi – April 8, 1976, Vṛndāvana

760408LE-Vrindavan [10:00 Minutes]

Prabhupada:

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the best of all the incarnations. Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna instructed everyone sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja, but people did not follow His instructions properly. [Bg 18.66] Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself. In order to teach people how they could take shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord He again appeared as Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore while offering prayers, in the first prayer, no in the second prayer I have offered obeisances, namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te. First of all it is difficult to understand Krsna only.

To understand Krsna is very difficult in the first place. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so merciful that not only He distributed Krsna but also distributed love of Krsna. Therefore Rūpa Gosvami addresses Him namo maha-vadanyaya, You are the most munificent personality because You are distributing love of Krsna. And love of Krsna is the fifth objective of life. Dharma, artha, kama, moksa: religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation-these are the four objectives of life. Above that is love of God. Therefore, as you all know, in the very beginning of Srimad Bhagavatam it has been said dharma projjhita kaitavo'tra. [SB 1.1.2] These dharma, artha, kama, moksas are cheating. One has to rise above that. Above that…Even above moksa prevails love of God. Above moksa. One who has attained love of God, know for sure that he has already attained moksa long ago. Therefore a devotee is never covetous for moksa. muktiḥ svayam mukulitanjali sevate 'sman. [Krsna-karnamrta 107]

Bilvamahgala Thakura says that why should I endeavour for mukti? Mukti is standing at my door asking "Maharaja, what can I do for you?" So devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead especially in Kali-yuga, the holy name of the Supreme Lord,

Just as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is purna: perfect, pūrnasya pūrnam adaya pūrnam evavasisyate, similarly the holy name of the Lord is also purna. [Īsopanisad] There is no difference between the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself. That is the conclusion of the sastra. All the acaryas have also concluded that. So time is up, its time for arati now. This is the subject matter of our preaching. We preach everywhere that kindly chant the holy name of the Lord. When I first went to America…that's a long history, in the beginning I did not ask them that you have to give up this, you have to give up that. And who will listen to me anyway? No. You come, sit down and chant the holy name. That's all. That was how I started. And for one full year I was simply loitering here and there. Then in 1966, in the month of July, I registered this association. A few boys would come. And by hearing, hearing the holy name, one Tompkins square is there, what is that name?

Devotees: Tompkins Square Park.

Prabhupada: Yes, I used to go and sit down there underneath a tree and without any mrdahga or karatala I would just play a toy drum and chant. [laughs] Gradually they began to come, began to dance and their picture was published in the New York Times. In this way slowly I moved to west California, Canada and other places. Now by the mercy of you all, throughout the world including all the major cities like London, New York, Moscow too, Tokyo, and other places we have got out institution. Simply the holy name of the Lord is being spread. And these books are also nothing but nama-kirtana. Nama-kirtana is not performed only by mrdanga and karatala. The holy name…Just like Sukadeva Gosvami performed kirtana, abhavad vaiyasakiḥ kirtane. [Padyavali 53]

Kirtan means…Just like Sukadeva Gosvami recited Srimad Bhagavatam, this is also kirtana. Kirtana is not just by mrdahga and karatala. Our Guru Maharaja used to say that these books are "Brhat mrdahga." "Brhat khol." Suppose you play mrdahga here, may be ten, twenty, fifty people can hear it. But if you play this brhat mrdahga people from one corner to another corner of the world can hear. This is brhat mrdahga. So whatever honour we may have in the society today by the Lord's mercy is because of playing this brhat mrdahga. Thank you for kindly taking the trouble of coming here. Keep coming here. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says ekala amara nahi paya bala, how much can I do alone? [Sarahagati, Bhajana-lalasa, Song 7, Stanza 3] Kindly all of you help together. So that is my request also that whtever little endeavour we are making to spread the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead all over the world, kindly all of you extend support to it. There should be no envy or discrimination in regard to this honest endeavour. Chanting of the holy name of the Supreme Lord is India's treasury. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu ordered every Indian,

Paropakara. The duty of India is paropakara. And this is paropakara because,

As soon as we forget Krsna immediately maya captures us. Therefore if we want to get relief from the clutches of maya,

then one can directly see… the Supreme Lord can be seen directly provided we have the suitable eyes to see Him.

The Supreme Lord is present everywhere. A kanistha adhikari: neophyte devotee like me thinks that the Supreme Lord is in the temple, so let me begin from there. It is not that God is everywhere so destroy all the temples. No. That is not a fact. As the Supreme Lord and the acaryas have instructed us, sri-vigraharadhana-nitya-nana- srhgara-tan-mandira-marjanadau, that is absolutely necessary. [Sri Gurvastaka 3] So please visit the temple. Sit at home and perform kirtana. There is no difficulty.

There is no loss in it for sure, and if it yields some profit then why not try it? This is our request. Kindly forgive me if there are any inconveniences for you have kindly assembled here.

Thank you veru much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupada!