Blog Archives
‘TILAKA DEVOTEE’ vs. REAL DEVOTEE
Prabhupada: …..His nature is to become happy. He is happy, happy. Just like our natural position is we are healthy. Nature has made this body. But we create such situation that we become ill, sick. And at that time we see, “Oh, I am…” What is that? “I am infected. I have been contaminated.” Go to the doctor, injection. But the natural life is no disease.
Guru dasa: Yes.
Prabhupada: But you create a situation; therefore become diseased.
Guru dasa: Otherwise it wouldn’t be called “diseased,” because it would be normal to be sick. But disease means…
Prabhupada: Normal life means no sickness.
Guru dasa: Yes.
Prabhupada: And as soon as there is sickness, that means punishment. So if you want to be punished, then violate the hygienic laws. You can see that there is hospital and medical treatment and medicine — for whom?
Pusta Krsna: Sick people.
Prabhupada: No, for the human society. Not for the birds, beasts. But they follow nature’s law. But this rascal violates nature’s law and suffers.
Yadubara: What about for the devotees, Srila Prabhupada? Sometimes they are very sick, have so many…
Prabhupada: Devotees…. To become devotee is not so cheap thing. You don’t think that because you have got a tilaka you have become devotee. Why do you think like that?
Pusta Krsna: Jaya Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: That Bhaktivinoda Thakura, eita eka kalira chela, nake tilaka, galaya mala:(?) “Here is another follower of Kali. He has got tilaka and mala.” Sahaja bhajana kacen mamu, sanga laiya parera wala (?): “He is worshiping, bhajana, taking another’s wife.” Sahaja bhajana kacen mamu, sanga laiya parera wala, ei ta eka kalira chela: “Here is a servant of Kali. Simply he has changed his dress with tilaka and mala.” Bhaktivinoda Thakura says. If you take tilaka and mala and do all nonsense things, then you are not a devotee. You are Kali-chela. To become a devotee is not so easy thing.
Atreya Rsi: Devotee means perfect.
Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Certainly. Devotee means sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate [Bg. 14.26]. He is above these material laws. That is devotee. Brahma-bhuyaya kalpate. He is in the Brahman stage. That is devotee. If you take…. That means sahajiya. “Because I have got a tilaka and mala, I have become devotee.” This kind of cheating will not do.
Atreya Rsi: And in this modern age, this cheating is very prominent…
Prabhupada: No, no. Modern or old, anyone who is a conditioned soul, he has got cheating propensity, four defects. One of them is the cheating propensity.
Devotee Association 