Excerpt From the Los Angeles Sastra Dana newsletter

A BOON TO PREACH

A BOON TO PREACH

Our activity is preaching. Yes, flood the whole world with the message of Mahaprabhu. We are gosthyanandis not bhajananandis. Bhakisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami has said, prana ache tanra sehetu pracara : “He has life therefore he is preaching.” His heart bleeds seeing the suffering of the jivas. So he goes out not caring anything for himself. Go out and preach! Inculcate Krishna consciousness onto them. Let their suffering be done away with forever. Yes, this is the heart of a sadhu. Then he accepts disciples and trains them to continue the mission work. Then he retires and goes for bhajan. So I have asked for this boon, “I’ll go out and preach.” And it was granted. That is the boon I asked for when Krishna said, “What boon do you want?” “I want this boon.” That was granted. “Go out and preach and thereby you’ll achieve the supreme perfection.” Yes! That boon I have been granted. What shall I say? (laughter) Every individual has his own way. All individuals are not the same. Temperament is different. According to one’s temperament he treads this path. You follow your path, whereas someone else follows his path, and yet another follows his path. It is not the same. Yes, my path is different. I am a preacher. I get rejoicing in preaching. Blissfulness in preaching. Yes! There is no language to describe what I get when I preach. I have asked for that. I have been granted. “Yes granted. All right.” Bhaktivinoda Thakura at the end of his days, he was so old, very old. His eyelids had to be lifted by someone, so that he could see, and move his head. At that time he said, “I want a horse to ride on to go out and preach.” He was very very old, like invalid but such spirit was there. Do you understand? We follow this Bhaktivinoda-dhara (line). Someone may have a different dhara, but our dhara is Prabhupada dhara. It is different. So we follow him. This difference is there, but the destination is the same. A preacher’s heart is pierced to see suffering, “Oh, he is Krishna’s soul. Out of ignorance he is suffering. He is not engaged in bhajan. Let me go and inculcate Krishna consciousness unto him. Let me engage him in Krishna’s service. Therefore Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami says, prana ache tanra sehetu pracara: “One who has life he preaches.” One who does not preach, he has no life. Lifeless. He is a dead body, saba. Ta’ra nahe saba. Those who go out and preach are not dead bodies. They have life.”

Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja, April 1994 Bhubaneswar.

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