Start Lecture transcribing.

“ahaà hare tava pädaika-müla-

däsänudäso bhavitäsmi bhüyaù
manaù smaretäsu-pater guëäàs te
gåëéta väk karma karotu käyaù”
Srimad Bhagavatam 6.11.24

SYNONYMS
aham—I; hare—O my Lord; tava—of Your Lordship; päda-eka-müla—whose only shelter is the
lotus feet; däsa-anudäsaù—the servant of Your servant; bhavitäsmi—shall I become; bhüyaù—
again; manaù—my mind; smareta—may remember; asu-pateù—of the Lord of my life; guëän—
the attributes; te—of Your Lordship; gåëéta—may chant; väk—my words; karma—activities of
service to You; karotu—may perform; käyaù—my body.

TRANSLATION
O my Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, will I again be able to be a servant of Your
eternal servants who find shelter only at Your lotus feet? O Lord of my life, may I again become
their servant so that my mind may always think of Your transcendental attributes, my words
always glorify those attributes, and my body always engage in the loving service of Your
Lordship?

PURPORT
This verse gives the sum and substance of devotional life. One must first become a servant of the
servant of the servant of the Lord (däsänudäsa). Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu advised, and He also
showed by His own example, that a living entity should always desire to be a servant of the
servant of the servant of Kåñëa, the maintainer of the gopés (gopé-bhartuù pada-kamalayor däsa-
däsänudäsaù [Cc. Madhya 13.80]). This means that one must accept a spiritual master who
comes in the disciplic succession and is a servant of the servant of the Lord. Under his direction,
one must then engage one's three properties, namely his body, mind and words. The body should
be engaged in physical activity under the order of the master, the mind should think of Kåñëa
incessantly, and one's words should be engaged in preaching the glories of the Lord. If one is
thus engaged in the loving service of the Lord, one's life is successful.

Start Lecture by His Holiness Radhanath Svami Maharaja.

Today we are reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 6, Chapter 11, entitled “The
transcendental qualities of Vritrasura” and Text number 24.

Vritrasura knows that he is about to die. He understands that this is his destiny but unlike so
many in this world, he is jubilant. He was looking forward to what is about to come, why?
Because for a great devotee who realizes the eternality of the soul, such a devotee knows his or
her constitutional position. “jévera ‘svarüpa’ haya—kåñëera ‘nitya-däsa’ “ That we are eternal
servants of the lord. That service to the lord is transcendental or beyond all of the dualities of this
world, pleasure, pain, honor, dishonor, happiness, distress, success, failure, victory, defeat, even
birth and death or what let us say, life and death. Because all of these attributes only pertained to
the body and the mind. “väsäàsi jérëäni yathä vihäya” which are like a set of cloths that are
temporarily covering the true self the soul.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu so simply explained the very essence of spiritual life in this one line
that the nature of the soul is to serve god and there are vast literatures in all languages that are
given by the lord to teach us, how to serve the lord? How to achieve that state of service to the
lord and what takes place after we achieve that state in the spiritual world as well as in this
world. Actually the spiritual world is not something we attain after death. The spiritual world is
something we attain in life. If we can attain in life then naturally at the time of death we are
transferred there. But if we do not attain during our life then we have to keep coming back until
we sincerely decide to do so.

In the bible it is said, “The kingdom of god is within”. Unless we find it within ourselves, we
will not find it high in the sky”. We will not even find it in a holy place of pilgrimage, the holy
place of pilgrimage are so important because they give us inspiration and most of all they give
opportunities to associate with holy people and in a sanctified place in association of holy people
we become blessed with the greater opportunities to make the choice of serving lord but we have
to make that choice. Saintly people cannot make it for you and holy places cannot make it for
you. Event the supreme lord the controller of the all controllers will never make that choice for
you.

The lord provides us this opportunity through His mercy and in this particular purport Srila
Prabhupada explains, how do we achieve that mercy? Vritrasura is giving his realization in this
particular verse, how to achieve the mercy of the lord. It is not by being great in eyes of the
world. It is not being by a great scholar either. It is not by the performance of tapasya or
tremendous austerities. It is not by accumulating masses of wealth or attracting masses of
followers, how do we really achieve the mercy of the lord? Vritrasura explains “das dasanudash”
by being the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord because love means to serve.
Krishna only wants one thing love. Ultimately that is all in anybody who really wants. But due to
our endless distractions, due to the false ego and influences of other people’s egos we have so
many demands, so many concerns that we feel its so important. In the end that only thing that
can satisfy anyone’s heart is love and without that everything else you have, you will remain
empty within because it is the soul’s nature to love. Love is a giving but never of taking. To love
means to serve.

What does a devotee want to always think of Krishna? Krishna tells in Bhagavad-Gita “man-
manä bhava mad-bhakto” always think of me, always be absorbed in remembering me. In fact
the two Vedic instructions by which all others are only support of two is to always remember
Krishna and never forget Krishna. Why does Krishna want us to always remember Him? It is not
for His benefit because He is atmaram. He is perfectly self satisfied. It is for our benefit because
remembrance is a necessary expression of love internally. Even in this world we find that if
someone wants to be love by you they want to you to remember them. The more you remember
them they believe that you actually love them.

Sometimes if a person goes abroad the object of their love they live simply by knowing that you
remembering them. On a person’s birth day, most people really do not care anything about gifts,
especially parents. Parents do not need the gifts of their children because usually the children
take still the money from their parents anyway. It simply that he or she remembered me. They
remembered me that more enough to go through all that trouble and if you do something
amazing that means you really put a lot of effort and through that effort you must be
remembering why are you doing it. So what is a fact? That the heart feels the satisfaction of
being loved when there is some knowledge it may come through a gesture or may come through
your own interrogation that that person is remembering me.

If somebody has their secretary just automatically on a particular day right you attracted for one
crore of rupees, you may like the money. But there was no internal satisfaction. It is not the
thing. It is the expression. First the secretary has in your computer, this is the date of this
person’s birthday right then this cheque. Love has nothing to do with that. Love is remembrance.
Is not the way it is in the world? It is origin in Krishna because love is something that consumes
the consciousness and what consumes the consciousness is what we remember. “anta kale ca
mam eva” Krishna says, “If you remember Me at the time of death, you will be come to Me” but
the only way you could remember Krishna at the time of death is if you remember throughout
your life. That is all these required to just remember Krishna. We can only remember Krishna by
the mercy of Krishna. It’s not something that can be done superficially or artificially.

Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur and our beloved gurudev Srila Prabhupada, they warned
us against artificially trying to meditate or to remember on the intimate esoteric pastimes of
Radha and Krishna. We may be remembering but the question is, “Is that remembered? In the
beginning stages which we are remember Krishna because Krishna is all pure. We become
purified by that remembrance. But when we become more serious we remember Krishna simply
because our remembrance pleases Krishna because it an offering of our love which is early once.
In our remembrance of Krishna should be in a way that Krishna is satisfied. We can remember
Krishna at every moment for the next million births and still remain in this world and thus
Krishna is pleased with us. It is not a mechanical process. Krishna has to be pleased by the way
we are trying to remember him.

At the very beginning stage as anyway you remember Krishna, you making some contact but if
you want go beyond that you have to please Krishna and to the degree Krishna is pleased to that
degree we receive Krishna’s mercy. Therefore the great acaryas they teach us that if you want to
please Krishna remember Him by chanting His holy names, by remembering Him by His
teachings. Remembering him by remembering His beautiful form and His wonderful pastimes.
According to how we are taught to remember but through it all what is going to make it all real
and substantial is when we reach out for the mercy through the process of being the servant of
the servant of the servant of the Lord. Without deep genuine humble service attitude all are other
devotional principles are superficial because they do not really mean that much to Krishna. We
may think that we are great but that’s the problem because as soon as you as you think you are
great your sin is something very insignificant by Krishna. If you see itself small with the proper
attitude of servitude Krishna sees you so great that even He willingly is conquered by your
sincerity.

Krishna loves to be conquered by the devotion of his devotee but we find in all cases throughout
the scriptures the same quality that conquerors Krishna. No false ego and one of the greatest pit
faults of a devotee for a devotee is to think that they are great devotee because of some
accomplishment or by some attributes or becomes their remembering Krishna in very esoteric
ways and telling other people about Krishna in esoteric ways. That may be nice but if you think
you are great because you are doing it, you are neutralizing the greatness of what you are doing.
Because to the servant of the servant of the servant is not just what you do and what is necessary.
It is that is the feel to be the servant of the servant that you know and gradually realize that I am
the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. To the degree we felt humble in the presence
of others to that degree we can understand we are not great. We can understand we are getting
the mercy of Krishna or coming closer to the great. One who really does not know Krishna can
think that they are great. But as we know Krishna, we simply understand that I am coming closer
to the great. I am under the shelter of the great and that is our joy. If we take joy in our own
greatness, it will be washed by the waves of time. If we take shelter of Krishna’s greatness, it is
like diving into an unlimited ocean of spiritual joy.

So Srila Prabhupada begins his purport “This verse gives the sum and substance of devotional
life. One must first become a servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord (däsänudäsa). Çré
Caitanya Mahäprabhu advised, and He also showed by His own example, that a living entity
should always desire to be a servant of the servant of the servant of Kåñëa, the maintainer of the
gopés”. This is the first thing but first means chronological. It is the first thing must be
established for all other devotional activities to have substance. Its like foundation. We can learn
scriptures, we can develop so many devotional arts and skills. It is like building up our bhakti
through our activities, through our words, through our thoughts but the foundation, which is first
thing that built in a building, has to be strong and then as you building the rest of the building
you remove the foundation. If you are building your devotional life up five story, ten story, 20
story or 108 story. At any stage if the foundation is removed what happens. Whether it is a 1
story building or 108 story building or a 16108 story building. At any stage if the foundation is
removed the whole building collapses. So the spirit of being the servant of the servant of the
servant of the Lord, it is eternal. It is our eternal nature. The problem is sometimes the building is
so high, when you think way up there you won’t really see the foundation, so you neglect it.
Therefore we must hear regularly from Vritrasura. “nañöa-präyeñv abhadreñu nityaà bhägavata-
sevayä” we must hear the Srimad Bhagavatam everyday to remind us that we are always the
servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. This one of the greatest dangerous. As we are
making spiritual advancement, people may want to come to serve us. People may recognize us.
When we first come on the path of bhakti, usually we do not know so much. So it is easy to serve
people who know more. So what happens when we think we know more? We are around for 40-
50 years and we learn so much of how to do, what to do, and where to do, who it do it to and
everything lese. So we start thinking we are lanced and that beginning stage where we just
started menial services so far away from us, when we are from away up there. That is the greatest
reason why advanced devotees who goes high in the path of bhakti fall because they fail to take
care of the foundation or the base.

Srila Prabhupada really traced these basics. Follow these four regulative principles, chant the
holy names according to one’s prescribed vows and always be the servant of the servant of the
servant of the Lord. This is first. Srila Prabhupada declares it very clearly, here. This is the first
thing to be in that service attitude. It is the first thing and it is the last thing and it has to continue
always because it is foundation. Factually the higher you go in the devotional service, if ever the
foundation becomes weak there is a long way down to fall. You are on the first floor or second
floor and you forgot the foundation then you fall. It does not hurt so much. But when you are on
the 108th floor it hurts a lot and you may heard a lot about the people too. Everybody around you
is going to be hurt. You should covered down from that high. The higher you are the more
people you are going to affect. So not only does it behoove us for our own spiritual sanctity but
everybody around us that we must always be cultivating a strong foundation, service attitude.
Unfortunately sometimes devotees see the externals with too much significance. Certainly any
external endeavors by a devotee should be appreciated but we must understand that it is the
service attitude that attracts the mercy of Krishna, the servant of the servant of the servant of the
Lord, the basics. That must always remain prominent in whatever also we are doing. People
think, we are better than others, then how can we be the servant of the servant of the servant of
the Lord. It is superficial. Still we should do it. But our prayer should be that I am actually feel it,
I actually know it. That is how we gain the mercy of Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada explains herein that Lord Caitanya He advised us of the principle and also
showed by His own example that a living entity should always desire to be the servant of the
servant of the servant of the Krishna, the maintainer of Gopis. Lor Caitanya Mahaprabhu is god,
Lord Krishna, who appears in the role of his own devotee to teach us by His words and example
and how prominently the lord taught by His example. When He was living in Navadvipa, he was
the greatest of all scholars. At that time in Navadvipa which was the high city of learning for all
of India, the heroes or the scholars, people who really understood the scriptures and who could
argue, debate and defeat others. There was the competitive spirit in human beings that makes
people heroic.

Today the heroes are the athletes, who are very experts in defeating others in their competitive
sports. In India, you have your cricket heroes. When they win, everybody has garlands for them,
when they loose people shoes on them. Very strange country India. I never understand people
like India. The man out of his trying just as hard as win and he trying just as hard as he loses.
You hate him and condemn him and threaten his life and burn his house when he loses and gave
him your heart when he wins. Heroes on politicians, they also very competitive to win the
elections and they win so many other things too perhaps. Heroes on the entertainers, whether it is
music, whether it is television, or cinema. They are heroes because they succeeded and excelled
others in their arts. But in Navadvipa nobody care about sports, drama, or entertainment. To
them the hero was the scholar. Lord Caitanya was the greatest hero of Navadvipa. It is said that
what would take students twelve years to learn Sanskrit grammar from any other teacher they
could gain the same knowledge, realization, and certificate from Nimai Pandit after six months.
He was a good teacher.

One day after teaching His students, He was walking alone in the bank of Ganga, when he met a
great devotee, whose name was Iswarapuri. Iswarapuri was so humble. When his spiritual master
was in his last stage of life in this world, Madhavendrapuri. Iswarapuri accepted the humblest of
a menial servant, like a nurse. He just sat at his guru’s bed side and read to him about Krishna
and chanted to him about Krishna. He massaged his guru. He lifted his guru. His guru was so
bedridden that Iswarapuri with his own hands would clean the excrements from his guru’s body.
Very humble service and he did it in such feeling and devotion just wanted to please. There was
no high or low. There was only the spirit to please. Because he performs such a menial servant
for long time. His spiritual master felt so pleased and gave him the ultimate blessings. As Srila
Prabhupada says here, “It is the mood of servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord that
attracts the mercy of Krishna”. Madhavendrapuri said, “My child, may you attain the perfection
of love for Krishna”.

So Iswarapuri, he attains the highest position and there was the most respected amongst the
vaisnavas because of his humble menial service. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to teach the
world and all the great souls within the world, Lord Caitanya wanted to take initiation from this
person, who expressed through his body, mind, words, and his very soul that the spirit of servant
of the servant of the servant of the Lord. So, on that day lord Caitanya was walking with His
students, He happens to see Iswarapuri. Then Lord offered His prostrated obeisances. Iswarapuri
was so happy to see Him. Immediately upon seeing the Lord, who has disguising the reality that
He was the lord of the World. He felt great bliss. It was as if, he was seeing Krishna and he
asked, “What is your name?” One of the student said, “His name is Nimai Pandit”. Iswarapuri
said, “Oh, this is NImai! I have heard so much about Him”. Nimai with so much desire to serve,
He invited Iswarapuri, “Please come to My home for Prasad, this evening”.

Lord Caitanya escorted to His home and Sachi Mata the mother of the Lord prepared a
wonderful feast of Prasad, offered it to the deities of Krishna and then came out and Lord
Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself personally served the vaisnavas. After serving Iswarapuri Prasad
to His full satisfaction, Lord Caitanya sat at his feet to hear about Krishna from him. All night
long Iswarapuri told them about Krishna. Lord Caitanya seeing the love in which he was
speaking was so deeply moved. Iswarapuri stayed at the house of Gopinath Acarya and there was
one devotee who became his the most humble servant of the servants, Gadadhar Pandit. It is
described in this particular context, he was so detached from anything, he was so humble only
want to do is serve and only want to do be absolved in Krishna. The special quality of Gadadhar
Pandit is his immense mild manner, humility and his incredible absorption in Krishna and being
detached from anything else and he is directly Srimati Radharani, who is showing us how to be a
devotee within the contacts of this world. How Gadadhar served Iswarapuri?

Everyday he was served him in every possible way and listen to him as he spoke from his own
book Krishna Lilamrita and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, although He was the greatest of the
teachers, He would everyday go to Iswarapuri and offered His obeisances, bow down to him and
listen to him speak for sometime. One day Iswarapuri told the Lord, “You are such a great
scholar, please edit my book and help to find the faults and mistakes that I have made and correct
them”. Nimai, He said, “There is no mistake in your book because you are the pure devotee of
the lord. Because love of Krishna is in your heart, whatever you speak is an offering of love and
that is all Krishna want. That is perfect. If on the material level there are some apparent mistakes
in your grammar or in your spelling or in any other way. Only an ignorant fool which see it is a
mistake because the perfection of anything is not it is an appearance in this world but the
perfection of anything is, how Krishna is pleased with our offerings. “samsiddhir hari tosanam”.
Krishna sees the purpose in which everything is offered and he is pleased by the purpose and by
the attitude that we have. If we have the wrong attitude, even if we do something great it is not
pleasing to Krishna. If we have the right attitude, even if we do wrong, it is not also pleasing to
Krishna.
Of course if we have the right attitude, we are trying our level of best to do it right. You cannot
just be negligent in do something wrong and think, “I have the right attitude”. That is the wrong
attitude. You have the right attitude, you will give your heart, your soul, your life, your
everything to do at the best possible way you can according to how Krishna wants it done, for
Krishna’s pleasure. If that is your attitude then Krishna is pleased. That is our success. That is
our perfection.

So Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “There is nothing to correct. It is perfect because it is an

expression of your love”. Iswarapuri was so happy to hear him glorifying the essence of
devotion. But still he said that it is going to be read by others, not just Krishna. So it should be
correct. So please correct the mistakes. So Mahaprabhu would come each evening and listening
him reading. In one evening Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw an apparent mistake on the
grammatical level but not on the spiritual level and He pointed it out. It should not be atmani
pada but it should be parasame pada. Iswarapuri says, thank you very much. When Lord Caitany
went home, all night Iswarapuri was meditating, on cross references with scriptures and analyze
from every point of view. The next day when Nimai came to His class, Iswarapuri said, “I
seriously considered that actually atmanepada is the right word. The word you said is not good.

Now this, sound my something very simple but whom is he talking to. He is talking to the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. “vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedänta-kåd veda-vid eva
cäham”. Lord Caitanya is the author of all the Vedas. He is the knower of all Vedas and by all
the Vedas he to be known and defeated Keshava Kashmir the most powerful scholar in the entire
world. He effortlessly defeated by Him. The person, who all of Navadvipa is heralding as the
greatest pandit in the planet. He was so skilled. He would challenge the top most scholars. I want
to defeat this argument and he would present an argument. They say, nobody can defeat that
argument because it is a perfect argument. There are no faults in it. Then he would logically,
philosophically, grammatically and every other way defeat his own argument. Then he said to
the now if it is a perfect argument the first one, we establish what I originally said, by defeating
my rebuttal to my own argument. Does it make sense? Then they said, “Your rebuttal is absolute
perfect, nobody could establish your original argument”. Then Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu
defeats His rebuttal and reestablished the original argument. People would just think, He is not
human. No human being can have such an intelligent. It is not possible, who is this boy? He was
only a teenager. He is the supreme Lord.

Here Iswarapuri is saying, “You are wrong”. Then the Supreme Personality of Godhead was very
happy. I have been defeated by My devotee and He accepted defeat with great pleasure. To show
that, in the role of a devotee He had no ego. He lost and he did not try to defend Himself. He did
not even try to make an excuse. Sometimes, if we are actually exposed to be wrong or especially
if we are supposed to be right because of our skills, our fame and everything else we make some
excuse. Just like, “Actually you know I said that but you know I really meant that or may be
yesterday I was just too tired or something else”. Some excuse you have to make. “Yes, of
course. I am defeated”. The Lord made no excuse. He just accepted it. He said, “Yes I was
wrong, I am defeated”. Nobody had ever seen before this. He was silent. He love to be defeated
by his devotee.
Everyday He would come in here for Iswarapuri. Sometime later He went to Gaya the holy place
to perform sraddha for His departed father. When He saw the lotus foot prints of Lord Vishnu in
the temple and heard being glorified by Brahmana’s for the first time He reveal to the world the
ecstasies of His love of God, His mahabhava. Tears poured from His eyes like rivers. His body
trembled. His hairs stood on end. Iswarapuri happened to be that moment. Lord Caitanya fell at
Iswarapuri’s lotus feet and said, “I have call all the way to this holy place and the fulfillment of
my pilgrimage is I am seeing you”. Because wherever the feet of a great devotee of Krishna all
the holy places of pilgrimage are present there. Why is that? Because a devotee in that service
attitude is always remembering Krishna in his or her heart and wherever Krishna is all the holy
places are also there. So wherever a great lover of Krishna’s lotus feet is all the places of
pilgrimage are present there because Krishna is in the heart. Not only, in the heart but
manifesting from the heart of that devotee through his or her words, actions, or thoughts Krishna
is manifesting.

Lord Caitanya said about Iswarapuri that by performing the sraddha that I have just concluded,
one can deliver the particular forefathers that they are doing the sraddha for. But just by seeing
you and serving you one can deliver all one’s forefathers. Since time of memorial that is the
power of mercy coming through a devotee. Lord Caitanya was in Gaya. One day He was cooking
prasad, just for Himself. Just when He finished Iswarapuri came to the door and he smelled the
Prasad has been offered and Lord Caitanya was in the kitchen working with nicely and
Iswarapuri said, “Oh, it looks like I have come just at the right time”. Lord Caitanya said,
“Please come and sit and have Prasad”. Iswarapuri said, “You just cook it for your self. It is only
enough for you. But you divide it half and sit together and eat”. Then Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu
said, “No, no, we will not seat together and eat”. I’ll serve you. You eat everything. I’ll cook
again. You eat everything. He insisted it.

So He put another pot rice to cook again and then He went out and with so much devotion with
His own hand He served Iswarapuri with no other desire but to please him. It was not just ritual.
Rituals only have spiritual benefit on the path of bhakti. When they are done for the purpose of
pleasing the lord. The – brahmans they are very attached to performing the rituals and sometimes
they did not even what they are doing it for. Sometimes they are doing it for money or
sometimes they are doing it for prestige. The people they are doing it for, usually do not know
what is happening. That is Karma Kanda. You can get some pious benefits by doing that or by
having someone to do that for you. But unless the rituals is being offered in a spirit of devotion
to please the lord. It cannot touched the bath of bhakti, which is the only way really to approach
Krishna.

So Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He was serving with so much love for His devotee but most of
all to teach the world. Lakshmi was so happy, She secretly invisibly went into the kitchen and
cooked the rice for Lord Caitanya because She was so absorbed in serving His servant and forgot
about cooking for Himself. So Lakshmi came to do it for Him. After Iswarapuri finished his
Prasad the Lord made a nice place for him to lay down, then the Lord massaged his feet,
massaged his body. Simple services, just to show the world, however great you are even if you
are the Supreme Personality of Godhead which you not. You are always the servant of the
servant of the servant of the Lord. Then after serving His guru, after hearing from him and
serving him in such menial ways then Lord Caitanya asked him to be initiated.
Iswarapuri, he said, “You are asking me for mantra. I’ll give you my very life but you give me
the mantra because it is the Lord’s wish, a tangible Mantra”. It was only after receiving that
mantra that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu exhibited to the world His god intoxicated state. To show
the spirit of the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord even more elaborately, Lord
Caitanya went on pilgrimage to Kumarahata the birth place of Iswarapuri. There He place His
head and ate the dirt and He bow down to the dirt. He considered it so sacred. This is the dirt that
was under the feet of this great soul. Then He took a whole handful of the dirt and put it in His
cloth and tied it up to carry with Him. The Supreme Lord the husband of goddess of fortune, the
Supreme Lord of all creation, the Supreme enjoyer of the all the Vaikuntha planets, the Lord of
Vrindavan, He said about that handful of dirt in His cloth. He said that the dirt from the birth
place of Iswarapuri it is My life, it is My soul, it is the most chariest possession that I have.

That was His spirit of humbling Himself to the dirt under the feet of a devotee His guru. When
Lord Caitanya met Prakashnanda Saraswati in Varanasi, this is many years later after He had
already taken sannyas, probably it was eight to ten years later. Then Lord Caitanya again in the
spirit of servitude here He is the Lord of Universes. He was invited by sannyasis to come to a
gathering and they were mayavadi Sannyasis but Vaisnavas do not want to usually associates
with a profound that you are god or you are the supreme. They have no appreciation for the
reality that we are eternal servants of the lord. They were say, yes you serve the lord. You serve
the lord just to get purified. But when you purified no more service, you are the lord. To a
devotee that philosophy breaks their hearts. That is why devotees cannot hear from Mayavadis, it
is just heart breaking to hear that conclusion. But Lord Caitanya, He was enlightened. One
humble devotee, a Maharashtrian Brahmana right from this area, he said, “My Lord please
comes, here at my house”. He was so humble and he was a good devotee and Tapan Mishra and
Chandrashekhar beg the Lord, please do something. It is very difficult for us to live in this place.
So the lord went.

They were all in high platform and they invited Him to come up to the high platform. But He
went to the place where everyone washed their feet on the floor near the door and sat there.
Prakashnanda saw the light emanating from Lord Caitanya’s body that was the brahmanya
effulgence the goal of their life. They were very much attracted and he saw the humility of the
lord. He is a sannyasi. Why, He is sitting in the floor, where we wash our feet? No sannyasi will
ever sit there. “Om, namo Naryayana”. When you take sannyasa in their sampradaya, you
become god. So why is He sitting on the floor? God should appear. He said, “Are you depressed
about something”? Swamiji, why are you sitting in that dirty place? Come up here and sit with
others with your follow sannyasis.

Lord said, “No no. I do not deserve to sit next to you. You are very great man. I am a very small
man. I have no qualification to sit on the same level as all of you”. His humility melted their
hearts and His beauty attracted their minds. Prakashnanda Saraswati came down from their
raised platform took the lord by his hand and brought Him up. Something is never done before
for anybody. Then he challenged the Lord, “Why are you chanting and dancing with all these
sentimental common people? Why do not you come with us, scholars and study Vedanta? You
are a sannyasi, be with us. It is below your integrity to be just like a common sentimentalist with
all these normal people just dancing in the streets, singing and crying. Lord Caitanya could
quoted so many sashtras to totally polarized his solutions. But what did he do? What did he say?
He said, My guru maharaja, he told me, “You my dear child are a fool, do not bother trying to
study Vedanta. You are too much of fool to comprehend it. Just chant this Hare Krishna mantra
and you will achieve everything”.

Then my guru maharaja taught Me a verse.

“harer näma harer näma
harer nämaiva kevalam
kalau nästy eva nästy eva
nästy eva gatir anyathä”
Caitanya-caritamrita Adi 7.76
That in this age of Kali, there is no other way except this chanting of Lord Har’s name. So Lord
Caitanya presented Himself, “I am a fool, even My guru understood I am a fool. Therefore I am
chanting Hare Krishna”. He did not try to defend Himself. He just tried to show, What is His
position to these great great sannyasis, who think they are god and who are propounding that you
are god. He was saying, “I am a fool and because I am such a fool all I want to do as to serve My
guru”. My guru knew, I am the fool. So he gave Me this instruction, “Do not study Vedanta, just
chant Hare Krishna”. So that, what’s I am doing”. He revealed to the world that is the path of
perfection. Just think you are a fool and be a servant. That’s all. Srila Prabhupada said, “You
should think you are a fool but you should not be a fool”. It is the difference.

Then Prakashnanda, they had a discussion and then Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu on the basis of
the scriptures after establishing of just the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. He
completely convince Prakashnanda Saraswati that his whole philosophy was illusion. Essentially
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “You are saying that everything except Brahmana is illusion
but the first thing and the biggest illusion is your philosophy. He established that God is
ultimately a person and only through love and devotion and through service, one can approach
the Lord. “mad bhakta pujabhyadhika”. We cannot approach the Lord directly. It is not through
serving the Lord that we can achieve His favor. It is by serving the servant of the servant of the
servant of the Lord.

Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur, when he was very busy and he did not have so much time and
he did not want to waste time on talking to just any person, sometimes. He wanted to talk to
sincere people. He would ask, “Are you a servant of Krishna”? If they would say yes, I am a
servant of Krishna. He politely say, well. I am very happy, here some Prasad but I do not have
much time today. I am very busy. But when someone came in, are you servant of Krishna. He
said, “No I am the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord”. Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati
Thakur said, please come and enlighten me. I have all day to talk to you. That is the beginning of
our devotional service. The foundation of our devotional service, which always must stay strong
because more you make advancement in Krishna Consciousness, the more you need that service
attitude to hold the weight of everything else you are doing. Just like these buildings, I never
studied architecture anything but commonsense. The higher the building goes, the more you need
the foundation. So do not be in an illusion, “I am a new devotee now, let me just be humble
servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord but as I get seniority as I raise on higher archly
of institution, as I learn more, as more people are junior to me and more people respect me and
honor me and as I have more skills in so many ways, then the servant of the servant of the
servant of the Lord stop goes in the background.

If that happens the building will fall down. Understand the higher you go up the more you need
that foundation to hold you because the weight is getting greater. What is that foundation? Lord
Caitanya Mahaprabhu established it. “gopi bhartuh pada kamalayor dasa dasanudasah”. This is
the extreme. Not just dash, dash, and dash. Not just the servant of the servant of the servant of
the Lord but the anu dash. What is the meaning of Anu? Krishnananda Prabhu is translating it as
atomic. Like an atom bomb. Like an atomic particle. That Anu means the smallest possible
particle that it is in a creation. Lord Caitanya said, “This is the type of servant I want to be”. I
want to be the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord in a spirit of being the most tinny
atomic particle.
“ayi nanda-tanuja kiìkaraà
patitaà mäà viñame bhavämbudhau
kåpayä tava päda-paìkaja-
sthita-dhülé-sadåçaà vicintaya”
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is praying, “I just want to be a particle of dust”. Now for most
people to think this person what’s your goal of life, to be an atomic particle”. What’s your
incentive to be successful in this world? People want to be president, the prime minister, they
want to be champion, and they want to be great and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wants to be an
atomic particle, the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord.

Because that consciousness is great in the eyes of Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the
foundation of our spiritual life. That is what makes a person great. And if we can do great great
things of this world but maintain that same humble consciousness that is extra ordinary. That was
the quality of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami. They were the Prime Minister and Home minister of
the entire Kingdom. They had billions of dollars of wealth. They were handsome beautiful and
everything they had. And they were the greatest scholars. They had wealth, they had beauty, they
had knowledge, they had strength and they had everything. But what made them so wonderfully
they had it all. But they were more humble than a blade of grass.

In this spirit and by Krishna’s mercy we can always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna.

Is there any question?

Question of Krishnaanda Prabhu: He gave the 10 syllable mantra that Caitanya Mahaprabhu you
mentioned in the lecture but Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave the 16 syllable the Hare Krishna
Mantra. What is this 10 syllable mantra.?

AM: It is a secret mantra.

QD: How Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave this mantra, if Iswara puri give the 10 syllable mantra?

AM; We are also giving Gayatri Mantra but the main mantra is Hare Krishna Mantra. So
Obviously the mahamantra is the presiding prominent mantra in this age of Kali. But it was also
given a special initiation mantra. Hare Krishna.
QD: Maharaja you are mentioning about this basic foundation? We here that Srila Prabhupada
said, 99% of our spiritual life is dependent on chanting. So regarding chanting we hear two kinds
of things of people say. One means that for chanting most important is like Srila Prabhupada
says you have to cry out like a child cries out for mother and the consciousness is most
important. And we also here many devotees Srila Prabhupada who said, “Do not have to worry
about remembering the lord, just focus on hearing that is most important. Hearing and
pronunciation is most important. So my question is are these both same that we focus on hearing
and pronunciation is that as good as remember the Lord or should we also make a separate
endeavor.

AM: That is good. It is remembering the lord. It absolutely is if your find is focused on the
hearing the sound, you are remembering the lord because the name is none different than the
lord. At the time of chanting that is the best way for yourself in hearing the sound of His name.
As far as important servitude, yes 99% of our spiritual advancement comes through chanting
Hare Krishna but that means how we chant Hare Krishna. Before chanting with offences then it
is not going to have much affects. That means 99% of our spiritual advancement, we are not
making very well because we are not chanting properly. The proper mood to chant is “tåëäd api
sunécena” to feel like a blade of grass, be tolerant like a tree, ready to offer all respect to others
and expect none in return, this is the way Lord Caitanya taught us to chant, which means
essentially to be the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. If we have the service
attitude then Krishna is pleased with our chanting. Then we make tremendous spiritual progress
by chanting Hare Krishna and Lord Caitanya taught us by His example.

He told Praksahnanda Saraswati “harer näma harer näma harer nämaiva kevalam” that My guru
told Me that the only way in this age of Kali, the only way is the chant Hare Krishna, is chant the
Lord’s names. But through His example, He taught how to chant the Lord’s names. He did not
come into that assembly like some sort of great God. He sat on the dirtiest place. He humbled
Himself beyond anybody’s comprehensions of, how anybody, how any sannyasi can be humble?
First he totally showed His humility and service attitude then He explained there is no other way
except chanting. He showed by His example, His menial service to His guru. His menial service
to the Vaisnavas. His menial service toward all living beings. This was His spirit in which He
was chanting. So yes, spiritual life is very dependent on our chanting of the holy names. But
what attitude to chant the holy names is all important.

Srila Prabhupada gave us all these books. He did not have to stay up all most all night every
night translating and writing purports because his devotees were already chanting Hare Krishna.
And he said, that his books are not just to give to outsiders. These are also for my devotees to
read and they are already chanting Hare Krishna, why? To teach us the proper understanding of
how to chant Hare Krishna, the proper philosophical convictions and the proper characteristics
and attitudes by which we can please Krishna in our chanting Hare Krishna. Just having service
attitude is not enough. The chanting of the holy names is the actual connection, we are making to
the lord. But the service attitude is what makes our chanting attractive to the lord. It gives us that
connection. So these are factually the most important principles. Srila Prabhupada writes it here
the basic sum and substance. He says, “The sum and substance of the path of devotion is given
here”. And what is given to always remember Krishna? What’s the best way to remember
Krishna to be absorb in hearing His name and chanting his name and to be the servant of the
servant of the servant of the Lord? So Srila Prabhupada says, “These two things right here in this
purport or the sum and substance of bhakti to the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord
and to remember Krishna by chanting His holy name. “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

Thank you, very much.

End of the Transcription.