“Six or seven years ago some devotees arranged for Ananta prabhu’s Satvatove teacher, Dhira Govinda prabhu, to hold a Satvatove workshop. Interestingly, it would be held at the end of Kartika, just after our Kartika parikrama, at our Sri Sri Giridhari Gaudiya Matha in Govardhana where our sanga members would be residing for the parikrama.

“I had no intention to go, because I thought it would be maya. I thought I was transcendental to it all. ‘After all,’ I thought, ‘I already do bhakti, which gives the highest perfection. I already chant Hare Krsna.’ Of course, my relationships with some of my publication team members and other devotees wasn’t so great, but I figured it was all their fault.

Then, a couple of months before the workshop would be held, I was in Germany, and I had just given about a week of harikatha classes. I was staying at the home of Srila Gurudeva’s disciple, Hariballabha didi. On the last day, after hearing from several of the devotees there, she said to me, “You know, Syamarani didi, when you give classes, it seems you are not aware of whether or not your audience is receiving what you say. It seems you are not aware of what they need. It seems you just enjoy yourself speaking. If you take a Satvatove workshop, it will help you connect with your audience. If you agree to go, I will give you $100 to pay for the registration fee.”

Although I was surprised that anyone would think my classes weren’t perfect for my audiences, I tried to be humble and I accepted her critique. I agreed to attend, but I was still very fearful that it would be against bhakti. I was fearful up to the very day of the workshop. The workshop would begin at 9.am. So, right after mangala arati I went to Srila Gurudeva’s room to ask him what he thought. He had already given blessings to Vrnda devi, Brajanath prabhu’s good wife, who had helped organize the workshop, but I wanted to hear directly from Gurudeva. So, I told him what Hariballabha told me, and asked what I should do. He replied, “You should know that in and of itself it is not bhakti. But if it helps with your preaching, then it is good; it is favorable.”

You should know that in and of itself it is not bhakti. But if it helps with your preaching, then it is good; it is favorable. —Srila Gurudeva

“That was all I needed to hear. I went, and I am so happy I did. The workshop gave me so many good communication tools, for hearing from others and helping others, and it also gave me so many paradigm shifts.”

Vaisnava-sevabhilasi,
Syamarani dasi

On the morning after Srila Gurudeva’s last class at the Italy festival 2010,  just after Gurudeva’s morning walk.

Syamarani dasi: Srila Gurudeva, this is Dina-dayal prabhu.

Madhava Maharaja: From where?

Syamarani dasi: He was initiated by you thirteen years ago, and he just came back now. He is like Ananta prabhu for communication; and he is like Dilip, who was helping the society to communicate with each other.

Madhava Maharaja: Very good. Good, good.

Syamarani dasi: So now he has agreed to help us form a new Communication Workshop Seva-Team, to help the devotees to become leaders in communication, and to train others so that everyone will feel encouraged to work together in harmony without conflicts, and to bring each other up to our highest potential of service to you.

Srila Gurudeva: Oh, he can do.

Syamarani dasi: We are wondering, because we want to send a letter out to the whole sanga, if you can say a few words encouraging…

Srila Gurudeva: You can say.

Syamarani dasi: Okay,

Srila Gurudeva: I have no time.

Syamarani dasi: You have already said so many things.

Srila Gurudeva: I have told everything in my classes. So he should do it.

Dina-dayal dasa: Srila Gurudeva, thank you so much for your mercy, and I hope I can serve you as you desire.

by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja — July, 1999

“Once there was a very poor brahmani widow. She had only one son, of eight or nine years, and he was very beautiful and charming. She lived in a hut, and she used to maintain herself and her son by begging. She had been initiated by a high class Vaisnava and she daily worshiped Thakuraji. She was happy in her life of worshiping, chanting and remembering.

“One day, very early in the morning, she was engaged in some duty and she requested her son, ‘Bring some flowers. There are flowers in the bushes. Bring them and I will worship Thakurji’… The boy became very happy and left to follow her orders. He went to some nearby bushes, where there were beli, cameli, and other flowers, and he began to pick them.

In the meantime, a very poisonous black snake came and at once bit the boy. Without delay, in a moment, the whole body of the boy became black, and he fell flat on the ground and died. At that moment a hunter was walking in the forest, carrying a clay pot. Seeing this accident, he became very compassionate. He knew a controlling mantra to catch a snake very easily. Hearing the hunter’s mantra, the serpent became peaceful, and the hunter was thus able to put that serpent in his clay pot. The hunter then covered the mouth of the pot, took the boy in his arms as well as the pot, and he approached the boy’s mother.

“When the old widow saw her son, she cried out, ‘What happened?’ She began to bitterly weep, ‘Haya! Haya! Alas! Alas!’ After some time she was somewhat pacified, at which time the hunter told her, ‘Mother, I was there when he was picking flowers. He was innocent. He never attacked that snake, and he did not disturb it at all. Still, that snake came from within the bushes and bit him. I know a mantra, and by that mantra I have caught this poisonous snake and kept it in this pot. Please order me to cut the snake into pieces. I will burn it, and there will be no sign of its existence. Please order me. Please order me.’

“Although the hunter appealed to her again and again, the old widow told him, ‘O hunter, by killing and burning this poisonous serpent, will my son return?’ He replied, ‘Never.’ She said, ‘Then why should you kill it? I don’t want to kill it.’ The hunter said, ‘He is very wicked. He may bite another person. You must order me.’ Again and again he insisted, but that kind widow brahmani was a realized soul and a devotee of Krsna. She said, ‘Don’t kill it. If my son will not return by your doing this, why should you kill it?’ He told her, ‘He will again attack a passerby without any reason.’

“At that time the serpent interrupted, ‘Why should I do that? For years and years I was there, but I never bit anyone. Today I bit this boy, and it was only because Death came and told me, “You should bite him.” I’m innocent. Don’t kill me.’

“In the meantime, Death personified as Yamaraja Maharaja, the controller of our deaths, came and said, ‘You say this is due to me? You say that I ordered you to bite him? I never did so. Why are you accusing me? I am not responsible for this. The boy is responsible for his own actions. In the boy’s previous life that serpent was in a human body, and the boy was also a human. They were fighting each other, and the boy killed that other person. That murdered person is now a snake and he has taken his revenge. The boy’s actions themselves are like a poisonous snake, and he was bitten by that snake. I am not responsible. Neither this serpent nor myself, Yamaraja, are responsible.’”

First try to give up all your false egos, like anger. If you have so much anger, you cannot understand all these topics.

Try to be very humble:

This should not only be in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta; it should come in your heart. If you are not always following this, but you are always in an arrogant mood and telling others, “You should obey me, I will not obey you. What I am telling is true to the highest extent” – not considering what the other person is telling, or whether he is giving good or bad advice – this not good. Do not be like this.

Try to be like Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates. They were so broadminded. Always see what other persons want. Try to realize their difficulties.

We should try to understand the suffering of another. We should try to keep our own mood concealed, and try to accept and hear the other person’s mood. We should try to understand the happiness and distress of another. We should give up our own moods and hear the other person’s moods. Then, together, we can consider what to do. If we do not hear the other person’s mood, but rather keep our own mood prominent, this is not called ‘association’.

There are four duties of a madhyama-adhikara: love (prema) to Sri Krsna or Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and friendship to Vaisnavas. We should give friendship and service to those who are superiors. To those who are equal, we should give so much friendship. To those who are junior, we should give friendship with some mercy and compassion.

Kanistha Vaisnavas, those who are not very advanced, should be given so much mercy. Always tell them hari-katha. They may do something wrong, but we should tolerate that. If doctors are going to operate on someone, and that person abuses the doctor or others, still, the doctor (or mother) very patiently tolerates and does the needful. So, we should tolerate all these things. We should obey this principle.

We should try to neglect those people who have an opposing mood and are making some offense, but we should not quarrel with them. We should follow the example of Prahlada Maharaja – how he reciprocated with his father. We should also follow the example of how Yudhisthira Maharaja reciprocated with Duryodhana. Yudhisthira Maharaja never called him Duryodhana, but rather Suryodhana. [‘Duryodhana’ refers to a bad person, and ‘suduryodhana’ refers to a good person.] Also, he addressed Dushasana as Susasana, and Karna as Sukarna.

We should try to follow all of these principles. This is the ground-level – the platform – of bhakti. If the platform is not made, then all these showers of instructions (Hari-katha; in this case he means his six-day course on Sri Bhakti-tattva-viveka) may come but you but will not remain with you. If your ego is like a mountain, then this shower will go down the mountain. It will not remain on it. Those who are polite, trnad api sunicena, will gain everything; and those who are proud will gain nothing.

There is quite a bit of discussion just now about Srila Gurudeva’s instruction on harmony. Syamarani Didi and I started working on a book of Srila Gurudeva’s lectures on this subject. In the course of that we took some really choice, succinct instructions, and made a small booklet, which was distributed freely during Kartika. This is like an appetizer for the larger book, which will be available within a few months.

Here are four guidelines taken from Srila Gurudeva’s instructions. If we would only agree to follow these guidelines in their relationships with each other, how happy and dynamic our Sanga would be!

1. We should listen to each other and understand each other, instead of imposing our own mood.
2. We should help and support each other, instead of taking from each other.
3. We should appreciate each other, instead of criticising and offending each other.
4. We should tolerate each other, instead of manipulating and controlling each other.

Srila Gurudeva himself emphasized the importance of following these instructions:

Srila Gurudeva even said that we should have a school for teaching devotee association and relationships.

“We must not be angry and upset about disturbing occurrences. A school should be established for the purpose of teaching this. Meetings and classes may be held fortnightly, weekly, or on the occasion of any festival. This is done for association, and for developing love and affection towards each other. Sometimes one prabhu can give class, sometimes another. Everyone can benefit from these classes. There should be harmony; this is most essential. By harmony you will be successful.”

Suppose that, within our sanga, a group of devotees committed to following these guidelines. That group would be harmonious and powerful, both in terms of achieving goals on our servers, and also in advancing in bhakti.

Here are some of Srila Gurudeva’s instructions on these points.

(1) We should listen to each other and understand each other, instead of imposing our own mood.

“We should try to understand the suffering of another. We should try to keep our own mood concealed, and try to accept and hear the other person’s mood. We should try to understand the happiness and distress of another. We should give up our own moods and hear the other person’s moods. Then, together, we can consider what to do. If we do not hear the other person’s mood, but rather keep our own mood prominent, this is not called ‘association’.”

(2) We should help and support each other, instead of taking from each other.

“Try to give your whole being. Love has nothing to take, but everything to give. If your aim and objective is to preach the love and affection of ?r? Caitanya Mah?prabhu, try to give yourself to others. Your whole life should be dedicated for the welfare of others. They will reciprocate that love and give their life to serve K???a. They will not offer their love and affection if you are trying to control them.”
“The first thing is that if you want to show love to others, do not cause them any pain or suffering, or burden them for your personal happiness or maintenance. Your first concern should be the happiness and satisfaction of others.”

(3) We should appreciate each other, instead of criticising and offending each other.

“It is very important that we don’t focus on anyone’s faults. Look at their good qualities. We have to absorb these qualities in ourselves. We must take the association of Vai??avas who are superior to us and who have the mood we want. Then we can attain bhakti.”
“Also, while we are chanting, remembering and engaging in devotional services, we should protect ourselves so that we do not commit offenses to others. Otherwise, those offences will spoil everything. All our endeavours will be wasted and go in the garbage can. So we should try not to offend anyone, and we should always honour all.”
“If you chastise Vaishnavas, not honouring them, and at the same time you are doing so abundant service to Gurudeva, Gurudeva will not accept your service.”
“If lust or any other attachment is present in that person’s heart it will go away very soon, if he is chanting and remembering and listening to hari-katha. Be very careful. Don’t criticize devotees – or non-devotees. First look at your own condition, and try to purify yourself. Is there any lust in you? Is there any deceit in you, or not? Be worried for that; don’t worry for others. Sri Guru and Lord Sri Krishna are responsible for others. You cannot do anything to help them, so you have no right to criticize.”

(4) We should tolerate each other, instead of manipulating and controlling each other.

“If any problems come, try to reconcile it. You should think, ‘It is due to my past karma’, or, ‘Krishna wants to test me and to operate on me.’ – these two things.
“We want to associate with everyone on the platform of love and affection, not by controlling others. You cannot bring someone to Krishna’s service by manipulating or controlling them. You cannot even control your own mind, what to speak of others’. Don’t try to control others by your order or your mind.”
“Gurudeva can control. He is a controller, and Krishna, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu are controllers. We should think, “I am not the controller. I should be controlled by Them. I should try to control myself.” In this way we should try to develop our Krishna consciousness.”

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