Srila Prabhupada appearance day 2025 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | Italy | Aug 17 2025
Today is the appearance day of Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON. So, Srila Prabhupada was born on September 1st, 1896 in Calcutta. This is a photograph of his birthplace, which is quite a humble, small place. A few years ago, ISKCON Calcutta happened to purchase this place after many years of negotiations. This apparently is the tree under which Srila Prabhupada was born. So fortunately, Srila Prabhupada in his childhood was raised as a devotee, his father was a devotee of Radha and Krishna.
This was also a time at which the British were ruling India. So he was sent to a British school, and a British college. At that time also, there was an independence movement going on among the Indians to free themselves from the British. And it actually went on for many years and got more violent also. And India finally got independence in 1948 or something like that. So those were rather turbulent years when Srila Prabhupada was growing up.
But it’s exactly at that time that Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was also preaching. So in spite of all of the turmoil going on within India, still, Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was simply preaching. So when he was in his twenties, he was taken by a friend to meet Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. And of course, because Srila Prabhupada was a student, Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was rather interested in preaching to him. So he was interested in attracting young, intelligent people. And since Srila Prabhupada had gone to English school where they spoke English, he encouraged Prabhupada to preach to intelligent, English-speaking people.
So after this meeting, Srila Prabhupada was greatly influenced by Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s personality. But he was a student, but then he graduated, but he was also married. So therefore, he had to take a job to support his wife. So he could not dedicate too much time to helping Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. It was actually ten years after the first meeting that he took initiation from Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. This was in Allahabad. This is another city in another state. Srila Prabhupada had started a medical shop in that place. So because he was working and didn’t live in the temple, he could only see and meet Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur a few times. He did not have constant association with him like some of the Brahmacharis in the temple had association.
However, the few times that he did meet Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, he was inspired to follow this order to preach. But as I said, he was limited, because he was married and working and so many things, so he couldn’t do any full-time preaching. At a certain point, then his business failed. So he took that as a sign from Krishna. Krishna is taking everything away from me, so I can surrender more. He also had a dream in which Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur told him to take Sannyasa and leave his family. And therefore, finally, he did renounce and then he was struggling to survive in various places.
So Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur had disappeared in the 1930s. And all the centers that were started under Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur were run by his Sannyasi disciples. Srila Prabhupada tried to get support from these various Sannyasis, but they were not too enthusiastic to help him. So he was trying to fulfill this order to preach, so he began writing in English language. So he managed to write articles and then print ‘Back to Godhead’ magazine. So he got to do all the writing, and checking, and printing and also distributing. He also began a very ambitious project, that is translating Srimad Bhagavatam. And again, this was all done personally, everything he had to do. From 1950 onwards, Prabhupada lived in the Radha-Damodara temple in a small room. And if you go to Vrindavan today, you can see that very simple room. There was a place for sleeping, a place for writing and a little kitchen.
So he was doing all this, and he actually took Sannyasa a little bit later on in 1959 and published his first three volumes of Bhagavatam. And this was in this first canto in three volumes, it was these volumes which he took to America with him when he first went to America. So he lived in Vrindavan and was doing his work there, but he printed his books in Delhi, which is about 100 and something kilometers away. So when he was in Delhi, he lived in this room in Chippiwada, which is also purchased by ISKCON. So Prabhupada translated his three volumes of Bhagavatam, he was trying to meet influential people and preach to them. But he was not seeing too much effect. Of course, India also was having a lot of problems. It had just got independence from Britain, and then they were industrializing and doing so many changes in society. And also Western values and Western education was much more emphasized. So many people thought that religious life was very old-fashioned.
So Prabhupada was thinking how to preach, then he had another idea, let me try to go to America and preach there, they’re not listening in India, maybe they’ll listen in America. But he had no money. How to go to America? The economy of India was not very good at that time. So he made friends with the head of a shipping company, Srimati Morarji shipping company, and she offered him a free ticket on a boat. And so Prabhupada, he was 69 years old, I think, he boarded this ship called the Jaladutta to go to America. So I think he had to go through the Suez Canal, go through the Mediterranean Sea, over the Atlantic, and get to New York, that was the route. It wasn’t a passenger ship, it was a cargo ship. But those ships usually have a few guest rooms. So Prabhupada was quite old and he had to take this journey, which was quite long. And if you’re being on ships, you know that sometimes they go like this, and the storms like this, and you get sick and whatever. So they did have one big storm, but after that everything was very peaceful and they managed to get across the Atlantic Ocean. Nowadays it’s very easy to travel anywhere, you just get on an airplane and travel for 5, 6, 7, 8 hours or something, go half way around the world but there you’re going on for weeks and weeks and weeks on a ship like this, going up and down the waves.
So Prabhupada arrived in America, but he also had no money. I think he had 40 rupees or something, which is like 1 euro or something, maybe half a euro or something. And he had the address of one acquaintance, the son of an acquaintance from Mathura. So this was a very challenging preaching job. So Prabhupada wrote in his diary, ‘you’re kind to this useless soul, but I do not know why you brought me here. So do whatever you want with me. But you must have some business here. Otherwise why did you call me to this demonic place?’ So America at that time also was quite, quite, quite different. In general, no one knew anything about India. Other than that it was a very poor country. And it was full of yogis. But people really didn’t understand anything about India. So Prabhupada spent some time there doing this and that, and eventually he started a little movement. And one important thing that he did, he went to Tompkins Square Park in New York and he was doing kirtan, and then this got publicized in the newspapers. And he had this small centre in an old gift shop called Matchless Gifts, and he started meetings there. He attracted some young people. So the movement spread to San Francisco. You can also see this picture of Allen Ginsberg. He was famous Anti-everything, a covet. There was a thing called the beatnik generation, which came before the hippie generation.
So they started in various places and the movement began to grow. So actually they had a Rath Yatra like this, and you can see so many people came to it. So at that time, the devotees were very young. They were all in their 20s probably, early 20s and enthusiastically they would go out and preach, and then they would go off with no money to another city and start a centre there, start preaching there and in this way it expanded all over America and into Canada, and then it spread to England.
And in 1970, Prabhupada returned to India. Prabhupada had some plan to buy property in Mayapur, and in Bombay. So he began preaching in India. This is one program he held in Bombay in 1970. So when Prabhupada came back, of course when he left, because nobody was listening, when he came back, he came back with these American devotees, and then everybody would listen. So Prabhupada was preaching, and he was actually trying to establish temples in India. So one of the first projects was in Bombay. This was actually completed in 1978, after Prabhupada’s disappearance. That was the first huge ISKCON project. Most temples were established in the West, particularly in America, but they would just take buildings or churches and use that as a temple. So Prabhupada established a temple in Mumbai, then he established temples in Delhi, Hyderabad, Calcutta, and Mayapur.
So, after establishing these temples, then people became more attracted. So we find that now you have a festival like Janmashtami, and you get 200,000 people coming to the temple on one day. So Prabhupada, the first time he came back to India, actually the second time, but anyway, Prabhupada came back, and then he brought all these 400 devotees, mostly American, and travelled all over India. And in this way, he established temples in India, including Mayapur in 1972. At that time, everything was difficult. Just to buy a piece of land where it had so much legal complications involved. And then to build anything required a lot of permissions. At that time in India, everything was rationed, so cement was rationed, steel was rationed, everything, you couldn’t truly buy it, it was restricted buying, etc. So it was a big struggle, plus, 95% of the money came from foreign countries. India was poor, and America and other countries were rich, so they were giving money. However, as years have gone on, of course, it became easier for devotees to raise money in India.
So this is Vrindavan Temple, also completed after Prabhupada’s disappearance. And later on, we had Delhi opening a temple. But actually now in Delhi, they have about 12 temples, I think, in Delhi. And through other big cities in India, we have also big temples, like this is Pune Temple. So around India, it began small, and money had to come from abroad, but now there are so many temples in India, and India has become wealthy. So India is one place, and got many temples now, but actually it’s called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, not just India, we have temples around the world, people are preaching everywhere. So Prabhupada always wanted the movement to expand. He began with almost nothing, and then within 10 years, he had spread around the world. So it’s encouraging that expansion took place.
But when things expand, we also have to keep the unity. In other words, it’s a worldwide organization, but everything has to be unified. So we do have different languages, different cultures, different religions, so many differences around the world. And thus, we may have to modify things for each particular place to make it most effective. So, the method of preaching in India may not work in Italy. But somehow we have to find the method which will work for each country. And at the same time, we do have to keep connection with the International Society.
So Srila Prabhupada wanted the movement to expand, this is Lord Caitanya wanted the movement to expand, but Prabhupada also wanted to keep ISKCON unified. So this, of course, is always a danger. The longer you continue, the more tendency there is to divide up. So this is a big challenge. Prabhupada understood also there’s a danger, and he tried to take precautions. And therefore, he set up a managerial system. And in that system, we don’t have one leader from one particular country or one particular language, we have a group of people from all over the world, managing. And in that way, we can have voices, and ideas from all over the world, not from one particular place. And not one person makes the decision but as a group, they make the decision. So this helps keep the movement unified and international. So there is a challenge in going into the future. And we have to take care of certain things. So, our devotees have analyzed five principles.
One involves treatment of public. In other words, this means how we preach. And, of course, different countries may be different, because people are different. Not only people are different, governments are different, laws are different. And different countries may have different goals. And, of course, then another problem is that the public keeps changing, even in one place, even in one country, the public changes every five years. A new generation arises and they have new technologies and new ways of thinking, so it’s a new culture that arises every five or six years. So, ISKCON has to adapt themselves to all of this public change.
And secondly is the treatment of the members. Once a person becomes a member of ISKCON, how do we cultivate them and treat them? And so this may involve physical, mental and spiritual care. We actually have a devotee care ministry, so to speak in this regard.
Another thing that one has to do is measure results. So we do something and we have to see, is there a good result or bad result, intermediate result, how much percentage of the result. And that way we can always modify things to make it better, so we get better results. So if we’re doing something like book distribution and we’re getting 20% results from a 20% result for 20 years, maybe we should change something to get 50% or 80% results from our book distribution.
Another last one here is called systems. We have to set up mechanisms of bureaucracy, which doesn’t sound very nice, but necessary also. So that bureaucracy is necessary, one, to comply with the local government. In order to unify and systemize preaching and other strategy within ISKCON, we need a bureaucracy.
So, and the last thing, the fifth principle, is innovation. Which means doing new things. We have to adapt ourselves to the environment at the moment. So it is said that, even in the business world, they have to keep innovating, otherwise the company will not survive. Like we have a camera company, Kodak, in 1950s, very famous in America, Kodak. They still exist today, but we don’t really hear much about their cameras anymore, because it’s all digital, this and that, and Japanese inventions, and this and that, so they didn’t adapt at the time, so they don’t exist much anymore.
So, a spiritual movement also has to look at the people and try to mark it, communicate with those people and convince them that this movement is a very good movement. Now the problem is that our movement by nature is very traditional and conservative, doesn’t like to change. It’s also easier, you don’t have to learn anything new, just keep doing it, these many years ago, you do the same thing 20 years ago, you do the same thing today, it’s easy. You don’t change anything for 20 years, it’s easy, you just learn something and then you keep doing it for 20 or 30 years, it’s easy. So, if we want to change something, we have to learn something new, so it takes effort. So, if we are to expand and not stay the same as we were doing 20 years ago, then we do have to observe things, learn new things and see the effects, test the effects and see how most efficiently we can progress. So we do have to, let’s say, balance the traditional elements, what we don’t change and what we can change. And that may require some contemplation and thinking. So, anyways these are the elements that we have to look at and use in our movement.
So there’s often controversies, how much we should centralize, how much we should decentralize, there’s always this conflict. So, decentralization means let every temple do what they want and our GBC doesn’t interfere. So, at the same time, we do have to have some bureaucracy and some regulations, etc., so we do need some centralization also, we need a good balance there.
One of the innovations that is being changing a little bit is that, maybe we need more change, that is Diksha. So what is the concept of Diksha? What does it mean? Does everybody have to take Diksha to be a member of ISKCON? So in the beginning of the movement was yes, you have to be a serious devotee, you have to take Diksha. However, over the years, serious devotees have seen that maybe Diksha is not suitable for everybody, even if they are serious. It more or less kind of forces a devotee to come up with a standard artificially and he can’t maintain it, later on, he falls back and he becomes guilty and stops everything. So maybe the proposal is that, we have Diksha as one level, you know, following the regulative principles, chant 16 rounds and so many things, but then we have another respectable membership that doesn’t have the same requirements, so it’s much easier for people to maintain in the long term.
And of course, one of the phenomenon is that, the number of Diksha Guru is limited and the number of people who want Diksha is unlimited, we get so many disciples for each Diksha Guru that it doesn’t really mean anything because he can’t even teach them. So people take Diksha with great expectations, but then afterwards, what happens? It’s not much different from before they were initiated. Same thing.
Of course, there’s another thing in the modern world, that people don’t like authorities. And the authority that is cultivated in ISKCON concerning the Diksha Guru is absolute authority, so people are a little suspicious of that. So the absolute devotion to a Diksha Guru looks a little bit like a cult. So we definitely have to avoid that. Of course, this leads to other modifications of Diksha. In other words, we have Diksha, but actually according to scripture Siksha Guru is equal. And actually, there is more emphasis on Siksha Guru than Diksha. Which means that the Siksha Guru, there the emphasis is upon teaching. So you take a Siksha Guru, so you can get teachings. You take a Diksha Guru, but why do we take a Diksha Guru? So we can become a member, that’s it. So the meaning of Diksha becomes more or less a status symbol rather than a function of spiritual life.
And of course, when we have loyalty to the Diksha Guru in an absolute way, this makes a disunity within ISKCON. When we have an absolute loyalty to one Guru and we have many Gurus in ISKCON, then we have many little ISKCONs and that makes disunity within the big ISKCON. So what we have modified here is the conception of Diksha, the conception of Siksha, we have to change how we think of these.
And then furthermore we also have to think of Srila Prabhupada. So what type of Guru is Srila Prabhupada to us? What type of Guru is Srila Prabhupada? So of course, he is a Siksha Guru, he is the founder Acharya. So from the point of view of logic then the disciple should have more absolute devotion to Srila Prabhupada than his Diksha Guru or Siksha Guru. So we do have to modify things or change things within ISKCON. Anyway, these are some of the innovations or something that could take place.
The whole purpose of this of course is to create unity within ISKCON and preserve the main tenets of ISKCON for the future. We can’t change the basic philosophy, but we can change the techniques and things, in order to keep ISKCON together.
Okay, Hare Krishna.
Q&A
1) Thank you so much. What you said about the Diksha Guru, we should be more surrendering to Srila Prabhupada than our Diksha Guru. But in some way I think in ISKCON it’s also the role of the Diksha Guru to help his disciples to be surrendered to Srila Prabhupada because it’s not so easy to connect with him and I think Diksha Guru can definitely help to do it.
But of course the Shiksha Guru could do equally whatever that Diksha Guru is doing in connecting a devotee to Srila Prabhupada. Now the problem comes that the Diksha Guru may not have time. So many Diksha Gurus have thousand, five thousand, ten thousand disciples. I’m a second guy.
Devotee: So Maharaj, before you continue, I would like to ask around if everybody knows the difference between Shiksha and Diksha. Because there are two people. So maybe just say a few words Maharaj.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: I think even devotees who are serious don’t know the difference.
So in scripture the Shiksha Guru is one who gives teachings to another devotee. Of course all Vaishnavas are teaching whatever but if you have a special person who’s giving you teachings then we regard him with special reverence as a Shiksha Guru. So this is the type of Guru that is described in Srimad Bhagavatam.
We see Narada teaching Vyasa, Vyasa teaching Sukadeva, Sukadeva teaching Parikshit. That’s all Shiksha Guru. So usually when Bhagavatam or even Upanishads and Vedas speak about Guru and worship of Guru etc. they’re talking about the Shiksha Guru, the one who’s giving teachings. So usually when we hear about Shiksha Guru we’re talking about the one who’s giving teachings. And that Guru gives instructions through scripture and inspires the disciple to practice Bhakti.
So the Diksha Guru, by scripture is a Guru who gives you a secret mantra. That’s the mantra we get at second initiation. And that is used in deity worship. So that’s what distinguishes the Diksha Guru from the Shiksha Guru.
Now the confusion comes that in ISKCON when we say Diksha, it covers Shiksha Guru and Diksha Guru. [lLaughs]. So when we take Diksha or initiation not expecting mantra but expecting teachings [Laughs].So they say that Diksha guru delivers the disciple. How does he do it? Technically the Diksha guru does it with the mantra. Of course the mantra is not so important for us because our main mantra is Hare Krishna which is not the Diksha mantra.
But when we do accept the Diksha Guru and we’re getting Shiksha also then we generally exclude others from the category of Shiksha Guru. And so we funnel our worship to the Diksha Guru. And when it says you should see Guru like God then we apply that to the Diksha Guru.
But you can also apply that same principle to the Shiksha Guru which is generally what scripture is talking about. So if one Guru can give teachings who’s not your Diksha Guru but can give you significant teachings, then he should get equal respect as you give to your Diksha Guru.
Now what is the position of Sila Prabhupad? He’s also a Shiksha Guru, even though he’s no longer present. But still we have relationship one is through books, so all our knowledge is actually from Srila Prabhupad books and if you have a Shiksha Guru or a Diksha Guru actually just repeating that knowledge again. But even though he is not personally present we also have a direct relationship with him. How direct and how significant we want to make that relationship… that’s our choice. But atleast formally speaking he should get more respect. He is the founder Acharya of ISKCON, so he gets the most respect. So we have all sorts of respect we have to give Diksha Guru, Shiksha Guru, Srila Prabhupada.
And the amount of respect we give to each one can be according to their spiritual advancement. For instance, we have in our parampara, Bhaktivinoda Thakur and who comes before him? Jagannatha Das Babaji. So, he gets the respect. But he wasn’t the Diksha guru. The Diksha Guru was Bipin Bihari Goswami. Jagannatha Das Babaji was a Shiksha Guru, but he had a higher level of spiritual advancement. And so the respect is based and depends on the spiritual advancement. And also within ISKCON, Srila Prabhupad gets the highest respect because he is our founder Acharya.
2) This is a very important question. Ok, so we spoke that Srila Prabhupada should be the main point of reference for ISKCON devotees, but we see that sometimes devotees, disciples, they struggle to have a leading point of reference as Guru. So, what is ISKCON doing or is there any plan or any thought, is it being discussed how to implement more guruship, like Shiksha guruship, more power to even grihastha leaders, so they are empowered, again, from information, education, so to make more leaders, not just Gurus, not just Shiksha Gurus, more also more points of references spread out a little bit, so there are more educational programs going on, etc.
So, that’s basically one of the things that can be done with ISKCON, one of the changes that could be and probably should be done.
In other words, more emphasis upon transmission of knowledge. And if a person can do that significantly, whether they are a Diksha Guru or not, that doesn’t really matter, if you have the knowledge, you get the respect for that. So, the principle that is there already in the scriptures, like Caitanya Caritamrta, it has to be implemented and repeatedly implemented so people learn to change their way of thinking.
So, the present mentality is you take Diksha and you’re saved. And if you’re not, don’t have the initiation, you’re not saved. So, it becomes something like the Catholic Church [Laughs]. So, that’s not true. The actual thing is if you get that knowledge, bona fide knowledge and practice bhakti, that’s most important, whether you’re initiated or not initiated.
So, before Lord Chaitanya, of course, generally, that Diksha was emphasized and the Yuga Dharma had not been introduced so the main process of bhakti was deity worship and therefore they had to take Diksha. But Lord Chaitanya has introduced Nama Sankirtan as the main process which will lead us up to Prema. And it does not depend on Diksha. We don’t get Hare Krishna through Diksha. We get it the first day we come to the temple.
Of course, if we walk Prema through chanting Hare Krishna we need some knowledge. So, we need some Shiksha, teaching. Which could be through a Diksha Guru, through a Diksha Guru or through another person who’s not even labeled a Shiksha Guru. That knowledge could come from so many sources. So, if we get knowledge, and if we can chant purely, then we can get Prema, finished.
3) When we speak about knowledge, it means also we are surrendering to the process and that person also will give us the knowledge or if you can clarify this part, the function of Shiksha Guru as a method of surrendering. What normally we are supposed to do with the Guru?
So, we see in Bhagavad Gita, that it says Pranipatena. Surrender and then you get knowledge. He teaches. It’s not that he gives a mantra, he teaches. So, the qualification is Pranipat or surrender. So, to get the knowledge from the Shiksha Guru, you have to surrender to him. So, what this means is we do have to have a humble attitude and understand we don’t know anything. If we think we know everything, then we cannot get any knowledge. And we should feel gratitude for getting the knowledge.
And such surrender is there for any Guru of any level. So, there is a quote on the 11th canto that talks about the Brahmachari. He should see his Acharya or teacher as God. This is in the Gurukula. So, the Guru is teaching. But it may not even be teaching spiritual. He may be teaching Karmakanda. So, Jiva Goswami comments that even for getting Karmakanda, you have to respect your Guru and treat him like God. So, that respect is always there, but as I said, the respect again is according to the level of spiritual advancement. So, all teachers are respected like God, but some are respected more like God than others [Laughs].
4) Hare Krishna Maharaj. So, I think I have very little experience compared to many others, but in my experience when you get to know ISKCON, they do a really good job to get you started. And as many young people or novices, we get in contact with this knowledge and we try to understand. And we don’t really get a particular reference. When Srila Prabhupada came, the novices had a strong reference which was Srila Prabhupada himself. So, we actually understand more and more by association. So, we get a little bit of information here, a little bit of information there. And then we read Bhagavad Gita, we study, and then we go back to our own life and try to implement this whole knowledge. But imperfections are always there.
Imperfections actually pile up because we get responses, answers, through association. But people we associate with don’t always have a strong reference themselves. And so, basically, I feel like also a lot of young people or novices actually crave for this reference and it’s hard to find it until you reach the level where one is given to you. So, is this how it should work? Are there plans to, I don’t know, do something about it? This is kind of the question. And I also think of this when you have a spiritual master. He gives you this strong direction. So, is it supposed to be like this? In the beginning, you kind of shine through, find your way yourself, and then a spiritual master is given to you? Because a lot of novices, and I talk a lot with novices, and they kind of feel this need of actually understanding through a reference that is strong.
So, it seems to the person he’s referring to would be some sort of guru. Well, of course, many people, they surrender to a Diksha Guru, because that’s the expectation. But then many people who do surrender to the Diksha Guru get a little disappointed, because the Diksha Guru doesn’t have enough time to deal with all the questions and all the problems, etc.
So, that’s why the proposal is we have more people who are not so much into the Diksha idea, but they are doing Shiksha, so we have many Shiksha Gurus who are qualified enough that they can answer and solve the doubts[Laughs].
5) Because I think you mentioned at some point that everybody likes to preach. Like Vaishnavas, they preach, its a preaching movement. So, we get to receive many instructions from many different Siksha Gurus, Vaishnavas, so it can be confusing, probably because it’s not clear the Siksha-disciple relationship, and so people like to give instructions even if nobody recognizes them. If anybody doesn’t recognize you as my Siksha Guru, I receive information from you, or you come and preach to me. So, it can be confusing for a person. How do we survive in this, especially for novices? Because you here, you go to Milan, you hear one thing, you go to Florence, you hear another thing. Then you’ll see, from Mumbai, you hear different things, so it can be, well, how do I fit in here?
So, if there are different instructions, given the one question, instructions on what? On practicing Bhakti, or instructions on material life. Because some people will go to the Guru for instructions on material life. And then you’re going to get so many different opinions. Get married, don’t get married, have children, don’t have children, or whatever. You can have so many different opinions, but that’s not actually what we’re talking about a Shiksha Guru should do, or a Diksha Guru. Right.
They’re only involved in repeating scripture. Okay, so the other questions may be questions of philosophy or Tattva. And there shouldn’t be much difference, if we say Krishna is God and one Shiksha Guru says he’s not God. Obviously, there’s something wrong with that Shiksha Guru. So, basically, within ISKCON, everybody has that same share of knowledge, so there shouldn’t be any conflict there either.
So, there may be some details that have to be clarified. So, that’s another thing. That’s the Abhidheya, the practice of Bhakti and how we do it. So, that’s another thing where, of course, the principles are there in scripture, but then there may be differences in how we implement them.
Devotee: Yeah, I was more thinking of that, how we do Abhidheya.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah.
Devotee: You get a different version from the ISKCON, I agree.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, then, because it is various and according to different people, they have different ideas, then it’s all correct in one sense because chanting the holy name is so flexible, you can do it in any condition.
Devotee: Thank you. That’s the explanation, I guess, that satisfies me.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, if we’re chanting in one way, we have a problem, somebody advises, well, we try that, it doesn’t work, then we try somebody else, somebody else, you try it that way also. So, you can experiment with things. None of those instructions are absolute. Ok, exactly.
Devotee: Thank you very much, Maharaj.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!