His Grace Kirtiraja Prabhu
I remember Gopiparanadhana prabhu from when he moved into the Henry Street, Brooklyn Temple.
From the beginning he was sober, serious, focused and a very nice devotee.
He made many lasting contributions to Srila Prabhupada's mission and he will not be forgotten.
Gopiparanadhana prabhu ki jaya!
Giriraja lal ki jaya!
His Grace Kisora Prabhu
A Student’s Memories of Sriman Gopiparanadhana Prabhu
vande vinaya-bhavadhyam
saksad bhagavatamrtam
sastra-marma-vidam varyam
gopi-prana-dhanam prabhum
virahanale no dagdhan
bhavisya-bhaya-piditan
piyusa-bindubhir vanyah
posayanatha-jivitan
vande—I bow down; vinaya-bhava—with humility; adhyam—to one who is endowed with; saksat—to him who is personified; bhagavata-amrtam—nectar of the srimad-Bhagavatam and of the Brhad-bhagavatamrta; sastra—of the sacred scriptures; marma—mysteries; vidam—of those who know; varyam—to the most eminent; gopi—of the gopis; prana—of the life; dhanam—to him who is the wealth; prabhum—to the master; viraha—of separation; anale—in the fire; naḥ—us; dagdhan—scorched; bhavisya—of the future; bhaya—with fear; piditan—who are tormented; piyūsa—nectarean; bindubhiḥ—with drops; vanyaḥ—of your vani; posaya—nourish; anatha-jivitan—those who have lost their master.
Let me offer my obeisances to sripada Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, the most outstanding scholar expert in understanding the mysteries of the Sanskrit scriptures. Although he personifies the nectar of the srimad-Bhagavatam and the Brhad-bhagavatamrta, he is decorated with feelings of humility. We, your orphans, burn in the fire of separation from you and are overcome with fear about our future. Nourish us with the drops of your nectarean, immortal vani.
My dearest Gopiparanadhana Prabhu.
Please accept my humble obeisances. Jaya srila Prabhupada!
Is it really true that my teacher and hero has left us? I am still waiting that someone would wake me up and tell me that everything is all right and that it was just a bad dream. While waiting, I try to console my greaving heart with memories.
My first contact with you was through the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Canto of srimad-Bhagavatam. I noticed your name in them: Gopiparanadhana Dasa Adhikari. I also recall that a devotee once told me about you, a great scholar, living in a simple house in the town of Govardhana with a few cows. He was amazed, and so was I.
Then in March 2005 I remember seeing your email on the Free Forum of the PAMHO email system. It began with:
“Why become an academic scholar when you can be a natural scholar in the eternal Vaisnava tradition?
Why be vague about your future when you can be serving the central aims of srila Prabhupada’s heart?
Why not consider joining the BBT’s new, dynamic school, the srimad-Bhagavata Vidyapiṭham in Krsna’s favorite place, Sri Govardhana?”
This really caught my attention. At that time I was serving as a brahmacari in ISKCON Salem, Tamil Nadu and was attracted to the idea of studying Sanskrit and srimad-Bhagavatam. But since I did not know any Sanskrit yet I did not even dare to think about joining the school. Nevertheless, some months later my Guru Maharaja spoke about your school in one of his lectures and this made me think about it again. With my Guru Maharaja’s blessings I applied for admission and you accepted me. You allowed me to come a month earlier, so I arrived at Govardhana in the beginning of September, right after the Janmasṭami.
I expected to meet a scholar who would look at least something like the professors from the college I attended; distinguished and aware of their own importance. But to my great surprise you were none of that. I offered my obeisances to you and you did the same to me. I was shocked and uncomfortable. At that first meeting I gave you a small gift, a dhoti from South India, and you reacted as if you were embarrassed. That was so typical of you and I saw that so many times. Your unique facial expressions, gestures, child-like innocence, and genuine humility were winning the hearts of people who had the fortune to interact with you.
After a few days in Govardhana you asked me if there was something I would need to facilitate my studies. Instead of politely denying I thought of my somewhat dark room and said that it would be nice to have a small table lamp. You immediately arranged that I got the table lamp from your own room. Again I was uncomfortable and I rushed to your room to return the lamp. You persuaded me that you do not need it at all since your room was sunny during the day, and that you did not stay at the school over the night. I did not want to argue so I gave in, and kept your lamp throughout my stay at the school. You were so senior in every possible way but you acted as if we were fellow devotees trying to help each other.
My next remembrance during that month is of your srimad-Bhagavatam commentary class which was compulsory for everyone at the school. I was invited to attend as well. At that time I hardly read the Devanagari script at the speed of a first-grade kid and knew no Sanskrit whatsoever. I was terrified to sit among others who already knew something. I could not understand anything. And still as a great teacher you asked me if I could read a word from the verse under analysis. With great endeavor I did so and you thanked me with a charming smile on your face. The message I got from you was that I was welcome to study with you and that you were patient. You continued teaching this course throughout our first school year. We, the students, were just beginning to learn Sanskrit and yet you had the patience to deal with us. You had a formula how to engage us. Everyone was allotted one word from a verse and was supposed to analyze it. To help us you asked: “Is it a noun, verb, or indeclinable?” And then often, as we did not know the right answer, you joked, “No, it is not a verb, you have two guesses more.” You made our studies light and jolly. Later when I got to know a bit more about Sanskrit and the depth of your command of it I really understood how patient you were as a teacher.
When all the students arrived at the beginning of the school year, the school building was packed with devotees from top to bottom. We were more than twenty. You told us that you intended to accept less students but while reading our applications you felt that we were all so qualified and you could not reject any of us. I know at least for myself I was not qualified at all. Again you demonstrated your utmost humility and respect for others.
Since Govardhana is cold in winter you arranged for the entire school to move to South India for the month of January. The devotees in Dharvad in north Karnataka loved you so much that they accommodated us in a big newly built two-storey house. The atmosphere was cosy and homely. We were studying and feeling the pressure of the upcoming grammar exams but the local devotees were excited to have you and your students there. You and Mukunda Datta Prabhu were lecturing in the evening for the local devotees. They arranged many preaching programs for us that often interfered with our studies. But this simply showed that your school was different from other schools; you established it to satisfy srila Prabhupada whose main emphasis was preaching.
Seeing us frantically studying for the grammar exams and sometimes skipping the regular programs you would tell us that studying Sanskrit per se is not that important and that the study of srimad-Bhagavatam is far more valuable. You insisted that we should not lose the proper focus. This made us wonder what to do, and still does. You were never “lost” in Sanskrit and did not want us to become bewildered.
Although your school was known to many devotees as Gopiparanadhana Prabhu’s Sanskrit school or “the Govardhan school” you named it srimad-Bhagavata Vidyapiṭham. You firmly belived that the dissemination of the teachings of srimad-Bhagavatam was the primary means for the respiritualization of the world.
It is not a secret that your school was not the most organized but as you said with a smile, it is hard to organize intellectuals. They are by nature anarchists, have their own ideas how to do things and are not always the best organizers. We wrestled with this fact and its consequences here and there in the course of our studies, but having you as our teacher was so valuable that the occasional inconveniences faded into forgetfulness and lost any real meaning.
Many times you would tell us that scholarly engagement is just one of the services in the saṅkirtana movement and that we should not consider this particular service so special. Each and every service is glorious and we should find the one most suited to our nature even if that is something different from what the school was offering.
You were extremely enthusiastic about preaching. Devotees from the Delhi temple and the Krishna Balarama Mandir in Vrndavana would regularly invite you to give classes. The weekly free day in your school was organized in such a way that you could go to Delhi on Friday just to give a Saturday morning srimad-Bhagavatam class there. You did not hesitate to accept inconveniences for the sake of preaching.
You did not want us to hear Bhagavata-saptahas and lectures from other camps in Vrndavana. You insisted that we remain faithful to srila Prabhupada. But none of us really felt the need to listen to anyone else since the height of staying in Govardhana was listening to your bhagavata-katha. You could speak on any topic. Your lectures were highly learned but you rarely spoke like, “Visvanatha Cakravarti Ṭhakura says like this, Jiva Gosvami wrote like that.” Your points were intelligible to everyone, just like your Brhad-bhagavatamrta. You could speak on complex topics but in a simple way. This is the ornament of a truly learned person.
I noticed that everyone who came in contact with you would be charmed by your pleasant and unassuming nature. Not only humans, your cows also loved you. There was a time when your cow Visakha was regularly visiting the entrance to our school. She was an independently thoughtful cow who knew how to be at the right place at the right time. On her routine parikrama around Govardhana town she would come to the front metal gate of the school and get some prasadam and vegetable peels. She then happily wandered off. But one day she coolheadedly climbed the few stairs, slipped under the metal gate and entered the school courtyard. As if she were at home there, she headed right for the temple room where your class was going on. When you saw the cow marching in through the blue temple door you innocently asked, “Visakha, what are you doing here?” We, your students, who so far had our backs to the door, turned around to watch this comedy. But we became frightened about all our laptop computers so we managed to close the door before Visakha, greedy for knowledge, could enter. The classes were cancelled and a few students were trying to convince Visakha to leave the school compound, something they managed to do only after much persuasion, pushing, and pulling. Your school was definitely not an ordinary school.
Although you wanted us to study seriously you also loved to see us on Govardhana parikramas. This perfect and pure devotional activity became our “recreation.” It was quite possible to meet you while on parikrama; in more recent times you circumambulated Govardhana on your scooter. We figured out that the best way to easily complete the parikrama was to do one half one day and the second half the next day. We became so familiar with the whole route that we were able to predict the time we needed to complete it, and could choose the right pace to return to the school at a given time. Living in Govardhana town was like living in the center of the universe. You once said that it was proper to have our school in Vraja, the place of the six Gosvamis. But, you said, we do not want to be at Radha-kunda, it is too exalted. So we stay at Govardhana.
Many times you would speak about Uddhava who eternally resides near the Kusuma-sarovara. He desired to be one of the bushes and creepers in Vrndavana so that the gopis would walk over him and bless him with the dust of their lotus feet. That was your mood exactly, humbly serving and not demanding anything for yourself. You were the personification of the trnad api sunicena verse.
But your extreme humility was a great problem for the students. We wanted to properly honor you by arranging the Vyasa-pūja festival. For the first time, we organized it secretly in the year 2008. I took a photo of you humbly entering the decorated temple room when you already understood what was going on. It was evident that we were hurting your humble nature by worshiping you, but what could we do; it was more than proper for us to offer due respect to our illustrious acarya.
You were a perfect disciple. Whatever questions we asked, you always brought us to the point, “srila Prabhupada taught us like this.” You trained us that we should not think whether what srila Prabhupada said was right or not, but only try to understand how it is right. How much you shaped the way I live and think. Many times when I discuss different matters with devotees I remember, “Gopiparanadhana Prabhu said like this.” I am so much indebted to you. Your association, your example, and your instructions were so valuable and now that you are gone that is evident even more.
His Holiness Kesava Bharati Maharaja once told us that to praise you as a great scholar is almost an offense, because although you were a brilliant scholar, that was nothing compared to your being a great devotee. Your devotion to Krsna was winning the hearts of people, your excellent scholarship was just an icing on the cake. Vidya dadati vinayam. In your character it was just so obvious that the devotees of the Lord are decorated with all the good qualities.
I always felt completely unqualified to take much of your time. I knew you had so many important services and I did not want to hamper that. But whenever I did come to you, you made me feel comfortable. It was easy to associate with you because you never thought that some devotees were more important than others or that to spend time with some was unproductive.
Last year in October I came to Govardhana to attend Tattvavit Prabhu’s seminar. It turns out this was the last time we met. I was very enlivened by all of your lectures and classes. Deliberating on my good fortune to be able to stay at the feet of Govardhana and listen to your bhagavata-katha, I thanked you for being my link to Govardhana and to srimad-Bhagavatam. You humbly acknowledged.
As much as I am brokenhearted to lose your invaluable association and guidance I am also happy about the favorable circumstances of your departure. This gives me yet another assurance about the supreme auspiciousness of the process of Krsna consciousness and the destination of those who faithfully follow srila Prabhupada.
In so many ways your departure resembles that of srila Prabhupada. You left us simply too soon and it is difficult to see how your great contribution to the society of devotees will be perpetuated. Please continue to shower blessings upon those who, trying to continue the legacy of your glorious service to srila Prabhupada, follow in your footsteps.
Srila Gopiparanadhana Prabhu ki jaya!
Your servant, Kisora Dasa
His Grace Krishna Kripa Prabhu
Gopiparanadhana Prabhu and Mandakini dd (translator) in Questions and Answers tent at Festival of India in Mielno, Poland, on August 26, 2011
I always like to write something in glorification of devotees I have even a little relationship with when they pass away. I guess I see it as a final service I can render to them. For me I got to know and appreciate Gopiparanadhana Prabhu much more than ever before in late August just this year when I joined the last four days of Indradyumna Swami's Festival of India in Poland. Gopiparanadhana Prabhu would give classes in the mornings to the devotees and answer questions at the festivals in the evenings. I arranged my schedule to attend almost all his question and answer sessions. He would often use the same old analogies that Prabhupada used and that we have heard others use many times, but I felt I appreciated them anew hearing them from him, and that was striking. He was wise and humorous, and he had a refreshing simplicity about him. He also presented spiritual truth in a very nonsectarian way. Once in response to a festival questioner asking what God we worship, he said, “If there is a God, there can only be one.”
In his classes, he shared realizations from his lifetime of devotional practice, such as, “The purpose of this Krishna consciousness movement is to make pure devotees of the Lord. We can come to this movement with mixed motives, but we can expect that Krishna will do everything possible to change our motives. A devotee who wants to advance has to be ready to change.”
I learned details I never knew before like, “Srila Prabhupada later told the editors that the figure of 640 million people killed in the Kurukshetra War was a misprint and should be 6.4 million.”
Discussing King Yudhisthira's lamentation about the deaths on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra, Gopiparanadhana Prabhu said, “What to speak of a pure devotee, a pandit (an ordinary scholar) should not lament for the living or the dead. Death is natural and so is the mixed happiness that we experience in life. A brahmana should not lament. It is the business of sudras to lament and be depressed. If you do so, then you are becoming influenced by the mode of ignorance. If a brahmana finds himself depressed or discouraged, he should get beyond it as soon as possible. And what to speak of a pure devotee, like King Yudhisthira, an eternal servant of Krishna.”
While talking with Gopiparanadhana Prabhu on the Polish tour, I learned he was completing the Tattva-sandarbha, the first of Jiva Goswami's six Sandarbhas. I knew these Sandarbhaswere important books in our sampradaya, and I knew also that I would never get around to reading them because of my lifestyle, although they would benefit my spiritual life. The only way I would read them is if I offered to proofread them. Then I would do it as a matter of duty and of service. I told Gopiparanadhana Prabhu that I had proofread the Back to Godhead magazine, Sadaputa Prabhu's books, and the books of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami. I was not competent enough to be the sole proofreader, but I usually caught a few things other people missed, and I offered to read the book. On September 3, he sent it to me saying, “Thank you for offering to read Tattva-sandarbha.” Because of proofreading the BTG and because of being absorbed in Ukraine festival I made little progress on it. However, the day after the festival, September 15, I had a nine-hour bus ride, and I must have spent half the time proofreadingTattva-sandarbha, which has lots of wonderful glorification of Srimad-Bhagavatam in it. I thought of writing Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, and asking if he wanted to see what I had done so far, but on checking my email, I was shocked to find that the person I had spent hours serving that day had left this world, after having all but completed just one of the sixSandarbhas. I liked his association in Poland and looked forward to working with him in future years on the sixSandarbhas, but Krishna had and yet another inconceivable plan. Such is the will of the Lord.
I met Gopiparanadhana Prabhu at the Ukraine festival few years back. During prasadam, I was talking to him about the problem of devotees not pronouncing the Sanskrit properly. He acknowledged the problem, and said, “They should send someone to all the temples to teach the devotees how to properly pronounce the Sanskrit.” I did not ask him who “they” might be.
Once I realized how much his Brhad-bhagavatamrita had made an impression on my mind. For three days I read a hundred pages a day of the final volume, describing Krishna playing with his cowherd boyfriends in the Vrndavana forest. Then over the next week I traveled by train through Germany and Poland, and whenever I would see a forest I would think about Krishna playing with his cowherd boyfriends in the forest of Vrndavana, something I would usually never think of.
One evening on the Polish tour he asked me for something to quench his thirst. All the drink from lunch was finished, so I got some tea for him from our restaurant. I was also thirsty but did not want to ask for any for myself, and I was too cheap to buy any water. Ten minutes later I was at questions and answers hearing Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, and a devotee brought some water for him. I was so thirsty, I thought, “This is Krishna's mercy.” I figured he was not thirsty as he just drank a cup of tea, so I drank some of the water, and kept it in my bag, in case he later became thirsty. The devotee came back and asked where the water was. I gave it to the devotee, and he took the top off and set it next to Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, who drank a little, and set it aside, as far as I know, for the rest of the evening. I felt bad for taking his water, and I apologized the next day. He was very understanding of my situation and did not feel at all offended, and that completely relieved my mind.
I share with you the notes I took on Gopiparanadhana Prabhu's lectures to the Polish tour devotees and his answers to the fortunate souls who inquired from him at the evening festivals. I hope that you might feel some happiness remembering his transcendental wisdom and qualities:
Arjuna had a doubt about fighting before the battle, and King Yudhisthira had doubts afterward. Arjuna was not a coward. In the Adi Purana Arjuna tells Krishna, “Just as
young boys and girls are spontaneously attracted to each other, I am spontaneously attracted to fighting.” But by yogamaya he had doubts about fighting at Kurukshetra. Yudhisthira's victory was so decisive that it was clear to everyone that God must want him to be on the throne. Yet by yogamaya, he was not convinced by Vyasadeva or Krishna Himself that the carnage was justified. Krishna was able to convince Arjuna, but he failed to convince Yudhisthira. This was all because Krishna wanted Yudhisthira to be convinced by Bhismadeva.
The Mahabharata is so long because different historical incidents are cited whenever someone wants to convince someone of something. There over 1,000 chapters inMahabharata, which has 18 major divisions, the 13th of which contains the Bhagavad-gita. The Ganguli translation into English is alright.
Srila Prabhupada wanted all the Puranas [and some other major Vedic works which I did not write down] translated.
A devotee is glorious because he is willing to do whatever Krishna wants.
The material world is created by God for those who want to imagine they can control and enjoy separately from Him.
If you just do pranayama [breath control] it can take thousands of years to realize God, but if you meditate on the personality of God you can be successful in a few years.
Q: Why do we have different traditions?
A: People look at God in different ways. He is trying to make Himself understood to us, but we have our funny ways of understanding. Whatever religion can develop your love of God is a good religion.
There are higher planets and as you go upward in the universe more of the people know about God.
The famous saying about Gandhi is that he was saint among politicians and a politician among saints.
Yudhisthira's problem is that he was too much in the mode of goodness. Ksatriyas in general do not have difficulty being ruthless.
Bhima was more powerful than 10,000 elephants. Arjuna was the supreme archer. And Krishna was on His side. Thus Yudhisthira become emperor of the world.
Throughout the centuries warriors have had the idea that the winner in a war had the grace of God.
If you cannot memorize the Gita at least memorize the first and last verse. One way to tell the meaning of a book is to know what is said in the beginning and what is said in the end.
Yudhisthira preferred to be in the company of brahmanasstudying the scriptures and not on the battlefield. But because Krishna wanted him to rule, for him to renounce the throne would be a big mistake.
Our business is to teach and manifest the principles of religion.Ksatriyas protect religion through their physical strength.
We know what Krishna wants us to do because our guru and the authorities appointed by him tell us. If we accept and listen to guru, sadhu, and sastra, we will always know what Krishna wants.
Q: How to avoid identification with the body?
A: Start thinking about who you really are—a servant of the Lord and the Vaishnavas.
If there is a difference of a opinion between one's diksa guru and one's siksa guru, one should accept one's diksa guru's opinion.
One reason archeologists find only stone tools in strata millions of years is no other material will last that long.
Hare Krishna is a famous prayer in India that has been around for thousands of years.
It makes a big difference if you understand you are eternal and your body is temporary.
Just like if you are on a train and it is crowded and uncomfortable, you can get upset about it, or realize you are only there a couple of hours and tolerate it.
Any religion that can free people from illusion and develop love of God is a good religion.
Just like kids say, “My father is better than your father.” In the same way, foolish people say, “My God is better than your God.”
In some traditions from India they stamp your arms with a hot iron to mark the two points where you get extra arms when you go to the spiritual realm.
On tilaka: In India one who has a serious commitment to some particular path marks his forehead to indicate which spiritual group he belongs to.
Different groups of people require special protection from being exploited, among these are women.
There is less divorce and the families are more stable in India than in Europe.
There are advantages to arranged marriages, one being that a woman does not have to hunt for a husband.
Q: How many wives can a husband have?
A: Ideally no more than one can take care of nicely, but practically it is not socially acceptable to have more than one.
Regarding astrology: If you are determined to do your duty in any situation, then there is no need to consult the signs.
If an astrologer promises you will attain unadulterated happiness if you follow his advice, then abandon him as a cheater.
I did astrology for a while, but I found it frustrating because you could not tell people the whole truth. They only want to hear the good things.
If you enter the service of God, your life becomes transformed, and it does not matter if you are rich or poor or smart or stupid. Our real mission is to find out our individual and eternal relationship with God.
If you just chant Hare Krishna and offer your food to God for one month, without changing any other aspect of your life, you will become spiritually situated.
Self-realization is not artificial, it is uncovering our real nature. Taking help from an expert in spiritual knowledge is required.
Anyone who is interested in being trained up can become a spiritual leader.
According to the Puranas, Buddha is God, but He is teaching atheism, so we offer Him respect as God, but we do not follow His philosophy. Future teachers reintroduced theism.
When God is nicely worshiped, nature is in perfect order, but when He is not worshiped properly, so many anomalies are there.
That Yudhisthira was concerned about the people who were killed to reinstate him on the throne shows that a perfect devotee is not without feeling. The pure devotee does not want only liberation for himself as Prahlada Maharaja says, but is also concerned for others.
Srila Prabhupada said that Socrates was the only real philosopher in the West. Socrates was against the Sophists who used knowledge for persuasion but were not lovers of knowledge for itself.
In the Vedic conception, Gautama Rsi taught there are three kinds of discussion:
(1) Vada—when both sides are looking for the truth
(2) Jalpa—if either side just wants to win, regardless of the truth, but they do not cheat
(3) Vitanda—when either side wants to win so much they are willing to cheat
Yudhisthira is having his moments of doubt, but in the end, he did what Krishna wanted. Similarly we may have our moments, or even years, of doubt, but in the end we have to do what Krishna wants.
Of the gosthyanandi and the bhajanandi, either or both can have pure or mixed motives. If Krishna accepts their service, then that is their perfection.
The gosthyanandi is willing to put aside the pleasure of serving Krishna to go out and share Krishna's message, and because of this additional special quality, he is considered higher. Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita 18.68–69 that he who explains his message to the devotees is the greatest, and there will not be a greater personality. The gopis confirm this, saying those who spread talks of Krishna are bhuri-da janah[most munificent].
Q: What is the difference between your teaching and Buddhism?
A: Buddhism teaches that nothing is permanent. A chair has no existence but is a temporary energy field. In Krishna consciousness there are souls and God who have eternal existence.
Q: We see the Catholic Church has its problems, and people are leaving. Could you comment on that?
A: It is an age of corruption. I do not want to blame the Catholic Church. All religions have difficulty in this age. It is very difficult to remain pure. Anyone who can do so, we should respect. We have confidence in the practices of chanting the names of God and eating food offered to God which can keep us in a pure state, and we recommend followers of other religions to take this two practices very seriously if they want to maintain purity.
God is all-auspicious and when God is present as His name, all-auspiciousness is there.
These ideas are new to you but are not unfamiliar because we are all souls.
Chemistry can tell how the molecules in the body combine, but it can say nothing about consciousness. Carbon is needed for living bodies, but carbon is not conscious. Consciousness comes from another source.
If you have an appropriate body you can live in any environment.
Nature is so complex that we should wonder where has all the complexity come from.
Q: God is good and all-powerful, then why is there evil in this world.
A: Our explanation is the God does not create the evil. We create it. According to the law of karma, the living entities did something in the past warranting the suffering. We can convince some people to stop causing suffering to others. If people follow the laws of God and are kind to other people, they will become free from karma. We can inoculate the children against polio, but that does not free them from the karma that caused them to get the disease. God is trying to help, but people are stubborn. He sent his son 2000 years ago, and what did they do? They tried to kill him.
The minimal respect we should have for other living beings is that we allow them to live. The modern world has forgotten this because we do not honor the basic commandments of God.
Q: What is consciousness? What about someone who is mentally disturbed?
A: Consciousness is there in the mentally disturbed. It is just disturbed. Consciousness is there when we are asleep, but it is within. Even in a coma, there is still some consciousness. Even in a plant, there is still some consciousness.
When we use our body and mind in ungodly ways, we suffer as a reaction. Sometimes we can see causes within this life, but in other cases, it must be something from a past life.
We can choose to follow the laws of God as they are given in any religion that we select.
Why is suicide wrong? Because it is destroying someone else's property, since ultimately the body belongs to God.
We never made a proper contract for the use of the body for any length of time, and therefore we cannot complain about being kicked out untimely.
Buddhism does not tell about the God or soul, so we are not going to recommend it.
The biggest program with all religions, including Buddhism, is hypocrisy. Although nonviolence is a Buddhist principle, so many Buddhists are eating meat.
Some people think that once the Hare Krishnas get a hold of you cannot get free, but I know for a fact many people have come and gone, so that is not true.
The Koran forbids killing innocent men and women who are bystanders and not fighters. So those who kill innocent people and claim the Koran sanctions it are incorrect.
People are becoming too materialistic. Rather than fighting with each other, religions should unite and face their common enemy—materialism.
His Grace Shyamasundara Prabhu
I first met Gopiparanadhana Prabhu in 1979 in LA. We spent time together here in Bangalore from 1981-83 while he was working on the translation of the rest of the Bhagavatam. Over the years we had a nice friendship. He didn’t have a mean bone in his whole body and was incapable of offending any one; he had such humility and kindness in him.
Ironically today my wife and I had lunch at a devotee friend’s house. We had recommended that they read the Brhad Bhagavatamrta translated by Gopiparanadhana. Srila Prabhupada had said that if you want to understand what real Bhakti yoga is you must read BB. Just by reciting from memory whatever we could remember of the BB our hosts were so moved that tears were coming down their cheeks because of the wonderful descriptions of Lord Krsna’s dealings with His devotees contained in that book. Especially moving was how Krsna said to Gopa Kumar after he returned back to godhead in Goloka: “I have been looking at that path every day and wondering when will you show your mercy onto Me and come back to Me, and now you have returned to Me.”
Lord Krsna is so humble that He is waiting for us to show our “mercy” on Him. There was no dry eye in the room. So in this way for at least 1-2 hours we were glorifying the BB and Gopiparanadhana Prabhu for translating it. Just then I got the SMS message that Gopiparanadhana Prabhu had left his body and could not believe that the person who I had been glorifying had just died. All I can think is that now Lord Krsna’s wait for His dear friend Gopiparanadhana Prabhu to come back to Him is now over.