Practice and propagate Krishna consciousness
Venue: Germany
Dated: 25 th April 2016

As I entered this temple this morning I had this realization that this place is out of this world. Or it is explained, in this world but not of this world! Do you get that? In this world but not of this world. It doesn’t belong to this world. How peaceful and hopefully blissful also this place is! This is all because of Radha Madan Mohan’s presence here. Of course devotees are here, kirtana is here, prasadam is here. There are cows? No? Goloka without cows! Go- Loka, its loka where the cows reside. So whether Gokula or Goloka, cow centered! It’s too cold or why no cows? Hungary is cold country but they have palace for the cows. The building where cows stay is very opulent, palatial. Czech Republic, we were there few days ago there is farm and cows.

So devotees and kirtana, festival, prasad, but this is all Radha Madan Mohan centered or Radha Madan Mohan related. If no Radha Madan Mohan then no devotees of Radha Madan Mohan, no kirtana of Radha Madan Mohan, no festivities. He is the origin.

Madan Mohan is the deity, is Lord in our disciplic succession. He is sambandha vigraha. Sambandha- abhidheya -prayojana, I am sure you have heard these terms. So everything begins with sambandha, relationship. So Lord in the form of Radha Madan Mohan, from Him begins everything. Our relationship begins with Madan Mohan or Krishna as Madan Mohan. Radha Madan Mohan kI Jai!

We will talk little more about Madan Mohan. And that, lot of places there is Madan Mohan temples. Washington DC also has Radha Madan Mohan. Where else? Of course Vrindavan you would say, Karauli you would say. Any other Radha
Madan Mohan? Italy has, Silicon Valley has Madan Mohan.

Srila Sanatan Goswami ki Jai! Sanatan Prana dhan hai! So we are in Goloka. There is Radha Golokananda deity in, this prabhuji is sitting here is from Mauritius. He now travels everywhere, Sundaralal Gopal. They also have deity of Radha Golokananda.

Jai Radhe Jai Krishna Jai Vrindavan………… (kirtana) We have relationship. First He exists, Lord exists and then everything else comes from Him, emanates from Him and then exists or continues to exist. Not that once upon a time there were just devotees but not Lord. Is that possible? There was just existence; there was just world, there was creation but no creator. This is not possible. From whom everything emanates? That is aham sarvasya prabhavah.

Lord says,

aham sarvasya prabhavah mattah sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam budha bhava-samanvitah

With this understanding that aham, aham means I, that I is not I or you ‘I’, there are so many I here. But the original I, speaker who is original speaker here? Of course, you could close your eyes and say that aham refers to Krishna and Krishna is speaking aham sarvasya prabhavah, I am the source of everything. This is supposed to be the ABC of the spiritual life. You are advanced devotees. You don’t need to hear this. Or if you hear, this solidifies your understanding. We need to repeat the truth and let it get solidly established.

As we hear more, more convinced we become. So as we are sitting here at Radha Madan Mohan temple, we are also compiled to talk like this, opening topic. He exists, Madan Mohan sambandha jnana and everything else, devotees exist, prasadam exists, cows exist or whatever that exists has origin in Him. And He is the person of course. Supreme Personality of Godhead! He is Supreme Personality.

Although that is not a new thing, but Srila Prabhupada presented ‘the eternal thing’, Personality of Godhead, Supreme Personality of Godhead! He would say, Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because this Personality was ignored in the world wide, so much stress on impersonality of God. That is why we,

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa sunyavadi pascatya desa tarine

Srila Prabhupada did prachar. Do you understand prachar? Preaching! Gaur vani, the message, shabda, vani, Gaurang Mahaprabhus vani’s prachar. Pascatya desa tarine, he did that in pascatya desa, western countries. Tarine, he
saved people, rescued them from this onslaught, this attack of nirvisesa sunyavadi. Nirvisesa-vad means, nir means no, visesa mean nothing special, no features, no details, no form, no qualities, no activities, no abode nothing. This is called as nirvisesa. This is same as nirakar, nirguna. Have you heard these terms? Guna means qualities. Nirguna, lot of propagation! Not only in western world, in India, lot of Mayavad. So this preaching of nirakar, akar means form, nirakar means God has no form, and nirguna means He has no qualities. And this put together, no form, no qualities, no name, no devotees, no prasad, no abode, no Golok dhama, just merge in Brahman, Brahmajyoti, that’s the prayojana, final achievement.

So Prabhupada was preaching the teachings of Gauranga Mahaprabhu. He began with western world. That is why his pranam mantra, Srila Prabhupada’s pranam mantra,

nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya

This pranam mantra was compiled or composed while Srila Prabhupada has just started preaching in the west. And he was still preaching in the west. He had not gone to the east or to India side. So this pranam mantra says, he saved people of western world from nirvisesa, impersonalism and voidism, sunyavad. Sunya means zero. Buddha had preached sunyavad, voidism. Then later on Sankaracharya was ordered, he said I was ordered to do this preaching of impersonalism. ‘So I preached mayavadam asat sastram, the false scripture mayavad I propagated.

kalau brahmana-murtina

In kaliyuga in the family of brahmana I would be appearing,’ he was talking with Parvati at one place. I will appear in kaliyuga as son of a Brahmin and I will propagate impersonalism.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki …..jai

The message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and everything of Mahaprabhu, Srila Prabhupada propagated. Beginning with the western world and then he went to the eastern world and India also. In 1971 he came to India. He had gone there once before, I think 68, 69, when he was ill. He had gone back to Radha Damodar temple and he was staying there with only one American disciple. But then when he got better then he went back to the west, continued and then came back in 71. And then he was spending 6 months in west and 6 months in India, like that was the formula. And he saved us, saved me from this sunyavada and nirvisesavad, voidism.

There are so many different vad. Vad means ism, communism, capitalist, all these isms. Latest is individualism, did you hear that? Individual, each one of us, we have our own ism, our own philosophy or our own way of thinking, individualism. So many kinds of isms or materialism which is rampant all over the world. So, many isms were around there, predominant is voidism, impersonalism. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, Lord personally, that Madan Mohan personally appeared. This makes the connection with Madan Mohan. So Madan Mohan personally appeared. Or Govinda personally appeared; Gopinath personally appeared in the form of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu 528 years ago! We just had Gaur pornima 528 th . And Caitanya Mahaprabhu, dharma samsthapanarthaya, sri radhar bhave ebe gaura avatar, He appeared in Radha bhava. Radha bhava dyuti suvalitam naumi krsna svarupam Taking the mood of Radharani and complexion of Radharani, He appeared.

hare krishna nam gaur karila pracar
And He propagate Hare Krishna nama all over India.

And then Prabhupada says, the propagation of Krishna consciousness, propagation of Hare Krishna Mahamantra, He left that up to ISKCON. He wanted ISKCON to do propagation outside of India. Overseas propagation, He left that up to International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Did you get that point? He could have propagated. But He did not propagate. Mahaprabhu did not cross the boundary of India. Six years He was travelling vigorously preaching but just within India. And He also predicted that the Holy Name, My name will be chanted in every town, every village of this planet. But nothing much was happening, 400 years, 450 years passed and Holy name was just being chanted in Mayapur and Jagannath Puri, some places in Bengal, some places in Orissa, Radhakunda and that’s all. So people were wondering, what does this mean? Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction is it going to come true or just a false prediction, false promise? Never to be realized? There were debates between scholars and what about this prediction, what about this?

And then our paramapara was observing Krishna consciousness, protecting, practicing, realizing and keeping it alive. But then Bhakti Vinoda Thakur and Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, they took some leading roles, setting the scene so that Krishna consciousness would spread all over, Mahamantra would spread all over. So Bhakti Vinoda Thakur’s contribution in mission is very significant. And so Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and he was the one who asked Prabhupada, ‘You! You seem to be very intelligent.’ God knows how he found out. He said, ‘you seem to be intelligent young man.’ Prabhupada had come and he just had offered his obeisances and he had not yet sat properly on his seat or on floor and there comes, ‘you preach in English language, Krishna consciousness.’ Then Prabhupada was doing life time preparation. Instruction came in 1922 and 1932-33 he took initiation. And in 1944 he started publication of Back to Godhead. Eleven years later in 1955 he became vanaprastha, left the family. After 11 years, 55 plus 11, 66 he became founder acharya of International Society for Krishna Consciousness. And he had only eleven years, in 77 he departed. In every 11 years significant was happening in Prabhupada’s life time. And leaving the

responsibility unto his followers to propagate, practice and propagate Krishna consciousness. So this year, and that’s the point I am leading up to, this year is ‘Golden jubilee year of ISKCON’ 50 years completed. 50 years of victorious preaching all over the planet. So the world is getting ready. World got ready in fact on the 1 st Jan. 1 st Jan 2016 was the first day of celebration. Celebration is not just for one day or one week or one month, but for the entire year. From day one till 31 st Dec 2016 through out the year there will be celebration. And ISKCON temples around the world are encouraged to celebrate. Everything you do this year has to be done on grander scale. Janmastami celebration or Ratha Yatra festival you do or what else you do? Book distribution that you do, Harinam, world holy name week, have you heard world holy name week is going on from Prabhupada’s centennial days.

From 1996 we started ‘world Holy name day’ and then it became ‘world Holy name week’. The whole world gets in chanting, propagation of Hare Krishna. Every single devotee has to distribute 50 books this year. Whether they are cook or manager or pujari or whatever is your position or post, your quota is 50 books to distribute this year. You get that announcement before or I am breaking that here? Some temples I was travelling to, I was in Radhadesh. There is big sign in there reminding 50 books to be distributed by every single devotee. This is kind of GBC resolution or GBC encouraging also. And some temples decided, we will make five more full time devotees this year, Jai! What Jai, I am not going to do it? I know some temples where I was there and there they were saying, five more full time devotees will move to brahmachari ashram this year.

Some place they did youth festival. There target was 5 or 10000. But in Pune last month, there were 15,000 youth coming to ‘Hare Krishna youth festival’, Golden jubilee celebration youth festival. Kanpur arranged Kanpur is another city in Uttar Pradesh; just two weeks ago they had 6000 youth coming to youth festival. And some temples decided we organize one ratha yatra, but this year we will have five ratha yatras in our town. And some temples will distribute 50,000 books this year. Like that five, five hundred, five thousand, five hundred thousand, five million, these are the numbers. Some temples will collect five crore rupees this year and will put them in fix deposit.

And some temple’s projects are incomplete. They want to complete projects this year. In Pandharpur, we are building Prabhupada ghat, big big memorial ghat on banks of Chandrabhaga river, sacred river in Maharashtra. There Lord is worshiped as Vitthala Panduranga. That is very major ghat. That is dedicated as Prabhupada memorial, the Prabhupada ghat in Pandharpur. So every temple is taking some pledges. They get together and encouraging. In India temples are doing and in the West also. So they could decide what they would like to do this year to have a celebration. Not just festivity but some activity, some expansion program, some revival, not just survival. And not just revive but thrive how could we thrive, not just revive and survive. No! Thriving, there is thriving community, like that.

So see what you could do this year its special year, for the pleasure of Radha Madan Mohan, for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada do something wonderful. I used to say to American devotees, ‘Oh, You are American. You have to do something wonderful. Otherwise what is the good of being American if you don’t do something wonderful?’ So what good is being Germans if you don’t do something extraordinary this year?

Madan Mohan, this deity was installed by great grandson of Sri Krishna. Krishna is person. He was there and we cannot say just in past. ‘He was’, could imply He isn’t there now. The prakat lila, manifest lila, 5000 years before He was there. If you had a camera and you would there, you could have taken picture. He is standing, in 3 dimensional, playing His flute. So His great grandson, Pradyumna is Lord’s son, Pradyumna’s son is Aniruddha, Aniruddha’s son is Vajranabha. When Sri Krishna sva dhamopagate, when He returned to His own abode then Vrindavan was kind of became deserted. That was experience of Vajranabh. He was king of Mathura. While Parikshit maharaj was emperor of the world, he was stationed that Hastinapur, Hastinapur was capital of Parikshit maharaj. When Krishna departed then Pandavas get the news and they retired timely. And then they had enthroned king Parikshit as the successor in Hastinapur. And then Vajranabh was handling Mathura kingdom. And then it becomes long. How to make a long story short is always hard.

The 16,000 queens of the Lord were now under the care of Vajranabha. Arjuna had taken their charge. Krishna wanted Arjuna to take care and protect them and he was bringing them to Hastinapur and they end up in Mathura and they were under the care of Vajranabha and they were feeling lonely and Vrindavan was not thriving any more, not surviving. Now where is everything? We heard so much, this pastime and that pastime happening in Vrindavan. But we don’t see nothing, nothing is happening here. So that time, one time king Parikshit had travelled to Mathura and then Vajranabha and king Parikshit were having little talk, ista-gosti. How is everything? Oh everything is fine but my mothers, grand mothers they are feeling vacant, there is nothing here. How to pacify them?

So they consulted Shandilya Rsi, like Garga Rsi, another is Shandilya Rsi. He was family priest of Nanda maharaj. Nanda maharaj was not there but he was there and he advised, ‘you install deities of Krishna all over Braja mandal. You name different villages, town corresponding to Krishna’s pastimes in that area. And let people from near by towns come and reside there or travel and do parikramas in Braja mandal. Wherever Lord Krishna had Julan yatra, swing festival, you could build the swings.’ We have seen some places in Braja Mandal, you see this swing. Here also outside, hanging from the tree. Where there is Radha Kunda or some kunda I saw a swing. ‘So you build swings. Wherever He performed rasa dance, you build round places and throne for Radha Krishna to sit. Reminding everyone of this pastime, that pastime, install deities. So that time some dozen deities were installed by Vajranabha. This is 5000 years ago, soon after the Lord’s departure. And Radha Madan Mohan was one of the first deities installed by Vajranabha. Uttara the mother of Parikshit maharaj, she was consulted while making the deities. How the deity should look like? Deity should look just like Krishna. And she had seen Krishna. Everyone else from Krishna’s time they all had returned or entered in Lord’s pastime or returned with the Lord, returned to His abode, but there were few folks still around. Uttara was one of them. So from her memory, she was giving guidance, how the face should look like and how hands and fingers and feet and waist and chest and the carving was being done accordingly. But it was observed that Radha Madan Mohan from waist down to feet, He resembled Krishna. The deity of Radha Gopinath resembled Krishna from waist up to the chest. And Radha Govinda’s face resembled Krishna’s face. Between these 3 deities Radha Govinda, Radha Madan Mohan and Radha Gopinath, the full form of the Lord was carved resembling the original form of the Lord. So all that Govind dev in Vrindavan, the famous deity in Vrindavan called Govinda dev, Haridev, Baladev, who else? Keshav dev, these deities, Keshav dev in Mathura, Baladev in Dauji, Haridev in Govardhan, Govinda dev in Vrindavan, they all are installed by Vajranabha.

So that’s 5000 years ago and these deities had gone through this origin and that kingdom and that attack, some favorable, some anti Krishna consciousness and deities were hidden and then discovered and installed again. Then some Muslim attack, Aurangzeb, in Agra, deities were thrown in kundas and here there. So Radha Madan Mohan also like other deities, they go through all this ups and down but although lot is not known, we know more, kind of beginning from Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s days.

Advaita Acharya also visited Vrindavan and he discovered Madan Mohan from where He was hidden. This place is called Advaita vat in Vrindavan where he found Madan Mohan and then the worship of Madan Mohan was again started, inaugurated. At that time Sanatan Goswami, different Goswamis were arriving in Vrindavan. And Sanatan Goswami arrived. The deity of Madan Mohan was in Mahavan or in Gokula, present day Gokula and Madan Mohan was worshiped by Sanatan Goswami there. And the name Madan Gopal that time. Madan Mohan that name became more popular little later. He was known as Madan Gopal. In Gokula, Sanatan Goswami he found a boy who looked just like Krishna. He was playing at the banks of Jamuna in that sand there. As he goes near, the boy starts running and Sanatan Goswami was going after him and running and running the boy entered the temple and Sanatan follows him there, but once in the temple, he could not find him any more because that deity was playing. That deity of that temple had come out and was playing at the banks of Jamuna. Sanatan Goswami noticed and He was following and there was just deity, no Gopal or Krishna.

Later on deity was shifted to where the present day Madan Mohan temple is there. And Sanatan Goswami was just residing in Bhajan kutir. That is big enough place for one person to reside. May be little place for japa mala, he could keep japa mala and few scriptures and the whole kutir is full. Only that size kutir. Then he got indication that the deity wanted to stay in kutir with him. So Sanatan Goswami moved deity right inside the kutir and there was deity and himself residing in the small kutir at where present day there is Radha Madan Mohan. Condition was very austere. Sanatan Goswami was very elderly. Although one time he was big minister at Husain Shah’s kingdom, but this Goswami,

tyaktva turnam asesha-mandala-pati-srenim sada tuccha-vat
bhutva dina-ganesakau karunaya kaupina-kanthasritau (Shad Goswami Astakam)

He had given up everything, all the opulence. Kaupina- kanthasritau, just wearing a loin cloth and some blanket kind of thing to down or sleep at night. So what he was offering? Some type of dry chapattis and Madan Mohan- ‘You know I am Nanda maharaj’s son. Don’t you know my father? Nine hundred thousand cows, so much milk and milk products and sandesh and this and that. What are you offering me? Just dry chapati? Not even salt. Forget the ghee.’ And Sanatan Goswami would say, ‘hey shut up.’ No, I am sorry. ‘This is what I can offer. Please understand.’ Different relationship, more than awe and reverence. So he would be very frank with the deity and he would say ‘don’t you understand my Lord my condition? I am old also. So whatever best possible, making the arrangements.’ There, where Radha Madan Mohan temple is, there is place called Dvadash Tila.

Tila means hill and Dvadash means 12, dvadash surya or dvadash aditya, aditya means sun. So one time Madan Mohan deity in winter season was feeling very cold. So the sun appeared, or came closer, came at the top of the hill there, heating, like we have heaters here all over the building. So the sun was personally heating that whole region, so that Lord would feel at home, or feel comfortable.

So at that place where Sanatan Goswami’s Radha Madan Mohan temple is, there is this Dvadash Aditya Tila. One day one merchant who dealt in salt business, his business was selling salt, he would boat loads of salt. He would bring from one place and bring to another town and sell for higher price and make a profit. But as this boat was passing through Jamuna, passing by Radha Madan Mohan temple, the boat got stuck and could possibly be drowning or sinking. And boat filled with what? Salt! Water gets in, end of the business! So this business man was really worried, now how I am going to protect my salt? He saw Madan Mohan temple. He came running. Help help help! Sanatan Goswami immediately realized what is going on. He said, ‘go to the Lord, pray to Him.’ His name was Krishna das Kapoor. He offered his prayers. ‘Please Lord please, if my salt is protected and the money that I will make, I will offer to you’ He made some transaction, business with the Lord. And soon after the prayers was offered and heard by Madan Mohan, the boat started floating again. It was stuck and sinking, but was now floating on the water, normal situation. So he was very happy. He sold the salt and made lot of money and he came to Sanatan Goswami and offered all that wealth, lot of money. And with that money the present day temple of Madan Mohan was built from that
profit of salt sold by Krishna Das Kapoor.

So that time when Sanatan Goswami worshipped Madan Gopal, and gradually He was known as Madan Mohan, there was only Madan Mohan and no Radha. So this news reached Jagannath Puri and the son of Pratap Rudra, you know who is Pratap Rudra, king Pratap Rudra, the great devotee of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, contemporary of Caitanya Mahaprabhu also. His son, Pratap Rudra’s son Purushottam, he was king, ruler of Orissa. So he got the news, several deities, Madan Mohan, Govinda, they are by themselves. Their Radharani, their consort is not with them. So he sent two deities. Or he arranged to get two deities to be sent or dispatch to Vrindavan.

When those deities reached Vrindavan, something was not normal as expected or as arranged. Radha Madan Mohan appeared in the dream of the priest, saying, ‘no no these two deities they are not both Radha, one is Radha and one is Lalita. The smaller one is Radha and the bigger one is Lalita.’ And in the dream the priest was told, ‘you install Radha to my left side and Lalita to my right side.’ So from that time onwards Madan Mohan had company of Radharani and Lalita also. And they were there for quiet some time in Vrindavan and then there was Muslim attack.

The deities were shifted from Vrindavan to Radha kunda, attacks continued. From there they were shifted to Kamavan which is in Vrindavan and finally they were shifted to Jaipur. And they went on installing, there is Radha Madan Mohan in Vrindavan, there is Radha Madan Mohan in Radha kunda, there is Radha Madan Mohan in Kamavan and Radha Govinda and Radha Gopinath, all these three sets are in all these three places. So those deities are called pratibhu vigraha. The original deity was newly installed by these deities called pratibhu vigraha. So Madan Mohan was under the protection of the pious kings of Rajasthan. Raja means king, sthan means place. Whole state was ruled by pious king, Rajarsi, the saintly king and deity was protected. All Vrindavan deities were protected. Jaipur is like new Vrindavan. All original deities of Vrindavan you will find in Jaipur, except few deities are in other places now. But Madan Mohan was in Jaipur when the princess, king’s daughter was to be married to the prince of Nimakaroli.

Nimakaroli is another place. So the son of another king and daughter of another king in Jaipur, she was to be married to Nimakaroli prince. Now some dowry has to be given, dowry, some wealth, some form. So the demand was that we would like Madan Mohan deity that was dowry. And the princess was also a great devotee of Madan Mohan. She was also thinking after marriage I will be no more in Jaipur, I will be in another town Nimakaroli. I cannot survive without Madan Mohan. So she also wanted to bring Madan Mohan to Nimakaroli. But then the king of Jaipur and his family was also, ‘no no no, how is that possible? We can not give deities like that. We are serving, worshipping deity from such a long time and we can not allow you to take that away.’ But the prince and family of Nimakaroli and the daughter also was very much interested in bringing the deity to Nimakaroli with her.

So the family of Jaipur king came up with one condition. They said, yes our daughter could bring Radha Madan Mohan with her or we could give finally that as a dowry on one condition. What is that condition? Condition would be that we will have some dozen deities looking exactly like Madan Mohan. And ‘the Madan Mohan deity’ will be placed somewhere in the middle of all these deities and if she could select the Madan Mohan, well good luck, but if she fails in the selection then we will have Madan Mohan. Understood what is the condition? Very tough!

So the princess was really worried. Now what will happen? There will be dozen deities all looking like Madan Mohan and I have to select my ‘the Madan Mohan’. How I will manage this? She was totally in anxiety and worry. She did not know. Big dilemma, how to, but because she was great devotee of Madan Mohan, Madan Mohan in the dream appeared to her. ‘No worries, tomorrow when I will be placed in the midst of all so called Madan Mohans or other deities looking like Me, when you will look at all of them, I will be the only one smiling. And that smile would be seen only by you.’ So this was the deal struck between the princess and Madan Mohan.

So next day, Jaipur is the place where they make the deities. They took some time carve more and more Radha Madan Mohan looking like deities and all the deities including Madan Mohan were placed there. And everybody was there. Whole family, the king and the queen and ministers and the princess was brought on the seen and was asked to take your pick. You choose now. And she was going from one deity to another to another, taking darsana, specially the face and one of them smiled. The Madan Mohan smiled. She said, this one, I want this one. And that was the victory of the king and prince of Nimakaroli, another town. And the Jaipur king, queen and the family lost ‘the Madan Mohan’. So princess goes there, marriage and the Madan Mohan ends up in Nimakaroli. And that is where the Madan Mohan that was installed by Vajranabha, great grandson of Krishna, having gone through so many hidden and discovered and shifted from here and there and all over and that Madan Mohan is in Nimakaroli.
Radha Madan Mohan Ki Jay!