- Srimad Bhagavatam lecture of Srila Prabhupada at Iskcon Newtown Kolkata
- Verse Number: SB 3.25.21
- Lecture date: 21st Nov 1974
- Lecture location: Bombay
- Chapter Name: The Glories of Devotional Service
- Lecture Link: https://prabhupadavani.org/transcriptions/741121sbbom/
- Date/Day: 23rd May 2025, Friday, Apara Ekadasi
Today we were hearing Srimad Bhagavatam lecture of Srila Prabhupada at Iskcon Newtown Kolkata. In the lecture Prabhupada was emphatically saying that the “objective of Krishna Consciousness movement is to create association of devotees”, so that people get an opportunity to associate with them and perfect their lives. Prabhupada was speaking on the verse SB 3.25.21.
ŚB 3.25.21
titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ
suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām
ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ
sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ
Translation
“The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.”
Below article is based on the lecture of Srila Prabhupada which we were hearing today in the temple.
Association of a pure devotee
Just like if we eat unhealthy food, we get unhealthy body, similarly, if we associate with people having impure consciousness, our consciousness too gets polluted. Healthy body ensures healthy life and pure consciousness ensures happy life.
This is why scriptures again and again underline the importance of being in saintly association. In good association, our bad habits get corrected. And in bad association, just the opposite happens.
For example, we see students leading a pure life at home, but when he goes to hostel then in the company of those taking alcohol, he too becomes an alcoholic. But it is also true that if an alcoholic begins associating with those leading pure life, then he too can easily give up addiction to alcohol. And this has happened.
The hippies in America were addicted to sinful life. They were accustomed to intoxication, eating meat and engaging in illicit sex. Their parents and the government of the day had failed to reform them. But then to their great fortune Srila Prabhupada came into their life.
And just by associating with him, they were able to give up all these impure things quite quickly. Not just that they began chanting the names of Krishna and began living a Krishna conscious life.
Even Srimad Bhagavatam, tells that the children of the demons who had no interest in spiritual life began chanting the names of the Lord when they began associating with Prahlada. So, Chaitanya Charitamrta 22.54 says, “‘sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’ — sarva-śāstre kaya/lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya.” “The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.”
Do not waste this great opportunity
Devotees of the Lord are great well-wishers. Seeing us suffer in this world, pains their heart. So, they wander around the world to tell us the danger of sinful life and the necessity of bringing Krishna in our life. If we fail to abide by their sagely advice, we are doomed to suffer.
This human life is Lord’s gift to us because it provides us an opportunity to free ourselves from all the sufferings. But, if we waste our life in animalistic propensity of eating, mating, sleeping and defending, then next life we will get an animal body so that we can live like animals.
Srila Prabhupada in the lecture was saying, “..if we simply waste our time like animals—eating, sleeping, sex intercourse and defense—then it is animal life. So especially in this age they cannot distinguish that what is the animal life and what is human life. They think, “The dog, animal, he is sleeping on the street, and I am sleeping on the twentieth floor of a nice apartment. Therefore I am civilized.” The śāstra says no. Either you sleep on the street or on the twenty-fourth story of apartment, you are sleeping. You are not doing any other thing.”
Let us not try to live like animals but try to uplift our consciousness. If we are serious to save ourselves from all unhappy situations, then we should give up the company of those who are not serious in spiritual life but are just working hard to improve the standards of their material sense gratification. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asks all serious devotees to give association of non-devotees – Asat-saṅga-tyāga ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra.
Prabhupada gifted us association of devotees
By the grace of Srila Prabhupada, today we have an opportunity to continually associate with serious devotees of the Lord all over the world and perfect our life.
Prabhupada says, “…..at the present moment it is very difficult to find out the association of sādhu. Therefore, our teeny effort is, this Krishna consciousness movement, to create an association of the sādhus so people may take advantage of this association, and then his life becomes liberated. And that is the aim and object of this association. It has no other object.”
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu want all of us to get liberated, and understanding the Lord’s heart Srila Prabhupada established Krishna Consciousness movement.
