How can devotees cooperate?

With all due respect to our "professional" ISKCON counselors, mediators and other socially and humanistic thinking well-wishers, here for our inspiration a most wonderful letter from Srila Prabhupada to one of His disciples who remembered his first meeting with Srila Prabhupada and the way His Divine Grace saved him:

Srila Prabhupada writes:

"As for your nice sentiments about our first meeting on Houston Street, it was all arranged by Krishna. That was practically a favor shown to me by Krishna because I came in your country by superior order. I had been feeling lonely although I had the mission of starting this Krishna Consciousness movement. So Krishna sent you to me, and therefore our meeting was also the desire of Krishna. Therefore, both of us, or for that matter, all of the boys and girls who are working with me, have met by the desire of Krishna. As such, everyone should always feel the responsibility that Krishna wants us to do something for Him, and we must invest all of our energies to fulfill this mission of Krishna Consciousness".

This letter truly delivers the ultimate "mediation formula".

1) IT WAS ALL ARRANGED BY KRISHNA

Doesn’t mean that things cannot be arranged by maya. Maya can also send her representatives in form of deviant preachers and other individuals with their own agenda who will try to interpret Krsna consciousness in their way. Maya can come in form of "foolishly active" people, in form of selfishly motivated disciples and in worst case in form of egocentric and narcissistic leaders. All this is done to test our level of understanding of Srila Prabhupada’s mission and our sincerity to protect it from exactly this sort of individuals. To be send by Krishna means in its original sense to be send for a purpose to serve the mission of the spiritual master. Once our purpose is understood, the differences caused by our differently genetically designed bodies can be overcome.

2) A favor SHOWN TO ME

What a wonderful and most humble understanding of a spiritual master who sees His disciples being sent by Krsna as a favor so He can preach more effectively on behalf of His spiritual master. If all spiritual masters would think like this, there couldn’t be and there shouldn’t be any substantial problems in communication.

3) I CAME IN YOUR COUNTRY BY SUPERIOR ORDER

There is no other link between the members of Srila Prabhupada’s movement as the superior order of the guru parampara manifested through Srila Prabhupada. All other connections and relationships are based on our relationship to the vani of Srila Prabhupada. Even devotees gathering for the purpose of chanting only are , if not focused on the mission of the spiritual master, endangered to deviate into the realms of sahajiyas as it is the sahajiya who seeks direct contact with the Supreme Lord without being controlled by an instruction of a spiritual master who is in return controlled by the guru parampara.

4) OUR MEETING IS ALSO THE DESIRE OF KRISHNA

Yes, Krsna wants us to meet… under the banner of His mission to spread Krsna consciousness. If this missionary spirit is not shared and becomes covered by selfish considerations of introverted nature, one becomes disconnected from the flow of mercy coming down from the paramapara and herewith one can only be a lonely and miserable introvert. There cannot be a happy co-existence between miserable introverts, no matter how many counseling and mediating sessions they join in. After all, we all met by the desire of Krishna for the purpose to share and distribute Krsna consciousness. There is no other purpose as the strive for piety in form of artha, dharma, kama and finally moksha is not applicable to the life of a devotee who tries to follow in Srila Prabhupada’s footsteps.

5) WE MUST FEEL THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT KRISHNA WANTS US TO DO SOMETHING FOR HIM AND MUST INVEST ALL OUR ENERGIES TO FULFILL THIS MISSION OF KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS

…is the ultimate formula for cooperation. Serving the mission of Srila Prabhupada is not a monotone activity. Once fully engaged in Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mission, one might find oneself even in the company of those whom one would avoid on material platform. I used to travel on sankirtan-book distribution with kleptomans, suicide ones, still hallucinating ones, those who never came down from their last LSD trip and with those who believed that on the brink of the third world war Srila Prabhupada is the next "Fuhrer". As much some of my godbrothers had to finally retreat to various mental institutions, still the preaching spirit emanating from Srila Prabhupada was so powerful that He could achieve so much while using even the most fallen ones.

Of course we expect today to be so far matured that more sane section of society can be engaged in preaching, finally manifesting the sublime nature of Krsna consciousness. There is a place for everybody according to his varnasrama dharma regulated conditioning. There is a place for those who want to go beyond it and simply serve Srila Prabhupada unconditionally. There is indeed a place for everyone who understands the need to surrender to Srila Prabhupada’s mission. The rest can mediate a counsel each other for eternity as it is customary in the karmi society. The result of such a mentally inspires pursuit is more polarization and more chaos as "what is the use of so much talking, simply creating enemies", Srila Prabhupada used to comment.

Prove is in the taste. Who doesn’t want to join a movement filled with inspired individuals who work hard for Krsna’s satisfaction? Only a miser and an envious person will resist. But of course, how can somebody be inspired to join a randomly collected group of miserable introverts who counsel and mediate each other endlessly. By watering the root of the tree the branches and leafs automatically become satisfied. Somehow this simple formula for satisfaction got largely forgotten.

By the mercy of Pancha Tattva we can be introduced to a simple happiness formula: The more we give Krsna consciousness to others, the more we get it ourselves. For that reason we have to learn and study, for that reason we can happily associate with each other even in times of individual and collective misery. If we don’t give, we cannot keep it. We will end up licking only on photos of prasadam without experiencing its real taste. Nobody can be fully satisfied by reflection. To come out of the world of shadows into the bright light and become true friends we have to do nothing else as to strive with all our means to satisfy Srila Prabhupada. It is for this reason that His book distributors are returning after weeks of hardship in ecstatic mood. This is not material; this is truly spiritual as only on spiritual platform we can find true friendship and true love.