Attains Peace

 Three translations of The Bhagavad Gita 9:30-31:

Ranchor Prime:

Even one whose behavior is deeply harmful, but who serves me with faithful devotion, should be accepted as a worthy person of right intention.  This soul very soon becomes righteous and attains peace.

Sir Edwin Arnold:

If one of evil life turn in his thought
Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good;
He hath the high way chosen; he shall grow
Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace
Which changes not.

Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:

Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in determination.  He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace.

I was reminded of this line when I saw yet another anti-John Lennon thread making the rounds, criticizing him for writing idealistic songs while living an imperfect life.  John was well aware of his flaws and was doing his best to live a better life, and that moves him ahead of most.

I've read several translations of the Bhagavad Gita.  The first I read was the 19th century translation by Sir Edwin Arnold.  It's in the public domain and can be downloaded or read online for free from Project Gutenberg, HERE.  It's rather flowery and ornamental.  I think he was trying to emulate the King James Bible.

Srila Prabhupada's version is very complete, analyzing the text line by line.  It's for more advanced scholars.

My favorite version is by Ranchor Prime, and it's the one I would recommend to someone reading the Gita for the first time.  It analyzes the text story by story, and that makes it very easy to follow and understand.  It's a great introduction.

Unity in Diversity

 I've been reviewing old backup disks, and found this:

 

Unity in Diversity
by Padmapani Dasa
Originally Posted November 24, 2002

On July 29, 1971, Srila Prabhupada was interviewed on television at the University of Gainesville in Florida (which His Divine Grace described as "a remote corner of the world, thousands of miles from the birthplace of Lord Caitanya"). At one point, Srila Prabhupada was asked the following question:

Interviewer: "How would I recognize a true follower of the Krsna consciousness movement by his behavior? What would his traits be? What would his outward expressions be?"

Srila Prabhupada: "He'd be a very perfect gentleman, that's all. You could not find any fault in him."

What's particularly striking about his reply is that Srila Prabhupada never mentioned any external symptoms such as dress, title, social position, or even what religious or spiritual practices one followed. His evidence was the result -- or fruit -- of spiritual advancement. As he often said, "You can judge a thing by its result."

Earlier in the conversation, Srila Prabhupada informed the interviewer that, "We are not concerned with how one man deals with another man." Rather surprised, the interviewer asked, "Isn't that part of your Krsna consciousness movement?" Srila Prabhupada replied, "No, this is not important because we know that as soon as one understands how to deal with God, he will automatically deal very nicely with others."

In the early seventies, I remember hearing a conversation where Srila Prabhupada warned the devotees about the dangers of "party spirit." He said it could ruin everything. At the time, who could have imagined the possibility of Prabhupada's movement splitting into various factions? It was simply inconceivable. Obviously a lot has transpired over the years since then. Who can deny that we haven't had our ups and downs, and that we haven't made mistakes along the way? We've all gone through changes, but hopefully, we've matured and gained some wisdom as well. For most of us, our youthful idealism has given way to a more reserved attitude in our views and dealings. There are probably few among us who haven't spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out how we can actually get it right for Srila Prabhupada. How many times did he instruct us all to get along? But how in the world are we going to do it?

While leafing through a selection of Prabhupada's letters recently, I came across the following statement:

"Although there may be some difficulties within our society, these things are not very important. What is important is that we should simply fix our mind on Krishna's Lotus Feet. This is His instruction in the Bhagavad-gita. So we associate with one another so that we can assist each other in hearing and chanting about Krishna. That is the purpose of our Society." (Srila Prabhupada letter, November 22, 1974)

Here, in a short paragraph, Srila Prabhupada dispels all illusions as to what is important and what isn't, proving once again that "discretion is the better part of valor." It is said that a swan is able to extract the milk (or essence) from a mixture of milk and water. Since Prabhupada is forever the supreme swanlike devotee, his words, books, letters, and conversations all contain the very essence of truth. And the truth is always simple, never complicated:

"I am glad to understand that you are living and working peacefully with the others there. This is required. If we also fight and preach Krishna consciousness, what will people say? Therefore Lord Caitanya has stated: trnad api sunicena taro api sahisnuna. Another symptom of a sadhu or spiritually advanced man is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam by Lord Kapila: titiksavah karunikah suhrdah sarva dehinam. (3.25.21) The symptoms of a sadhu is that he is tolerant, merciful, and friendly to all living entities." (Srila Prabhupada letter, December 8, 1974)

Lord Krsna Himself confirms in the Bhagavad-gita that a wise person (panditah) sees every living being with equal vision (sama-darsinah). He or she makes no distinctions on the basis of bodily identification or designation. Srila Prabhupada said that when making an analogy, one should gather together as many similarities as possible to draw a conclusion. Using this logic, we can factually understand that we all have so much in common. We are eternal spirit souls, part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. In the process of transmigration from one body to another, we have reached the human form of life. In this particular lifetime, we have come in contact with Srila Prabhupada, a pure unalloyed devotee of Krsna, who is described in the scriptures as the "mercy incarnation of the Lord." We have each adopted (to one degree or another) the process of reviving our true spiritual nature through the practice of Krsna consciousness as revealed to us by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. These similarities alone far eclipse any temporary differences based on natural variety. As Prabhupada clearly advised: "To have some little disagreements among yourselves is not very unnatural because we are all individual beings. But as we are working on behalf of Krsna, we should always forget our personal interests and see to the prime cause."

So ultimately, it's this "prime cause" or higher vision of Krsna consciousness that we are after. Differences are there, most certainly, but they pale in comparison to the wonderful spiritual commonalities that we all share. By focusing on these simple but eternal truths so kindly revealed to us by Srila Prabhupada, we can look forward to further progress in Krsna consciousness, both individually and collectively.

(Excerpt from The Prabhupada Connection website, Editorial, Notes #4, by Padmapani das) 

Clean the Atmosphere

 

A double-decker bus appears out of the London fog in the cold winter of 1952.

Photograph from The Daily Mail

Back in the 1950s, London used to have a lot of fog. When the fog combined with the smoke from thousands of coal fires, it created what the Londoners called ‘a real pea-souper’ because they experienced it to be just like the local pea soup!

Have you ever been in such a thick fog? Sometimes you can’t see in front of your eyes for more than a few feet. Any object coming towards you, like a horse, a walking man, or this double-decker London bus, can only be seen as a blurred shape until its very close. It can be difficult to find your way in such a fog. Sometimes you can even become completely lost.

People can generate fog too. Its not made up of ‘pea soup’ or even particles of water. Its made up of particles of conversation, emails, and website posts. When people come together to form groups, and groups come together as larger organisations the ‘cyber-fog’ can be really dense sometimes. Either the members speak so much about the organisation - or other people speak about it - that it forms a communications ‘fog’ so thick that its possible the entire organisation - rather like a London bus - can be completely obscured. Only when up close can you really see what its like.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada comments that all the lies in the world - especially coming from lawyers, politicians and the like - who routinely speak what they know to be untrue simply for personal advantage - can travel as vibrations into the atmosphere and come down again as subtle pollutants.

Every human being therefore has a duty to speak in such a way as to help clean the atmosphere. And devotees of Krishna in this wonderful movement for Krishna consciousness have an extra duty to spend their time glorifying Krishna and the Vaishnavas. Particularly they must not waste time in employing electronic gadgetry in broadcasting their less than helpful comments on the lives of others. Otherwise the fog thus generated will tend to obscure our movement. People will see a distant, vague shape but be unable to see our movement for what it is. They will see the fog first - and may miss the bus completely. 

(I found this on an old backup disk, and unfortunately I failed to save the source.  If anyone knows, drop me a line so I can credit the author.)

Kill/Protect

"There is a Bengali saying, two lines: rakse krsna mare ke, mare krsna rakse ke. If Krishna, God, wants to kill somebody, oh, nobody can protect him. And if God wants to protect him, oh, nobody can kill him…"  ~Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (source)