My dear devotees, first my dearest reverences to my spiritual masters and also to Srila Harijan Swami. I also want to offer my reverences to Srila Atulananda Acarya who always is connected and blessing our efforts. A special greeting to all the devotee artists, members of the School of Conscious Art. They have a great responsibility. Before Krishna, all servants have the same value and depend of the heart of the servant. However, the artists as preachers, when they grave their preaching, have the advantage that what they made once, will continue to sound in many places afterwards. And to tell you nowadays the message that is sung, reach people easier; people who are not used to read books, neither to endeavour to grow spiritually.

Of course, it is my dream to teach people well in Krishna consciousness, because education is what forms our consciousness, and at the moment of death, it is the only thing we will carry with us. Because material education we forget the same, but the maturity that we acquire when we study Vaisnavism, is our nourishment for the way to eternity.

Here from Vrindavan I can report that yesterday came a spiritual brother, who collects to improve in Vridnavan, with the surprise that he had a man who wanted to donate 5000 dollars for the restoration of Brahmakunda. I took him to the executive minister of Vrindavan to connect him with Vrindavan Ecocity, and it seems that very soon they will start with the repairing of the sacred Brahmakunda, which was my desire since long time. For the rest, we had some calm days here with grand news to establish the House of Wisdom here in Vrindavan.

Here I am surrounded by sannyasis and that makes me very happy. Vrinda Kunja is more and more beautiful each time. We can also notice the restoration of some old temples here. Suddenly people get aware of the valuable thing they have. Of course, if someone today would like to get a temple like Vrinda Kunja, it would be worth a fortune, and equally, there is a lot of interest.

But what makes me happier is that we are making something so nice in Varsana, it is like an old dream that has become alive in my life. A great mercy of Their Lordship Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Vajesvara who make me part of building a new temple together with you, a yoga planetarium for our Istadev. Combined with the other idea to make Varsana what it always was - a centre for leaders in Krishna Consciousness.

We are also very thankful to the devotees of Peru for having made the yoga planetarium there, because with this example we can see that we can make a temple and we should. Really, I do not like big temples very much, but something like the yoga planetarium is not so big - it is simply too beautiful and capture much attention from people. And let's hope it makes many devotees, and that they carry Krishna in their hearts. And of course to make a second yoga planetarium is easier than the first one.

Anyway, the landscape is so different and the material as well, and it should have its own originality. It is a completely new experience and the devotees from other cities can also get inspired. When I think that I Ecachakra, I can only think of something extraordinary. A spiritual community is a great gift to the world, but in the end everything depends on the head of the spiritual master and his genuine representatives. In Kali yuga the tendency of the organizations is that they do not work very well. There is too much poor interests in this terrible world. In the same way I have the hope that some of these tirthas, like Varsana, will be visited by all devotees in the future, and also and that all devotees will be respected there.

Sannyasis or other leaders of the preaching, have to start new projects after the departure of their guru. Not that they reclaim to be the proprietors of something that was built between them and many of their spiritual brothers. Because the danger is that when they begin to have a number of disciples that accept everything they say, they can consider their spiritual brothers, who often expose their own opinions, and they can argue them as less desirable in the project, and therefore try to replace them with their own disciples.

Srila B. Raksaka Sridhar M already pointed out this problem. In fact, it does not matter who is the spiritual master of a project. The most important is that he is pure in his purpose. And pure are those who are brave, empowered and renounced, and tender with everyone. Next year we will celebrate 20 years in the Vrinda family. 20 years since the liberation from the confinement to the institutions. A situation where the process, descending from the mercy, had been substituted by the calculated and restricted process by the bureaucracy, managed by devotees who were not capable to respond to the local responsibilities. It was Krishna's mercy that Srila Harijan M and I could follow our ideals, even though this meant, in certain form, a new start, and a period of incomprehension from many spiritual brothers. It was not easy, no doubt about that. But I recommend anyone to do the same, if you feel that you cannot do a good service to your spiritual master, that you cannot represent your Gurudeva, and not advance spiritually in the environment that is created. Of course, one always want to maintain what the spiritual master created, but in the end, Krishna has many plans, and Krishna knows very well how to use the resources of His devotees.

The first criterion for a disciple is that the essence of what his Gurudeva gave him, continuously is preserved for people who come as new souls, and to guarantee this, in each temple, or rather in each project, there should be a great enthusiasm for their leader. There enters the sukriti, Mercy. In the marriage there is enthusiasm, but only after one becomes aware of to whom he is married. Of course, one could study the behaviour and much more in a leader, but if there is no enthusiasm for him, he cannot accomplish the task to lead a spiritual community. Such is life.

And imagine, as the answer of our prayers, we had the mercy to meet Srila Prabhupada, and after praying again, we received Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaj. So for sure, this mercy exists. So prepare for the rest of your life, to serve a Vaisnava full of confidence and help him to maintain the tirthas of the Spiritual Master. Trust that Krishna will always protect you. Reject always what is not favourable for your spiritual advance and fight for purity, without hurting anyone. And do not get attached to the bricks, even though we build temples. When the form and the essence distinguish, always keep to the essence and not to the form. Of course, the first attempt is always to connect the form with the essence. You know, Srila Prabhupada taught us to live as if each moment were the last, and therefore I tell you these things that are not of great importance now, but in some moment in your life it can give you information and principal orientation. Because, at the moment of leaving this world, the only important is to have the mind absorbed in the substance, and not think of the problems that others have, fights for control of bricks or something like that.

Once when the disciples of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur were fighting for the use of a property, Srila Prabhupada said: it is better to take out the marble, sell it and print books to distribute. Besides this, since Krishna is the supreme controller, He will always bless His sincere devotees with the necessary resources so that they can expand Krishna consciousness and make others happy. And as you know, Lord Vishnu is married to the Goddess of Fortune and does not have problems with resources. This is the experience I have had infinite times in this short life. The purity is the essence, and goodness and truthfulness is the fundament in a Brahmana.

But specially what refers to the intercourse with other Vaisnavas, be sure of that the goodness and truthfulness have to be the criterion to make us enthusiastic, but to free you from any doubts, I will tell you a little story:

When Srila Prabhupada was in Montreal, in the beginning of the movement, there was a newly opened temple, and although there were more than 20 devotees, they didn't have one dollar. The leader despaired so much that he called all the devotees and said: "Go out on the street, and do not come back until each one of you has got 5 dollars!" Afterwards he was worried and went to Srila Prabhupada and told him what he had done. Srila Prabhupada congratulated him!

Without pushing the devotees, sometimes of pure goodness, they don't even want to move. LIE! This is not goodness. This is tamaguna, laziness, passivity, and lethargy. The first thing a devotee asks is: "What has to be done here for the things to go better? Where do they need me? Count on me! I came here to help you to solve the problems", etc, etc. Srila Prabhupada loved us very much, and he continues to love all. He loved us so much that he didn't wan us to rest in some laziness. Neither did he want us to gratify with the results of our efforts, that is to rest in the victories of the past, whatever it is. Therefore Srila Prabhupada said: "Improve the service. Duplicate the result."

A spiritual master wants to take his disciples to the service of Srimati Radharani, and she is demanding, because she only wants the best for Krishna. It is not acceptable to offer something mediocre, in the same way as you would not take your children to someone mediocre to take care of them. You would worry that the mediocrity of those persons could incommode your children, your dear ones. You have to understand this principal, because it is a natural symptom of love. It is not a discrimination against anyone. And Srila Prabhupada gave the best example. He never failed until his last moment on this planet. He is the general, whom we are trying to follow.

Sometimes in my travels and rhythm, I cannot follow an exemplary sadhana, and this makes me sometimes feel afflicted, especially when I see that in some temples it is not very good either. I refer to the sadhana of getting up, go to harinam and assist the classes, etc. But to accomplish with the itineraries and daily programs, one of the dilemmas is that one cannot find time for oneself. But all of you should know that getting up early is necessary for spiritual life, and if one does not go the classes for many days, a speculation is soon coming up in the head. Help me therefore to take care of the sadhana in the temples. And do not eat heavy food in the night, that makes you incapable to get up early in the morning.

I know in the case of some grihastas, that they find it very difficult to maintain everything strictly. But do not discourage in the fight, and support the preachers and Brahmacaris in the temple who carry the banner of the sadhana bhakti high. And be humble. Because the worst that could happen is to be lazy and proud. Well, one must not be strict and proud either, because pride comes definitely before the fall. But lazy and proud, who will rise you after that?

I know that our family has more and more souls to take care of each day. And as I wish that each one of you reached maximum perfection, I hope that a lot of preaching will go out when they are coming to us, esvery day, more and more. And this will definitely require that many of you become pure devotees. I have full faith in the Holy Name of Krishna that this is possible.And more, I see the spiritual purity in so many of you, this beautiful fight for Sri Guru and Gauranga.

Of course, which ones among you who will be the natural and powerful leaders of the future in our sampradaya, this Krishna has to reveal. Nobody could imagine that this Abhay Caran would become the foremost preacher in the history of Vaisnavism. Srila B. Thakur saved Vaisnavism in his epoch; he raised it from a position where the Vaisnavas in some parts even had a bad image. Imagine, our mission has had to face many circumstances of bad image, left by Iskcon in the world. In other words, the integrity and the sacrifice of each preacher once and again, have to be transparent. It has to be a great inspiration. It has to make growing the refuge for the needing souls.

Nobody knew Krishna when Srila Prabhupada went to the West. And the amount of sectarianism that exists among the conditioned souls is amazing. Imagine, even in this century exist people who are called Vaisnavas, and think and preach that it is only their members who are saved. Like Middle age Catholicism. WVA is preaching against this. But in a certain form by inexplicable fears, or at least not transcendental fears, there are persons who are refractory to participate in the World Vaisnava Association. Not persons, it exists entire missions, and they do not realize that in the eyes of the world, this is quite ridiculous. Of course, if someone so called 'religious' or a 'Vaisnava', does not practice the principles of the religion, and exploiting abuse people, it is quite reasonable to be convinced that he does not achieve any success with this mentality. On the other hand, the inscription in the movement of the union of the religions, says: "Everyone who searches for the truth and does not harm anyone, is on the right way".

How can we think that a person, who has never heard of Lord Caitanya in this life, cannot receive the mercy of the paramatma who is the internal Master of each one? There are also some people even more fanatic who thinks that only their guru can save people, or there are others who think that their particular interpretation of Vaisnava mysticism has more importance than the mercy and the power of the holy name of Krishna. With other words, there exists a certain variety of disguised sectarianism that one has to recognize, the human sectarian weakness. It is one of many too common conditions on earth. What to say then about Kali yuga, where we see too much of persecuting and killing people in the name of some belief in this world.

I was very encouraged - especially with the participation of Srila B. Pramode Puri Maharaj - to revive Visva Vaisnava Raj Saba and its universal concept. I will continue to try to do it, because for the future and the position of Vaisnavism in the world, this forum of VVRJ is of great importance for Vaisnavism to gain credibility. In fact, this service is already accomplishing, because on the Internet it is very well represented, and it exists not one association of Vaisnavas in the world, that has rejected it in public or that has said no to be contacted among its members; what rather has been missing is the real participation. But you know that I even have to convince my own disciples to participate in the istagostis. All the same, I continue trying.

Personally, the childish sectarianism makes me a bit sad, and when devotees use the elevated philosophy to "justify" their sectarian mentality, or justify why they want to take devotees from another mission, minimizing the importance of the spiritual masters in the eyes of their disciples, it makes me remember what Srila Prabhupada taught us when he chocked us with the declaration: There are people who enter the Vaisnava movements who are not Vaisnava at all, but who are devotees of Kali, and they are very attached to power and money. Srila Prabhupada said this to a group of GBCs and senior devotees in Mayapur, telling them: "Among you there are people disguised as devotees, but who are not".

Now, do not make the mistake to think that this happened in the days of Srila Prabhupada, but not today. Particularly when there is something quite nice, demons will not be missing, disguised to find out what they can take. In South America we quite have a common experience that someone, presented as a devotee, ended up with robbing a temple. But the worst ones do not get away so easily; they stay until they get a position of power and from there they destroy something. Of course, when a humble devotee hears this description, he feels, "Huuuy, what a shame, they talk about me", whilst the rascal who hears it, thinks: "That's is good, with that I make politics with the good ones and scare them away from the service. Fortunately, though, Krishna is the Supreme Controller.

I hope that nobody was dismayed with this chat today. But there exist realities in life, which we have to face. When people come to notice that the Vaisnavas lead such a nice life, they will come straight, but their fatal mentality has not overcome. Now everything depends on the mercy of the devotee if they can be saved. Because of this, the istagostis are so important. There one has to see that each and everyone in the community is happy, and nobody has the right to make others sad. Everyone has the right to always be happily situated in the family of the Spiritual Master And when they are contributors and not parasites, there is space for all; in Krishna consciousness, nobody is superfluous - there are only missing more sincere devotees.

Back to sectarianism... What makes a Spiritual Master powerful and effective, in that case, is the power of Krishna. It is the power of the essence that he uses as His transparent medium, and only Krishna knows who will use it. Those who dare to search a Spiritual Master, should consider that any mistake that they make in this respect, can be fatal; because a vaisnava aparadha is fatal in spiritual life, so what to say about a devotee who has dedicated to the preaching of the Lord, this is the nama aparadha number one, and if someone commit it, he ruins the power of his own chanting of the holy names.

Nobody knows the plans of Krishna, and nobody can understand the acts of a pure devotee. Therefore, the WVA promote a great tolerance, a very open mind, and also a possibility that someone regret some mistake of his past. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur condemned many of the irregular practices in groups that at that time reclaimed to be the only representatives of Mahaprabhu, there was quite a lot of opposition against him. And even today one can perceive this opposition between various descendents from these groups.

But Srila Prabhupada with his revolutionary methodology, he redeemed this good image of the various Vaisnavas and managed through his disciples to carry Vaisnavism to each corner on the earth, and his work goes on in complete expansion. And more, many of the critical groups have revived, thanks to the remnants that came to them through the preaching of that great preacher. But maybe in some moment they could recognize their mistake and wish to consider that Lord Caitanya is not limited, neither obliged to act in a predestined way.

Other Vaisnavas from other sampradayas that are much older are moving between astonishment, admiration, incomprehension and certain envy; of course ther is everything, also nice things. Nimbarka sampradaya invited the representatives of WVA to their congress this year and the Ramanuya sampradaya united to our campaign against irreligiosity in the North American movies. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is becoming more famous, and in South America and South India, there are already dramas of the Gaura lila, giving recognition to Mahaprabhu as an avatar. Only in India one can see Rama lila drama, Krishna lila drama and now Goura lila drama.

The Vaisnava theism also is confronted with the great amount of persons who practice Yoga and other Vedic practices, but who do not believe that the Lord exists as an individual being. Even with this, we have to fight to overcome sectarianism. And at least the members of my family should make to sense this when they meet with Vaisnavas from other missions, let grow the faith of the others and strengthen their own faith. Those who instead weaken others' faith in their spiritual master, without any superior transcendental order, will come to weaken their own faith, because all action carries a reaction, and Krishna Himself will take care of to illuminate all sincere souls on this way.

Srila Prabhupada wrote me a letter: "All my disciples have to become spiritual masters, but sadly they are not qualified yet. This was the generous vision that Srila Prabhupada had for the world. Personally, I feel very disqualified to be called a Vaisnava, but the mission that my Spiritual Master gave to me, stays beyond any doubt. And I do not see who would have come to care for the details that Srila Prabhupada gave to Srila Harijan Maharaj and myself to take care of.

One can understand the need of many Spiritual Masters, when seeing the needs in the world; seeing how many people a spiritual master can take care of. Those who say: "It is only my spiritual master who can save or who can deliver the purest prema", etc., they condemn to failure or spiritual death, an infinite quantity of people, inclusive a lot of people that chant Hare Krishna and belong to other missions. Besides being ridiculous, it does not reflect even a drop of compassion. How can they portrait God so stingy with His mercy? Of course, a leader should be qualified to the maximum, no doubt about that. But only Krishna has the final word about success or failure of other Vaisnavas.

I always feel fortunate to be a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, but for that reason I do not feel that the value my Gurudev has for me, would be superior to the value another Guru would have for his disciple. As a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, I like to glorify my Guru disproportionately; it is rather that one cannot glorify Srila Prabhupada disproportionate. His glory is too much elevated. But if I glorify him to the cost of or diminishing other Vaisnavas, this would not be a glorification of Srila Prabhupada, but rather an insult to him. Not even with my Spiritual Master I consider this tolerable, then what to say with others who have come later in his shadow?

Therefore sectarianism is really something abominable! And let's hope that we can get out of it and become very humble devotees. Obviously we put a check on persons who believe in sectarian ideas or who use them to disturb the missions of others. You can have a copy of this chat to give them. This can have the good effect that they leave us in peace or maybe even change attitude. In the end, one who believes in Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a saint for us.

In Berlin it was incumbent to me to tell the disciples of Srila Narayan Maharaja that they can come to our temples but they cannot make a campaign to bring our visitors; after that they didn't even come back. We have fought for 10 years to establish the WVA together with many other Vaisnavas, and we are going onwards, that we owe to our ideals and our compromises to our spiritual masters and the image of the Vaisnavas in the world; the image of the Vaisnavas in the world is of fundamental importance, in case that the Vaisnavas are attacked in some moment by some groups as has happened in Chile, Argentina, Poland, Russia, etc.

Vaisnavism is very strong when we are united. Each group themselves, each guru and their disciples, can easily be accused to belong to person cult, to be an invented sect, but a big group of different missions with many different masters who all believe in the same fundaments and practice the same principles, immediately transform our image into an image of a world religion with the same image of a world religion and with the same roots of the Vedas. Of course, when some Vaisnava or some group is attacked, and we come to support them, we would have a lot of force with this integrity, the force of the credibility. This credibility diminishes in the same extent as our internal fights can be noticed. As Vaisnavas we have a lot in common, and we should put our good energy on fighting together for these common causes, to form a united voice, and if there were really important discrepancies, they could be talked about between the great wise, and you would do it in private to see if one could convince the other, but please, leave the poor new recruits in peace from these ambitions and competing that is scarcely transcendental. Rather, we should dedicate our energy to maintain our temples and dhamas clean, that we care for the people of Kali yuga before an increasing irreligiosity, before communication media, the destruction from the drugs and the suicide from the depressions. In synopsis, these are the proposition from the World Vaisnava Association, to which undoubtedly all sincere Vaisnavas belong to, as was the vision of Srila Jiva Goswami.

How good that this topic appeared today, because I had not planned to talk about it; it must have been Krishna's plan that this came up. And it is nice to talk about topics that can open our horizon.

In Mayapur and Vrindavan, where there are many Vaisnava missions, one beside the other, they already learned this quite nicely. Of course, also here there are those who think that they are unique, but this creates in the group of open Vaisnavas, just a compassionate exclamation like: "Pity for them". Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Maharaja put much emphasis in his last years that "All Vaisnavas are equal". We chant the same mantra and we have the chance to receive the mercy.

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami