Karunaya-avatirnah kalau 'The Most Compassionate Avatara'
by Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Translated from Sri Gaudiya Patrika, Year 7, Issue 2, 1956
"Since acara (practice) and pracara (preaching) are one and the same, they should be simultaneously and actively cultivated.
Those who maintain that spiritual maturity is an essential prerequisite to preaching do not have an admirable conception because preaching is identical to kirtana.
Bhakti has nine limbs, or nine kinds of practice, and the limb that excels all others is kirtana.
It is through this one practice alone – kirtana, or preaching – that all the other limbs attain purity.
Indeed, this was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s teaching to us. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the most munificent incarnation, imparted the same instruction. He commanded one and all to perform the function of guru everywhere. He has apprised us of this order as follows:
yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesaamara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya-lila 7.128)
My order is to instruct whomever you meet to follow the instructions of Sri Krsna as given in the scriptures, which advise one to worship Him. In this way become guru and deliver everyone in this land).
If Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura Prabhupada had waited for his disciple-preachers to attain perfection before he engaged them in acting for the welfare of others, his system of preaching would have unfolded quite differently. With the aim of revealing the glory of Sri Gaura’s potency, he personally transmitted that potency to ordinary persons, who generally were only fit to per-form menial work even by the standards of the material world. By thus engaging them in preaching activities in the form of hari-kirtana, his mission attained success.
“Mukam karoti vacalam – By the mercy of Sri Guru, even a dumb man can become the greatest orator.” We had the opportunity to directly witness this. How can a dumb man become a great orator?
If one preaches the pure, unadulterated teachings of Sriman Mahaprabhu, then and only then is it possible. But the moment we mix His pure teachings with even a few words of our own speculation, it marks our greatest misfortune. This act alone becomes the root cause of our complete destruction.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not come to teach anything abstruse that would be difficult for the common people to comprehend. If He had done so, the statement “jagat-plavana – inundation of the whole world with prema” would have no truth.
He is certainly more intelligent than each and every one of us, and He knows how to make the fallen souls of Kali-yuga best understand His high-level teachings. Indeed, His teachings are comprehensible by all. Still, our misfortune prevails. First, we do not accept His teachings. Second, to impress others with our prowess we mix something of our own with them......
……..Only the endeavour to spread the teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in a simple manner, while being careful not to manipulate them even slightly, will be our sole bhajana. But if a person waits till he becomes perfect before he disseminates those teachings, he will be deprived of the service of preaching. Indeed, he will remain in that immature state throughout his whole life.
Even if we fully lack the capacity to understand the pure and simple teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, if we just pass them on, carrying them to the next person like a load-carrying donkey, we will still receive Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s blessings. This is, of course, provided we do not adulterate those teachings with any of our own mental speculations."
