(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta Part 3
We see that Prabhupada was not like a parrot! As the essay from Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur ‘The Ethics of the Bhagavat Philosophy’ describes:
‘One’s mind should not only be a repository of knowledge where things are just stored and reproduced, but one should take this knowledge, think about it creatively and apply it creatively in one’s life!’
That has been explained by him and Srila Prabhupada certainly did that by always being a faithful instrument. He was a very faithful instrument and also seeming to meet the objectives from his spiritual master and not by just parroting and not like being a fundamentalist:
“Like, well you know…. my guru said this and there cannot be a change!”
No, it is also about experimenting a little, adjusting a little – sixteen rounds is sort of all right. There were things like ladies in the ashram, and so many things that were substantial. I mean, obviously if you put men and women together in a temple, then you are going to have some fireworks! That’s inevitable and the Gauḍīya Math has rightly criticised this in a sense. How can you have that in the ashram? But they could not see what he saw: That there is another culture; there was no shelter; and that you could not keep the ladies at home, since they are also sincere souls, and required the shelter of the Krishna conscious environment. They couldn’t understand the principle. So anyway Prabhupada, in his humility, did not have an over fundamentalist type of nature!
