By Narasimha das

Many great Vaisnavas have taken birth in low families or had checkered pasts, but at some point in their lives they exhibited the qualities of true Vaisnavas. According to Lord Shiva, worship of a Vaisnava is better than worship of the Supreme Lord Himself. On the other hand, deliberate offenses to a Vaisnava can be more disastrous than offenses to Lord Krishna Himself. It can totally ruin the offender in this life and the next.

As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, high-born brahmins, demigods like Lord Indra and Chitraketu and even great sages like Druvasa Muni and Vishvamitra Rishi have committed offenses to Vaisnavas—usually due to their culturing feelings of superiority. Such exalted persons are easily and quickly rectified by Krishna’s grace. Others, however, such as Prajapati Daksa, have condemned Vaisnavas due to malicious envy only. Such persons, particularly those without much devotional merit, are not easily saved from destruction. Daksa, for instance, had to die and get the head of a goat. For a slight offense to Lord Shiva, Chitraketu was cursed by Mother Parvati Devi to become a demon. Fanatical Shankarites and demigod worshippers sometimes blaspheme Vaisnavas out of jealousy or envy. Similar offenders are pseudo-Vaisnavas or pseudo-brahmins who have been given such exalted names as “Ramadas”, “Gopal Chapu”, “Ramachandra Khan” or “Ramachandra Puri” and yet speak or act maliciously towards preachers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s divine mission or even the Supreme Lord Himself.

Sometimes materialistic devotees fight among themselves for the sake of controlling properties housing the sri-vigraha of the Lord. Their interest, it seems, is the cash flow such temple properties produce. Such persons often try to use the divine murti as a prop for collecting money. Some temple leaders fail to maintain a high standard of cleanliness and punctuality on the altar, or they hire impure workers to make the Deity garlands and do the cleaning and even the cooking in the temple. Srila Prabhupada comments that those who make a business of Deity worship in the holy dhama take birth as monkeys or pigs in their next lives. According the Mahabharata, those who make a business of Deity worship are born as chandalas, or degraded outcastes, in their next life.

“However, if one goes to Mathura-mandala-bhumi for sense gratification or to make a livelihood, he commits an offense and is condemned. Whoever does so must be penalized in the next life by becoming a monkey or pig in Vrindavana-dhama.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 22.132, Purport)

“There is a class of professional brahmanas who take to Deity worship as a means of earning their livelihood. Brahmanas in this class are not very interested in the Deity; they are interested mainly in the money they can earn as holy men.” (Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 30, “Inertness”)

Unfortunately, when the laity see such contradictory behavior among religious leaders some of them begin to lose faith in all religion. Or they may start to consider themselves superior to practicing Vaisnavas and Brahmins; or they take sides in disputes among religious pundits; or they use their posts in government or in religious hierarchies to try to condemn or punish innocent, unpretentious devotees, simply because they hail from a different race, nationality or sect–or because they exhibit staunch faith in pure devotees over and above ordinary traditions and ecclesiastical conventions. Other malicious persons spread slander about specific devotees simply because they have heard some gossip or rumors from envious persons. Ultimately such persons may come to reject all religion, including their own, as being superficial ritual only. Such persons, if fortunate, take birth in the sacred land of India as dogs, monkeys or pigs–animals that sometimes get the opportunity to hear the holy names or eat prasadam thrown in the streets by careless pilgrims. All these misfortunes arising from offenses to devotees of the Lord are vividly described in the Vedic sastras, such as Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam and Sri Caitanya-caritamrta purports.

Unless one is an enlightened, strict follower of a genuine Vaisnava, or unless one is at least an unpretentious aspiring follower of a Vaisnava, he may make the mistake of trying to insult, punish, harass, ban or condemn sincere devotees of the Supreme Lord. This is seen today among various politicians, government officers and even religious clerics who try to keep “foreigner” devotees from entering or staying in India due to racial considerations, nationalism, bogus legalities or doctrinal differences. In fact, some temples in India have a strict policy of banning “foreign” devotees from entering the temple or staying in exclusive ashrams and dharmashalas. Some temple leaders arrogantly slander, harass, ignore or ban devotees who disagree with their policies, or they bribe government officers to blacklist devotees they don’t like.

“One who considers a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who was born in a family of sudras, nisadas or candalas to belong to that particular caste certainly goes to hell.” (from Padma Purana, cited in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 16.29, Purport)

“A pure devotee is above a brahmana; therefore it is not incompatible to offer the sacred thread to devotees in Europe, America, Australia, Japan, Canada, and so on. Sometimes these pure devotees, who have been accepted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, are not allowed to enter certain temples in India…. On the strength of this verse, those who are actually devotees and followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu must accept devotees from all parts of the world as pure Vaisnavas. They should be accepted not artificially but factually…” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya, 25.120, Purport)

I have heard from a simple Brijabasi lady that she was rudely chased out of a so-called iskcon temple for taking photos of the temple murtis. They even tried to confiscate her camera! Materialistic temple leaders in many temples across India want to monopolize the cash flow on their Deity worship; thus they accost devotees who want to take pictures—even initiated disciples and residents of the holy dhama. I have heard from reliable sources that some of these prakrita-bhaktas posing as temple authorities believe it is better to exploit the resources offered by materialistic wedding parties and demigod worshippers than to host visiting Vaisnavas. Apparently hosting devotees outside their own small camp is too much a burden for them, although they freely spend hundreds of millions of rupees to pay lawyers and courts for the sake of fighting other devotees. Such misguided persons hatch grandiose schemes for so-called preaching yet refuse to properly host visiting devotees, even those initiated by Srila Prabhupada.

“Sometimes envious persons ask how Europeans and Americans in this Krishna consciousness movement can become brahmanas and perform sacrifices. They do not know that the Europeans and Americans have already been purified by chanting the holy names of the Lord–Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. This is the proof.” (Cc. Madhya 16. 186, Purport)

“Unfortunately, there are many fools and rascals who do not allow Westerners to enter certain temples. Such rascals do not clearly understand the Vedas.” (Cc. Madhya 16. 187, Purport)

“At present, many Vaisnavas are coming to our Krishna consciousness movement from among European and Americans, and although men like Ramachandra Khan are always envious of such Vaisnavas, one should follow in the footsteps of Sri Advaita Acarya by treating them as Vaisnavas. Although they are not as exalted as Haridas Thakura, such Americans and Europeans, having accepted the principles of Vaisnava philosophy and behavior, should never be excluded from Vaisnava society.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 3.220, Purport)

Misguided clerics posing as brahmins or Vaisnavas must suffer for their offenses. According to scripture, such offenders cannot find relief by any sort of ritual or service, including service to the Deity. The only remedy for such impure souls is humble repentance by begging forgiveness from the offended Vaisnavas they have deliberately tried to harass, slander, ban or injure. Otherwise their offensive chanting of the holy names may go on for many lifetimes without producing the desired results. Or they may completely stop chanting the holy names, even during puja, and fall down to animal life. This is the verdict of Srila Prabhupada and our Gaudiya Vaisnava acaryas.

Srila Prabhupada has repeatedly warned that those who consider the spiritual master an ordinary man, who consider the Deity a stone or metal prop for money-making, and who consider that Vaisnavas are ordinary persons to be classified as “Westerners” or ‘foreigners” or as some other bodily designation are narakis. Srila Prabhupada translates the word naraki as “candidates for hellish life”.

“As a result, this movement has spread all over the world, with the assistance of European and American boys and girls. We therefore pray for all the blessings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu upon all the devotees in the Western world who are spreading this movement.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya, 25.170, Purport)

“Many devotees join our Krishna consciousness movement from Europe and America, but one should not therefore consider them European Vaisnavas or American Vaisnavas. A Vaisnava is a Vaisnava and should therefore be given all the respect due a Vaisnava.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya, verse one hundred and forty-two, Purport)

Although I am not a Vaisnava, I am a friend of Vaisnavas. I have had practical experience that in Karnataka, South India, there are many enlightened Vaisnavas who do not discriminate against devotees from foreign countries. For instance, at the Sri Krishna Udupi Temple, foreign devotees have always been welcomed respectfully by the leading sannyasis and brahmins there. Recently a friend of ours, who hails from an aristocratic family of brahmins in Mangalore, invited several of us to a Vedic ceremony in honor of his brother’s 60^th birthday. Present at this ceremony were many high-class brahmins, including bona fide “catur-vedis”. These catur-vedis are pure brahmins who have totally memorized the four Vedas from a young age, as per their ancient tradition. At this gathering my Godbrothers and my wife and I, all of us “foreigners,” were honored along with these other Vaisnavas and brahmins. This pious man and his family offered us respect, just as Advaita Acarya used to honor Haridas Thakura, without fear of censure from high society. This reminded me of a verse from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, verse 219. Speaking to Sri Advaita Acarya, Srila Haridas Thakura said:

“Sir, You are living within a society of great, great brahmanas and aristocrats, but without fear or shame You adore a lower-class man like me.”

Similarly we have seen that at Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Bangalore and its extension temples near Bellary and Hubli, the enlightened devotees at these temples are always accommodating and respectful to visiting devotees, even us low-born foreigners–particularly those exclusively devoted to Srila Prabhupada. And for our part, we recognize these devotees as being equal to the very best of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples who met and served Him personally during His manifest presence of Earth.

A real path of liberation is to aspire to become a “dog” or simple follower of a great Vaisnava such as Sivananda Sena, Maharaja Yudhisthira or Srila Prabhupada. Learned devotees understand that such a position is far more exalted than any prestige or post in this material world. Without waiting for another birth to become the pet dog of a Vaisnava, everyone who is truly intelligent can aspire in this life to become a humble servant of Srila Prabhupada and His bona fide disciples. Devotees who imbibe this attitude can chant the holy names constantly and quickly return home, back to Godhead, by Srila Prabhupada’s divine grace.