711203 - Conversation - Delhi

Conversations by Date, 1971

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

711203R1-DELHI - December 03, 1971 - 12:52 Minutes

Prabhupāda: Aayiye, aayiye. Baitho, idhar baitho. (Please come. Sit down, sit here.)

Guest: Nahi, theek hai ji. (No, it's alright.) (break)

Devotee: He has been very helpful on . . . (indistinct) . . . program.

Viṣala: Your Divine Grace . . . (indistinct) . . . as long as one is seeking out a bona fide . . . unless one is seeking out a bona fide representative of God, is it true that he has no discrimination?

Prabhupāda: Yes. . . . (indistinct)

Viṣala: He has no discrimination?

Devotee: Yes. No discrimination.

Prabhupāda: No. He must find out a bona fide representative of God. He must be. If you go to purchase something in the market, we must use our senses to find out. Why not use our . . . (indistinct) . . .?

Viṣala: (indistinct) . . . I was thinking that what it means is if anyone does not have a bona fide representative of God, is it true that he doesn’t have the discrimination, who is unfortunate enough not to have a bona fide representative of God?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you get bona fide representative, spiritual master, and if you follow instructions by him, your advance is guaranteed. Yasya prasādad bhāgavata (Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka 8). So bona fide spiritual master means if he is satisfied, then Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. And if Kṛṣṇa is satisfied, then you are successful. Because after all, we have to satisfy Kṛṣṇa.

But Kṛṣṇa comes Himself; He leaves His instruction, the Bhagavad-gītā. He sends His representatives, He comes as a devotee. He is trying to take us back to home, back to Godhead, in so many ways. You have to take opportunity. That is His . . .

Guest: So if Your Holiness has time, I would like to . . . if Your Holiness . . . (indistinct) . . . I can come to take Your Holiness, Gurudāsa and others, tomorrow in the morning.

Prabhupāda: Tomorrow morning? What time?

Guest: Any time that is convenient. (end of underneath conversation)

Devotee (2): This tendency, Śrīla Prabhupāda . . . this tendency of material enviousness, this is also a serious impediment in spiritual life—to become envious of our Godbrothers? Or spiritual . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee: This enviousness.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is aparādha, greatest offense. That offense may kill your consciousness. That is the first offense, to become envious. The first offense. (break) Kṛṣṇa never tolerates enviousness of a devotee. He can tolerate enviousness of Kṛṣṇa, but He can never tolerate enviousness of a devotee.

Woman devotee: We have no proper behavior if we are envious of one another, because we are independent of one another. We are dependent on Kṛṣṇa, but we're not dependent on any other living entity . . . (indistinct) . . . it doesn't mean . . . we should not be envious of one another . . . (indistinct) . . . we should cooperate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Cooperate. Therefore we are addressing another devotee as prabhu. Prabhu means "master." So if a devotee, if I think, "You are my prabhu," and if we think, "I am your master," then where is? . . . (indistinct) . . . enviousness. But we think, "I am master." We think we are master. No. Master must be . . . (indistinct) . . . just like Pakistan and India, both of them are thinking master, "I am master"—therefore fighting.

But Vaikuṇṭha policy is not master: I am servant, I am your servant. Just to . . .

(break) . . . and if you think, "No, I am your servant," why should I order you? But if I think, "I am master, I shall order you." But the man who receives order, he thinks that "Why shall I take order? I am master." You see?

So we should not try to become master; we should become servant and teach others how an ideal servant can serve. That is Vaiṣṇava. If I want to become master, then that is material. Everyone is material, wanting to become master. There is dissension, enviousness. But the Vaikuṇṭha party is quite different. Here, if you advance more than me, I become envious: "Oh." But in Vaikuṇṭha party there is competition: if you advance, then I should say: "Oh, how nice he is. He is able to serve Kṛṣṇa so nicely. I could not do so, so I must follow him." This is Vaikuṇṭha. In the material world it is, "Oh, he has advanced so much. Oh, let me cut him." This is material.

So we have to be trained not as master—as servant. That is perfect. Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80): servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. Material world: master of the master of the master of the master. And ultimately, "I am God." (devotees laugh) This is the general experience. This is another material thing. When he says that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, that is another māyā.

So māyā is working in so many different ways. The only escape is to catch Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, hold tightly.

(kīrtana)

We have to . . . (indistinct) . . . (indistinct) . . . (break) (end)