Initiations and Lecture Prabhupada: …no intoxication. All right. Your name is Tukarama dasa, a great saintly person. Sudama: Tukarama. Prabhupada: Yes. T-u-k-a-r-a-m-a. Sudama: Tukarama dasa. Devotee (1): Take the beads. Sudama: Take in the right hand. Prabhupada: Take, the right. (devotee offers obeisances) You know the rules, four prohibitive rules? Devotee (2): Pardon? Prabhupada: Four prohibitive. What is that? Devotee (2): No intoxication, no gambling, no eating of meat, fish, or eggs, no illicit sex. Prabhupada: Thank you. Syamasundara: Sanjaya dasa. Prabhupada: So your spiritual name, Sanjaya dasa. S-a-n-j-a-y-a. Sanjaya. Jaya. Hare Krsna. Devotee (2): Thank you, Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada: Then next, Sudama you take, change your cloth. Syamasundara: There is one Gayatri. You want to give a Gayatri now? Prabhupada: I will do there. Devotee (2): Later. Prabhupada: Gayatri I shall give there. Syamasundara: He’ll give later. Prabhupada: Touch there. There on the altar first of all. Take this. This mantra. Etam, sa asthaya, paratma-nistham, upasitam, purva, tamaih, mahadbhih, aham, tarisyami, duranta, param, tamo, mukundanghri, niseyevayaiva. (repeats several times word for word with devotees repeating) Now you read the balance. What is it? Sudama: The meaning? Prabhupada: Meaning and everything else. Sudama: “Etam—this; sa asthaya—taking shelter of; paratma—the Supreme Personality of Godhead; nistham—firm conviction; upasitam—worshiped by; purvatamaih—by previous acaryas; mahadbhih—great; aham—myself; tarisyami—shall cross over; duranta-param—insurmountable; tamo—the darkness of ignorance; mukundanghri—the lotus feet of Mukunda, who gives all liberations; nisevayaiva—simply by worshiping.” Prabhupada: Then go on. Sudama: Translation: “I shall cross over the insurmountable ocean of darkness of ignorance simply by taking shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Mukunda, who gives all kinds of liberations and was worshiped by many great previous acaryas.” Prabhupada: So? Read on. Sudama: Purport. “There are sixty-four kinds of rendering service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, out of which, to accept the uniform dress of a tridandi-sannyasa is also an important item. One who accepts this order of life, surely by rendering service unto the Supreme Lord, becomes eligible to cross over the insurmountable ocean of ignorance. All previous sages used to accept such order of life, and later acarya, Visnu Swami, adopted this order of life and firm conviction in the matter of devotional service. Those who are unalloyed devotees, they add one more staff along with the original three. This extra one is representation of the living entity. There is another sect who are known as ekadandi sect. They misunderstand the purpose of tridanda, and by such deviation, Srivasa Swami sannyasa, who proclaimed to belong to the Visnu Swami sect, turned to be impersonalists and follow the footsteps of Sankaracarya, accepting only the ekadanda. Instead of naming themselves out of the 108 names of Vaisnava sannyasis, this Srivasa Swami sect accepts ten names of the sannyasi, following Sankaracarya. Lord Caitanya, although in terms of the then practice, accepted ekadandi sannyasa order, by His acceptance of tridandi sannyasa is understood. This mantra was first chanted by a learned brahmana of Avantipur after being very much disgusted in this materialistic way of life. This happened long, long years ago because it is mentioned in the Bhagavatam, which was composed by Vyasadeva at least five thousand years ago. So it is to be concluded, therefore, that this tridandi sannyasin order is coming down since a time long, long years ago. And within five hundred years of time Lord Caitanya adopted this order of life. And in the latest years His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada adopted it personally and made many of his disciples tridandi sannyasis. We are also following his footsteps, and the purport of this mantra is that the ekadandi sannyasi is devoid of paramam nistha, which is explained above. In other words, impersonalists cannot have any faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they prefer to merge into the impersonal Brahman effulgence. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we do not find any mention of ekadanda sannyasa. This tridanda sannyasa is accepted, therefore, as standard. Lord Caitanya accepts Srimad-Bhagavatam as the supreme authority. Under the circumstances, persons who accept Lord Caitanya as ekadandi sannyasi are mistaken. So following the footsteps of Lord Caitanya, still the tridandi sannyasis are in existence, keeping the sacred thread and sikha intact, distinct from the Mayavadi ekadandi sannyasis, who give up the sacred thread and sikha. They have no inclination to render service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Being very much disgusted by the materialistic way of life, they do not understand the purpose of the sannyasa order. But those who are strictly followers of the Vaisnava principles, they do not accept the Mayavadi way of sannyasa. In the sect of Lord Caitanya, the most venerable learned scholar known as Gadadhara Pandit Gosvami accepted this tridandi sannyasa order, and he offered this facility to his disciple known as Sri Madhava Upadhyaya. This Madhava Acarya is the origin of the Vallabhacarya sect. One of the six Gosvamis, Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, who is the authority of Vaisnava regulations, was initiated by another tridandi sannyasi known as Prabodhananda Sarasvati. Therefore this sannyasi order is completely in pursuance of Vaisnava authority. Klim gopijana-bhavasrayaya namah.” Prabhupada: This is the extra mantra for you. Klim gopijana-vallabhaya svaha. Hm? No. Klim gopijana-bhavasrayaya namah. Sudama: Klim gopijana-bhavasrayaya namah. Prabhupada: So sannyasa, sannyasa, the derivative meaning is sat-nyas. Sat means the Supreme Truth. Om tat sat. Here in this material world everything is relative truth. Nothing is Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Absolute Truth is a person like us, but He is the Supreme Person. That is the Vedic information. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. Nitya means eternal. We living entities, we are all eternal. That is very nicely explained in Bhagavad-gita. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. Those who under the impression that after finishing annihilation of this body, everything is finished, they are not in perfect knowledge. The living entity continues to exist either in this body or in another body. Just like very simple example, we can understand. All of us sitting here, we had a small baby body. I existed, you existed, in that baby body, but that body is not now existing, but I am existing. I know that “I existed in a baby body, I existed in a boyhood body, I existed in a youthhood body. Now I am existing in this old age body. Similarly, when this body is finished, I shall again exist in another body.” This is the right conclusion. Therefore na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20]. After the destruction of this body, atma, or the spirit soul, is not destroyed or annihilated. He continues. So atma vastu, that atma is also part and parcel of the Supreme Truth sat. Now at the present moment I am given to this misunderstanding that “I am this body.” Sannyasa means to give up this false concept of bodily concept of life and surrender, nyasa. Nyasa means renounce—renounce everything for the sake of Krsna, the Absolute Person. This is called sannyasa. Actually this is the beginning of my liberated activities. Sannyasa means that living entity is acting. Living entity for a second cannot be inactive. You know that even in sleeping we are acting: we dream, we go somewhere, we see something. Although the body is silent, I, the spirit soul, I create another subtle body, and with that subtle body I create so many things and try to enjoy it or suffer it. Therefore a living entity is not inactive even for a second. So these activities, when they are performed in the bodily concept of life—“I am this body,” “I am Indian,” “I am Japanese,” “I am Hindu,” “I am Muslim,” “I am Christian”—in this way, so long we act on this bodily concept of life, it is called material existence. But when we understand that we are not this body—“I am spirit soul”—and on this understanding I understand that I am the part and parcel of the Supreme Absolute Person, that is called brahma-bhutah situation. It is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati [Bg. 18.54]. Now, this boy is very tender age. He has renounced this material life. He has got young wife, but still, he has given up with mutual consent. The wife also has agreed that “You take sannyasa for the service of Krsna.” So this is actually renouncement. Young boy, young man, everyone wants young wife, enjoy this material life. But he has renounced everything. This is great sacrifice. Instead, in spite of presence of young wife and facilities for material enjoyment, one who renounces for the sake of serving Krsna, he is sannyasi. He is called sannyasa. Param drstva nivartate. For better service he ceases to act materially. Param drstva nivartate. That is sannyasi. He is therefore called gosvami. His name is, from this day, Sudama das Gosvami. Because go means the senses, and svami means the master. At the present moment, in the materialistic concept of life, everyone is servant of the senses. Everyone acts by the dictation of the senses; therefore they can be called, in other words, as godasa, servant of the senses. Instead of becoming servant of the senses, one has to become the master of the senses. That is called gosvami, master of the senses. So how to become master of the senses? Senses are very strong. How one can become master? The simple method is when one engages the senses in the service of the Supreme Lord, it is automatically controlled. It is automatically controlled. The senses want… Just like your mind. If your mind is absorbed in certain subject, you cannot divert your mind to another subject. Sometimes, if your mind is engaged in some serious business, you are thinking and some friend has come before you, you cannot see him. He asks you, “Mr. such and such, don’t you see me?” “Oh, you have come?” That means the senses, the chief sense is the mind. If you can engage your mind to Krsna, in the service of Krsna—sa vai manah krsna padaravindayoh—then your senses are automatically controlled— because mind is the chief sense. Under the mind, all other senses, namely the eyes, the ears, the nose, the hands, the legs, they work. If one is absent-minded, he cannot work nicely because mind is absent or not in order. Therefore our method of controlling the senses is to engage the senses in the service of the Lord. The first engagement should be that mind should be always absorbed in thoughts of Krsna. Always engaged. These boys, they are always engaged. Just like in offering arcana to the Deities from early morning up to ten o’clock at night, and then they go to rest. Again rise early in the morning. So somebody is engaged n cleansing the temple, somebody is engaged in dressing the Deity, somebody is engaged in cooking for the Deity, somebody is engaged going in Tokyo city for distributing literature, somebody is performing kirtana here, somebody is reading our various books. In this way we have got twenty-five hours engagement instead of twenty-four hours. So mind cannot go outside Krsna. That is called Krsna conscious. We don’t allow the mind go out of Krsna’s service. And this is sannyasa. Practically anyone who is engaged in this Krsna consciousness business, he is a sannyasi. Never mind what is his dress. He may be in a dress of a family man, householder, or he may be in the dress of a sannyasi—everyone is engaged in Krsna’s service. Therefore in the essential sense, everyone is sannyasi. That is described in the Bhagavad-gita, anasritah karma-phalam karyam karma karoti yah, sa sannyasi. The Lord Himself is giving the definition of sannyasi. What is that? Anasritah karma-phalam. Karma means action. Whatever you do, there must be some reaction. Whatever you do. You do something very pious or do something which is vicious, there will be some resultant action. But if you don’t take shelter of the resultant action, anasritah karma, karma-phalam. Karma-phalam means resultant action of your activities. You don’t take shelter of that action, good or bad… Karyam: “It is my duty.” Karyam karma karoti yah: “In this way, one who acts…” Sa sannyasi. Everyone is trying to enjoy the result of his action. Suppose you are doing some business, and you get very huge profit. So you take the profit for enjoyment. But one who does not take the profit, he is sannyasi. He may be engaged in business. He may make profit, thousand dollars per month or more than that, but he does not take even a paisa or even a cent out of it—he is a sannyasi. So even a man in ordinary worldly life, a businessman, or in any other occupation, he can also become sannyasi provided he does not enjoy the profit out of it. Then where the profit will go? It will be thrown away in the street? No. It should be given to Krsna. So the real purpose is that whatever you do, yat karosi, whatever you eat, yat asnasi, whatever you sacrifice, yad juhosi, yad dadasi, whatever you give in charity… Because these things are ordinary activities. Krsna says, kurusva tad mad-arpanam: “You give Me that. If you are eating, the food must be given to Me first. If you are working, the resultant profit should be given to Me. Or even loss, that is also given to Me.” Yat karosi yad asnasi yaj juhosi: “And whatever sacrificing,” dadasi yat, “whatever you give in charity, so give it to Me.” This is sannyasa. There is no, I mean to say, prohibition to act in any way. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna, he was a warrior, fighter, but he fought for Krsna; therefore he is a sannyasi. Although he appears to be a householder, fighting for his own interest, but he was declining to fight for his own interest. When Krsna convinced him that “This fighting is arranged by Me, Krsna, and I want this fighting,” then Arjuna fought. He understood that “It is to be fought for Krsna, not for my self interest.” And because he fought for Krsna, he is a sannyasi. So this is the technique of Krsna consciousness, and anyone who is ready to act for Krsna, not for his personal sake, he is a sannyasi. So actually anyone in this institution, they are all acting for Krsna, but this sannyasa order is accepted in pursuance of the great acaryas, as we have already explained, great acaryas. So for preaching work, especially in India, preachers are generally sannyasi. And I know that even in Buddha philosophy, a Buddhist, a person following Buddhist religion, he has to take sannyasa at least for some time. Is it not? Any Buddhists here? Devotee: Yes. Prabhupada: He has to take sannyasa for some years. Again he may come back to householder life. So sannyasa order is Vedic order. Lord Buddha also appeared in India, and he inaugurated the Buddha philosophy. That is also sannyasa. Bhiksu. They are called bhiksu, Buddha-bhikkhu. So this is a spiritual order. Otherwise, anyone who is acting in Krsna consciousness is a sannyasi. That is, practical sannyasa. So our Sudama das Goswami Maharaja, from this day will… He is already engaged in preaching Krsna consciousness. He will now take special advantage and preach all over the world Krsna consciousness and make his life successful. That is the mantra: etam sa asthaya paratma-nistham; paratma-nistham. Paratma-nistha means working for the Supreme, nistham. Adhyasitam purvatamair mahadbhih. Purvatamair mahadbhih, many great acaryas. So we are coming through parampara system. So we at the present moment we are Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He took sannyasa. His spiritual master, Isvara Puri, was also a sannyasi. His spiritual master, Madhavendra Puri was sannyasi. My spiritual master was Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja. He was also sannyasi. I am also sannyasi. So in this way, by the disciplic succession, we accept this sannyasa order. That is a formality. We have to follow the formality. And this tridandi sannyasa, this danda, rod, is consisting of four rods. Three rods means the body, mind… Karmana manasa vaca. Karmana means working; manasa, by thinking; vaca, by talking. Everything should be for Krsna. And there is another rod that is the living entity. So within this packet there are four rods, symbolizing mind, body, and words. Word is very important thing. Now preaching will be through words, by presenting words. Vaikuntha gunanuvarnane. Vacamsi vaikuntha-gunanuvarnane. Sa vai manah krsna padaravindayor vacamsi vaikuntha-gunanuvarnane. Vacamsi, our talks should be always engaged in describing the glories of the Lord. That is the proper use of our talking. Otherwise, there are frogs also, they are vibrating, “kakaka, kakaka, kakaka, kakaka.” That kind of vibration is simply inviting death. You know in every country there are frogs, especially in rainy season they enjoy. They think, “We are now enjoying life,” by “kakaka kakaka.” So the result is that the snake, in the darkness they cannot see where is the frog, but by the sound he can understand, “Here is a frog,” and he comes and swallows it. So our, this talking, nonsense talking whole day and night—in the assembly, in the conference, in the business, in so many ways we are talking, “kakaka, kakaka”—the result is that we are inviting death very soon. But if we chant Hare Krsna mantra or engage our talking for glorifying the Lord, then death cannot touch. Death cannot touch means we are making our way to become immune from death. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita: tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti kaunteya [Bg. 4.9]. Those who are talking nonsense, they will have to accept some sort of body, either human body or animal body or tree body or demigod’s body. He has to take any body. But those who are talking of Krsna always, to understand Krsna and to make others to understand Krsna, they are not going to do that. For them, janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah. Who will preach unless one knows Krsna, why He appears, janma, why He disappears, janma karma, why He works in the warfield of battle, battlefield of Kuruksetra, karma? Or so many karmas, Krsna, when He was present. So unless one understands why Krsna comes and work like that, why He comes… Janma karma me divyam. But they are all transcendental. Yo janati tattvatah. Anyone who knows perfectly well, he can preach. Otherwise what he will talk? We’ll have to talk about Krsna. If we do not know about the activities of Krsna, then what we shall talk? So this talking of Krsna, vacamsi vaikuntha-gunanuvarnane, will make him immortal. It is not the frog’s crowing. The frog’s crowing will gradually lead him to death. But this kind of transcendental, glorifying vibration will make him immune from death, will elevate to the eternal life, blissful life. Therefore this mantra, aham tarisyami duranta-param tamo mukundanghri nisevayaiva. Aham: “By accepting this order of life, I shall cross over this nescience of darkness.” Tamo mukundanghri. Mukunda. Krsna’s another name is Mukunda. Muk means liberation; ananda, He gives liberation and ananda, eternal bliss. So anghri, anghri means lotus feet. So “By worshiping, by serving the lotus feet of Krsna, I shall cross over the dark ocean of nescience.” Aham tarisya… How? By talking about Krsna. Vacamsi vaikuntha-gunanuvarnane. Simply by describing the Vaikuntha world. In the morning we are now having class, describing about the nature of Vaikuntha world, how it is constituted, what kind of population there are, how they live, how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is living with goddess of fortune. These things we are discussing in the morning from seven to eight. So those who are interested may come. There is a Vaikuntha world. Vaikuntha. Vigata kuntha yasmad. Vigata means gone; kuntha means anxiety. Vigata. Here everything is full of anxiety. This is not Vaikuntha. This is kuntha, anxiety. Sada samudvigna-dhiyam. Samudvigna. Samudvigna means full of anxiety. Everyone, even a bird, he is also not peaceful. If he has comes to take some food from the ground, the bird sees this way, that way, that way. Kuntha, always anxiety: “Is not one coming to kill me?” Therefore you will find the birds doing like this, anxiety. No anxietyless, nobody. Either human being, animal, birds, beasts, everyone. Therefore is called kuntha jagat, full of anxiety. But there is another world, where there is no kuntha. Everyone is free. Some of us trying to become free from all kinds of anxieties, but that is not possible here. We can become free from all kinds of anxiety when we take to Krsna consciousness; otherwise it is not possible. We are aspiring, every one of us, aspiring how to become free of anxiety. But that can be done only when we take shelter of the Vaikuntha-pati. Vaikuntha-pati, Vaikunthesvara. So, so long we are accepting asat, asad-grahat… Here in this material world everything is temporary. Suppose this body, your body, my body. This is called asat. Asat means temporary. It will not exist. So because we have accepted everything which will not exist, therefore we are full of anxiety. This is the full definition of anxiety. And if we take the sat, the, which will exist, and we sacrifice everything for that, that is called Sannyasi. Sat nyasi, sannyasi. If we accept asat, then we will be full of anxiety, and if we accept sat, then we will be free of anxiety. This is the secret of spiritual life. So we shall invite every one of you. We have opened this temple in this country. So we invite all Japanese boys and girls, young men. Especially we invite them because they can understand. Old men, they are sophisticated. They, whatever they have understood, it will take hundred years to forget. (laughter) But young men, they are inquisitive, they are receptive. They can easily… Practically all over the world, all our followers, disciples, students, they are all young men, or teenagers, or some of them, about twenty-five years or thirty years, but no old men. That is the special feature of this movement. In all countries we have got branches, all over America, all over Europe, all over Canada, Australia, and in your country we are now making progress gradually. We have got center here. We are thinking of opening one center in Quoto. What is that? Sudama: Kyoto. Prabhupada: Kyoto. So gradually, as you join, we shall enhance our activities, Krsna consciousness. Try to understand. We have got books, we have got philosophy. It is appreciated all over the world. So thank you for your coming here and joining this ceremony, and we shall continue to invite you more and more, and come here. Thank you very much. (end)
Sannyasa Initiation of Sudama dasa
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Tokyo, April 30, 1972