Quotes – Śāstra

I don’t care if someone says the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam was written yesterday, or it was written this morning, or it was written an hour ago! You will not find a superior knowledge anywhere about consciousness, the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, the laws of nature, the origins of the universe – nothing! How old it is doesn’t matter. The truth is the truth – whether it was written today or whether it was written thousands of years old.

After the time of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, his followers said, “What he has written, that is enough – we don’t need anything else!” But we see from that time till now, so much literature has come forth. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had two commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā – Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura didn’t write one, but our Prabhupāda and Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja did. Their own guru didn’t comment on the Gītā, but they did.
Now, in our present situation, if someone writes a commentary on a book that say Śrīla Prabhupāda didn’t comment on, then one knee-jerk reaction from some people is, “Well, Prabhupāda didn’t’ comment on that, so what is the importance of it?”
Another knee-jerk reaction is when Prabhupāda has commented on something like Bhagavad-gītā and someone else does it, they say, “Well, Prabhupāda already did it – what’s the need of another one?”
But if we follow that line of thinking, everything stops! Not only does the production of literature stop, but what actually stops is the dynamic search for the truth and the expression of one’s realisations.

T

he Bhāgavatam is meant to increase our hankering and our eagerness. It satisfies and it fulfills, but first one must develop a hankering. Within this hankering comes the feeling of fulfilment also. Just fulfilment, as it stands alone, is not in our favour. It will not bring us and keep us in touch with the devotees in this life. It will not enable us to substantially remain in touch with our guru after he departs from this world.

People in general thinks that because a work is a book of poetry like Gītā-Govinda, then it is ok to read, quote and use. This seems akin to the man who used two śālāgrāma-śilās to crack nuts. To present this book to the general public is vandalism, a violent act against our sampradayā!


I heard that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda read both Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Caitanya-bhāgavata 108 times and told others to do likewise. The idea is to immerse oneself in the pastimes of Lord Gaurāṅga. There are so many pastimes, especially in the Caitanya-bhāgavata, that one’s desire to hear the Lord’s pastimes will be totally satisfied. This is the safer road to success…

G uru, sādhu and śāstra – sādhu is also there. Not just guru. Now devotees say, “Oh, I have my guru!” But you didn’t have your guru before! Devotees brought you to your guru, devotees explained so many things to you. But why so many devotees feel like that? Because their faith is lost! They see that others cheat, do this, that, this happens, that happens…then they become very, very distrustful. They don’t believe in anybody. They don’t believe in anything. Ultimately they don’t even believe in themselves either. This disbelief is an all-devouring beast! It consumes our own self-confidence also – then we don’t want to even make one step ahead. Guru, sādhu and śāstra – these three things are sung about in Vaiṣṇava poetry, and its what the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is all about. These things are there to help us in the world, and we must keep our high respect and regard for them.

T here was once a young brahmacārī I used to travel with. One day I was trying to remember a śloka and I said, “What is that śloka?”

He said, “Yes, yes! I know that!” And he just came out with the Sanskrit.

So I said, “Well I know you know the Sanskrit, but do you know the meaning? Do you know what the śloka is all about? Can you practice the śloka? It’s one thing to say the śloka – it’s another thing to put it into practice!