ISKCON GEV promoting Krsna as personal secretary

ISKCON GEV promoting Krsna as personal secretary

Hare Krsna. Millions of glories and obeisances to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and all Vaisnavas. The poster above tries to say that Krsna is our personal secretary. Is that really so? Is Krsna under the control of anybody? The quotes below clarify the position of those who believe that Krsna is an order supplier and such an offensive attitude must be immediately given up.

IS KRSNA AN ORDER SUPPLIER

Rāmeśvara: He’s asking whether we claim that God speaks to us directly.

Prabhupāda: Yes, God speaks to you when you are qualified. You cannot expect God as order supplier. When he sees that you are qualified, he will speak to you. [Interview with Newsday Newspaper — July 14, 1976, New York]

In the Bhagwat Geeta (B.G. 1/21-26) Arjuna ordered the infallible Lord Sri Krishna to place his chariot between the phalanx of the soldiers. He asked Him to stay there till he had finished the observation on his enemies as to who and who are there to face the battle. When the Lord was so asked, the Lord at once did so just like an order carrier. And the Lord pointed out to him all important men on the opposite side saying, here is Bhisma, here is Drona and like that. The Lord being the Supreme of all living beings, He is never the order supplier or order carrier of anybody whoever may he be. But out of His causeless mercy and affection for His pure devotees, some time He carries out the order of the devotee like a waiting servant. By such execution of the order of a devotee the lord becomes pleased as much as the father is pleased to carry out the order of his small child. These are possible only out of pure transcendental love between the Lord and His devotees and Bhismadeva is quite aware of this fact. He, therefore, addressed the Lord as the Friend of Arjuna.

ahaṁ tv akāmas tvad-bhaktas
tvaṁ ca svāmy anapāśrayaḥ
nānyathehāvayor artho
rāja-sevakayor iva

SYNONYMS: aham—as far as I am concerned; tu—indeed; akāmaḥ—without material desire; tvat-bhaktaḥ—fully attached to You without motivation; tvam ca—Your Lordship also; svāmī—the real master; anapāśrayaḥ—without motivation (You do not become the master with motivation); na—not; anyathā—without being in such a relationship as master and servant; iha—here; āvayoḥ—our; arthaḥ—any motivation (the Lord is the pure master, and Prahlāda Mahārāja is the pure devotee with no materialistic motivation); rāja—of a king; sevakayoḥ—and the servitor; iva—like (just as a king exacts taxes for the benefit of the servant or the citizens pay taxes for the benefit of the king).

TRANSLATION
O my Lord, I am Your unmotivated servant, and You are my eternal master. There is no need of our being anything other than master and servant. You are naturally my master, and I am naturally Your servant. We have no other relationship. [Srimad Bhagavatam 1.9.35, 1964 Edition]

PURPORT: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’: (CC Madhya 20.108) every living being is eternally a servant of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (BG 5.29), bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: “I am the proprietor of all planets, and I am the supreme enjoyer.” This is the natural position of the Lord, and the natural position of the living being is to surrender unto Him (sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)). If this relationship continues, then real happiness exists eternally between the master and servant. Unfortunately, when this eternal relationship is disturbed, the living entity wants to become separately happy and thinks that the master is his order supplier. In this way there cannot be happiness. Nor should the master cater to the desires of the servant. If he does, he is not the real master. The real master commands, “You must do this,” and the real servant immediately obeys the order. Unless this relationship between the Supreme Lord and the subordinate living entity is established, there can be no real happiness. The living entity is āśraya, always subordinate, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is viṣaya, the supreme objective, the goal of life. Unfortunate persons trapped in this material world do not know this. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum: (SB 7.5.31) illusioned by the material energy, everyone in this material world is unaware that the only aim of life is to approach Lord Viṣṇu.

ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ
viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param
tasmāt parataraṁ devi
tadīyānāṁ samarcanam

In the Padma Purāṇa Lord Śiva explains to his wife, Parvatī, the goddess Durgā, that the highest goal of life is to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu, who can be satisfied only when His servant is satisfied. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore teaches, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). One must become a servant of the servant. Prahlāda Mahārāja also prayed to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that he might be engaged as the servant of the Lord’s servant. This is the prescribed method of devotional service. As soon as a devotee wants the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be his order supplier, the Lord immediately refuses to become the master of such a motivated devotee. In Bhagavad-gītā (BG 4.11) the Lord says, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. “As one surrenders unto Me, I reward him accordingly.” Materialistic persons are generally inclined to material profits. As long as one continues in such an adulterated position, he does not receive the benefit of returning home, back to Godhead.
[Srimad Bhagavatam 7.6.10, Verse, Synonyms,Translation and Purport]

Prabhupāda: “Now I’ve gone to church or mosque, I have gone to temple, finish. Now let me do whatever I like.” Then that is waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. That is simply waste of time. That is going on practically. He doesn’t want to see “How much progress I have made in the matter of loving God.” That he does not inquire. He takes God as order supplier. So “He’s supplying my order, that’s nice.” He’ll never learn to supply the order of God. Neither he will come any stage on that platform. The highest stage is to supply the order of God, not make God my order supplier. That is neophyte stage. You have to purify your senses and you have to wait for the time when God will be pleased to reveal Himself before you. [Evening Darsana — August 9, 1976, Tehran]

That is the process. You cannot challenge. “Oh my dear God, my dear Kṛṣṇa, please come. I shall see you.” No, God is not your order supplier, your servant. So when He’ll be pleased, you’ll see.
[Lecture on BG 6.6-12 — Los Angeles, February 15, 1969]

To know, to believe in God, to accept God, that is all right. It is better than the atheist. But that is not end. You must develop yourself. You must… You should not simply make God as your order-supplier, but you should be order-supplier. When I become order-supplier to God, that is my perfection. And so long I keep God as my order-supplier, that is not bhakti. Generally, people keep God as his order-supplier. [Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.137-142 — New York, November 29, 1966]

Just like a small child, he is supplied all necessities by the father, but when the child is grown, he wants to serve the father, similarly, to make God as order-supplier, “O God, give us this. Give us that…” God is giving. You ask or not ask, He will give you because, after all, you are all children. So He takes care of His children. But you may say that “Why the childrens are differently treated? Somebody is supplied sumptuously, and somebody is not. Why this difference of treatment?” That difference of treatment is also for good. How? Just like a mother has got five children. One of them is suffering from fever, is ill. Now, very nice foodstuff is prepared. All the children come, and mother is supplying. And when the feverish child comes, “Oh, you don’t sit here. You cannot take.” “Why?” “Oh, you are diseased. You cannot take.” Do you think that mother is partial to this child and that child? No. [Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.294-298 — New York, December 19, 1966]

That’s all. This is the process of seeing God. (laughs) Otherwise, God is not my order supplier, “Please come and see.” You have to qualify yourself how to see God every moment, everywhere. And this qualification is simple. That’s not very difficult. [Lecture on BG 6.30-34 — Los Angeles, February 19, 1969]

When you surrender, and by that surrendering process, when you are free from the resultant action of sinful activities, then you can appreciate God, not that God is my order-supplier: “Please come. I will see You.” No. [Lecture on BG 7.1 — Auckland, April 15, 1972]

I have got information from one of my Godbrothers. He is German. He told me that during wartime many Germans, they went to war, and their wives, sister, all woman class, they went to church and prayed for the return of their husband, brother or son. But they did not return, and all of them became atheists: “Oh, there is no God. There is no God.” Sometimes it happens like that, that “We want God as my order-supplier. If He does not supply the order, then He becomes no God. There is no God.” That is the defect of this kind of prayer. [Lecture on BG 7.15-18 — New York, October 9, 1966]

Prabhupāda: God is not your order-supplier. You create war and pray to the church. Why you create war? Precaution is better than… Unless you Kṛṣṇa conscious, then you will… Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). You will encroach upon other’s property. That pāpa-bīja has to be killed. Now, after creating war… What is the use? After creating war by your own fault, if you go to the church and pray God, “Please save me,” so who wanted you to create this war? They are creating their wars, and they are making God as order-supplier: “Now I have created war. Please stop it.” Why? Did you do it by the sanction of God? So they must suffer. How can you make God as your order-supplier? You create something by your own fault and you ask God to come and save you. [Room Conversation — April 6, 1971, Bombay]

After all, Krishna is the ultimate Person. We are just trying to serve Him. Your conviction that we have to supply the demands of Krishna and not to demand anything from Him is the pure devotional philosophy. The followers of Lord Caitanya never makes Krishna the Order supplier but the devotees become the order supplier of Krishna. Krishna wants that all His bewildered sons may be turned towards Him and therefore the more we are able to turn devotees of Krishna the more our service is recognized. [Letter to Kirtanananda — New York 13 April, 1967]

Your service attitude encourages me because Krishna can never be an order supplier. We should always remember that Krishna is the only order giver. His order is received through the agency of the spiritual master. The bona fide spiritual master is the manifest representative of Krishna. The spiritual master is described in the scriptures as good as Krishna because he is the most confidential servitor of Krishna. To please the spiritual master is to please Krishna. On this principle we must advance our Krishna Consciousness and there is no danger. [Letter to Nandarani, Krsna Devi, Subala, Uddhava — Delhi 3 October, 1967]

Nalinīkaṇṭha: naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labdhātvāt-prasādān mayācyutasthito ‘smi gata-sandehaḥkariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73)

Prabhupāda: Tava. Sthito ‘smi gata-sandehaḥ: “Now I am situated in the real position, without any doubt.” What is that position? Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava: “I shall carry out your order. I’ll not ask you to become my order-supplier, but I shall carry out your order.” And this is perfection of Gītā knowledge. [Garden Conversation — June 9, 1976, Los Angeles]