Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

Similarly, in an ISKCON temple, a devotee may see the Deity smoking more thanusual. That insight need not become subjected to debate over whether it is"only mental" or "purely spiritual" -- as long as the devotee goes on servingthe Deity under the spiritual master's instructions.But, if the insight or vision is used to justify unspiritual sentiments and toinflate pride, resulting in a disturbance to or an interruption of puredevotional service, then the veracity of the insight or vision should bequestioned. Prabhupada once a little sarcastically referred to an Indian womanwho told him that "Krsna snatched my cloth" -- i.e. Krsna stole her clothes, asHe stole away the clothes of the gopi viros bathing in the Yamuna. This isapasiddhanta (a wrong conclusion). Krsna is saccidananda vigraha, and so are Hisnitya-siddha devotees, the gopis. Krsna is transcendentally eager to see thepure forms of the gopis because these forms are forms of spiritual bliss. Whythen should the Lord come to the material world to snatch the cloth away from abody made of flesh, blood and bone, which is temporary, ignorant and full ofsuffering?This is the perverted, imaginary Visnu-worship of the sahajiyas that SrilaBhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati warned of. Sahajiyas provoke "mystical" visions byagitating their minds to the point of madness, by drugs, by Tantric meditationalmethods, and so on. Then they advertise these visions in speeches, songs andwritings to draw attention to themselves as being highly advanced, and to wardoff any doubts about their own fallen behavior ("No, even if Babaji eats fish,still he sees Krsna's rasa-lila every night").But this is not service to Krsna. Therefore such claims of visionaryexperiences of Krsna should not be considered.If one advertises his insight of the Deity, he immediately brings doubt uponhimself in the assembly of pure devotees. Truly advanced devotees are graveabout such insights. When Madhavendra Puri realized that the Ksirachora-Gopinatha Deity had stolen a pot of condensed milk for him to taste, heimmediately made plans to quietly leave the place, knowing that this event wouldbring so much attention upon himself. A humble Vaisnava does not like hisdevotional service to be distracted by sensationalism. And a cheap pseudodevoteeperforms his imitation devotional service only to revel in such selfcenteredsensationalism.MAHARAJA HUHUQuestion from Bhagavat Dharma dasJanuary 14, 1995While reading in the SB 8.4.4-5, I became puzzled about Maharaja Huhu's futurelife. In the purport to text 4, Prabhupada writes:Because king Huhu was cursed by Devala rsi, he became a Crocodile and in onlyone life he was fotunate enough to see the SPG face to face and be promoted tothe spiritual world. In verse 5 it is mentioned that M. Huhu went toGandarvaloka. No purport. How is this seeming controversy to be understood?Answer by Suhotra SwamiJanuary 15, 1995In the introduction to Chapter Four of Canto 8, Srila Prabhupada writes asfollows."There was a king on the Gandharva planet whose name was Huhu. Once this KingHuhu was enjoying with women in the water, and while enjoying he pulled the leg