Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
March 19-20, 2010
March 19th
Isa dasa: Srila Gurudeva, your daughter Sudevi from Alachua said she was told that you said it is okay to read the books of Ananta dasa Babaji. I am asking for her if this is true.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: I have not said that.
Paramananda dasa (of Ireland): The ahankara (false ego) of the baddha-jiva is making the body dance by the vibration of the ahankara. By guru’s mercy, can we rise above this?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: If you practice the principles of bhakti, the rest will be done by Gurudeva. If you are not practicing, Gurudeva will not give the spiritual result. He can do so, but he will not.
Isa dasa: Is it possible to make advancement by doing service without doing harinama japa?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: No. There will be no fruit.
Rohininandana dasa: By a sadhaka’s chanting, he cannot achieve prema-bhakti in this body. The maximum he can achieve in this body is bhava-bhakti. You told us that when he achieves bhava, vastu-siddhi is still very far away. When he leaves his body, he will go to that planet where Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and the Gosvamis are performing their sadhana.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: (to Padmanabha Maharaja) Have you heard me answer this before?
Sripad Padmanabha Maharaja: Yes.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You can answer.
Sripad Padmanabha Maharaja: It is just as you have stated, Srila Gurudeva has said that when the jiva comes to bhavavasta (bhava-bhakti) and becomes further qualified, then Yogamaya transfers him to other universes, where these eternal associates of Gauranga Mahaprabhu – like Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, and the Six Gosvamis – are performing their pastimes. In this way, the jivas receive the opportunity to have their direct association, to hear from them, and to serve them. In this way they attain the necessary samskaras (impressions on the heart) and qualification to directly associate with Gauranga Mahaprabhu in a future birth. [Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja indicates twice, as the discussion progresses, that this explanation is not correct. –ed]
Rohininandana dasa: My next question is this: Do we see the same form that we see now? For example, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is a little heavyset and Srila Gaura-kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja is hunched over. Every day we perform arati to them, and it is the vision from their photos that comes in our heart.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You will hear their katha, and you will follow them. Then you will come at the time of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and others. Then, gradually, you will come to Mahaprabhu. In this way, when you will reach up to Mahaprabhu, you will have svarupa-siddhi.
Brajanath dasa: He is asking if we will see the same form as we do now, in their picture.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: He will have the same features. He will not have a proxy (a person empowered to stand in for another). He will personally be there.
Rohininandana dasa: Srila Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja will be there?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: That is what I am saying. He himself will be there.
Isa dasa: Srila Gurudeva, you are the sum total of our guru-parampara – Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Srila Lokanatha Gosvami, etc. You are giving everything that they are giving us. So, why can’t we take all of this from you? Why do we have to take so many births?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: It is necessary for you to take many births. When a devotee attains the stage of svarupa-siddhi, there will be no more births.
Isa dasa: How high can we go by your association?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You can progress to an advanced stage of bhakti by this association, and by hearing daily. You will progressively graduate to higher stages by the association of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, and then Mahaprabhu.
Isa dasa: You can give us everything Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura can give us.
Brajanath dasa: Gurudeva, you were telling that if we are lucky in this life, and if we are performing sadhana-bhajana, we will take our next birth in the association of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to receive more training, because we have not attained the level of rati, or asakti. So they will help us further and further.
Isa prabhu is saying that you can give us everything, and I am telling him that our container is not so good.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Yes, you are not able to take what I am giving. Can you take it?
Isa dasa: Not yet, but I am begging, begging, begging for your mercy.
Sripad Srauti Maharaja: Our container is full of holes.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: At present you are not able to receive much. I give according to your stage. There are so many things I am telling which you cannot follow.
Rohininandana dasa: Yesterday, Brajanath prabhu was telling me that in Vrndavana ISKCON they are playing Srila Prabhupada’s lecture, with a microphone in front of his murti. Everyone sits and watches, as if his murti is speaking. Is the siddhanta all right?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: It is not all right.
Rohininandana dasa: But you have said he is eternally present.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: He is eternally present; that is true. But there is no need to do this. What is the necessity to put the microphone in front of his mouth? What is necessary is that we repeat his instructions to each other and to others. Will he speak from the murti what is on his mind at the moment? Will he speak, or not? Why this imitation?
March 20:
Acyutananda dasa: Can you give us an instruction on how to stop being greedy with food?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You can control your tongue by chanting the holy name. Don’t give it any time to engage in chatter-patter.
Sripad Srauti Maharaja: A devotee asked me through internet how to develop firm attachment to Krsna.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: By always chanting the holy name and having attachment for Vaisnavas and Sri Guru.
Devotee: What should be our meditation while preaching and distributing books?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You can meditate that you are doing good for others. Always be absorbed in that service and in chanting.
Sripad Damodara Maharaja: Is there any relation between the form of Gurudeva that we see in this world and his form in Mahaprabhu’s lila?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You can vividly see his form here; that is clear. In aprakata-lila (the pastimes which take place in the spiritual world) it will be any good form…
Sripad Madhava Maharaja: Young form.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: …very qualified, very beautiful; an attractive gopi lady.
Sripad Damodara Maharaja: That is in Krsna’s lila. What about in Mahaprabhu-lila?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Like others in His lila.
Sripad Madhava Maharaja: Young.
Sripad Nemi Maharaja: “Sri Krsna-Caitanya Radha-Krsna nahe anya.” Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna with the mood of Radharani. Does that mean Radharani is fully present with Him? That is why it is stated, “Radha-Krsna”?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Yes, She is fully present in Mahaprabhu.
Devotee: What are the symptoms of a fully surrendered soul?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: He will always be happy. He knows that, “I am always with my Prabhu.” He has no fear at all.
Tamal Krsna dasa: Yesterday, you were discussing that if we are fortunate, then in future lives we may go to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Srila Rupa/Raghunatha Gosvamis, and so on for our training to increase.
You have explained that the relationship between guru and disciple is eternal; but also that guru-tattva is one. So, I have some doubt: When perfection comes, do we have an eternal relationship with you specifically? Will we always be under your guidance and in your association in Gaura-lila and Krsna-lila?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Guru is akanda-tattva. Nityananda Prabhu and Baladeva Prabhu are akanda-tattva. Therefore, guru can be seen in them. Do you understand?
Tamal Krsna dasa: But my question, my fear…
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You can see akanda-guru-tattva.
Tamal Krsna dasa: But your personality is unique and wonderful. Will we always have the fortune of your personal connection?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: You should think like that.
Acyutananda dasa: When chanting harinama, if any realization comes, how will we know if it comes from guru and Krsna, or it is just our own speculation?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: If you are genuinely sincere, you will know, otherwise not. It depends on you – how sincere you are and how you have surrendered (atma-samarpana).
Madhava dasa: How do we chant the holy names? Do we chant silently or loudly?
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: Both. You can also chant without mala.
Sripad Madhava Maharaja: For example, you may be busy, or your hand may be occupied.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: First we are going to China?
Brajanath dasa: First Miami, Florida, to Raghunatha prabhu’s house.
Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: By what way?
Sripad Madhava Maharaja: Through Germany.
Gurudeva mentions China so often.
Brajanath dasa: We will go to China later in the year. When we go to Hawaii for your Vyasa-puja, we can stop in China on the way.
[*ENDNOTE:
Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami thus describes the competition between Sri Krsna and the gopis, which ended in a draw. Srila Kaviraja Gosvami ‘whistled’ and gave judgment that neither side had won. Actually, we Gaudiya Vaisnavas do not want this. We want the whistle to be blown to indicate Srimati Radhika’s victory. Radhika will be so happy, and we will applaud and celebrate.
This is the real mood of Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, and Srila Rupa Gosvami. If Srimati Lalita-devi is the mediator in a game, she will blow the whistle to say it is a draw, that no one has been defeated. But Sri Rüpa Manjari will whistle to announce that Srimati Radhika has defeated Krsna.
It is Sri Krsna Himself who will experience the greatest pleasure when He is defeated, although His friends like Madhumangala and others will not be pleased at all. Kundalata-gopi will also be sorry that Krsna has lost, and Dhanistha-gopi may even faint. Krsna’s defeat causes such friends great distress, and His victory fills them with joy. (taken from Srila Narayana Gosvami’s book entitled “Gopi-gita.”)
