asa[e] ISKCON, three levels.
Dear Guru Maharaja, Hare Krsna!
Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I watched more than a few of your talks in Houston. Not all, as there were many of them, and were not listed by name. So between all the other lectures by different devotees, I tried to find yours and listen. Thank you and all the devotees who made the lectures available online.
If you allow, I would like to comment and ask about what you wrote here:
https://monkeywarrior.com/detail/14793/
Somebody said: “Thank you so much for mentioning the three levels of Iskcon, I'm interested to know about that!😃
You answered: HpS/ASA - Look for "Gopis Attracted by the Sound of the Flute" chapter title in the KRSNA book. Tell us what you find there.
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I read the chapter.
My observations follow…
Different gopis talk about Krsna and Balarama and Their connection to different personalities (cows, peacocks, birds(sages), clouds, Giriraja, deer, Yamuna, etc.). Each gopi shares something about Krsna.
There are aborigine women in Vraja. It looks (from my memory of hearing elsewhere) like they are not from Krsna’s village. Interesting is that one meaning of aborigine is original inhabitants.
Gopis talk about Krsna and what they remember, i.e. they had a direct experience of Krsna as seeing Him. In other words, they did not need to hear and then talk about what they heard but experienced Him face to face.
Whoever heard the sound of Krsna’s flute was captivated. The flute’s sound extended to all corners of the universe. Does it mean that around 5000 years ago, everybody present in the world heard the flute? If yes, why in another sentence is said that sages took the form of birds in Vrindavana to be able to hear the flute?
HpS - What, agtSP, comes to our mind is that we are always existing in Bhur Bhuvah and Svar. It is like being in the movie theater. We have our immediate sensual environment, but it is limited to what we are seeing and hearing on the screen. We are not conscious of who is sitting next to us.
So, the sound of Krsna's flute is really available to everyone at all three levels, but some are absorbed in the Bhumandala so they need to focus, take birth, in hearing it there.
Calve’s mouth got stuck to the cow's nipples and could not suck milk and tears were coming from their eyes. They knew how to embrace Krsna heart to heart!
Please, could you share the three levels of ISKCON and how they connect to this beautiful and magical chapter?
HpS/ASA - I think I answered this in another letter, but cannot find it. So, this time I am tagging it Category B.
1st level is that the Gopis are good citizens of Nanda Maharaja's village. They milk cows, bargain over the price of their milk products, pay their taxes, voice their opinions about the management etc.
Of course, this is all done with service attitude.
So, we should all have the same relationship to ISKCON as an institution and of course at this level management structure, GBC, is prominent.
We should do our jobs and expect the GBC to do theirs.
2nd level of ISKCON is that it is a group of friends. Gopis heard the sound of Krsna's flute, and externally continued with their institutional, household activities, but began to start having confidential words about the situation, sound of the flute... with their friends.
So, we may have a very close friend who is GBC, Sannyasi, PhD etc but we are Temple cleaners. We act with each other in our Institutional perspective but have confidential relationship.
3rd Level is that each one remembered her direct experience of her relationship with KRSNA. Eg. "Oh, Krsna, composed that song to make me laugh when we were alone last night as arranged by Srimati Radha making garlands for next Surya puja."
When she remembers that she cannot even be completely coherent in your friendly relations, level two.
So, we all have to have a direct, personal relationship with Srila Prabhupada. It may be through so many media, such as his books, other devotees, within our heart, but it is there. It informs us about how to execute levels one and two.
I remember that I had read KRSNA book for one year. Then came to Temple and maybe visited for another year, and then moved in.
At one point I was walking to my outside work up a hill trying to sort out all the chaos of living in the Temple etc.
Then I had this realization that it did not matter if everyone else was crazy, I was going to serve Srila Prabhupada, and I knew enough about what he exactly wanted me to do.
He wanted me to chant 16-good rounds.
He wanted me to make my best contribution to his Sankirtan.
He wanted me to support his institution, make compensations for shortcomings of my superiors etc.
I felt that Prabhupada was aware of my determination and accepted it.
Stopping to meditate on Srila Prabhupada's murti, picture, stimulates this perspective. It also makes me humble in appreciating the superior connection that other disciples have with my Guru and how he is happy when I take advantage of that to approach him.
O.K.?
Thank you very much!
Your servant Namacarya Das