Narada Muni meets the hunter

If one acts according to the injunctions of sastra, he is freed from the reactions of sinful activity. For example, the propensities for eating flesh, drinking wine and enjoying sex life are all natural to the conditioned soul.The path of such enjoyment is called pravrtti-marga. The ]sastra says, pravrttir esam bhutanam nivrttis tu maha-phalam: one should not be carried away by the propensities of defective conditioned life; one should be guided by the principles of the sastras. A child's propensity is to play all day long, but it is the injunction of the sastras that the parents should take care to educate him. The sastras are there just to guide the activities of human society. But because people do not refer to the instructions of sastras, which are free from defects and imperfections, they are therefore misguided by so-called educated teachers and leaders who are full of the deficiencies of conditioned life. (More...)

Narada replied, "Yes, I'm sorry. I have come to you to find my own path, just to inquire from you. But I have seen that there are many boars and deer and rabbits on the path, and they are lying on the forest floor flapping before death, half-dead. Who has committed these sinful acts?" (More...)

The hunter replied, "What you have seen is all right; it is done by me." (More...)

Then Narada said, "If you are hunting all these poor animals, why don't you kill them at once? You half-kill them, and they are flapping in death-pains. This is a great sin. If you want to kill any animal, why don't you kill it completely? Why do you leave it half-killed, and allow the animal to die flapping?" (More...)

The hunter replied, "My dear Lord, my name is Mrigari, the enemy of the animals. According to the teachings of my father, I have been raised to half-kill the animals by leaving them flapping. When a half-dead animal flaps, I take great pleasure in that." (More...)

The hunter replied, "Oh, yes sir, I shall give you whatever you like. If you want some animal skins, come to my home. I have so many skins of animals, tigers, and deer. Whatever you like I shall give you." (More...)

Narada replied, "I do not want such things. But I want something else. If you kindly grant it to me, then I shall tell you. Please, henceforth from tomorrow, whenever you kill an animal, please kill it completely, and don't leave it half-dead." (More...)

The hunter replied, "Oh, my dear sir, what are you asking of me? Why are you asking this? What is the difference between half-killing and killing completely?" (More...)

Narada replied, "If you half-kill the animals, then they suffer too much pain, and if you give too much pain to other living entities, it is a great sin. When you kill an animal completely, there is much offense, but it is not so great as that accrued by half-killing an animal. In other words, pain which you give to the half-dead animals will have to be accepted by you also in some of the future births awaiting you." (More...)

The hunter therefore said, "My dear sir, from my childhood I have been taught to kill animals like that. So would you kindly tell me how can I get rid of all the offenses and sinful activities which I have committed? I am surrendering unto your feet. Please save me from all the reactions of my sinful activities in the past, and just direct me in the proper path so that I can be free." (More...)

The hunter replied, "You are asking me to break my bow, but if I break it then what will be the means of my living?" (More...)

Thereupon, the hunter broke his bow and fell down at the feet of Narada. Narada got him to stand up, and instructed him: 'Just go to your home and whatever money and valuables you have there, distribute amongst the devotees and Brahmins, and just come out with me, wearing only one cloth. Construct a small thatched house on the bank of the river, and sow the tulsi plant by the house. Just circumambulate the tulsi tree, and every day taste one fallen leaf, and always chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So far as your living is concerned, I shall send you the required grains. But you will only accept as much grain as you require for yourself and your wife." (More...)

Narada then relieved the half-dead animals and, after getting free from that dreadful condition, they fled away. By seeing the miracle executed by Narada, the black hunter was struck with wonder, and after taking him to his home, he again bowed down at his feet. (More...)

Narada returned to his place, and the hunter, after returning to his home, began to execute the instructions which Narada had given him. In the meantime, the news spread among all the villages that the hunter had become a devotee, and therefore the residents of the villages came to see the new Vaishnava. It is the custom of persons following the Vedic way of life to bring some grains or some fruits whenever they go to see some saintly person. All the villagers saw that the hunter now had turned into a great devotee, and they began to bring eatables. So every day he was offered grains and fruit, so much that no less than ten to twenty people might eat there. But, according to Narada's instruction, he did not accept anything more than what he required to live on, for both himself and his wife. (More...)

After some days had passed, Narada said to his friend Parbut Muni: "I have a disciple. Let us go and see him, and see if he is doing well." (More...)

When the two great sages, Narada and Parbut, came to the place of the hunter, and the hunter saw his Spiritual Master coming from the distance, he began to go to him with great respect. But while he was going to receive the great sages, there were ants on the field, and it was a hindrance to his passing. When he reached the sages, he wanted to bow down before them, but he saw there were many ants and he slowly cleared away the ants with his cloth. When Narada saw that the hunter was trying to save the lives of the ants in such a way, it reminded him of a verse from the Skanda Purana. That verse states: "Is it not wonderful for a devotee of the Lord, that he is not inclined to give any sort of pain, even to the ant?" (More...)

There is a nice verse in the Skanda Purana which says: "My dear Devarsi (Narada), you are glorious, and by your mercy even the lowest creature, such as a hunter, also became elevated to such a state of devotion, and attained transcendental attachment for Krishna." (More...)

Narada then enquired of the hunter-devotee: "Are you getting your foodstuff regularly?" (More...)

The hunter replied, "You send so many people, and they bring so much eatables that we both cannot eat so much." (More...)

Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter of Sept. 11, 1970, and have noted the contents. It is nice that you are personally managing New Vrindaban now, and I am sure that everything is progressing nicely just to the standard. So for the present just continue in this way. Krishna will give you all intelligence how to do it. Regarding Mr. Ginsberg's article, yes, it may appear if it is followed by an adequate refutation. But kindly make the refutation very strong; then that will be nice. I am adding some points that you may elaborate on.
1) As you state, Krishna is identical with His name. That means that His name has the same qualities as Himself, i.e. sat, chit, ananda. No mundane vibration is eternal, otherwise why does it grow tiresome and have to be changed every other week. Nor do mundane songs produce real knowledge or bliss unending. Also, this transcendental vibration purifies one. Anyone can see practically how our students are becoming purified, but the chanters of material songs are not.
2) Ginsberg says these words are physical in a frankly physical universe. But this is not true, for actually everything is spiritual. It is only under certain conditions, viz. forgetfulness of Krishna that this internal or spiritual energy of Krishna becomes material. Therefore when we hear the name Krishna, which is identical with Krishna, we must remember, and in that way everything is purified.
3) Tennyson may have felt something when he chanted Tennyson, but does anyone else? Does Mr. Ginsberg want to chant Tennyson, Tennyson? But everyone enjoys chanting Krishna. That means there is something different about His name. He is the center of everyone and everything.
4) Krishna explains in the 7th Chapter of B.G. that there are four classes of men who approach Him. There are millions of men in distress, or searching for money, or curious, or searching for knowledge, but only a few come to Krishna, and all of them are mahatma-simply because they have come to the right place, Krishna. That is not by chance, but due to their past pious deeds. No one can approach Krishna without being purified, so this is the process. But no matter what the original motive, if one actually comes to Krishna he is mahatma. S.B. confirms it that if someone follows all the rules and regulations very nicely but doesn't come to Krishna it is useless, and similarly if someone comes to Krishna, even if he doesn't follow very nicely, he is perfect. Also, B.G. 7/19 says that the wise man after many births comes to know that Krishna is everything. So Krishna is central. So we may begin our chanting with some motive, but that is not the final stage. Love of Krishna is final, and how can we develop that unless we are chanting and thinking of Krishna?
5) Some analyst or priest or lover may widen the consciousness from this to that, but only Krishna is without limit and therefore can widen the consciousness infinitely. That is the difference. The material world has varieties of this and that, this thing more than that thing, but only Krishna is without limit, and if we desire ananda, bliss unending, we must go to Krishna.
6) Hare Krishna cannot be compared to any sexual cry because the sexual cry is a call for some partner to come satisfy the caller's desire. That means it is sense gratification. When we chant H.K. we are calling to Krishna to please let us serve You. So on the spiritual platform it is the service that is desired, but on the material it is sense gratification that is sought. The rest of the points I think you can cover nicely. Hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter of March 11, 1972, along with copy of MacMillan contract. Now, first thing is don't sign any contracts without hearing from me, I am thinking about the matter. There is some opinion that it may not be very much advantageous for us to enter such contracts with Macmillan Company. But first I want to know the opinion of Karandhara and others like Rupanuga and Bhagavan. So far Bhagavad-gita As It Is, that is already signed, so we must continue as we have agreed. But practically we have increased our book distribution now to exceed what they are able to do, and still we shall have to purchase our books from them at 50%, and because we shall account for most of the sales, plus do most of the advertising ourselves, then they are making huge profit while we do the work! This arrangement is not good. But one thing is, because they have published our book, therefore there is some prestige in that. Now if you can induce them to distribute very profusely our Bhagavad-gita As It Is, by giving it big big publicity at their expense, then it is only fair and the agreement is all right. Another thing is that they must pay us for all the lay-out and pre-press work that we have done on the Gita, otherwise we are simply handing them everything while they take all the profits and we get nothing. So on the whole I am not very hopeful for dealing with this Macmillan Company, or any other big publishing house. I have seen in New York many many big big publishing houses, very rich, but I do not find any rich writers of books. Even Jawaharlal Nehru wrote some book on politics which became very widely known, but he remarked that their books are selling like anything but I'm not getting anything.

Another thing, because our business is to engage many men in the devotional service of Krsna, then if we give the job to others for distributing all our books, then where is the opportunity for our students to canvass all the citizens to purchase our books to give them good training how to preach? I think Macmillan wants "exclusive" rights to distribute, but we must be allowed to sell our own books, otherwise where is the preaching? So do not sign any more contracts until I have considered the matter thoroughly. If we purchase their books at 50%, then they must also purchase our books at 50%, and we must have the right to sell any amount, and we must be reimbursed for the amount we have spent preparing the Bhagavad-gita As It Is manuscripts and picture-pages.

I have just now noticed in the clause no. 6 that it appears we are allowed to distribute by "direct distribution through non-book-trade outlets," so it appears the contract is all right because we have not got much to do with bookstores anyway, so I have no strong objection to this contract. Let us try it as an experiment.

Hoping this will meet you in good health. (More...)