Hansadutta: As soon as you work for Krishna, Krishna will reveal Himself and will make you understand why everything is the way it is. Vasudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogah prayojitah. As soon as one engages in the service of Vasudeva, Krishna, immediately causeless knowledge and detachment from the world follows.

Question: Well, if the knowledge is open so much that it’s right there to grasp, then why is it that people don’t grasp it? I mean, it’s really stupid. It’s just like air you inhale, it’s like breathing.

Hansadutta: It’s just like there are two fish. One fish says, “Didn’t you see the water?” And the other fish says, “No. Where is it?” Everywhere is water. So it’s the same thing. Krishna is there, but we are in ignorance. Just like a man is sleeping and everybody knows it. But the man who is sleeping thinks he is a king in a palace with many queens, right? He doesn’t know he’s sleeping. Does the man who’s sleeping know that he’s sleeping? He has no idea that he’s sleeping. He thinks he’s awake.

For those who call into question why Prabhupada did whatever he did, said whatever he said… particularly in his instructions such as the Letter of July 9th, Direction of Management, his last testament and will…

Prabhupada was not a man of this mortal world, he was cent per cent uninterrupted acting as a seamless instrument of the Supreme personality of Godhead Krishna, just as my tongue or any other part acts seamlessly in harmony under the dictation of my entire body for the benefit of the whole body.

Any understanding other than this is MAYA. Either Prabhupada is as good as Krishna, or he is not.

Just as we love and serve every part of our body for the love of our body above all others, similarly, Krishna does everything first and foremost for His own enjoyment and well being, which automatically serves every other part of Him automatically. We do not neglect the toe because it is so insignificant, we will doctor and spend any ammount to make it well, just as we will doctor and make well our heart or brain. All parts are treated with the same care and concern. Whatever Krishna does, that is for Krishna, but automatically it includes the infinite parts and parcels, however sinful, defective or insignificant they may be. That is the meaning of absolute, that is spiritual.

PRABHUPADA: Our George Harrison, he also liked KRSNA book.
HARI-SAURI: Yes. We sold so many KRSNA books on the strength of showing them that…
PRABHUPADA: George Harrison.
HARI-SAURI: …Introduction from George Harrison.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. And I have acknowledged his contribution and blessed him as good boy. And because he served Krishna, then later on he became inclined to give us that house.
TAMAL KRSNA: Has that house been transferred actually yet?
PRABHUPADA: Never mind what is the… We are using it. If he says “Go out,” we shall go out. What is that? We are not after property.
TAMAL KRSNA: And he’ll never say that.
PRABHUPADA: No. I don’t think he’s so mean-minded. No. He’s not mean-minded. He’s a good boy. I’ve studied.
TAMAL KRSNA: Ravi Shankar has taken advantage of him. These two pujaris, the two brothers…
PRABHUPADA: They’re ideal.
TAMAL KRSNA: …they look like they’re out of the Chaitanya-charitamrta. They appear as two persons right out of that book.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. Very good boys.
TAMAL KRSNA: Vaikuntha men.
PRABHUPADA: Oh, yes. They do not know except the duty. Very good boys.
TAMAL KRSNA: Perfect team of brothers.
PRABHUPADA: Oh, yes. Therefore Krishna has brought them here in Mayapura. Previously they were advanced, all of you. You are simply born because the mission was to be started. Just like in Yadu-vamsa Krishna ordered all the devotee demigods to “Go and take birth there to help Me.” Similarly, you are also… You were born in Europe, America, to help this. Otherwise you were devotees in you past lives. I have explained that in my recent writings. The purport was mam eti: goes to Krishna where His pastime is going on, and then they are transferred to the original. So all the devotees picked up and they were placed together where Krishna is having His pastimes in either of these innumerable universes. He’s going on. Just the moving… The sun is moving-little, little, little. So Krishna’s pastimes go on—this universe, that universe, that universe, that universe. In some universe He’s present. In all universes present, that is called nitya-lila. So those who are advanced, perfect devotees, first of all they are sent there and then, further trained up, they enter. Mam eti. Just like after passing the administration examination he’s made one assistant of some magistrate, and then gradually he’ll be promoted up to the high-court judge.
HARI-SAURI: When we were in New York this last summer you said that the spiritual master also has associates who appear along with him to help him in his mission.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. Krishna wants His assistants; the spiritual master also requires assistant. Everything is going on under Krishna’s direct supervision. Mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram [Bhagavad-gita 9.10].
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya [Bg. 18.61]

Unless at least one ISKCON leader on the Guru level comes forward and risks his spiritual and material Prestige, his career, disciples etc. to denounce this latest
and the previous ( Satsvarupa swami ) falldowns of the “GURUS” and insists on following the July 9th rittvik order of Srila Prabhupada, you can understand how
completely and hopelessly corrupted and disgraced the entire ISKCON leadership is. It is a grand ship TITANIC lying at the bottom of the ocean, inhabited by fishes and clam shells only.

Your humble servant,
Hansadutta das

The words of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur (from his essay Thakur Bhaktivinode), apply to Srila Prabhupada and ourselves today as much as when they were penned on paper. I have substituted Srila Prabhupada where Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati wrote Thakur Bhaktivinode.

The scriptures declare that it is only necessary for one to listen with an open mind to the Name of Krishna from the lips of a bonafide devotee.

In this Iron Age (Kali yuga) it is only the Name KRISHNA appearing on the lips of a PURE DEVOTEE who can lift the conditioned soul to the plane of the Absolute. As a matter of fact, even the scriptures also can only faintly express the Personality of Godhead. The mere study of the scriptures can convey no full knowledge of the Absolute as substantive entity. But the Name Krishna has power to put a person on the Absolute Plane and endow the words of the revealed scriptures with their living meaning.

Those who repeat the teachings of Srila Prabhupada from memory do not necessarily understand the meaning of the words they mechanically repeat. Those who can pass an examination regarding the contents of his writings are not necessarily also self-realised souls. They may not at all know the real meaning of the words they have learnt by the method of empiric study.

Srila Prabhupada did not want us to go to the clever mechanical reciters of the mundane sound for obtaining access to the transcendental Name of KRISHNA.

Such a person may be fully equipped with all the written arguments in explanation of the nature of the Divine Name. But if we listen to all these arguments from the DEAD source, the words will only increase our delusion.

The devotee is always right. The non-devotee in the shape of the empiric pedant is always and necessarily wrong.

The identical verses of the scriptures may be recited by the devotee and the non-devotee, may be apparently misquoted by the non-devotee, but the corresponding values of the two processes remain always categorically different.

The devotee is right even when he apparently misquotes. The non-devotee is wrong even when he quotes correctly the very words, chapter and verse of the scriptures.

What are the scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure devotee of the divine message appearing on the lips of the pure devotees.

At some point the fact that paper money is not money has to surface, and we see it happening now. The inevitable deficiency in the monetary system is in fact surfacing in America, and impacting the global economy. On another level, we see this phenomenon happening in ISKCON and with the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Somehow or other Srila Prabhupada’s movement and his legal arrangement for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust have got to be put right again, back on track. There has to be a point of reference in the world that is purely in line with Prabhupada, without discrepancies, without adulteration, even if it’s just one person.

Hansadutta Remembers Prabhupada

This story was originally published on VNN, Feb 23, 2003, posted by Siddhanta das

At the initiation a kind of funny thing happened. We of course knew that when you get initiated you get another name. My karmi name was Hans Kary and I never liked my name because I was an immigrant. Ever since childhood I wanted to be integrated into the social environment of my peers so I always wanted to change my German name Hans Kary to something else. So upon initiation I was really anticipating getting a very exotic new name like Hanuman or Hari dasa. So when it came time for me to receive my beads, as I bowed down Prabhupada said, Your name is Hansadutta. I didn’t quite catch what he said, so I asked, What was that? Prabhupada said, Simply add ‘dutta’. And I got real disappointed. I thought, Oh, so not only was the name still the same by adding a suffix, but my last name also remained the same because it got a prefix, ‘adi’, Adikary.

So now I was doubly disappointed with Hansadutta Adikary. Then after the initiation when everything had kind of cleared away, I thought, Well I should at least find out what my name means. I went to Prabhupada and asked him, Swamaji, what does my name mean? Prabhhupada said, I don’t know. That’s all he said. So now I was bewildered and went away. But it was nagging me that I really wanted to know what this name meant. So I came back again. I said, Well, Prabhhupada, is there some place where I can find where the meaning of this name is? He said, Yes. That’s all he said. So again I kind of wandered away. But I was determined, so a third time I approached Prabhupada. I said, Well, in which book can I find the meaning of this name? He said, In the Srimad Bhagavatam. In those days, even though the Bhagavatam was only three volumes as compared to the many we have today, it was still a big book to go through. Anyways, I let it go.

But years later, when we were in Montreal, Prabhupada at one point was musing over different devotee’s names. He said, Oh, Shivananda means this and Krsna dasa means that… He was kind of going on very casually, so I thought, Here’s my opportunity. I said, Well, Prabhhupada, who is Hansadutta? He said, You are! For some reason Prabhhupada simply wasn’t going to tell me straight away what my name meant, although later on I had read that the name came from a book written by Rupa Goswami. But I wanted to hear it from Prabhupada. So that was one funny and curious incident with Srila Prabhupada.
—————————————–
This and other great stories can be heard and seen from the new “Memories of Srila Prabhupada” video Pt. 35 featuring Hansadutta dasa. His stories are filled with great insight and humor and should be a part of everyone’s video collection for remembering His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.

Running Time: 81 minutes

$19.95 plus $5s&h (contact for PAL orders)

To order contact:

Siddhanta dasa
c/o Illumination Television
1-800-310-VIDEO
itv@flash.net
http://www.prabhupada.tv
4114 Motor Ave.
Culver City, CA 90232

I did harbor some grudges against certain devotees who plotted to oust me from the temple (instigated by Krishna Balaram), and so my wife Janaki dd and I left Malaysia in disgust in 1983. But that’s all in the past and I don’t hold any grudges against anyone anymore.

We did return to Malaysia in 1984 and was TP under Jayapataka until 1987 when we said our final goodbyes. It was too much to handle the responsibilities of TP while so many initiating gurus were falling away at the wayside. How do I recommend anyone to be initiated by any guru when I had lost my faith in them? We returned to UK.

I finally left UK in 2002 and am now living in Colorado.

I am encouraged to hear of your continued involvement and trying to correct some of the wrong in ISKCON. May Srila Prabhupada continue to inspire, empower and bless you - and all of us.

Haribol

Your servant,
Ramasarana das

Dear Ramasarana Prabhu, obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you so much for your kind letter. So much water has gone under the bridge. Still, in the eternity of time, it is nothing. We have to go on. Everything has some place in the infinite scheme of Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.

I am always mortified with my past offences and mistakes in the association of Devotees. Yes, I am trying to rectify things as much as possible. Thank you for writing to me. It means a lot, really it does.

Your humble servant,
Hansadutta das

From: “Patrick Hedemark” <pdhedemark@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, November 23, 2007 8:48 am

Here is the conversation with Sridhara Swami: http://www.bvml.org/SBRSM/ssm-gbc78.html

READ IT VERY, VERY CAREFULLY AND YOU WILL SEE WHERE THE SEEDS WERE PLANTED.

THEN CAREFULLY READ THE CONVERSATIONS AT TOPANGA CANYON WITH TAMAL KRSNA GOSWAMI: http://www.harekrsna.org/gbc/themes/topanga.htm

These two discussions reveal PRECISELY when the disease entered Srila
Prabhupada’s mission - and who is responsible for bringing it in.

It is AKIN to the arrival of the Black Death in Europe - supposedly
brought to Venice by ship rats and from there it spread its deadly
effects all across Europe in the mid-fourteenth century.

Praghosa

————————————————————————–

Dear Praghosa Prabhu,

Obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The entire conversation with Sridhar is based on one erroneous PREMISE that the 11 men in question were in fact GURUS OR ACHARYAS OF PRABHUPADA’S QUALITY, QUANTITY AND STATURE, authorized to assume a post which they were actually capable of executing. In other words, THE PREMISE IS THE PROBLEM. The premise of their being appointed by Srila Prahupada to assume the office of Guru or Acharya is simply ignored, and the problem of how to sell this imaginary premise is the main focus of all parties concerned. If the premise is not a fact, then everything that follows, regardless of how logical and reasonable it may sound, is also empty and meaningless.

Think about it. Preach it far and wide. It is very simple: THE PREMISE IS THE PROBLEM.

Your servant,
Hansadutta das

Back in 1975, when Srila Prabhupada was meeting with the GBC and they were having a discussion about drafting the pledge of allegiance, at some point there’s discussion about whether to add also a line pledging allegiance or obedience to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions in his books. And Srila Prabhupada says that his direct instruction supersedes the books.

This is a very important point that many devotees don’t understand. The direct instruction of the Acharya is more important. ISKCON tries to establish the superiority of the books over everything else. They say, “Srila Prabhupada might have said that, but his books have the final say.” But this is erroneous. The simple, direct prescription which is tailored to the circumstances takes precedence. Just like when you go to see a lawyer, he doesn’t hand you the lawbooks and say, “Here’s the solution.” He applies the knowlege of the lawbooks specifically applicable to your particular case. Same thing medical doctor. He might refer to the medical books, but he gives a prescription to you based on what you need.

When I joined Prabhupada, there were no books, practically. I had that little book, Easy Journey to Other Planets. But I joined Prabhupada, and everything was “What do I do now?” That was the basis of my service to Srila Prabhupada, every step of the way.

It’s one thing to read the books to get a general understanding, but to take action requires direct order: “You do this.” And this was what Krishna did also with Arjuna. Krishna spoke 18 chapters of the science of Krishna consciousness to Arjuna, including hatha-yoga, jnana-yoga, but finally He said, “Don’t worry. you do this, and I’ll take care of everything else.” So the books are there, and at first one should read the books, but when he becomes interested and wants a deeper understanding, then naturally he will feel the urge to come forward and get guidance from a devotee. So I think it is important to bring this out into the open.

Here’s a snippet of that conversation (March 27, 1975), wherein Srila Prabhupada asked Atreya Rsi to read the draft of the Oath of Allegiance, and then proceeded to dictate what should be included and what should be left out:

Atreya Rsi: …or may be given to me from time to time directly, these directions, by my aforesaid Guru Maharaja, or through his books, or…” In other words, direction given, instruction given, directly by him or through his…

Prabhupada: Better directly.

Atreya Rsi: No “His books”?

Prabhupada: No.

Atreya Rsi: Not necessary.

Prabhupada: Because I may give direction according to the time.

Atreya Rsi: “Or” means both.

Prabhupada: Hm?

Atreya Rsi: “Or” can mean… All right. “Or through his commissioners…”

Prabhupada: Direct, direct instruction is important. Just like Krishna. In the books He has given many instructions, but then He says, sarva-dharman parityaja. If one says that “You gave me instruction before like this. How can I give up this?” so that is not important. The direct instruction is important.

Atreya Rsi: “To me from time to time directly by my aforesaid Guru Maharaja, or through his commissioner…”

Prabhupada: Yes.

Atreya Rsi: “Or through his authorized person or persons, and I shall obey faithfully all such instructions and directions which shall be, which shall be binding on me, and that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of my Guru Maharaja, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and the managing body commission and, or, any other body appointed by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada working under the said International Society for Krishna Consciousness. And I shall faithfully discharge the duty upon which I am about to enter or I have already appointed to that effect.” Now this is an addition. “I further pledge that His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is the only source of authority, represented by his instructions and books, and I shall follow his instructions, I shall follow the instructions of the books…”

Madhudvisa: Only these books.

Atreya Rsi: “Only these books” Rather than “I will not follow any other book.”

Prabhupada: No, why you’ll put? [laughs] This is…?

Atreya Rsi: It’s not…?

Prabhupada: This is required?

Rupanuga: You mean the part about the books, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: Hm?

Rupanuga: You mean the part about the books?

Hansadutta: It’s already said that you’re his direct instructions.

Atreya Rsi: This is to protect, like, if somebody chanting sixteen rounds…

Hansadutta: It’s redundant.

Madhudvisa: Well, I thought if someone was chanting sixteen rounds and following the principles and reading someone else’s books, like Siddha-svarupa’s people…

Hansadutta: Yeah, but we’ve just already read one portion where it says that we will follow direct instructions of Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: That’s it.

Hansadutta: So again he’s repeating it.

Prabhupada: Instruction, follow that.

Atreya Rsi: So then it’s not necessary about this “only” sort part of…

Prabhupada: Yes.

Madhudvisa: What if there is no direct instruction?

Prabhupada: Yes. I don’t think that part is anymore important.