Become a Devotee of The Devotees 18th March - Lokanath Swami Maharaj Transcripts

BECOME A DEVOTEE OF THE DEVOTEES!

Our score for today is 397. Just a shortfall of three or four to cross the mark of 400. We have to double the number in next hundred days.

Chant together. A family that chants together, stays together. By chanting together we develop bonds of love with the Lord and with the devotees of the Lord. Remember we don’t just wish to have loving dealings with the Lord. No! No! That’s not complete. We must also have loving dealings with the devotees. You love the Lord and be friendly with the devotees. prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā (SB 11.46) is what the sastras say. We love the Lord. Have friendly relationships with devotees. We express our kindness and compassion to the faithful newcomers. We avoid or stay away from those offending Visnu and Vaisnavas. We keep a distance from those who are anti-Visnu, anti-devotees. As we chant our goal is to revive our dormant Krishna consciousness. To become Krishna conscious also includes becoming devotee conscious. You love the Lord, but do you hate the devotees, ‘Oh! I hate him, I hate her.’ If you are in this state then you lack Krishna consciousness , you are only partially Krishna conscious. If you love the Lord and hate the devotees, that means something is lacking. Not only do you have to be friendly, but you have to serve the devotees as well.

I know we’re very expert in offending the devotees. Very expert! Naturally we offend Vaisnavas. But that is in fact unnatural materially natural ,spiritually unnatural. We have to be friendly with devotees. Gadadhar Pandit has defined the friend as – Friend in need is friend indeed. We are in need of help at the time of japa and otherwise. Those devotees who help fulfil our need we call friends. We need help. Help! Help! Help! Help that we need to become Krishna conscious or attain Krsna, to go back to Krsna. From where are we going to get that assistance? It’s from devotees or through devotees. We have to search assistance that help from devotees of ISKCON. Those devotees who are around you, in your temple, in your house, in devotee society around you only those will help you. Ultimately when we are saying,Help! Krsna help! Krsna will help us. Our Guru will naturally help us. Krsna or Guru is going to help you through some devotee around you. Maybe he is sending a helping hand to you. We are not independent. We are dependent. There is also term called interdependent where we depend upon each other. With this we could talk about cooperation. What kind of operation? Cooperation. Co means two. We accept help, gifts , whatever. All the time that’s not the best policy, we also have to give. Take help, give help. So this again reminds us of

dadāti pratigṛhṇāti
guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati
bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva
ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam (Nectar of Instruction – verse 4)

Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one’s mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasāda and offering prasāda are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another.

Our acaryas have given this formula to develop loving bonds with other Vaisnavas wherever you are. There are Vaisnavas around you. So how to deal with them? There is give and take. Give gifts , exchange gifts, exchange your hearts. Guhyam – something that is confidential. Share with devotees. They should also share that intern with you. bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva. You share prasada with them and you also honour prasada from them. Today is the big prasada distribution program that ISKCON is conducting at Santipur. Advaita Acharya’s place. Hundreds or we can say thousands of ISKCON devotees are arriving today at Santipur and they will be distributing some forty to fifty thousand prasada plates. Anyone who receives or honours prasada at Santipur , receives love of Godhead. Our religion is also known as the kitchen religion. We cook, offer it to the Lord and then we share it with the devotees. These are priti- laxanam or loving dealings.

Before we stop , I would like to congratulate Muralimohan Prabhuji from Ahmedabad, for conducting one day Padayatra yesterday. They chanted Hare Krishna throughout the long walk. I don’t know where it was, somewhere around Ahmedabad. There was lots of book distribution also. Hundreds of Srila Prabhupada books were distributed. At the end they had some picnic. They honoured prasada and had a good time. They did –

dadāti pratigṛhṇāti
guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati
bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva

Thank you Muralimohan Prabhu. Others could also take it up and arrange one day Padayatras. Jaybhadhra mataji also arranged one day Padayatra in Amaravati. All young girls of ISKCON IGF took to the roads. We congratulate them also.

I am here in Nagpur. I will be here till Gaur Purnima. I will celebrate Gaur Purnima here. There will be inauguration of ISKCON’s Radha Gopinath temple in Nagpur. Construction will be inaugurated on Gaur Purnima day. It’s an auspicious day. It’s the appearance day of Gauranga Mahaprabhu. If you all can come , you are welcome. Sundarlal Prabhuji is doing four days Gaur-katha in Mauritius. In US they celebrated Gaur Purnima two days back, on the weekend as Gaur Purnima is falling on a week day. Outside India they do like that. So Gaur Purnima season has started. Be prepared. Gauranga! Gauranga! This is the time to be absorbed in Gauranga by hearing Gaur katha. Many temples organise many days of Gaur Katha a few days before Gaur Purnima. Go on listening to Gaur Katha and go on doing Krsna Kirtana and prepare for the grand celebrations of Gaur Purnima which is just in a few days. Develop your love for the Lord and be friendly with devotees. If there are few devotees that you have been offending, if that was your program, you can stop your program of offending devotees. Stop that nonsense! Be friendly with devotees. See how you can serve them and not offend them anymore. amanina manden, if you could do that Gauranga – Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu will be so pleased. Krsna has claimed, “If you say ‘I am your devotee’ No!No! You are not my devotee. If you say , ‘ I am devotee of your devotee ‘ then He will say,’ Yes! now you are my devotee.’ So try to understand what is on Krsna’s mind. How you can become a devotee of Krsna. By becoming a devotee of the devotees. Then the Lord will bless you and be very pleased with you. Make that kind of offering to Caitanya Mahaprabhu for Gaur Purnima. Become a devotee of the devotees of the Lord. So we will stop here and will meet again.

Hare Krishna!