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EDITORIAL June 16, 1999 VNN4109 Comment on this story The Ten Mad Elephants! BY MADHUDVISA DASA EDITORIAL, Jun 16 (VNN) — The mad elephant, if he enters a nice garden, can very quickly destroy it. His huge feet, his gigantic trunk swinging this way, and that and his giant ivory tusks can very quickly completely destroy a beautiful garden carefully cultivated over many years by an expert gardener. Beware of those mad elephants! After the mad elephant devastates a garden, there is nothing left. He grabs the plants with his gigantic trunk and rips them out of the ground completely. There's not even a root left to sprout again after the mad elephant has left the garden. Beware of those mad elephants! The Krishna conscious "mad elephant" is a little more subtle than the four-legged variety. He gradually reduces one's taste for chanting Hare Krishna and performing devotional service until there is no desire to serve Krishna or chant Hare Krishna at all. At the same time ones material desires increase and increase. It's just like the waning moon. Every day the moon is a little smaller until finally one day there is no moon at all. Beware of those mad elephants! And how to recognize these mad elephants and avoid them before it's to late? It's not very difficult if one knows what the mad elephants are. There are ten varieties of mad elephant who are all equally devastating to one's devotional creeper. Beware of those mad elephants! The first mad elephant is to blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives to preaching the glories of the Holy Names. Now many sinful men have taken shelter of this "mad elephant" by claiming to be "devotees dedicated to preaching the Holy Names" however, at the same time, we have seen many are not even interested in following the instructions of their spiritual master! Bring in the mad elephants! The second mad elephant is to consider the names of demigods like Lord Siva or Lord Brahma to be equal to or independent of the name of Lord Visnu. We find many of our Indian friends under the impression that there are "many Gods" and worshipping any one of them brings the same result. However this is a mad elephant. Only Visnu is the Supreme Lord and of all the Visnu forms Krishna is the summit. Watch out for those mad elephants! The third mad elephant is to disobey the orders of the spiritual master. As one can only make advancement in spiritual life by pleasing the spiritual master, to disobey his orders is certainly suicidal. However, many devotees of Kali-yuga seem to think they can disobey almost all the orders of their spiritual master and still claim to be members of the organization he established! Bring in the mad elephants! Let them crush the disciples of Kali-yuga! The forth mad elephant is to blaspheme Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version. Now some editors consider their version of the Vedas is far better than the version they find in the books of the worlds greatest exponent of Krishna consciousness, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. They are so bold as to change the words in the books of their spiritual master, books he personally read daily and gave classes from daily. The editors know very well Srila Prabhupada clearly instructed: "They can not change a word! The next printing should be the original way!" But they do not care for Srila Prabhupada's instructions! Bring in those mad elephants! Let them crush anyone who dares change the words in the books read daily and completely approved of by Srila Prabhupada! Let them destroy those who want to destroy the books which are already proven to be 100% transcendental and potent and which have convinced so many of us to give up the materialistic way of life and surrender to Srila Prabhupada! Let the mad elephants crush any demon who wants to change Srila Prabhupada's books. Bring on the mad elephants! The fifth mad elephant is to give some interpretation on the Holy Name of the Lord Srila Prabhupada's books direct that one must FOLLOW the regulative principles, however, the BBT editors have adjusted everything for us and now their books say we should simply TRY TO FOLLOW the principles! And they expect all their godbrothers to accept their "revised and enlarged version" of the philosophy! The mad elephants are getting madder! The sixth mad elephant is to consider the glories of chanting Hare Krishna as imagination. These days we have so little faith in the glories of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra that we are too lazy to even find the two or three hours a day necessary to chant sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra. Yet we do not consider ourselves fallen because we can't chant our rounds! No! We consider ourselves the most advanced devotees, beyond all the regulative principles. Unfortunately, for the most part, we can not find the twenty-six qualities of a devotee in our personalities, so how is it that we are such advanced devotees? One has to judge the tree by the fruit it produces. Bring on those mad elephants! Let them crush all the sahajiyas pretending to be devotees of Krishna and followers of Srila Prabhupada! The mad elephants are getting very angry. The seventh mad elephant is to commit sinful activities on the strength of the Holy Name. Srila Prabhupada created a society of devotees aspiring to become pure devotees by performing devotional service twenty-four hours a day. The main occupation was chanting Hare Krishna, dancing in ecstasy, distributing Srila Prabhupada's books, chanting Hare Krishna on the streets, preaching and distributing prasadam. Now it's a different story. Many temples have been transformed into something like any other religion with paid staff and a "church" with a Sunday "mass" attended by a bunch of materialistic "devotees." They make a show of chanting Hare Krishna and eat some "prasadam" offered to a "bona fide living ISKCON guru" INSTEAD of Srila Prabhupada. It's not the same thing at all! It is a mundane social event. Where are the pure devotees? Where are the blissful devotees? The few temple devotees left are mostly materialistic devotees, almost everyone interested in seriously following Srila Prabhupada has been driven out of ISKCON now. How will anyone advance beyond the platform of materialistic devotion if the temple devotees are materialistic? Bring out those mad elephants. Let them crush the materialistic temple devotees who have no aspiration to come to the platform of pure devotional service. They are simply using Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON as a convenient way to maintain themselves and their families. It's simply a mundane business. Bring in the mad elephants! It's better to have no temples than temples full of materialists! Bring in the mad elephants! The eighth mad elephant is to consider the chanting of Hare Krishna as one of the auspicious ritualistic activities offered in the Vedas as fruitive activity (karma-kanda). Of course there are those who are very attached to ostentatious religious ceremonies and are prepared to spend money for that. Even knowing such rituals are useless in Kali-yuga, many ISKCON temples perform them as a fundraising exercise. They neglect to let the participants know such rituals are useless in Kali-yuga as there are no qualified brahmins to perform them. Rather, they pose as "qualified brahmins" and demand large amounts of money for their mantra-chanting business. Instead of chanting Hare Krishna, dancing in ecstasy, reading from Bhagavad-gita and distributing some prasadam they bring in so many complicated mantras and elaborate rituals. Although they may be able to put on a nice show it is completely useless spiritually. Of course they make money! It's a good business! Bring in the mad elephants! Let us simply chant Hare Krishna in ecstasy, dance, hear Srila Prabhupada's books and respect Krishna prasadam once more. Drive out the smarta brahmins! [or convince them to dance and chant in the kirtana!] Watch out for those mad elephants! The ninth mad elephant is to instruct a faithless person about the glories of the Holy Name. Before spending time and energy preaching to someone we have to test to see if they have any faith in Krishna. But, in the West practically no one has even heard about Krishna! So what to do? We go to everyone and say: "Please Sir you take this book and chant Hare Krishna!" So we pray to Krishna to protect us from this mad elephant! Fortunately when they hear about Krishna many of the Westerners are very happy to hear about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That proves Krishna consciousness is actually universal. It is everyone's original consciousness. Simply we have to wake people up by giving them the chance to associate with devotees, read Srila Prabhupada's original books and hear the Hare Krishna mantra chanted by pure devotees (NOT materialistic devotees!) Where are those mad elephants! Watch out for the mad elephants! The tenth mad elephant is to not have complete faith in chanting the Holy Names and to maintain material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on this matter. It is quite wonderful that many of us still retain so many material desires after chanting Hare Krishna for so many years. We should know it well that if we still desire sense gratification, followers, fame, wealth, etc. we are not advanced devotees at all and we have a very, very long way to go yet. To attempt to become gurus and deliver others back home back to Godhead in this condition is not possible. That is for the pure devotees. The bound cannot free the bound. The rescuer must be liberated. If we attempt to liberate others while we are still conditioned souls ourselves we will become the greatest demons and will be sent to the worst type of hell with our foolish followers. Look out for the mad elephants!! I pray at the lotus feet of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and all his sincere servants to give me the mercy of the dust of your lotus feet life after life. Fortunately I have, so far, seemed to survive the attacks of the ferocious mad elephants and I pray for your mercy and for forgiveness for my unlimited offenses and request your blessings so I can avoid committing any more offenses in the future. I have a little attachment for chanting Hare Krishna, reading Srila Prabhupada's books and distributing them to the fallen conditioned souls. It is what I live for and it is the most enjoyable activity I have ever experienced. Please give me your blessings and forgive my offenses so that chanting Hare Krishna and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books are always the most enjoyable activities for me. Of course maya is very strong and she sometimes bewilders me. But even if I am in Maya I cannot forget Srila Prabhupada and his desire that his books be distributed to the people of the world, so I have to get out of Maya and get out on book distribution! There is no alternative really except rotting in the material world life after life and who wants to do that? If we are actually serious about pleasing Srila Prabhupada and saving the world then we have to go out on BOOK DISTRIBUTION!!! That is the most ecstatic activity and we will get so many realizations and become very happy in Krishna consciousness. "Gradually, we shall replace the literatures which are currently popular with our own style of transcendental literature. I have tried it: any page you open, that is wonderful reading matter. My ambition is to spread these books far and wide all over the world so that everyone shall read at least one of our books and that will change his life. If only 1% become devotees, that will change the world."(72-05-02 Letter: Karandhara) If we read Srila Prabhupada's ORIGINAL books and distribute them and at the same time follow the four regulative principles, chant at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, get up for Mangal-aroti, only eat Krishna prasadam, only talk about Krishna and always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna how can we go wrong? If chanting Hare Krishna is not the most wonderful thing, the greatest pleasure in our lives, we have gone seriously wrong and we must know we are victims of some of these mad elephants. We are in a diseased condition and we must try to cure the disease before it is too late! Please give me your blessings and forgive all my offenses. We are all susceptible to the mad elephants, even Temple Presidents, even GBC's, even gurus, and even you and me! The safest way is to spend all our time and energy chanting Hare Krishna, reading Srila Prabhupada's books and distributing them to the conditioned souls. In that way we will have no time to commit offenses and the mad elephants will leave us alone. We will find chanting Hare Krishna to be very blissful indeed and never even dream of breaking the regulative principals. Watch out for the MAD ELEPHANTS! "Now when we are selling [Srila Prabhupada's] books, that is Krishna Consciousness, we are selling books. But if you think that this selling books may be diverted into selling jewelry, that is not a very good idea. That is not a very good idea. Then you become again jeweler. Purna musika bhava. Again you become mouse. "We should be very much careful. Our Krishna consciousness cannot be diverted, then you are gone to hell. Even there is danger, even there is suffering in Krishna consciousness, we should tolerate, that is the instruction. We should welcome that danger... This is the position. So why should we be afraid of danger? "We should simply depend on Krsna consciousness, because if we live Krsna conscious, in any circumstances, then my benefit is that I am not coming again in this material world. Apunar bhava-darsanam. The repeatedly, as you think of Krsna, as you see Krsna, as you read of Krsna, as you work for Krsna, some way or other, if you remain in Krsna consciousness, that is your benefit. And that benefit will save you from taking birth again in the material world. That is real benefit. "And if I am become little comfortable by so-called other engagement [other than book distribution], and if I forget Krsna, and I have to take birth again, then what is my benefit? We should be very much careful about this." (700417SB.LA) Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! Your servant Madhudvisa dasa About the Author | Other Stories by this Author Comment on this story | Contact VNN about this story | Send this story to a friend
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