There were many incidents in the past of our movement that, putting it mildly, were far from ideal. People who would put their trust in spiritual authorities would end up being deceived. Up to this day, that’s a great scar that many of us are still struggling to surpass.

Why Krsna did not intervene and make our society perfect from day one?

In parenting, we quickly learn that we can’t do everything for our children; frequently we just need to allow them to commit mistakes and learn from them the hard way. My personal understanding of it is that if Krsna would mystically intervene every time something wrong was about to happen, perhaps we as a society would not learn the lessons we are supposed to learn. Probably we would not mature in the way we are supposed to do.

When there is a war, always many innocent persons suffer. The man in charge, the one who started it, is surely responsible, and he will have to pay for his acts, be here or in hell. However, there are always people who could have intervened and done something but chose to be negligent. To a smaller degree, they are also responsible. Finally, there are other people who were not directly affected by the situation and thus chose to ignore what was happening. Although on a much smaller scale, they also share part of the responsibility. Without their voluntary or involuntary cooperation, things could not have happened the way they did.

In his books, Srila Prabhupada emphasizes the idea of simple living and high thinking. We often misunderstand it as a simple boost to leave the cities and go to live on farms, doing God knows what there, but when we go deep into his teachings we can start appreciating how deep and practical this idea is. It is a very practical guide to finding something we are all looking for, but not many can attain: happiness.

We often connect our happiness with attaining certain material goals. If one’s idea of happiness is having a mansion, a Ferrari, a yacht, and a supermodel wife, he will probably remain unhappy his whole life, since it’s quite improbable that this goal will ever be attained. He will always compare what he has with this unattainable goal, and thus feel that he is always lacking.

Even if he gets it, he will probably still be unhappy. Looking around, he will see other people who have still more, which will make him associate his idea of happiness with even harder goals, and even if he again somehow succeeds and becomes the richest man in the world, he will still be unhappy due to the anxiety of losing what he got. This is a cycle that goes without end until the end of our lives, leaving us unhappy and frustrated.

Different from the modern concept that everyone is equal, the Vedas explain that although the soul is the same, people acquire different natures according to their conditioning, and thus the path each one has to follow to get rid of this conditioning can be different, just like difference patients should be prescribed with different medicines, according to their diseases. A physician who prescribes the same medicine to all patients will probably do more harm than good.

Not only do people have different natures, but also there are fundamental differences between genders that can’t be underestimated. A truck can be used to transport passengers, just like a car can be used to carry loads, but this goes only up to a certain extent. After a certain point, we are forced to accept that there are fundamental differences between the two types of vehicles and each has its proper function. This doesn’t contradict the understanding that the driver is different from the vehicle.

The idea that we are the soul and not the body opens up a very broad concept of egalitarianism that is not available in other philosophies. Not only we are all brothers (or sisters, if we consider the innate feminine nature of the soul as the energy of Krsna) but we are all the same! Although we are all individuals, there is no qualitative difference between us. However, at the same time, it’s a mistake to fall into the modern idea that everyone is equal and therefore women should do the same things as men because as long as we are acting in a material platform, there will be differences introduced by the type of body and nature we currently have.

Just like no amount of talk about equal rights is capable of making a man beget a child, there are many areas where there are differences between the features of a male and female body, and it is foolish to ignore these differences.

Some say that we should pray to Krsna when we face material difficulties, and even when we want particular material things since it’s better to pray to Krsna than to anyone else. However, others say that we should pray to Him strictly to ask for devotional service. What should we do?

It depends on which platform we are on. Srila Prabhupada explains this in detail in his purport to SB 6.9.40. This is part of the pastime when demigods approach Lord Vishnu to ask for help in fighting the demon Vritrasura, who had defeated them and expelled them from the celestial planets:

“There are two kinds of devotees, known as sakāma and akāma. Pure devotees are akāma, whereas devotees in the upper planetary systems, such as the demigods, are called sakāma because they still want to enjoy material opulence.”
“The difference between sakāma and akāma devotees is that when sakāma devotees, like the demigods, fall into difficulty, they approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead for relief, whereas akāma devotees, even in the greatest danger, never disturb the Lord for material benefits. Even if an akāma devotee is suffering, he thinks this is due to his past impious activities and agrees to suffer the consequences. He never disturbs the Lord. Sakāma devotees immediately pray to the Lord as soon as they are in difficulty, but they are regarded as pious because they consider themselves fully dependent on the mercy of the Lord.”
“Even while suffering in the midst of difficulties, devotees simply offer their prayers and service more enthusiastically. In this way they become firmly fixed in devotional service and eligible to return home, back to Godhead, without a doubt. Sakāma devotees, of course, achieve from the Lord the results they desire from their prayers, but they do not immediately become fit to return to Godhead.“

As Srila Prabhupada explains, there are two classes of devotees, sakāma (with material desires) and akāma (pure devotees, without material desires). Pure devotees by definition have no material desires, and thus they don’t pray to Krsna for that. They fully understand that the Lord knows everything, and are completely surrendered to His will, therefore they don’t see the need to disturb the Lord by praying for protection either. Such pure devotees pray only for achieving pure devotional service.

However, not all of us are on such an elevated platform. As a consequence, we often fear for our own security, we desire to obtain different things, we have many material desires, and so on. The point the scriptures make is that although it’s better to pray for the Lord exclusively for devotional service, if we are going to ask someone, it’s much better to ask the Lord.

In the Bhagavad-Gita Krsna reveals that most people start on the path of devotional service by praying for material things. However, the Lord is not angry about that. On the opposite, He describes these materialistic devotees as “su-kṛtino”, or pious people:

“O best among the Bhāratas, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me – the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.” (Bg 7.16)

However, He also explains that there is a difference in quality between them and a pure devotee who approaches Him with a completely pure heart:

“Of these, the one who is in full knowledge and who is always engaged in pure devotional service is the best. For I am very dear to him, and he is dear to Me. All these devotees are undoubtedly magnanimous souls, but he who is situated in knowledge of Me I consider to be just like My own self. Being engaged in My transcendental service, he is sure to attain Me, the highest and most perfect goal.” (Bg 7.17-18)

As we can see, both sides are correct to a certain extent. If we are going to pray for someone, we should pray to Krsna, instead of praying to some demigod or begging to some rich person. By bringing our material anxieties to Krsna we gradually become purified, and eventually realize that all these things are illusory, something that doesn’t happen when we pray to demigods.

As Srila Prabhupada explains, “The four classes of neophyte devotees who approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead to offer devotional service because of material motives are not pure devotees, but the advantage for such materialistic devotees is that they sometimes give up their material desires and become pure. When the demigods are utterly helpless, they approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead in grief and with tears in their eyes, praying to the Lord, and thus they become almost pure devotees, free from material desires. Admitting that they have forgotten pure devotional service because of extensive material opportunities, they fully surrender to the Lord, leaving to His consideration whether to maintain them or annihilate them. Such surrender is necessary.” (SB 6.9.44)

Apart from that, Krsna is the only one who can really give us material relief, as Srila Prabhupada also explains: “One need only seek shelter of the shade of the Lord’s lotus feet. Then all the material tribulations that disturb him will be subdued, just as when one comes under the shadow of a big tree, the disturbances caused by the heat of the scorching sun are immediately mitigated, without one’s asking for relief. Therefore the whole concern of the conditioned soul should be the lotus feet of the Lord. The conditioned soul suffering from various tribulations because of existing in this material world can be relieved only when he seeks shelter at the Lord’s lotus feet.” (SB 6.9.43)

Although the Lord generally gives what devotees ask for, in certain circumstances the Lord gives His special mercy, helping the devotee to break with his attachments and go back to Godhead. Of course, this special mercy is reserved only for special devotees, who are almost ready to go back to Godhead. Srila Prabhupada explains how he himself became the recipient of this special mercy when he had problems with his business and lost all his material possessions. Initially, he had the idea of becoming a rich man and then using these resources to preach in the West, but Krsna had a different plan.

Prabhupada also explains this point in his purports in the same chapter: “Not knowing how to utilize his human or demigod life, a kṛpaṇa is attracted by things created by the material modes of nature. The kṛpaṇas, who always desire material benefits, are foolish, whereas brāhmaṇas, who always desire spiritual benefits, are intelligent. If a kṛpaṇa, not knowing his self-interest, foolishly asks for something material, one who awards it to him is also foolish. Kṛṣṇa, however, is not a foolish person; He is supremely intelligent. If someone comes to Kṛṣṇa asking for material benefits, Kṛṣṇa does not award him the material things he desires. Instead, the Lord gives him intelligence so that he will forget his material desires and become attached to the Lord’s lotus feet. In such cases, although the kṛpaṇa offers prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa for material things, the Lord takes away whatever material possessions the kṛpaṇa has and gives him the sense to become a devotee.” (6.9.49)

By understanding that, we can see yet another advantage in praying to Krsna: our prayers never go unanswered. Or we get what we are praying for, or we get something better. Krsna is unlimitedly intelligent and He understands what is better for us better than anyone else. More than that, He can understand our heart, and thus give us something that is going to solve the underlying problems, instead of just mechanically giving us what we ask for, like demigods would do.

If a person prays for a demigod for four meters of hope, a demigod will just give him that, without knowing that he intends to use this rope to hang himself. However, if he prays to Krsna, He will understand what is the underlying problem. Instead of giving him the means to kill himself, He will give him a solution for his real problems, so he doesn’t need to rope in the first place. Above all that, Krsna also gives us things in ways that don’t become an impediment to our devotional service.

In a nutshell, if we are free from material desires and can pray to Krsna solely for pure devotional service, that’s the best. However, if we are not on such an elevated platform, we should pray to Krsna for whatever we think we need, instead of asking someone else. One who approaches Krsna never loses. It may take more or less time, but everyone who comes closer to Him eventually goes back to Godhead.

When we start practicing spiritual life, and especially chanting the holy names, we have the chance for a clean start. No matter what we did in the past, we have the opportunity of very quickly erasing it by the potency of the holy names.

By the time he was approached by the Yamadutas, Ajamila had hilled, stolen, kidnapped, and so on. Still, when the Yamadutas came to take him, the Vishnudutas immediately appeared in the scene and questioned why they were taking an innocent man. The Yamadutas were surprised with such an enquiry and described the sins of Ajamila, arguing that they were under the authority of Yamaraja, but the Vishnudutas rebuked them and sent Ajamila back to his body. What the Yamadutas failed to realise was that Ajamila had destroyed the results of his past sinful actions by calling the name of Narayana while addressing his son. By the time the Yamadutas were ready to take him to hell he was indeed an innocent man.

The same process can work for us. There is however a complication: while the potency of the holy names is unlimited, one is supposed to stop committing all sinful activities when he starts to chant. We can see that after chanting and becoming purified, Ajamila immediately stopped all his sinful activities, leaving the company of the prostitute and dedicating himself to serve Lord Vishnu in a temple at Haridwar. By serving and keeping himself free from sin for the remaining years of his life, he was able to finally go back to Godhead.

We can see that many devotees are capable of strictly following the orders of the spiritual master and very seriously practice the spiritual process, an as a result they progress very fast. Most of us on the other hand continue tied to our material desires and often we do things we are not supposed to do, and this limits our progress. We are trying to advance in spiritual life with the handbrake pulled, so to say.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam (10.10.15) is mentioned: “A poverty-stricken man must automatically undergo austerities and penances because he does not have the wealth to possess anything. Thus his false prestige is vanquished. Always in need of food, shelter and clothing, he must be satisfied with what is obtained by the mercy of providence. Undergoing such compulsory austerities is good for him because this purifies him and completely frees him from false ego.”

In his purport, Srila Prabhupada reinforces this point, mentioning that “A saintly person voluntarily accepts a state of poverty just to become free from material false prestige. Many great kings left their princely standard of living and went to the forest to practice austerity according to Vedic culture, just to become purified. But if one who cannot voluntarily accept such austerity is put into a situation of poverty, he automatically must practice austerity.”

From this verse and purport we can take two interesting points:

1- Austerity is important (or even necessary) for advancing in spiritual life.
2- If we don’t accept austerities voluntarily, we will end having to accept forced hardships by the influence of the material nature.

Due to the laws of Karma and other influences, no one can go thought the material existence without experiencing hardships. People experience different types of pains, hardships and discomfort. A celebrity may not have to suffer with the bites of mosquitoes and other insects like a poor person living in a village, but may have to deal with the continuous gossips and cruel statements from people in social medias, which can be even more disturbing. A rich person will not experience scarcity of food, but still he may have to experience hunger due to diets, anorexia, or digestive problems, and so on. We face different types of difficulties in life, and some difficulties can be considered worse than others, but we all get our share.

Materialistic people suffer due to their past actions, under the influence of Karma, but as devotees we are supposed to be under the protection of Krsna. Thus, when we face difficulties, we may question: why Krsna is making me go through this? Did I committed some offense? I’m not being a good devotee? Krsna doesn’t love me?

When we go to India, we often see devotees not eating grains on the appearance days of incarnations of Krsna, just like we do on Ekadasis. A festival with some simple prasadam made without grains may sound very strange for one who is used to seeing huge feasts on Janmashtami and other special days, but older disciples of Srila Prabhupada indeed mention that they were instructed by Srila Prabhupada to observe the main festivals in a way that is considerably different from what we do today.

In the early days, devotees would observe Janmashtami by organizing a festival during the day, with kirtanas and other activities, then reading the Krsna Book until late at night, taking some very small prasadam at midnight to break the fast, and then fasting again on the next morning for the Vyasa-Puja of Srila Prabhupada, with the main prasadam being served after midday. A similar arrangement was done for Gaura Purnima.

Offerings would be cooked on the Janmashtami day, but the prasadam would be conserved and honored on the next day.

Over time, the practice gradually changed and nowadays we often have festivals where the Prasadam is distributed in the mid-afternoon. One may discuss what should be done or not according to different considerations, but here I’m just raising the idea that things changed over time.

In this connection, there is a letter from Srila Prabhupada from 12/03/1968, where he gives instructions on this point:

Years ago, when our lives radically changed overnight because of the pandemic, people started questioning themselves about when things would go back to “normal”. However, we rarely stop to think what “normal” means in the first place.

Sometimes we think that to be “normal” means to be just like everyone else. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s when our movement had its first boom in North America and Europe, thousands of people started becoming devotees and would suddenly stop eating meat, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, and so on. They would even start dressing in a different way. People would think that they were not normal. However, what is normal? If a sane person goes to live in a psychiatric house, he would be considered strange, because he would be different from all the crazy patients.

If one is practicing yoga and does an inverted head pose, he will suddenly see everything upside down. He will see everyone walking on the ceiling. However, this is just because he is in an unnatural situation. As soon as he comes back to his feet he will see that everyone was “normal” the whole time. It was just him that was seeing things upside down due to the position of his body. If there was someone “anormal” it was him.

Similarly, the original condition of the soul is different from what we consider “normal” in this world, a concept that changes according to time and place. You can just imagine the reaction of people to a person dressed in the same fashion people would dress a few centuries ago; they would not consider him or her “normal”. Similarly, most people nowadays eat meat, drink, or sometimes even smoke, habits that would be strongly condemned in Vedic societies from past ages. Nowadays, on the opposite, because most people do these things, people who want to live a pure life are considered “strange”. Our idea of “normal” thus changes over time according to what is in fashion.

However, there is a concept of “normal” that is eternal and doesn’t depend on the seasonalities of this world. This concept is discussed by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his book “Jaiva Dharma”.

Frequently we become angry at people for things they do or fail to do. We disagree with their opinions and dislike their personalities. This usually applies not for general people, but also to other devotees. Even if a devotee performs some valuable service or shows some good qualities, we may still dislike him or her because of what we perceive as negative traits.

The first thing we may consider is that what we perceive as faults may not really be faults, since we tend to judge people according to our own values and according to what we expect from them. If our own values are mistaken we may think others are mistaken in their judgment, when actually the problem starts with us. Similarly, if we have unrealistic or unfair expectations, we may feel betrayed when a person fails to fulfill them, even if it’s not really their fault.

On the other hand, people may really do wrong things, show bad qualities, and be mistaken in their judgment. Even devotees whom we consider advanced may often do shocking things, to say nothing about regular people. What to do about that?

A point we may consider in such situations is the difference between one’s eternal nature as a soul and the conditioned nature we exhibit during conditioned life.

During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a sequence of scandals in our movement, with devotees in high positions falling down in troublesome circumstances. This was of course an eye-opener that made us understand that it is not so easy for someone to become a pure devotee with just a few years of practice, as well as a warning about the consequences of electing unqualified people for positions of leadership in spiritual organizations.

What not many know was that half a century earlier devotees in the Gaudiya Math suffered from a similar event, whose repercussions were even more serious. This is an event that is not very well known, but it can help us not only to better understand the reasons for the split of the Gaudiya Math but also to better understand many dangers we faced in the past that can appear again in the future.

In a conversation from 18/06/1976, Srila Prabhupada mentions that “One of my Gauḍīya Maṭha Godbrothers, big, he became the head of this Bhag Bazaar Gauḍīya Maṭha. So his wife was debauched, and she was bringing new paramour, and the child protested. And the boy, he was ten years or twelve years old, he could understand: “Who is this man?” So he protested and said, “I shall tell all these things to my father.” And he was killed”… “His wife was a regular prostitute, and she killed her child, and on this shock, he took poison and died”… “He became shocked, that “This is my family life—the wife is prostitute and son is killed. What is the value of my life?” This was his spiritual realization. Just see. And he was made the chief.”