Bhagavad Gita

I sat in my room in the temple building in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, taking prasadam and listening to a bhajan by devotees downstairs in the temple itself. “That’s such a sweet bhajan” I said to a devotee “and it’s been going on for hours.” “Yes, Maharaja,” he said. “The Macedonians are very musically inclined, we love to sing and play musical instruments. We even have our own form of a tamboura here, a four-stringed instrument. Devotees use it often in bhajans.” Two hours later I left for the square in the city center with a group of twenty devotees. The square, renovated in recent years, is a popular place for the people of Skopje to spend warm summer evenings sitting, talking, and eating in nearby restaurants. As we approached the square I saw the huge statue of Alexander the Great.
“That statue is quite impressive,” I said to a devotee.
“Yes,” he replied. “Alexander the Great was from Macedonia. He left here to conquer the world, he built a huge empire, but it was too much to manage, and he never returned home.” I had been reading TKG’s Diary by Tamal Krsna Goswami while traveling, and just that morning I had come across a passage where Goswami quoted Srila Prabhupada on the same point: “Srila Prabhupada actually said that Alexander the Great could not maintain his large empire,” I said.
Prabhupada said : Suppose I conquer Bombay and then Karachi, but in the meantime Bombay is lost? That was Alexander the Great : too much expansion.’ “Srila Prabhupada said it was for this reason that he was emphasizing the importance of book selling over opening temples. He said, ‘Don’t make me Alexander the Great in my lifetime. People have recognized I am great. Don’t make me small.” The devotee, pointed to the other side of the square. “There’s also another important landmark over there,” he said. “It’s the home of Mother Teresa, who was born here in 1910 and left at seventeen to go to India as a missionary. The house is now a national memorial.”

 
An Interview in London with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, from Back To Godhead, Vol. I, No. 55, 1973.

Prabhupada: Are you under the impression that spiritual life means voluntarily accepting poverty? Do you think like that?
Interviewer: Well, I don’t, but I only thought that

Interview To Srila Prabhupada

 
Prabhupada: A poverty-stricken man may be most materialistic, and a wealthy man may be very spiritual. Spiritual life does not depend on one’s living in poverty or wealth. Spiritual life is different. Consider Arjuna, for instance. Arjuna was a member of the royal family, and in Bhagavad-gita Sri Krsna said: evam parampara praptam imam rajarsayo viduh: “This supreme science was received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” (Bg. 4.2) In the past all kings who were saintly understood this spiritual life. Therefore spiritual life does not depend on one’s material condition. A person may be a king or a pauper whatever his material condition may be, he can still understand spiritual life. Generally people do not know what spiritual life is, and they unnecessarily criticize us because they have no knowledge of spiritual life. If I asked you whether you. know what spiritual life is, how would you answer?

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There were four friends named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
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One day there was a service to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
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Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it.
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Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
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Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
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It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
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It Is For the Greatest Scholar, It Is For the Innocent Boy… Part Two
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By HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Back To Godhead Vol. 01, No. 44, Nov 1st, 1971.
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Q: Your Grace, how does one attain Krsna consciousness?
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Srila Prabhupada: There are several stages in attainment of Krsna consciousness. The first stage is faith, or inquisitiveness just as you have come to me now, this is the first stage. Due to some inquisitiveness or some faith in the people who are teaching Krsna consciousness, who have said that it is very helpful, one comes to the first stage. One should be inquisitive and have a little faith, or a little respect for Krsna consciousness: “It is very nice. They are speaking and working.” This is the first stage.
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If you find that Krsna consciousness is interesting, then the second stage is to associate with us, to understand more. We have class in the morning daily, but for the public, we are holding classes in the evening from 7 to 9 p.m. at our temple, discussing this book, holding kirtana, distributing prasadam. There is no labor you simply come and hear songs, dance, take offered food, hear philosophy and think, and then you go home. We don’t ask anyone to press his nose, to hold his head down or to exercise in a certain way. It is better that people automatically want to dance with us. Although dancing is labor, they like it. So, the next stage is to associate with us, to understand more and more. This is the second stage The first stage is to have faith and respect, and the second stage is association.
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If by association, one becomes serious about becoming a regular student, that is the third stage. That is called initiation. In that stage students are guided by me; they follow strictly. For the initiated students there are four principles: we don’t allow students to take any foodstuffs which are not offered to the Deity. So we offer foodstuffs to the Deity: grains, fruits, flowers and milk products, but no meat, no eggs, or anything of that sort. Perhaps you have participated in our love feast on Sundays. Yes?
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On the 16th of February 1957 a meeting was held at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to discuss the above subject matter. Distinguished gentlemen from different categories spoke on the subject, but practically nobody could give us a definite direction as to what actually the matter was that was troubling the whole situation.

 
 
This feeling of pinching in the existence of our life is a good sign for progress. It is an urge for enquiry what is the wrong in the world that gives us trouble? This trouble is not a new thing but it is a matter of permanent settlement in all the days of life, but it may be felt at different times in different colour. The troubles are in varieties in relation with our mind and body, in relation with our dealings with other living beings and in relation with natural phenomenons.
 

“I recited all these verses like the blowing wind, how could you remember even one of them” The Lord replied “By the grace of the Lord someone may become a great poet and similarly by his grace someone may become a great sruti dhara, who can memorise anything immediately”.
So in this connection sruti dhara is a very important word. Sruti means hearing and dhara means one who can capture. Formerly at the start of kali yuga, almost everyone, espescially intelligent men, the brahmans, were sruti dharas. As soon as the student heard any of the Vedic wisdom from his teacher, he would remember it forever. There was no need to refer to books, therefore in those days there were no written books.
So the spiritual master delivered the Vedic hymns, along with their explanations, and the student remembered them forever. To become a sruti dhara, one who can remember by hearing is a great achievement for a student. In Bhagavad Gita Krsna says “Note that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of my splendour”. As soon as we find anything extraordinary, we should know this is the special grace of the Lord.