Суд над Бхагавад-гитой / Attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita

He Radhe-Shyama! Offering unto You my one and only
scentless soul is no better than the offense of offering a useless
flower. This lila, however, demonstrates to me that the little
flower’s external deficiency really had no direct bearing on the
actual status of her internal loving sentiments, but rather
indirectly served to enhance them. He Radhe-Shyama! Please in
the same way, despite everything, see something good in my
lowly self; pick me up and save me from the perilous forest path
of my own unbounded uselessness.

Many devoted souls were placed in lower-class, materially
degraded or uneducated, less sophisticated families by the will
of the Supreme Authority, just to give them a better chance to
more feelingly approach Your Lordship’s lotus feet with the
requisite humility and natural modesty which was most
lucklessly lacking in their previous life of liberal loftiness.
Moreover, it is clearly explained in Gaudiya Vaishnava literature
that great devotees of Lord Gauranga purposely appeared in
such degraded families or in impious lands specifically to
demonstrate that the evolvement of bhakti is in no way
dependent upon material conditions. Everything considered, the
culmination and conclusion of all learning and education is the
congregational chanting of the Holy Name.

I don’t think every college graduate is an ass. Some of my
best friends are college graduates. As for myself, I graduated
from the ISKCON School of Hard Knocks where I am presently
doing my postgraduate studies. Hare Krishna!

He Radhe-Shyama! Let those callous to the call for
discipular self-improvement complacently attach themselves to
retarded, self-centered, substandard, third-class sentimental
modes of spiritual progress; we can be persuaded to spiritually
advance only if we possess at least a preliminary aspiration for
self-realization.

He Radhe-Shyama! Let the holier-than-thou religio-
institutional corporate bureaucrats, endlessly clinging to their
conspicuously crude, consistently illiberal kanistha disposition,
sanctimoniously integrate their as-yet-unsubdued, ignoble fault-
finding proclivities on the plea of loyal managerial vigilance.
Shall not we overlook their own fault of resolute self-


aggrandizing censoriousness, as do they? Shall not we stoop so
low as to criticize the criticizers who opportunistically magnify
the foibles of others? Shall we at all dare to see any fault in
faulting the faultfinding of the faultfinders?

Are the pots not calling the kettles black? atma-van
manyate jagat – a thief thinks everyone to be desirous of
stealing his ill-gotten gains; a cheat sees the world to be full of
cheaters. Krishna often allows us to see others’ faults just to
remind us of the need to fine-tune our own approach to
devotional life. We would always do well to remember in this
connection that when we point our finger at the faults of others,
three fingers conversely indicate our own. This incontrovertibly
implies that even (if not especially) religiously ordained
administrators who see fit to occasionally employ corrective
measures with a view to bring about an individual’s or a
faction’s Krishna-conscious cultural conformity should crucially
consider it to be thrice their responsibility to address their own
shortcomings, their own misconceptions, and their own reform,
rather than be obsessed with the reformation of anyone else.
Any field of management certainly demands the responsible
assessment of the individuals involved – seeing any situation,
individual, or faction with one bad eye and one good eye. Care
ought to be exercized, however, so as to avoid any offense.
After all, bees always delight in finding honey-like good qualities
with a view to bring out the best in others.

Let the pugnacious, double-dealing congenital
equivocators openly paying lip service to a dramatically elegant,
generously accommodating “Krishna conscious” paradigm,
underhandedly militate against any other than their own
doctrinaire politically correct prejudications. We shall no longer
waste our days and nights dwelling on the wonderful workings
of the three modes of material nature. There is much more
important business at hand.

Dear Shri Shri Radhe-Shyama! Let the inadequately edified
thousands of those doggedly attached to their mere eligibility
for the rudimentary practices of vaidhi sadhana-bhakti with their
underdeveloped third-rate spiritual acumen and their
unfortunate want of adequate scriptural penetration


pertinatiously err to misrepresent the actual thrust of the
Gaudiya creed in their rather pontifical preachings. Let them
attempt in every way to systematically disparage or quell any
upsurge of expressed aspirations for raga-bhajana. Looking
askance, we shall politely ignore them.

If as a result of limitless transcendental book distribution,
even one obscure undeterred soul perfectly ascertains,
appreciates, and imbibes the superlative aspect of rupanuga
Vaisnavism, following the immaculate, spontaneous selfless
loving service moods (bhavollasa-rati) of Your most intimate
eternal associates in the supremely enchanting land of Vraja,
then, my dear Shri Shri Radhe-Shyama, please let us consider
the Hare Krishna movement to be somewhat forward.

My dear most loveworthy and merciful Radha-
Shyamasundara! May the broad-minded, forward-thinking souls
evermore respect these deliberations, which are replete with
profound concerns for advancing a more progressive culture of
antaranga-bhakti in the lives of Your seriously dedicated
sankirtana devotees. Please let those essence-seeking, deeply
introspective softhearted individuals who patiently and
sincerely read or hear these verbose utterances very soon
attain the highest transcendental happiness (paramananda) in
the spontaneous loving service of Your lotus feet according to
their innermost heart’s aspirations.