Inner Meaning

“Just before Srila Prabhupada arrived in London, I had received a letter from him in which he said, ‘I am so proud of having beautiful disciples like you who understand the inner meaning of my mission.’ I was struck by the phrase ‘inner meaning’ and had thought about the significance of finding the inner meaning of things ever since. I realized that while regulations were essential for progress in spiritual life, I had to remember that pleasing Krsna and the spiritual master was not a simple matter of following rules. On the contrary, in special circumstances it was the right thing to violate custom for higher purpose – to wake the spiritual master from his sleep to meet an important guest, or not to bow down in order to preserve an expensive suit. Some years later I even heard that one devotee had complained that he wouldn’t be able to open a temple in a communist country because there was no vegetarian food to eat. Prabhupada’s response was, ‘Then eat meat, but spread Krsna consciousness like anything.’”

“The art of being ‘tuned-in’ to the spiritual master preoccupied my thoughts all evening. My conclusion that night was that it takes time to learn to love someone and even more time to know what they want most.”

[Mukunda Goswami, Miracle on Second Avenue, Chapter 32, page 379]


Views: 453 • February 26, 2011 Memories, Quotes, Reflections, Srila Prabhupada