Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati disappearance day lecture
Hari Sauri Dasa: In the evening Prabhupada went down to the temple for a special program including pushpanjali, the offering of flowers to his Guru Maharaja. The audience was not large; a small core of active life members, friends and well-wishers of ISKCON who have become attracted by Srila Prabhupada and his pure and direct preaching, impressed by the results of Krishna consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada sat on a cushion on the floor in front of the Deities and next to the vyasasana, which bore a small picture of his Guru Maharaja. He lectured enthusiastically, showing no sign of discomfort from his illness. It was an especially good talk. He humbly presented the eternal message of devotional service as he has received it from his spiritual master. Having spent the afternoon discussing the svami to whom the Bhagavad-gita and Krishna was "unknown", and speaking as the representative of one to whom the Lord most surely is known, he lectured on a verse that gave Krishna Himself the final say: Bhagavad-gita Chapter Sixteen, verse seven. "There are two kinds of men," Prabhupada said, "asura and daiva. All throughout the whole universe, there are two classes of men. One who knows his relationship with God, he is called daiva. And one who does not know, just like animal, they are called asura. There is no particular caste or creed, that here is a caste of asura, caste of daiva. No. Anyone who knows what is God and his relationship with God, sambandha, and then works according to that relation and achieves the goal of life, he is called daiva, or devata. And one who does not know this, what is the goal of life, what is God, what is my relationship with God, he is asura."
Prabhupada explained that one is understood to be asura or devata according to which path they are following pravritti or nivritti. "Loke vyavayamisha-madya-seva nitya hi jantor. Every living entity has got this tendency. Vyavaya, means sex life; amisha, meat eating, and madya, liquor. Natural tendency. Therefore the country where these things are indulged in without any restriction, that is asura. This is especially in the Western countries, and now we have also learned in India. Either Hindus or Musselman, drinking was a sin; now we have got very easily available liquor. Every door there is a shop, and every door there is a meat shop. So India, there was a time that they were all devatas; now we are imitating the asuras. On the other hand, the boys and girls from the asuric countries, they are becoming devotees, devata. So there is no exclusive right for a country to become a devata or a demon. A demon can be turned into the devata and devata can be turned into demon provided he follows this pravritti and nivritti.... "So Krishna has described everything in the Bhagavad-gita. And today, this night, we are trying to explain the mission of Krishna, because the same mission is being carried out by us beginning from Brahma. And today is a special day, the disappearance day of my Guru Maharaja, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami. This Krishna consciousness movement is so beneficial that He wants to benefit the whole human society, how to stop this process of repetition of birth, death, old age, and disease. My Guru Maharaja also came for this purpose, and we are also trying to follow his footsteps. And we are teaching our disciples to do the same thing. This is not a new movement, or some invented 'ism.' It is old, at least four or five thousand years, what Krishna spoke. The other followers also spoke the same thing, and we are also speaking the same thing. It is up to you to take advantage of it or not. Thank you very much."
After Prabhupada's lecture, we all stood around the vyasasana, before the picture of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. We responsively recited the pranama-mantras following the lead of Lokanatha Swami and offered flowers. Afterwards we had a lively kirtana and guru-puja before Prabhupada returned upstairs. With great satisfaction he took some maha-prasadam that had been offered this evening to his Guru Maharaja. He also had Harikesa make some kachoris. To see him eat heartily is a good sign that his health is improving. Srila Prabhupada is feeling stronger, and the swelling in his body has gone down because of the diuretic pills Dr. Patel supplied yesterday. But Prabhupada didn't take all the pills prescribed. After taking a half tablet, as soon as he got the desired effect, he stopped taking the medication.
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 1 by Hari Sauri Dasa
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