We are all devotees

 HAPPY GAURA PURNIMA 2024

We are all devotees, by Haripada dasa

Srila Prabhupada said in 1972 in Kartika in Vrindavana that we must always be ready to offer respect to everyone, because each living entity is originally a devotee of God or Krishna, but circumstantially the soul being covered by ignorance, is acting as a demon, in this world there are divine and demonic people, divine people obey the laws of God or Krishna and demonic ones do not, but everyone's original nature is to be a devotee of God or Krishna.

The first thing to do in devotional life is to purify the designations, the designations mean the things that we are not but that we think we are, for example people in general think that I am the body, and therefore I am Spanish, American , Hindu, etc., I am the master of everything, my house and my family belong to me, I am the enjoyer, the controller of everything, this woman is my wife, here is my son, here is my brother, etc., everything these are designations, the result of living with designations is that the person lives full of fear, envy, ignorance and very conditioned, a soul free of designations believes and experiences that I am not the body, but an eternal spiritual soul, a loving servant of God or Krishna and His devotees, my relatives are also children of God or Krishna, my house and everything I own belongs to God or Krishna and I use everything for the service of God or Krishna, the result of having that God consciousness or Krishna, is that the person lives happily and free.

In devotional life there are three kinds of devotees of God or Krishna, the neophyte, the middle stage, and the perfect devotee. First you have to understand what faith is, faith means having complete conviction that when chanting the Maha-Mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare (the H se read as J for j) will automatically fulfill all duties and complete all godly activities. The neophyte devotee exhibits a faith that is formal, even worldly, worships Deity but has not developed an interest in serving the representative of God or Krishna, the authorized spiritual master, the devotee in the middle stage develops loving affection for God or Krishna , makes friends with other devotees, has compassion for innocent people, an innocent person is one who believes in God or Krishna, but is not advanced in spiritual life, and avoids the company of atheists, and the perfect devotee is one who he sees God or Krishna everywhere, and God or Krishna is his life and soul, his life revolves around The Maha-Mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare (the H is read as J for j), for him, the Holy Name of God or Krishna is the essence of everything.

Return to God

 Return to God, by Haripada dasa

Human life is to achieve values. This form of human life is one that can provide values. And, what is the greatest value that can be achieved in life? To return home, back to Godhead, one's egoism should aim to go back to Godhead. Notice how merciful is God or Krishna, Pure Kindness, even though we have turned our backs on Him, He keeps us by giving us food, water, etc., everything, the reason we are in this material world, the world of envy, is that we have misused free will, and we have turned our backs on God thinking that we will be happy without God, and God is so merciful that he does not interfere with our freedom, the material world is a true prison where rebellious souls are punishes them, so-called material pleasures cause more suffering, but because punishments are remedies, souls are reformed through suffering, when a person suffers the false ego loosens, but how right Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was when he always said that the rebellious soul is hostile to serving God and His devotees.

The consciousness of God or Krishna is a spiritual science, and to reach the goal of life which is to have love for God, one has to go through nine stages, the first is faith, then one associates with pure devotees of God, the The result of this is that faith increases, then one begins to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, by singing and leading a sinless life, the heart is purified of the bad qualities that rob the soul of energy, these are the lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and ignorance, then one gets fixed in spiritual life, then one likes spiritual life, then one becomes attached to spiritual life, then when one does spiritual practices he feels spiritual emotions, tears in his eyes and the hairs on his body stand on end, etc., and then love for God, when one reaches this goal he cannot live without God just as a fish cannot live without water.

The difference between the spiritual culture of India and other cultures is that in the Holy Scriptures of India there are ten billion verses that inform us of the unlimited names, forms, qualities and pastimes of God, and there are also many detailed information about God. what is the Kingdom of God, there only exists God, His Devotees and the love relationships between God or Krishna and His Devotees.

In the Nectar of Devotion in chapter 9 it is said the price that must be paid to return to God, to return to our true home, in other words, we must learn to cry for the Lord. We must learn this little technique, and we must be very eager ---and actually cry--- to engage in some particular kind of service. This is called laulyam, and those tears are the price of the highest perfection. If this laulyam, or excessive yearning to find and serve the Lord in some particular way, develops in someone, it is the price for entering the Kingdom of God. Otherwise, there is no material way to calculate the value of the ticket that allows us to enter the Kingdom of God. The only price for that ticket is this laulyaí lālasāmayī, or desire and longing.

The Spiritual World

 The Spiritual World, by Haripada dasa

The pure devotees of God or Krishna say that the Vrndavana of this material world and the Vrndavana of the spiritual world are made of the same spiritual substance, as the great spiritual master Srila Narottama dasa thakura says that one will be able to see Vrndavana when one has purified himself of anxieties and material desires. There is a Sacred Scripture called The Brahma-Samhita and there the spiritual world is described in a very beautiful way: “I adore that transcendental abode known as Goloka Vrindavana, where as loving consorts, the Goddesses of Fortune in their immaculate spiritual essence practice loving service to the Supreme Lord Krishna, as His only lover, where every tree is a gem for spiritual purposes, there all water is nectar, every word is a song and every step a dance, the flute is the favorite assistant of the Lord Sri Krishna and the effulgence of this place is full of spiritual bliss. There the supreme spiritual entities are all pleasant and charming, and the innumerable surabhi cows provide oceans of transcendental milk. I adore that abode where transcendental time is always present - without past or future - and therefore is not subject to the nature of passing away even for half a moment. That Kingdom is known as Goloka Vrindavana by very few realized souls in this world."

Our heart is like a television, and there are only two channels, the material and the spiritual, when we connect with the spiritual channel through chanting the Maha-Mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare (H is read as J for J), God or Krishna reveals to us the spiritual world and His eternal pastimes, and when we connect with the material channel we only see a lot of suffering and everything is temporary.

Before and after

 Before and after, by Haripada dasa

Before it means when Srila Prabhupada was in his physical form preaching Krishna consciousness, and after it means after Srila Prabhupada disincarnated or entered his lila samadhi, I have the 23 DVDs from the ITV collection on Srila Prabhupada, there you see the very happy and bright devotees in Krishna consciousness, there Srila Prabhupada was the center and the founding Acharya and everyone was very united to please Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada's wish and Krishna's is that when Srila Prabhupada entered his samadhi lila, everything would continue the same as before, that is why Srila Prabhupada ordered his disciples to initiate in his name, and he would continue to be the center and the spiritual master of all, that is called Jagat guru, the guru of the whole universe.

Unfortunately Srila Prabhupada's disciples made changes to Srila Prabhupada's books and did not obey the order to initiate in his name, and in an artificial way that is by vows (Srila Prabhupada says in El Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila, 1, 220, that the choice of a guru is not made by votes), they became gurus because they think that they are at the same level as Srila Prabhupada, when Srila Prabhupada's Gurudeva entered his lila samadhi a very similar thing happened, there is a letter that Srila Prabhupada sent him to Rupaguna explaining what happened, there Srila Prabhupada says that his Gurudeva openly said to create a GBC and to all work together, and if they see someone who is self-effulgent they have to accept him as my successor, they did not obey these orders and the result is that now they all claim to be Acharyas, although they may be adhikaris kanisthas with no ability to preach, therefore we may make the same mistake in our ISKCON. Actually, among my godbrothers no one is qualified to become Acharya. So it is better not to mix with my godbrothers too intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they can sometimes contaminate them. This attempt was previously made by them, especially Madhava Maharaja, Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja, but one way or another I saved the situation.

We accept that Srila Prabhupada is that self-effulgent person, but Gaudiya Matha does not recognize that, we do not mix with Gaudiya Matha. We do not mix with Srila Prabhupada's disciples who are betraying and offending Srila Prabhupada, they live in unconsciousness and that is the reason why they do not want to obey Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada, Krishna and everyone would like it. that Iskcon was led by people who obey and love Srila Prabhupada, it is always better to pray for others than to criticize, we pray to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna so that these people obey Srila Prabhupada and thus we would all be together and happy and bright in the Krishna consciousness.

I have served in Iskcon 1984-2008, Krishna has distributed through me more than a quarter of a million books of Srila Prabhupada and from my collection I have given them more than 500,000 dollars, they have deceived me but I do not bear any grudge They already have a bad enough misfortune to be the way they are. Now I feel happy and free in Krishna consciousness.