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Baba Ram Dass, spiritual guru and LSD pioneer, dies at 88
HONOLULU (AP) — Baba Ram Dass, the 1960s counterculture spiritual leader who experimented with LSD and traveled to India to find enlightenment, returning to share it with Americans, has died. He was 88.
Dass’ foundation, Love Serve Remember, announced late Sunday that the author and spiritual leader died peacefully at his home earlier in the day. No cause of death was given.
He had suffered a severe stroke in 1997 that left him paralyzed on the right side and, for a time, unable to speak. More recently, he underwent hip surgery after he was injured in a fall in November 2008, according to his website.
Brahmananda das: Prabhupada would walk on the Chatikara Road, it was all agricultural land. One morning this one sadhu, he was wearing saffron, he greeted Prabhupada. And then the next morning again he was there. He would do this every day, and then he started following us. Then each day he would come closer and closer to Prabhupada so that he could hear. Then one day he said something to Prabhupada, and Prabhupada replied him. Then each day he would come and they would talk more and more. Then at the end of the walk when Prabhupada would go in the temple, he would go on his way.
But then one morning he came in, did the morning program. And then one morning…Prabhupada would go into his house before coming to the temple and then he came in, Prabhupada had invited him. Then Prabhupada told me, “All right, he is joining. Prepare him. Give him a room, whatever facilities,” and he was Gour Govinda. That’s how he joined, Gour Govinda Swami. Prabhupada initiated him, g
Residents of Goloka have all mystic powers, and can manifest entire universes to serve each other with love and humbleness. Yet, generally they do not want to take service from the others, whom they respect so highly. Instead, everyone has a pastime and duties, and thus things go on very happily and nicely, all devotees focusing in unison, on devotional service of Sri Sri Radha Govinda. To serve Krsna is to serve All...
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The full time service rendered inside the local temple by the renunciated members should be dealt with as follows:
Taking a salary from the deity is not pure devotional service. That is a job for money. Full time members are required to be setting personal example to the members of the congregation as surrendered servants. That is the highest reward in the human life!
The congregation is primarily based on people living in the grhasta ashram and visiting on a weekly monthly basis.
They have to work to support their families. That is a job in itself.
As far people to fill up the temples for full time service that depends on the efforts of the senior members especially the temple president that is the most important role a devotee can have. To manage Prabhupada and his mission for his guru.
For our members here is some direct guidance from our Guru. Let’s be clear everyone must follow his instructions otherwise it’s maya your following;
Srila Prabhupada: Why salary?
"....the make-show of devotional service should at once be rejected. An unauthorized devotee should never be recognized as a pure devotee."
Excerpt from Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi-lila (1975 Edition) by HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - 7.102 Lord Chaitanya in 5 Features.
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Lokanātha: ...five thousand years back, until now, there's only thirty ācāryas...
Prabhupāda: Chain is broken when there are false spiritual masters. Otherwise it is not broken. Chain is broken if a so-called spiritual master speaks something manufactured. Then the chain is broken. Otherwise chain is not broken.
Morning Walk -- September 2, 1976, New Delhi
DESCRIPTION OF WHO IS PURE DEVOTEE
Guest: Swami, do you see a difference or a conflict between being a devotee of Jesus and a devotee of Kṛṣṇa? May one be both?
Prabhupāda: A devotee means, real devotee means, he has no purpose for material gain. That is real devotee. Now we have to see what kind of devotee he is. There are two kinds of devotees: with purpose and without purpose. The "without purpose" devotee is pure devotee, and "with purpose" devotee, they are material devotee. That is distinguished in Bhagavad-gītā,
ārto arthārthī jijñāsur
jñānī ca bharatarṣabha
catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ
(janāḥ) sukṛtinaḥ arjuna
[Bg. 7.16]
There are pious men and sinful men. Sinful men cannot become devotee. Pious men can become devotee.
yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
[Bg. 7.28]
These are the definitions. One who is completely free from all sinful activities, they can become pure devotee. So even after becoming free from sinful acti
"Now produce life. Where is that science? Simply talking. 'Yes, we shall do. We are trying.' Nonsense, trying. What is the use of trying? It is already there. God sent egg through the chicken; it will produce life.
“So why you are wasting your time in this way? Rather, try to understand the person who has got such a brain that within this chemical composition there is life.
“You cannot do it; therefore you are inferior. Somebody has done it. Even if you say, 'Nature has done it,' nature is then powerful. You are not even to the level of nature, what to speak of God.
“Nature is only one of the energies of God. You cannot understand even the energy. How you will understand the energetic?"
"It's difficult to understand how they could possibly say that there's no intelligence," I observed.
"Therefore we say these are all rascals," Prabhupāda said with finality. "Therefore genera
Sri Krishna to Uddhava, "Although the sky, or space, is the resting place of everything, the sky does not mix with anything, nor is it entangled. Similarly, the sun is not at all attached to the water in which it is reflected within innumerable reservoirs, and the mighty wind blowing everywhere is not affected by the innumerable aromas and atmospheres through which it passes. In the same way, a self-realized soul is completely detached from the material body and the material world around it.
Srimad Bhagavatam - Canto 11 Chapter 11 Sloka 12-13
PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada
Figuratively the queen is supposed to be the disciple of the king; thus when the mortal body of the spiritual master expires, his disciples should cry exactly as the queen cries when the king leaves his body. However, the disciple and spiritual master are never separated because the spiritual master always keeps company with the disciple as long as the disciple follows strictly the instructions of the spiritual master. This is called the association of vani (words). Physical presence is called vapuh. As long as the spiritual master is physically present, the disciple should serve the physical body of the spiritual master, and when the spiritual master is no longer physically existing, the disciple should serve the instructions of the spiritual master.
SB 4.28.47
When the brahmana asked the woman who the man lying on the floor was, she answered that he was her spiritual master and that she was perplexed about what to
What happened the final months of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance in connection with the process of initiating new devotees? A Discussion Between Bhakta dasa and H.G. Sriman Gurukrpa Prabhu
Old post repeated; Gurukrpa Prabhu 1977-1978 “what really happened”
Posted by Welcome on April 16, 2012 at 14:54 in Views and Vaisnavas
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Sriman Gurukrpa Prabhu: What Really Happened in 1977-78
5. February 2009 by Prabhupada News 3 Comments
[Translate]
Bhakta dasa Prabhu.
Bhakta dasa, Feb 04, India :What happened the final months of Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance in connection with the process of initiating new devotees?
H.G. Sriman Gurukrpa Prabhu
Gurukrpa: Nothing happened. In the beginning Srila Prabhupada did the diksa, the yajna and the name giving. As the numbers increased, he authorized GBC, and senior sannyasis to pick names and chant on the beads, etc. In 1977 during the months of May, June, July 1977 I was in Vrindaban with Srila Prabhupada, giving him his massage i
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HDGSP comments on the subject '' FALSE GURUS ''---
Reporter: I wondered how many people you think might have been taken in by fake gurus.
Srila Prabhupada: Practically everyone. [Laughter.] There is no question of counting. Everyone.
Reporter: This would mean thousands of people, wouldn't it?
Srila Prabhupada: Millions. Millions have been cheated, because they want to be cheated. God is omniscient. He can understand your desires. He is within your heart, and if you want to be cheated, God sends you a cheater.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => What Is a Guru?
Unfortunately, when the äcärya disappears, rogues and nondevotees take advantage and immediately begin to introduce unauthorized principles in the name of so-called svämés, yogés, philanthropists, welfare workers and so on. The main business of human society is to think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead at all times, to become His devotees, to worship the Supreme Lord and to bow down before Him. The acarya, the authorized r
THE FIGHTING. IT IS YOUR DUTY...
In the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna, “As a fighter, you have to fight. You cannot step away from the fighting. It is your duty.” Nowadays I have practical experience that the draft board of your country is calling for boys to join the army, but they are not willing. They are not willing because they are not trained as kṣatriyas, warriors. They are trained as śūdras, laborers. Therefore the caste system is very scientific. A section of people should be trained as brāhmaṇas, men of knowledge. Those who are intelligent enough in the society should be picked and trained in higher philosophical science. And those who are less intelligent than the brāhmaṇas should be given military training. We require everything in society—not only military men. How can everyone be a military man? Because they are sending śūdras, ordinary workers, to Vietnam, these are unnecessarily being killed. Any country which is very proud of scientific advancement, and yet does not know
Gargamuni Das;
which is more important MAYAPUR DHAM or JAGGANATH PURI DHAM--MATHURA DHAM or KURUSKETRA DHAM ?
--HDGSP states--
Actually the birthplace of the Lord is not as important as the place of His activities. Kurukshetra is more important than Mathura, because the whole world knows the Bhagavad-gita. It is because of the activities of the Lord that people take interest in His birthplace. The "karma" is more important than the "janma." Even when Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was present people went to see him at Jagannath Puri, but they did not come to His birthplace, because His activity was more important than His birthplace. To His birthplace we offer our namaskars, but from the place of His activities we get inspiration. And, what was the Lord's activity at Puri? It was preaching. Our temple must be active with preaching and not a dead place."
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Ramesvara -- 25 October, 1974
--Your servant,Brahmananda Swami
Personal Secretar
Gargamuni Das
HDGSP remarked the day BEFORE the appointment tape of may 28,1977---
Prabhupada: Everywhere. Among yourselves, there is no strong man. That is the defect. All like child. That is the defect. And it requires a very strong man. That is lacking. In every minute details I have poked my nose.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Conversation Pieces – May 27, 1977, Vrndavana
