March 31 2009

I recently received nine questions from devotees in the CIS so one by one I will post them with my replies.

Here’s number one from Bhakta Iskatel (Seeker)

“In Tamal Krsna Goswami’s Diary about the last days of Prabhupada

there is a passage dated 4 September 1977 which reads:

Prabhupada announced, “As soon as I get green card, I will go to New York.”
“How long will you stay there?” I asked.
“As long as you like.”
“Srila Prabhupada, you are just like a cow.  You will go wherever we lead you, but you never stop giving milk.”
“That is because I am a surabhi cow. …”

“My question is: can we take this last phrase of Srila Prabhupada as his revelation of his svarup – original form in the spiritual world?”

Answer:

No. Because a disciple was using the cow as a comparison to Srila Prabhupada‘s work of preaching Krsna consciousness all over the world Srila Prabhupada agreed with the comparison, but made it more specifically spiritual by saying “That’s because I am a surabhi cow.” This statement has nothing to do with Srila Prabhupada’s svarupa.

There are different opinions about Srila Prabhupada’s svarupa but noone can say for sure because Srila Prabhupada did not specifically say what his svarup is.

One female disciple called Harsharani dasi in the late 1960s once wrote a poem about Srila Prabhupada which was published in BTG. Apparently Srila Prabhupada heard the poem and liked it. Both Govinda dasi and Malati dasi recall Srila Prabhupada’s response to the poem. He said of the author, Harsharani, “She has become advanced.” And he ordered that the poem be published in Back to Godhead, which it was.

Here’s the poem:

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March 14 2009

The true bliss of kirtana

Here’s a question I just got from my godsister Urmila dasi:

I just got a letter from a devotee as follows and wondered if you had any experience of this happening in Prabhupada’s presence and, if so, how he reacted.

Your servant, Urmila devi dasi

Here is the letter
Question – was leading bh’jan Gaura P. night someone went weird – he started making bharat natyam ish poses, made pranams, fell on floor, started to to shake. got back up carried on in similar way. i arranged for him to be taken out side. they tried to communicate but he was in own world.
Next day spoke to him- he said he sat down for while then went to friends house embarrased.
Its happened few times here with him – says especially when he focuses deeply on H. Name
I asked if if he had ever seen any senior devotee do that – or S.P. – no of course.
He says he feel it start but can usually control. i said if u feel start – MUST leave temp room.
and told him to ask a senior dev about it.
I hated it mother it messed up the mood of the kirtan I felt I had to stop the Kirtan, we were on web cam. lots of the Mataji’s felt very awkward. it was I felt really uneasy and annoyed. when confronted him bout it I wanted to smash him – “what d’you think your doin your just taking ecstacy and being an idiot but did’nt feel confident I was100% correct so we just had a friendly caring but serious talk.
I definately want to stamp this out if it is maya so how should I proceed from here?

My answer:

Hm. Definitely something to be wary of.

I do remember an incident when I was temple commander in Vrndavana, around Janmastami time 1975. There was one American devotee who was part of the temple–let’s call him ‘Krishna Das’. One night a large group of villagers came. Remember that at that time the Krishna Balaram mandir had only just been opened some months before so most people didn’t know us, nor did we get large crowds.

During the Janmastami period we started getting large groups of people from various villages coming and checking us out. So evening aratis were usually very ecstatic, almost all the devotees were western and we would really rack it up during Gaura arati. It was a big attraction for the local villagers.

So this particular night, one young village man in his early 20s, started dancing with us. He got more and more exhuberant, starting spinning around on the spot and finally fell to the floor in a dead faint (apparently). We had never seen anything like it before and didn’t really know how to deal with it. So we just shrugged and kept on with the kirtan, figuring eventually he would just get up when he realized noone was taking any notice of him, and go on his way.

Good old Krishna Das however had different ideas. He steps forward to the prostrate body of the boy, peers right over his face, steps back — and kicks him right in the head! — several times! Then he grabs the boy by the arm and starts dragging him out the temple through the door just next to the altars, on the guest house side.

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December 31 2008 – January 1 2009

Another year gone, another year started. As the poet Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a changing…”

But are they?

Here’s a very appropriate question considering the time of the year. This is from Acyuta prabhu in the CIS:

“In the spiritual world there is no factor of time. In the material world there is a past, the present and the future.
In spiritual world only the present. I cannot understand it.”

“How it is possible to understand, that in the spiritual world there is no past and the future? For example, if I have drunk a glass of water, it means, that process of drinking has remained in the past! This process cannot be all time in present time?!… Even if this process will occur in the spiritual world, if I have jumped in water or I sit down on a chair, this action has already come to pass, that is remains in the past. How these actions can be all time in present time? Please, explain to me it is in the detailed image!”

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December 23 2008

Here’s the second of five questions Sriman Krsna Mitra dasa sent me in October:

Question:

“Krsna says in Bhagavad-Gita 5.29, “I am the proprietor and I am the supreme enjoyer”, so how can I preach this point to normal peoples?”

Answer:

Ownership means control. If someone actually owns something, they consequently have control of it. And if you have control of something, you have the right and ability to enjoy it.

However, it’s not difficult to understand that none of us minute living beings own anything. We have nothing that we can call our own possessions. Even our bodies, what to speak about anything associated with them, do not belong to us. At any moment they can be taken away.

On a visit to New Mayapur in France on August 2 1976 Srila Prabhupada spoke to the assembled students of our gurukula there.

He explained that the root cause of all our difficulties lay in our false desire to want to become masters of all we survey:

[TD 3] “Quoting from Bhagavad-gita 18.66 he said devotional service begins with surrender. But he said the material disease is that everyone wants to become master; nobody wants to become a servant. Therefore there is a struggle for existence.

He said the history of Europe is one of war — one leader after another trying to become the master. “The “mastership competition” is going on life after life and in different species of life, but it is a false ambition.

whoops! Sorry, wrong dictator…

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December 14 2008

A few months back I got a question from Samatma Gour das in the CIS about Srimati Tulasi devi that I couldn’t answer:

“I heard recently that Tulasi should not be worshiped on dwadashi (take off leaves, touch etc).

I do not trust any “new” information (that appeared after passing away of Shrila Prabhupada) reg. the process of devotional service. So I decided to ask you. Is there any authoritative information about this and what did Shrila Prabhupada say about this?”

At the time I answered non-committally:

“Sorry prabhu, I don’t know anything about this topic. I never heard this before, that Tulasi cannot be touched or leaves picked on dvadasi. Maybe there is some shastric injunction but if there isn’t I wouldn’t give much credence to it unless someone can show some authoritative source to back it up.”

I recently put out the question on the Prabhupada Disciples conference on Pamho.net  and got this excellent answer from Sriman Gaura Kesava prabhu, an old friend and fellow disciple of Srila Prabhupada from Australia and an expert on various forms of Deity worship and pujas:

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December 3 2008

Here’s an interesting question from Acyuta Krsna das in Perm, Russia:

 “Why during the last epoch there were various miracles which were made by the Lord and His devoted, sacred persons, and now – today there are no miracles? Why today we do not see miracles? Why now it is not observed at all any phenomena connected with acts of demigods . . . Earlier there were obvious proofs, which many could observe, and now all is reduced only to religious writings. Differently now it is necessary to take on all belief .”

Answer:
 First of all we should understand what ‘miracle’ means. Here is the dictionary meaning:

 “miracle — an event that is contrary to the established laws of nature and attributed to a supernatural cause.”
 “any amazing or wonderful event”

 I think most people will describe a miracle similarly.

 It is not a fact that such things are not going on nowadays. But in modern times most people are atheists or skeptics and will not accept such events even if they see it with their own eyes. Take the events at Fatima, Portugal for instance:

In 1916 three shepherd children reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

She told them she would visit them again on specific dates, and give information about the future. The news became widespread. By the time of the third visit, on October 13, 1917, 70,000 persons had gathered to see the event. They were spread over several square miles of countryside.

An eyewitness account was written by Dr. José Maria de Almeida Garrett, a professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Coimbra, Portugal:
“It must have been 1:30 p.m when there arose, at the exact spot where the children were, a column of smoke, thin, fine and bluish, which extended up to perhaps two meters above their heads, and evaporated at that height. This phenomenon, perfectly visible to the naked eye, lasted for a few seconds. Not having noted how long it had lasted, I cannot say whether it was more or less than a minute. The smoke dissipated abruptly, and after some time, it came back to occur a second time, then a third time

“The sky, which had been overcast all day, suddenly cleared; the rain stopped and it looked as if the sun were about to fill with light the countryside that the wintery morning had made so gloomy. I was looking at the spot of the apparitions in a serene, if cold, expectation of something happening and with diminishing curiosity because a long time had passed without anything to excite my attention. The sun, a few moments before, had broken through the thick layer of clouds which hid it and now shone clearly and intensely.

 “Suddenly I heard the uproar of thousands of voices, and I saw the whole multitude spread out in that vast space at my feet…turn their backs to that spot where, until then, all their expectations had been focused, and look at the sun on the other side. I turned around, too, toward the point commanding their gaze and I could see the sun, like a very clear disc, with its sharp edge, which gleamed without hurting the sight. It could not be confused with the sun seen through a fog (there was no fog at that moment), for it was neither veiled nor dim. At Fatima, it kept its light and heat, and stood out clearly in the sky, with a sharp edge, like a large gaming table. The most astonishing thing was to be able to stare at the solar disc for a long time, brilliant with light and heat, without hurting the eyes or damaging the retina. [During this time], the sun’s disc did not remain immobile, it had a giddy motion, [but] not like the twinkling of a star in all its brilliance for it spun round upon itself in a mad whirl.

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November 12 2008

We sometimes hear outlandish stories attributed to Srila Prabhupada. Here’s a curious question I received some months ago from Laksmana Prana dasa:

“I heard one story that may have serious conclusions, and therefore I would like to ask your either to confirm or to refute.

One mataji who preached a lot begged Shrila Prabhapada to give her sannyasa, referring to Jahnava Ma. Prabhupada gave her sannyasa and in one month that mataji left the movement forever and got married to a karmi.”

Answer: 

 I never heard this before. As far as I know Srila Prabhupada never gave sannyasa to a woman. It would have been completely contradictory to everything he ever said on the topic. I think this is a completely bogus story.

In 1976 requests for sannyasa were becoming frequent. Indeed, Srila Prabhupada gave sannyasa to seven men at the Gaura Purnima festival:

But he never gave sannyasa to a woman even though he was asked:

[TD Vol 1] February 4, 1976 – Mayapur

The acceptance of sannyasa has become so popular recently that even some of the ladies are asking about it. Aditya dasi sent an enquiry from Bombay. “I am writing this letter on behalf of myself, as well as the other women in our Society. Sometimes the question has come up, but no one seems to know the real answer, about sannyasinis. I know that sannyasa is the highest order of spiritual life, therefore is it not possible that we can be eligible? Myself, I do not feel like a woman, although I am in this body.”

Prabhupada’s reply was concise and clear. Quoting from Bhagavad-gita, he told her the soul is neither man nor woman, and for those engaged in Krsna’s service, there is no distinction between man and woman. “Anyone acting for Krsna, he is a sannyas or sannyasini. Spiritually everyone is equal. But materially a woman cannot be given sannyasa. But you should not be bothered because you are serving on the spiritual platform.”

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Otober 19 2008

Here’s a recent question from Nityananda Priya dasi in the CIS about the famous prediction that within this Kali-yuga there will be a 10,000 year period of grace where people will be able to easily take to the Sankirtana movement and go back home back to Godhead:

“I would like to ask a question, if it is allowed. I am sometimes asked, what are the symptoms of the 10,000 years of the Golden Age? Can we say, it is the possibility to preach and chant the Holy Name all over the world?”

Answer:  

 I think that is a good summary. By the arrangement of the Lord, the conditions become favorable for preaching and for people to receive the holy names and the message of the Bhagavatam.

 In the SB 11.5.38-40 it says:

“It is stated in the Visnu-dharma,
kalau krta-yugam tasya
kalis tasya krte yuge
yasya cetasi govindo
hrdaye yasya nacyutah

“For one who has Lord Govinda in his heart, Satya-yuga becomes manifest in the midst of Kali, and conversely even Satya-yuga becomes Kali-yuga for one who does not have the infallible Lord in his heart.”

And in the 12th canto it is stated:
SB 12.3.26

“According to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, within each age the other three ages occasionally manifest as sub-ages. Thus even within Satya-yuga a demon in the mode of ignorance may appear, and within the age of Kali the highest religious principles may flourish for some time. As described in Srimad–Bhagavatam, the three modes of nature are present everywhere and in everything, but the predominant mode, or combination of modes, determines the general character of any material phenomenon. In each age, therefore, the three modes are present in varying proportions. The particular age represented by goodness (Satya), passion (Treta), passion and ignorance (Dvapara) or ignorance (Kali) exists within each of the other ages as a subfactor.”

On several occasions during his last tour of the USA Srila Prabhupada specifically told us that this movement would go on for 10,000 years:

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October 2 2008

Here’s an interesting question from Vishal Gauranga prabhu. He’s been reading Kurma prabhu’s excellent book The Great Transcendental Adventure (If you haven’t read it, beg, borrow or steal it; its as good as his cooking).

Respected Kurma prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga.

I was going through this passage as mentioned below ..

“Srila Prabhupada had been booked on a flight to Honolulu via Fiji that was scheduled to leave that afternoon. After deliberation, however, considering travel on Thursday afternoons to be inauspicious, Srila Prabhupada decided to extend his stay in Melbourne for an extra day.

“Madhudvisa Swami requested Srila Prabhupada, since the devotees and congregation were so eager to be with him, that he allow them a special darsana before he left for overseas. Prabhupada agreed on an afternoon meeting in his room. Such an open darsana would be the first of its kind in Australia, and the devotees eagerly looked forward to the special event.”

**************************

I  would like to know what this inauspicious time here means?? Travelling on Thursday afternoons?
It may certainly not be “Rahu kala “ since that time falls between  1:30 to 3PM (on thursday’s). It’s bit confusing for me to understand this one as we all know that Srila Prabhupada is transcendental, how can these things affect HDG?.
Did Srila Prabhupada followed “rahukala” times through out his world travel? If not, why only in Melbourne? Sorry prabhu for taking your time, I appreciate very much in advance your time taken for answering this one ..

PS: Marking HG Harisauri prabhu just in case he has any add on to this scenario…

ys, Vishal Gauranga das

Kurma prabhu provided a good reply. (see his blog http://www.iskcon.net.au/kurma/)

He confirmed the inauspicious time as Thursday afternoon and commented:

“Why ‘it may certainly not be Rahu Kalam?'”

“According to my understanding, there are different calculations of Rahu Kalam. Some talk about a fixed time, others talk of a different calculation, which is calculated in connection to sunrise: Rahu Kalam on a Thursday falls 7.5 hours after sunrise. So if we calculated Rahu Kalam for Thursday in mid-summer, it would be at a very different time to mid-winter.

“As I said, this is my limited understanding of a vastly complex system. Shyamasundara dasa ACBSP the Astrologer has a lot to say on the topic of auspicious and inauspicious times, and in comparison to him, I know little more than what I have just said, so I will keep my mouth shut.

“By the way, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati also did not like to travel on Thursday afternoons.

“One could extend your question and say that if he was ‘transcendental’, why bother to look after the body at all? So why did Srila Prabhupada take medicine, take massage, and go on morning walks?

“I’ll pass this one over to Hari Sauri, because I know he’s itching to answer ;)”

So on the request of my dear Godbrother, here’s my ‘two cents’:

“I have forwarded your comments to Shyamasundar prabhu for his insights. He knows a lot of the technical details on this topic.

> By the way, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati also did not like to travel on
> Thursday afternoons.

 So much so that if he absolutely had to travel on Thursday, he would have a suitcase placed at the door on a Wednesday and that was considered an indication that the journey had started.

 Your answer is fine Kurma prabhu. Pure devotees still work within the general laws of material nature. Otherwise why do their bodies grow old, get diseases and become subject to the same physical laws as everyone elses?

The main reason is that they exhibit their pastimes within the framework of the conditioned souls. If they didn’t, noone would follow their teachings. If we had an acarya that could leap over skyscraper buildings in defiance of ‘gravity’ a la Superman mode, it might attract a big following, but who would bother to pay attention to his teachings? Then you get a great personality like Jesus who is made into an icon and a bunch of followers who say, “Only Jesus can walk on water. Only Jesus can multiply the loaves and five fishes. Only Jesus can die on the cross and be resurrected. Only Jesus can be pure. We don’t need to do anything because noone can be like Jesus.”

 In this regard I recall Hayagriva prabhu’s dream at Dr. Misra’s asrama in 1966:

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September 28 2008

This history of this world, and especially in Kali-yuga is war. There is always some war going on somewhere. If we are fortunate we may escape its withering shadow–or not. Even if we do, are we any better off?

How do devotees view war and how do they deal with it?

 Here’s a fairly frequently asked question from Samatma Gour das in the CIS:

“Did Shrila Prabhupada ever speak of possible global military conflicts and cataclysms etc. What were his recommendations to the devotees, if any, in relation to this? Thank you in advance and special thanks for your Transcendental Diary!”

Answer:

Among the many smaller wars-civil wars, cold wars, hot wars, holy wars-that are always going on, the last century saw two ‘world wars’.

With the development of atomic and nuclear capabilites, its easy to think in apocalyptic terms

With the A-bomb it seemed that for the first time in history man had the capability of destroying the whole planet.

Srila Prabhupada did speak about a possible third world war and there are several conversations from 1974 on this, as well as some letters. You can read the conversation from May 27, 1974 in Rome.

The talk of a possible war sparked some speculation among the devotees and some wrote to Srila Prabhupada because they were concerned about the future. Here are some replies Srila Prabhupada made:

Letter to: Makhanlal — 22 June, 1973

“You have asked about whether nuclear devastation on this planet would effect the Sankirtana Movement. No, there is nothing that can stop the Sankirtana Movement because it is the will of God Himself, Lord Caitanya, that His Holy Name be heard in every town and village. Neither can the demons devastate this planet independent of the will of Krsna. Nothing happens without His sanction. If Krsna wants to kill someone no one can save Him, and if Krsna wants to save someone no one can kill him. For our parts we should just be determined to carry out our mission against all opposition, demons, nuclear war, whatever. The whole universe is finally subject to certain annihilation by the will of Krsna, but devotional service is eternal and is the only certain way one can save himself from devastation. We can preach all over the world that the only way to be saved from collective and individual devastation is to take to the chanting of Hare Krsna. In short, this material world is a very precarious place therefore we should always chant Hare Krsna and seek Krsna’s protection.”

Letter to Sukadeva das 24 November 1974:

“I am glad to learn that you are having nice college programs. Regarding there going to be depression and atomic war, who said that? This is all false propaganda. I never said this.

Letter to: Radhavallabha: — 21 August, 1975

“Do not worry, in spite of war, Srimad-Bhagavatam will be distributed. We don’t care for war. Our preaching business will go on.”

In one conversation a devotee asked Srila Prabhupada “If there is war, will devotees also die?” Srila Prabhupada replied that of course they will. And someone also asked what should the devotees do if there is a war. Srila Prabhupada said he should look up at the bomb coming down and say

 “This is Krsna!”

On another occasion Srila Prabhupada reminded us that Krsna is always favorably disposed to His devotees: MW conversation, June 16, 1975 Hawaii:

Prabhupada: That will take place. Otherwise, how they will be killed?
Ambarisa: They’re calling it a limited nuclear war.
Prabhupada: They are accumulated so much sinful load that must be killed. That is sure. [break] …the massacre. That will take place.
Harikesa: The sinless people will survive?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Devotee (3): Who is that?
Prabhupada: We. [break] There was an artificial famine in India and I particularly inquired from all devotees whether they have got any problem in this famine. They said, “No, we haven’t got.” I have taken the statistics. In 1942 the artificial famine created by government… So there were big earthquake in Bihar. At that time one of my godbrother, he was government auditor. So I inquired. In that earthquake only his house was saved. I have seen it many times. Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati [Bg. 9.31]. That is the only….
samasrita ye pada-pallava-plavam
mahat-padam punya-yaso murareh
bhavambudhir vatsa-padam param padam
padam padam yad vipadam na tesam
 [SB 10.14.58]
Padam padam yad vipadam na tesam. It is not meant for them, all these dangerous condition.” 

Whatever happens, Krsna is behind it. Sometimes it seems that some powerful man or men are in control and with their inventions they may kill us all. But this is not the case. I remember an amusing but striking story Srila Prabhupada told us about Churchill, Hitler and World War 2: 

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September 18 2008

People in general often have the impression that a spiritual person should never become angry. Anger of course, is seen as a sign of contaminated consciousness

Whoops! How did he get back in here….

When we become purified, there is no more anger. Indeed, Srila Rupa Goswami states in the opening verse of the Upadeshamrta that one of the six forces that have to be subdued in order to qualify oneself as a spiritual master is anger. Yet we see that devotees–great devotees–sometimes become angry. Is it a fault or not?

In Krsna consciousness, we see that all the emotions are employed in the Lord’s service. He is sentient, and as His eternal parts and parcels, we are also sentient. The interplay of emotion (rasa) is the highest form of spirituality and in transcendental consciousness, anger has its part to play.

Here’s a couple of examples cited in Nectar of Devotion:

“When Krsna was trying to capture the demon Sankha, Radharani began trembling out of fearfulness. Similar trembling of the body was exhibited in Sahadeva, the younger brother of Nakula. When Sisupala was vehemently blaspheming the Lord, Sahadeva began to tremble out of anger.”

“Perspiration due to anger was exhibited by Garuda, the eagle who is the carrier of Visnu. Once the heavenly king, Indra, was sending torrents of rain over Vrndavana. Garuda was observing the incident from above the clouds, and because of his anger, he began perspiring.”

“An example of shedding tears because of anger was exhibited by Bhima when he saw that Sisupala was insulting Krsna in the Rajasuya arena of sacrifice. Bhima wanted to kill Sisupala immediately, but because Krsna did not order him to do so, he became morose with anger. It is described that there were hot tears covering his eyes, as a thin cloud sometimes covers the evening moon. In the evening, when the moon is slightly covered by a thin cloud, it looks very nice, and when Bhima was shedding tears on account of his anger, he also looked very nice.”

In the Mahabharata it is described that Bhima was so angry with the Kurus at their treatment of the Pandavas that he couldn’t sleep for 12 years. Finally when the Kurushetra war was declared, Bhima exulted at the thought of finishing the Kurus. His anger culminated with his fulfilling his vows to kill Dushasana and drinking his blood.

In service to the Lord of their hearts, great devotees exhibit their attachment to Krsna whenever a protagonist appears. This intensifies their love and increases their ecstasy.

These examples are of extraordinary devotees who are eternal associates of the Lord. What about within our own Kali–yuga context, here and now on this planet? When, if at all, is it alright for a devotee to become angry. Dravida das from Russia asked this question last April:

Question:

I thank you for the interesting instructing stories from Transcendental Diary. I have another request: Can you please give examples of correct usage of anger by Shrila Prabhupada, a use of anger to defend devotees? I thank you in advance.

Answer:

There is the story about the early days in India (before I went there) when Srila Prabhupada and the devotees attended a program hosted by some mayavadis at Chowpatty, Bombay.

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September 9 2008 

Here’s a question from Asrama dasa, Russia, about that perennial topic, men and women:

“How is it possible to avoid being befuddled in relationships with the fair sex, even based on KC. I noticed that if a man is in relationships with a woman, the man is dependant on a woman even if he thinks that he controls the situation.”

Answer: In an age when there is a great deal of reluctance to admit the differences between men and women, there is a reverse trend in medicine and especially psychological studies which is increasingly showing the obvious: men and women are different. Their bodies work differently, their minds work differently. Srila Prabhupada has always stuck with this despite heavy criticism from the politically correct crowd.

Befuddled is a good word when it comes to describing the effects a women has on the mind of an admiring male. Here’s a study that was done some years back providing scientific backing for what everyone has always known:

Pretty Women Make Men Stupid!

Women have known this since the beginning of time. Now psychologists at
McMaster University in Canada have figured it out, too. A beautiful woman
can make a guy stupid.

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Beards and turbans

A question from Vamsi Vadana das:

August 29 2008

How come Prabhupada never wore a turban or kept a weeks face stubble, this was practiced by his Guru, on occasions? He tells on tape (5th Canto Dec 1976) the particular day of the month that devotee’s should shave when warning that “we are no longer being known as shaven headed.” In fact I remember Mukunda Maharaj at the manor (74) and he shaved his head every day. He must of got this from Prabhupada. In retrospect, recently in the world, the Shikh’s have been lumped in with the Pathan terrorists, both turbaned/bearded, and have been complaining. When you see Gaudiya Math they sometimes appear turbaned/bearded, and could easily be taken for muslims from society’s secular vision.

Answer:

Srila Prabhupada didn’t like beards. He liked his disciples to be clean and neat and to Srila Prabhupada, beards were scruffy and too much identified with the hippie generation and their attachments to long hair.

He also felt beards, or his disciples’ attachement to them, were another feature of maya. Hayagriva was our most famous bearded devotee but by Srila Prabhupada’s encouragement he gradually gave up his hairs and Srila Prabhupada was very pleased:

Letter to: Hayagriva — Vrindaban 29 August, 1967

“I am so glad to learn that you have sacrificed your long beard and hair. I have forgotten your mother’s address, or I would have informed her of your action, and I think she would have liked it very much. Anyway, you must have reduced your age considerably by sacrificing this “maya,” and now you must look like a very nice young gentleman.”  

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