My mission

                                                      My mission is to give love and affection …

[An excerpt from Śrīla Nārāyana Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s discourse of March 2, 2000, given in Cessnock, N.S.W. Australia:]

From the book entitled “The Soul of Book Distribution”

Someone asked me, “What is your mission? What have you come here to give?” I replied, “My mission is the same mission as that of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, and our guru-paramparā. Our mission is to give love and affection to all living beings without any consideration of caste and creed. Our main mission is to give love and affection to the highest standard.”

You will be happy to know that if one has love and affection for Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that person will have love and affection for all living beings. He will not kill any animal, nor will he take fish, meat, or eggs, nor will he even crush the grass. He will try to please Krishna, and thus he will be kind and affectionate to all living entities. He will have the most high class of mercy. When I go for walks, I sometimes see calves and cows grazing in the fields, who tremble in fear and run away whenever they see people. They sense that, “These persons have no mercy for me. They are keeping me in jail, and after some days they will take me to the slaughter house and kill me.” They know.

What right do you have to chop and kill them? If you are not merciful, how can you expect Krishna to bestow His mercy upon you? A renowned pope is killing calves, who are like very small children, in order to take their meat. These calves will cry at the time of their death, and where will this crying go? Where will it be heard? Does Krishna have no ears to hear? The popes consider, “We are greatly religious persons; servants of God.” And what do the calves realize? They are experiencing that there is no love and affection for them. They are also sons and daughters of Krishna; eternal servants of Krishna. We realize this, and we tell them, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Please hear this mantra at least once.” Persons with real compassion are called guru. They have no self-interest, nor are they at all duplicitous. Because they are all pure devotees, they are full of mercy. So, my mission is to give love and affection for Krishna, which will automatically come to all living beings, and I appeal to you all to become like me.

My mission is not to make numerous disciples. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, Śrīla Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, and other bona fide ācāryas in our disciplic su Krishna ession never collected disciples. Still, they are jagat guru . They are actually guru ‒ guru of the entire world. My mission is to give the prema that is experienced by the gopīs. Regarding those opposed to this attainment, I pray that Krishna will be merciful to them. Although such persons are offensive to the lotus feet of Guru-Gaurāṅga, śāstra , and Krishna, I pray to Krishna to sprinkle His mercy even to them, because they are ignorant. Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura, prayed, “O Krishna, although these servants of the Muslim government are beating me in twenty-two markets, please give Your mercy to them. They are all ignorant.” If it were not for Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s prayers, Krishna would have at once sent His cakra to destroy them. Because devotees are magnanimous, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja also prayed for Durvāsa Ṛṣi, although Durvāsa Ṛṣi had tried to kill him.

Try to develop prema for Krishna, and be merciful to all. Convey this message to everyone by distributing books and by nagara-saṅkīrtana ‒ for the benefit of all calves, cows, and ignorant persons. Whether the ignorant appreciate it or not, and even if they hate hearing it, the holy name of Krishna will purify them. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has personally requested you all to participate in nagara-saṅkīrtana, not seeing whether people are laughing at you, insulting you, or neglecting you. Follow the example of Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura, and follow Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, who established nāma-haṭṭa.

If you follow all these instructions, you will really be disciples. Then I will be pleased, and Krishna will be pleased.