[srilaprabhupadanectar]
Remembering Srila Prabhupada – TD 4-5: Sri Vrndavana-dhama
From “A Transcendental Diary Vol 5” by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu…
Sri Vrndavana-dhama
Srila Prabhupada took a short walk around the temple this morning before going in for the Deity darsana, guru-puja and class. He was particularly pointing out detailed items to Hansaduta Maharaja to impress upon him the standards that he wants. Telling him to make sure that the pathways and the temple interior were washed every morning, right after mangala-arati, Prabhupada said, “If we keep the temple clean, then our heart will be cleansed. This is the process.”
As he inspected the grounds he mentioned that the ladies should also be properly engaged. “The women should be engaged in flower business, in dress business, light and interesting to them. They should not be given any heavy work. Cooking, helping cooking, cutting the vegetables. All woman should be engaged in something. That is wanted.”
Observing the inner walls of the temple, which have display panels sculpted on their surface, Prabhupada said they should be painted with Krsna-lila. He suggested that Visnu dasa, whose air-brush murals on the walls of the New York temple greatly impressed Prabhupada, should be contacted to see if he could do the same here. “He can do every panel in three days. He knows the art, how to do it.” Prabhupada told Hansaduta.
Looking up from the open courtyard, Hansaduta asked whether he should have wire netting stretched across the top to keep out the birds.
Prabhupada didn’t think it would keep out the pigeons but that it would be effective in detering the monkeys.
Prabhupada had Pradyumna read out the purports to verses 41 and 42 before he gave class. Commenting on how Draupadi offered all respects to the bound-up Asvatthama, despite the fact that he had killed her sleeping sons, he said, “So this is already explained in the purport that woman’s nature is very mild, and man’s nature very strong. That is the difference. Therefore according to Vedic civilization, the woman must be protected, because they are very simple — they can be led to goodness also very easily, and they can be polluted also very easily. By nature, they are very simple. Therefore sastra says that just like child, if you mold the character of a child from the very beginning, then he can become a great man. Similarly, if you train woman from the very beginning how to become chaste and faithful to the husband, they can become a very good mother, very good asset in the family. So there is sufficient information in the Vedic literatures how a boy should be trained up, a girl should be trained up, so that in future they may become happy. The ultimate aim of life is how to become connected with Krsna.”
He said that becoming connected with Krsna meant being in the mood of Lord Caitanya. “Caitanya Mahaprabhu has taught us how to become free from the false ahankara. He said that naham vipro na yatir va: ‘I am not a brahmana. I am not a sannyasi. I am not a grhastha. I am not a vanaprastha. I am not this. I am not that.’ All material designations He refused….
“Then? When you become liberated? That is stated by Caitanya Mahaprabhu, gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah. This is liberation. Gopi-bhartuh, the maintainer of the gopis, Gopijana-vallabha. Krsna’s business is how to please the gopis, the inhabitants of Vrndavana. Yasoda-nandana vraja-jana-ranjana, as the vrndavana-vasis, they have no other business than to love Krsna, similarly, Krsna has no other business than to please the gopis and the inhabitants of Vrndavana. Gopijana-vallabha. ”
Prabhupada described why Krsna is so attached to the vrndavana-vasis. “They do not know anything. They do not know even that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But they do not like to love anybody than Krsna. This is their only qualification. They did not love Krsna understanding that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, param brahma param dhama; they did not know this. But they did not like to love even Visnu than Krsna. That is their qualification. Gopi-jana-vallabha.
“So when we come to that stage, as Caitanya Mahaprabhu&# 39;s teaching, the gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayoh. He’s also bringing the reference of the gopis because Krsna is completely under gopis. He’s so much indebted to the gopis that He said that ‘I cannot repay your debts. It is not possible.’ Krsna, the all-powerful, all-opulences, but He had no means to repay the debts of the gopis. This is the position of the gopis.”
Prabhupada cautioned us that we should not try to become gopis — that is Mayavadi. Rather we have to become like Uddhava, who prayed that he could take birth as a blade of grass in Vrndavana so that the gopis would trample him under their feet. “This is the highest perfection. So liberation means gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasa-dasanudas ah. The more you become servant of the servant, servant of Vaisnava, then your perfection is there.”
During his midday massage, which he still takes in his bedroom, Prabhupada suddenly started talking about dreams. He told me that last night he dreamt the temple courtyard was completely flooded. He said he was thinking, “Oh, if it comes even one more inch, everything will be spoiled.”
Thinking there might be some significance to his dream, I asked him what dreams were.
Prabhupada replied in a general way, saying that they are impressions stored within the mind, not just from this lifetime, but also from previous ones. The dream is illusory but the objects are real. Chuckling, he pointed to the plastic bottle of mustard oil I was using. “Here is a bottle of oil, and here is the bed. Both are real, but if I take the oil and put it under the pillow then it has no meaning. The pillow and oil are real, but I am crazy. That example is there in the Bhagavatam, of gold and a mountain. I have experience that there is gold, and there is mountain. I have no experience of a golden mountain, but in dream they combine.”
>>> Ref. VedaBase => TD 4-5: Sri Vrndavana-dhama
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