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THE LILAMRTA REVIEW
By SrimanYasodanandana dasa
and the Prabhupadanugas
SECTION 1
Srila Prabhupada is a pure
devotee always, being an eternally liberated associate of the Lord. He did
not have a material past at any time. Being an associate of Lord Sri Krsna,
he is properly understood to never have been contaminated by matter. As we
knew him, his so called material body was not at all material. Heat, cold,
happiness and distress, hunger and thirst, birth, disease, old age, and
death never touched him. It is not correct that he felt or suffered these
mundane influences and pains in a mood of tolerance. He never even felt
them, according to the scriptures.
There are two types of pure
devotees: (1) the neophyte pure devotee (sadhaka), and (2) the perfect
pure devotee (parishat).
"Such pure devotees
are of two types: personal associates (parishats) and neophyte
devotees (sadhakas). PURPORT: Perfect servitors are considered His
personal associates, whereas devotees endeavoring to attain perfection
are called neophytes."
C.C. Adi 1.64
Generally, ever liberated
personalities live in the spiritual world as associates of Lord Krsna,
and they are known as Krsnaparishada, associates of the Lord. Their
only business is enjoying Lord Krsna's company; even though such
eternally liberated persons come within this material world to serve
the Lord's purpose, they enjoy Lord Krsna's company without stoppage.
C.C. Madhya 12.l5
This chapter will only be discussing a parishat pure devotee His Divine
Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. As the bona fide spiritual
master, He is described as such in The Gurvastakam prayers:
“Nikunjayana ratikeli
siddhayi...The spiritual master is expert in assisting the gopies
within the groves of Vrndavana.
“Shakshadhari tvena
samastashastraih...He is directly as good as the Supreme Lord on
account of being the most confidential servitor of the Lord.”
Gurvastka, #6, 7
The Lord's associate is also described as a nityasiddha.
“Nityasiddha bhakta
indicates the eternally liberated associate of the Lord. Such devotees
enjoy the company of the Lord in four relationships.”
C.C. Madhya 6.12
Even if Srila Prabhupada was
sadhanasiddha, there would be no difference between himself and a
nityasiddha devotee:
“A nityasiddha is one
who is eternally Krsna's associate (like Nanda and Mother Yasoda), an
expansion of Krsna's personal body, whereas a sadhanasiddha is an
ordinary human being who, by executing pious activities and following
regulative principles of devotional service, also comes to that stage.”
S.B. 10.8.48
But Srila Prabhupada has
written purports in His books, Wherein He compares himself with
nityasiddhas. In one letter to Tamal Krsna Gosvami, Srila Prabhupada spoke
of the qualification of the nityasiddha, and then stated that he possessed
those qualifications:
“And another [spiritual
master] is nityasiddha, who is never forgetful of Krsna throughout his
whole life...So far my present life is concerned, I do not remember
any part of my life when I was forgetful of Krsna.”
Letter to Tamal Krsna, June
1970, from Los Angeles
The associate of the Supreme
Lord is also described as mahabagavata:
"Everywhere he
immediately sees manifest the form of the Supreme Lord." PURPORT
Due to deep ecstatic love for Krsna, the mahabhagavata sees Krsna
everywhere, and nothing else. This is confirmed in Brahma Samhita:
Premantana cchurita bhakti vilocanena.”
C.C. Madhya 8.274
Srila Prabhupada has directly
stated his status as mahabhagavata:
“Such neophytes, unable
to appreciate the exalted service of the advanced devotee, try to
bring the mahabhagavata to their platform. We experience such
difficulties in propagating this Krsna consciousness all over the
world. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by neophyte Godbrothers...they
simply try to bring us to their platform.
NOI, P. 64
His Divine Grace Srila
Prabhupada was never affected by the material modes of nature, which
include the contaminations of happiness and distress, heat and cold,
hunger and thirst, etc. His body was not made of the material elements;
when he sometimes said otherwise, that was to accomplish his own purposes
in the advancement of his disciples. His body was spiritual. In a letter
to Madhusudana in 1968, Srila Prabhupada said that his body was not his
true form, but he also said that it was spiritual, nevertheless. He made
the comparison of spirit being gold, and his body being gold plated. The
associate of the Lord, when he comes to this material world, either as
nityasiddha or sadhanasiddha, does not have to experience and tolerate
pain. He is of the same quality as Lord Krsna in this regard:
“Even though he appears
to be in the material world, he is not affected by the miseries of the
material world...Those who are sadhavah, or devotees engaged in Krsna
consciousness in the transcendental service of the Lord, do not feel
the contamination of material miseries, whereas those who are not
devotees in Krsna consciousness actually feel the miseries of material
existence.”
S.B. 3.25.24
"A pure devotee of
the Lord does not live on any planet of the material sky, nor does he
feel any contact with the material elements. His so called material
body does not exist, being surcharged with the spiritual current of
the Lord's identical interest, and thus he is permanently freed from
all contaminations of the sum total of the mahat-tattva.
S.B. 1.13.55
Being freed from this material
nature is the primary meaning of the qualitative oneness with the Lord (saksadhari)
which the pure devotee has realized.
“As the Lord is not
affected by the modes of material nature, so a pure devotee of the
Lord is also not affected by the modes of nature. That is the primary
qualification of being one with the Lord. A person who is able to
attain this transcendental qualification is called jivanmukta, or
liberated, even though he is apparently in material conditions.”
S.B. 3.4.31
“This is the divinity of
the Personality of Godhead. He is not affected by the qualities of
material nature, even though he is in contact with them. Similarly,
the devotees of the Lord do not become influenced by the material
qualities.”
S.B. 1.11.38
“The Personality of
Godhead and His liberated devotees like Narada appear in the material
world by the same process. As it is said, in the BhagavatGita, the
birth and activities of the Lord are all transcendental...The Lord and
his devotees are, therefore, simultaneously one and different as
spiritual entities. They belong to the same category of transcendence.”
S.B. 1.6.29
“The Lord comes to this
material world through the agency of His internal potency, and,
similarly, when a devotee or associate of the Lord descends to this
material world, he does so through the action of the spiritual energy.
S.B. 7.1.35
Srila Prabhupada’s body has
nothing to do with matter. It is spiritual.
“This transcendental
body is free from material affinity and invested with three primary
transcendental qualities, namely, eternity, freedom from material
modes, and freedom from the reactions to fruitive activities. The
material body is always afflicted with these three inebrieties. A
devotee’s body becomes at once surcharged with the transcendental
qualities as soon as he is engaged in the devotional service of the
Lord. It acts like a magnetic influence of a touchstone upon iron. The
influence of transcendental devotional service is like that.
Therefore, change of body means stoppage of the reaction of three
qualitative modes of material nature upon the pure devotee.”
S.B. 1.6.28
The above purport is dealing
with the sadhanasiddha. His body “changes” its status. A nityasiddha
always has a spiritual body:
“A pure devotee of the
Lord does not live on any planet of the material sky, nor does he feel
any contact with the material elements. His so called material body
does not exist, being surcharged with the spiritual current of the
Lord’s identical interest, and thus he is permanently freed from all
contaminations of the sum total of the mahattattva.”
S.B. 1.13.55
“Therefore, his body is
cinmaya, that is, it is spiritual, not material...”
S.B. 10.1.103
“According to
Haribhaktivilas, therefore, after the disappearance of the acarya, his
body is never burnt to ashes, for it is a spiritual body. The
spiritual body is always unaffected by natural condition.”
S.B. 10.4.20
“Therefore, a devotee
who engages in the service of the Supreme Lord, and who constantly
thinks of Him, should never be considered to have a material body. It
is, therefore, enjoined: gurusu naramati One should stop thinking of
the spiritual master as an ordinary human being with a material body.’”
S.B. 8.3.2
We have humbly endeavored to
explain to some small degree, with reference to Srila Prabhupada's books,
the status of His Divine Grace's socalled "material" body. Yet,
the Lilamrta does not tally with these quotations. To write a biography of
the pure devotee, telling how the spiritual master is influenced by
material elements is similar to writing a description of the Deity in the
temple as being a mundane statue.
Srila Prabhupada writes:
“Acarya visnau siladhih:
everyone knows that the Deity in the temple is made of stone, but to
think that the Deity is merely stone is an offense. Similarly, to
think that the body of the spiritual master consists of material
ingredients is offensive. Atheists think that the devotees foolishly
worship a stone statue as God, and an ordinary man as the guru.”
S.B. 8.3.2
“One must see things
astheyare, through the mercy of a spiritual master; otherwise, if one
tries to see Krsna directly, he may mistake an ordinary man for Krsna,
and Krsna for an ordinary man. Everyone has to see Krsna according to
the verdict of the Vedic literatures presented by the selfrealized
spiritual master.”
C.C. Madhya 18.99
The Lilamrta was researched by
several disciples who interviewed karmis who think the bonafide spiritual
master to be, at least in some respects, an ordinary man.
“Intermingling the
spiritual with the material causes one to look on transcendence as
material and mundane as spiritual. All this is due to a poor of
knowledge.”
C.C. Madhya 16.72
The Lilamrta mixes quotes by
Srila Prabhupada, neophyte disciples, "blooped" devotees, karmis,
and mayavadis. Regarding transcendental literature, His Divine Grace
writes:
“He [Krsna das Kaviraja
Gosvami] never claims to have written this transcendental literature
by carrying out research work...This is the way of describing
transcendental literatures, which are never meant for socalled
"scholars" or "research workers."
C.C. Madhya 8.312
“To know about the
Supreme Personality of Godhead and the characteristics of His pure
devotee, one must inquire from authorities like Devarshi Narada. One
cannot inquire about transcendental subject matters from a laymen.”
S.B. 7.4.44
“Similarly, if we
analyze all our senses in this way, we will find them all to be
imperfect. Therefore, it is useless to acquire knowledge from the
senses. The Vedic process is to hear from authority.”
C.C. Adi 7.107
“Unless one is
personally a realized soul in the science of Krsna consciousness, a
neophyte should not approach him to hear about the Lord.”
S.B.10.14
“It is therefore said,
vaisnavera krtya mudra vijna na bhujhaya. A highly advanced Vaisnava
lives in such a way that no one can understand what he is or what he
was. Nor should attempts be made to understand the past of a Vaisnava.”
S.B. 7.13.14
The Lilamrta attempts to show
that Srila Prabhupada becomes fatigued, goes into ignorance, gets
heatstroke, diseased, starves, suffers from old age, has imperfect senses,
etc.
“An ignorant person may
see that a devotee is acting or working like an ordinary man, but such
a person with a poor fund of knowledge does not know that the
activities of the devotee or of the Lord are not contaminated by
impure consciousness or matter. They are transcendental to the three
modes of material nature.
B.G., Intro., p. 11
The following pages include
some of the Lilamrta's thoughts, compared to Srila
Prabhupada's thoughts on the
same subject, as found in his books.
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada overexerted himself, felt exhausted, and was dead tired:
“Bhaktivedanta Swami's
neighbors observed him coming home dead tired in the evening.
Lilamrta Book I, p. 283
“After some time the
drive became tiring for Prabhupada.”
Lilamrta Book II, p.259
“The next morning
Prabhupada didn't get up. He was exhausted...For the first time, it
became apparent that he was overexerting himself.”
Lilamrta Book II, p.259
The Webster's Dictionary
defines exhaustion as "to tire extremely or completely, as by
overwork." Srila Prabhupada writes in this regard:
“Materially, when a man
becomes tired by rendering service to his physical body, he is allowed
retirement. But in the transcendental service there is no feeling of
fatigue, because it is spiritual service and not on the bodily plane.
Service on the bodily plane dwindles as the body grows older, but the
spirit is never old and, therefore, on the spiritual plane the service
is never tiresome.”
S.B. 3.2.3
“There is no question of
being tired on the spiritual platform.”
POY, p. 10
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada becomes drowsy and dozes.
“He stayed until around
eleven o'clock, and then he became drowsy. And the party was over.”
Lilamrta II, p.269
“After some time, the
drive became tiring for Prabhupada, and he dozed...”
Lilamrta II, p.172
Webster's Dictionary defines
drowsy as "indolent and lethargic".
His Divine Grace, to the
contrary writes:
“Such mahabhagavats, or
first grade devotees, although moving amongst men, are not
contaminated by honor or insult, hunger or satisfaction, sleep or
wakefulness, which are all resultant actions of the three modes of
material nature.”
S.B. 1.11.38
“Sleep also means
ignorance. Arjuna conquered both sleep and ignorance because of his
friendship with Krsna. As a great devotee of Krsna, he could not
forget Krsna even for a moment, because that is the nature of a
devotee.”
B.G. 1.24
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada became unconscious due to heat.
“One day, while
delivering BTG to various addresses in the city, Abhay suddenly began
reeling, half unconscious, overcome by the heat.”
Lilamrta I, p.194
Srila Prabhupada, to the
contrary, writes:
“Because this
transcendental position is at once achieved by one who is in Krsna
consciousness, the devotee of the Lord is unaffected by the dualities
of material existence, namely distress and happiness, cold and heat,
etc. This state is practical samadhi, or absorption in the Supreme.”
B.G. 6.7
If there appeared to be any
such "collapse", it would not be due to the heat, but rather due
to transcendental ecstasy, according to the sastra, and could be
understood only by another pure devotee:
“Even a most learned
scholar cannot understand the activities and symptoms of an exalted
personality in whose heart love of Godhead has awakened.”
C.C. Madhya 23.40
“The many external
ecstatic symptoms or bodily transformations...are the anubhavas or
subordinate ecstatic expressions of love. Some of these are dancing,
falling down, and rolling on the ground.”
C.C. Madhya 23.51
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada was dangerously old. It says that he was, as are most old men,
like a toting father.
“He was making a
momentous break with his previous life, and he was dangerously old and
not in strong health. And he was going to an unknown and probably
unwelcoming country.”
Lilamrta I, p. 287
“One boy, Stanley, was
quite young, and Prabhupada almost like a doting father, watched over
him as he ate.”
Lilamrta II, p. l51
Webster's Dictionary defines
doting as: "1) to be feebleminded or weak minded, especially from old
age; 2) to show excess or foolish affection or fondness."
Srila Prabhupada, however,
writes:
“My dear king, a devotee
who has taken shelter of the dust from the lotus feet of the Lord can
transcend the influence of the six material whips namely, hunger,
thirst, lamentation, illusion, old age, and death and he can conquer
the mind and five senses.”
S.B. 5.1.35
“Another symptom of a
liberated person is vijara, which indicates that he is not subjected
to the miseries of old age.”
S.B. 5.4.5
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada was starving.
“When Abhay arrived, he
appeared very poor, starving, he had no means.”
Lilamrta I, p.164
Webster’s Dictionary defines
starving as: "to suffer extreme hunger, to perish from lack of
food."
S.B. 5.1.35
Dhruva Maharaja was so
advanced that he only took one breath of air every twelve days, and his
strength and happiness increased immeasurably. In transcendental ecstasy.
Raghunatha Gosvami ate one slice of butter every alternate day. Queen
Kunti fasted without inconvenience for thirty days. Because he was on the
same transcendental platform as these great souls, Srila Prabhupada could
not have suffered a starving condition. What to speak of Srila Prabhupada,
who is the greatest yogi, even mystic yogis who are still siddhikami can
live without food and not suffer the pangs of starvation.
“...it appears that even
if a yogi does not drink a drop of water, he can live for many, many
years...”
S.B. 7.3.1819
Srila Prabhupada had no
material drives and, therefore, he was never victimized by hunger or any
other law of material nature.
“A true brahmana is
always satisfied. Even if he has nothing to eat, he can drink a little
water and be satisfied....a devotee is always satisfied because he
feels the presence of the Supersoul within his heart and thinks of Him
twentyfour hours a day...A devotee is never driven by the dictations
of the tongue and genitals, and thus he is never victimized by the
laws of material nature.”
S.B. 7.15.18
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada suffered the affliction and great inconvenience of disease,
seasickness, and ill health.
“When Abhay was fifteen,
he was afflicted with beri-beri and his mother, who was also stricken,
regularly had to rub a powder of calcium chloride on his legs to
reduce the swelling. Abhay soon recovered.”
Lilamrta I, pp. 1819
“He was...not in strong
health.”
Lilamrta I, p. 287
“Externally, Srila
Prabhupada was experiencing great inconvenience; he had been aboard
ship for a month and had suffered heart attacks and repeated sea
sicknesses.”
Lilamrta II, p. 5
“He had barely survived two
heart attacks at sea...”
Lilamrta II, p. 7
However, Srila Prabhupada
writes:
“One may argue that we
may see a person who is spiritually engaged twenty-four hours a day
but is still suffering from disease. In fact, however, he is neither
suffering nor diseased; otherwise, he could not be engaged twenty-four
hours a day in spiritual activities. Therefore, one who is situated in
the spiritual status of life is unaffected by...any superficial dirty
things.”
S.B. 10.4.20
“The spiritual master or
acarya is always situated in the spiritual status of life. Birth,
death, disease, and old age do not affect him.”
S.B. 10.4.20
“If the spiritual master
appears to be diseased or invalid, it is for our benefit, and not due to
personal mundane imperfection.”
“A Vaisnava is always
protected by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but if he appears to
be an invalid, this gives a chance to his disciples to serve him.”
C.C. Adi, 9.11
The Lilamrta speculates that
Srila Prabhupada had imperfect senses.
“That morning, Srila
Prabhupada, who had perhaps never seen snow, woke and thought that
someone had whitewashed the side of the building next door. Not until
he went outside did he discover that it was snow.”
Lilamrta II, p.43
Unlike the conditioned souls,
the liberated soul does not have imperfect senses. His Divine Grace
writes:
“Presently, people are
so fallen that they cannot distinguish between a liberated soul and a
conditioned soul. A conditioned soul is hampered by four defects. He
is sure to commit mistakes, he is sure to become illusioned, he has a
tendency to cheat others and his senses are imperfect. Consequently,
we have to take directions from liberated persons...Because the entire
world is now following the imperfect directions of conditioned souls,
humanity is completely bewildered.”
S.B. 4.18.5
“Mistake, illusion,
cheating, and imperfection, which are the flaws of all conditioned
souls...The liberated souls are above those flaws.”
S.B. 1.3.24
“But if one carries out
the order of the spiritual master by disciplic succession or the
parampara system, he overcomes the four defects.”
S.B. 3.24.12
“Although a devotee may
apparently express himself to be ignorant, he is full of knowledge in
every intricate matter.”
S.B. 3.7.8
Srila Prabhupada's position is
similar to that of Krsna das Kaviraja. So even if Srila Prabhupada had
himself told this story, we would not have taken his "imperfect
senses" story literally.
“Krsnadasa Kaviraja
Gosvami also thinks of himself in such a humble way. I am a worse
sinner than Jagai and Madhai, and I am even lower than the worms in
stool.’ A pure devotee always thinks himself more deficient than
everyone else. If a devotee approaches Srimati Radharani to offer some
service to Krsna, even Srimati Radharani thinks that the devotee is
greater than she.”
S.B. 7.1.27
“It should be concluded,
therefore, that the description of Caitanya Caritamrta by Krsnadasa
Kaviraja Gosvami manifests specific mercy bestowed upon the author,
although he thought himself as the most fallen. We should not consider
him fallen because he describes himself as such.”
C.C. Adi 13.1
To think of the spiritual
master as having a material body, subject to material defects, is to think
of the bonafide spiritual master as fallen.
“The material body is
meant for sense enjoyment, whereas the spiritual body engages in the
transcendental loving service of the Lord. Therefore, a devotee who
engages in the service of the Supreme Lord and who constantly thinks
of him, should never be considered to have a material body. It is,
therefore, enjoined, "gurusu naramati." One should stop
thinking of the spiritual master as an ordinary human being with a
material body.
“If one considers the
spiritual master an ordinary human being, one is doomed... One may
argue by saying that, since the spiritual master's relatives and men
of his neighborhood consider him an ordinary human being, what is the
fault on the part of the disciple to consider the spiritual master an
ordinary human being?... He Must be accepted as good as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead...Even a slight deviation from this
understanding can create disaster in the disciple's Vedic studies and
austerities.”
S.B. 7.15.26
SRILA PRABHUPADA DID NOT HAVE
MATERIAL EMOTIONS
If one were requested to fully
surrender one's life to a personality who himself becomes baffled,
frustrated and discouraged, who is affected by mistakes and failures, who
becomes morose when there are unfavorable results, and who can rather
easily become shocked or shaken, would you be strongly inclined to
surrender yourself to such an individual? If one were further asked to
surrender one's life to a person who shudders at the thought of Krsna
taking his money away and who gets embarrassed, bewildered, and perplexed
on occasion, and who is enamored by the Lord's illusory energy (except
when his heart cracks upon hearing noises in the n cities), would be
strongly inclined to fully surrender himself to such a person?
And if you would and could
surrender your life to the person who has the mundane qualities described
above, would you be surrendering to a completely realized soul? Not
according to the sastra, although the Lilamrta might try to convince you
that you were.
His Divine Grace Srila
Prabhupada has none of the abovementioned material disqualifications. His
mind and emotions are fully spiritual, and are always absorbed in
transcendental bliss. Since he is situated on the same platform as Lord
Krsna, his mind, emotions and activities are not able to be appreciated by
the Lilamrta's method of mental speculation and direct sense perception on
the part of conditioned souls. Such mundane understanding can easily be
discarded. Transcendence is not understood, after all, by the ascending
process.
“When a man is sleeping,
everyone sees that he is present within the room, but actually the man
himself is not within the body, for while sleeping a man forgets his
bodily existence, although others may see that his body is present.
Similarly, a liberated person engaged in devotional service of the
Lord may be seen by others to be engaged in the household duties of
the material world but, since his consciousness is fixed on Krsna, he
does not live within this world. His engagements are different,
exactly as a sleeping man's engagements are different from his bodily
engagements.”
Krsna, Vol. 3, Chapter 86, “Prayers
by the Personified Vedas”
“It is said, 'Vaisnavera
kriyamudra vijne na bujhaya.’ Even the most learned man depending on
direct sense perception of knowledge cannot understand the activities
of a Vaisnava.’”
C.C. Madhya 7.66
Relying on the mental
speculation and clouded memories of devotees (since we are virtually all
neophytes), or on ex-devotees and karmis, the spiritual truths can easily
be distorted. Some of the tales such people may tell may not even have any
truth in them. For example, one devotee, after reading passages of the
Lilamrta spoken by Srila Prabhupada's printer in New Delhi (Mr. Sharma),
commented to a research editor of the Lilamrta, "What a nice devotee
Mr. Sharma was to have helped Srila Prabhupada like he did." The
research editor replied that Mr. Sharma was not at all that nice, in his
estimation. The explanation continued to the effect that, because Srila
Prabhupada is now famous, everyone in India wants to say that it was he
who helped him. These are not the kinds of people from whom we should hear
of the topmost paramahamsa, Srila Prabhupada.
“...glorification of the
Lord [from the lips of a nondevotee] is simply a vibration of material
sound.”
S.B. 4.20.24
Avaisnava mukhodgirnam...Milk
touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects. Similarly,
talks about Krsna given by an avaisnava are also poisonous ...when a
pure Vaisnava speaks, he speaks perfectly. How is this? His speech is
managed by Krsna Himself from within the heart...Non devotees want to
ask the Supreme Lord for sense gratification; therefore, non devotees
come under the influence of maya, the illusory energy. A devotee,
however, is directed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and comes
under the influence of yogamaya. Consequently, there is a gulf of
difference between statements made by a devotee and those made big a
non devotee.”
C.C. Madhya 8.200
“Unless one is empowered
by the higher authorities or advanced devotees, one cannot write
transcendental literature, for all such literature must be above
suspicion or, in other words, it must have none of the defects of the
conditioned souls, namely mistakes, illusions, cheating and imperfect
sense perceptions. The words of Krsna and the disciplic succession
that carries the order of Krsna are actually authoritative.”
S.B. 4.20.24
Even the most significant
events are difficult to remember clearly, when such incidents occurred
anywhere from five to fifty years previously. KaliYuga is notorious for
bad memories.
If we want to understand His
Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, we can do so properly by hearing from he
himself.
“There is nothing new to
be said. Whatever I had to say, I have already said in my books. Now
you must all try to understand it and continue with your endeavors.
Whether I am present or not present doesn't matter.”
Srila Prabhupada, BTG, Vol.
13, 12
“I'll always be with you
in my books and my orders. I'll always be with you in that way.”
Ibid.
There appeared in an old BTG a
photo article entitled, "Let Krsna Speak For Himself."
Similarly, we should "Let Srila Prabhupada Speak For Himself."
The Lilamrta claims that Srila
Prabhupada was sometimes materially fascinated by the material energy.
First, as a child...
“Sounds and sights of
the hackneys, with their large wheels spinning over the road, caught
the fascinated attention of [Srila Prabhupada & the other child].”
Lilamrta I, p.3
The sastra, however, informs
us that the nityasiddha devotee, even in childhood, is never enamored by
matter, because he is always absorbed in rasa with Krsna.
“A nityasiddha never
forgets the service of the Lord. He is always engaged, even from
childhood, in worshipping the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
C.C. Madhya 3.167
“For a small boy to give
up playing is impossible, but Prahlad Maharaja, being situated in
first class devotional service, was always absorbed in a trance of
Krsna consciousness. Just as a materialistic person is always absorbed
in thoughts of material gain, a mahabhagavata, like Prahlada Maharaja,
is always absorbed in thoughts of Krsna.”
S.B. 7.4.37
Regarding His Divine Grace's
later life, the Lilamrta claims:
“He sat on the couch
while I swept with the vacuum cleaner, and he was so interested in
that ...”
Lilamrta II, p. 16
The sastra, however, informs
us that the pure devotee is not interested in matter like the mundane man,
because he sees the material varieties as products of nescience, with no
real value.
“When one is Krsna
conscious, he can realize that material existence, whether one is
awake or dreaming, is nothing but a dream and has no factual value.”
S.B. 7.7.27
“Being a liberated soul
and completely learned, he sees all material varieties as meaningless
because their basic principle is nescience...being in such a position,
he sees the material world with a different vision.”
S.B. 4.16.19
“Thus, the devotees of
the Lord are never enchanted by the glare of materialistic life, and
they live impartially, unattached to the objects of the false,
illusory way of life.”
S.B. 1.19.20
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