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EDITORIAL  The Fairy Tale Of Galva BY TIRTHAPADA DASA EDITORIAL, May 11 (VNN) — Once upon a time there was an extremely exalted saint, a first-class Vaisnava and pure devotee of Krishna who left India on a wonderful, pure-hearted mission. Immediately, upon arrival after undergoing so much difficulty on his overseas' journey, they asked him why he has come to this land of honey and opportunity. What do you want from our country of capitalistic bliss and united-we-trust freedom? The saint replied that he came not to take anything but to give something we had long ago forgotten. I came to give what you have forgotten, he declared boldly, Exactly what Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave before, his gaura-vani, but you have forgotten that message. And in his difficult time trying to give that, he suffered like no other Vaisnava in previous history publicly did, due to his being on foreign soil, far away from his heart's love of Sri Vrndavana Dhama. But most of all, he suffered to see the people deluded by their uncontrollable senses. Imagine, they thought, how could one think we are not these bodies. These bodies are the vehicles of enjoyment. Isn't the body a temple also? Should we not use it in the service of God or who this person calls Krishna? But the Vaisnava saint was divinely patient with them. He became to teach them certain common sense standards of cleanliness, austerity, mercy and how to engage their voracious tongues properly in taking the remnants of the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord and how to chant his maha-mantra, great chant of deliverance: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. He gave simple rules and regulations like cut your hippies' hair, shave your beards, and besides these regular shavings, every day take a shower. Simple rules for human life, not animal life. Then he began to explain how we should chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. He told us sixteen rounds on a set of japa beads, at least, minimum. Oh, with sixty-four rounds, maybe later, he did not strain us or overburden our agitated, materialistic minds but tendered us like a loving father and mother. Maybe sixty-four in the future, but right now, just steady yourself at sixteen. Chant with nirbandha, some rules and regulations, he said. He told us that our nama-siddha pranali, the direct method of chanting the names of Krishna was this: trnad api sunicena / taror api suhisnuta amanina manidena, kirtaniyah sada harih. In other words, this was a siddha mantra, a mantra that can us all realizations and perfections, but we need to develop humility lower than a blade of insignificant kusa grass, tolerance more than the strongest banyan tree, and empty ourselves of all pride for fame, adoration and distincition, while alert to offer respect and honor to all according to proper qualificatikons. Then he said we would be qualified to always chant the sweet names of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. He was so uniquely kind to us, inspiring us to then distribute these names to everyone, in the form of books also. But along with the holy names of Krishna he gave us fair warnings. He called them regulative principles because they would help us to regulate our uncontrolled senses and began with a mandala of four prohibitive rules: no meat-eating, no gambling or speculation, no intoxication and no illicit sex. They seemed overly simple at first. Sure we can do it. He explained that if we ate meat we would abolish all of our innate compassionate nature, by gambling for profit we would increase our mode of passion and greed, by intoxication we would become entangled in the many forms of blind, selfish madness, and with illicit sex all of our cleanliness in mind and body would be totally destroyed. No body objected, the prasadam was too good. He fed us granola with hot milk, laddus, glubjamons, wonderful varieties of cooked mung dahl called kitri, and spinach and subji, mixed vegetables, with curd, with steaming rice and melted buttered ghee. It seemed so simple, we danced, we chanted, we feasted. He taught us to have classes on Srimad Bhagavatam every morning and to honor all devotees. And our faith seemed to grow in leaps and bounds. Temples opened up all over the world faster than blossoms on a giant magnolia tree. Life seemed utopic until suddenly he departed one day for Goloka Vrindavana. It was expected, but sudden even after having been told so many times to prepare ourselves. We were not ready for it even then. Oh, he had left us tapes, lectures, and most of all his books. Go on, he said, teach others what I taught you. He told us to even go to other older, qualified Vaisnavas for instruction. But nobody liked to hear that, especially since everyone had become so much attached to his wonderful character. Still he was unselfish and warned us that we were like children hoping to swim the vast ocean of material existence. Some of us were fortunate, we took the opportunity that followed. We took instruction on spiritual life from other saints now that he had departed. It seemed like a wonderful, strange dream. The Vaisnava saint that we all called Prabhupada out of love was now gone, departing for nitya-lila, his eternal pastimes, beyond our limited sense perception. Then the heavy rains began to fall, causing our separation from him to become intense. It threatened to flood us and drown us then and there. Some of us did not have so much underground umbrella sukriti, the pious credit from his personal association. We struggled in a distant land in the West. Splinters began to show. Some hastened to solve it by proclaim themselves gurus. Others began hiding in the darkest shadows, waiting for the right moment sometime in the future. Others began to form other non-profit societies, to collect for themselves, to survive on the bare necessities of life. And so many different societies began to grow. Some ran to the Buddists, some back to Christianity, and even some ran to the high walls of impersonalism. Some even ran back to sense gratification. One society even went so far as calling itself GALVA, the Gay and Lesbian Vaisnava Association. It proclaimed that temples should be gay-friendly. If not, then such compassionate Vaisnavas would become scarce, they said. Vaisnavas are like desire trees; they welcome with open arms every individual soul. But something did not seem right. Caitya-guru in the heart cringed. Third-gender Vaisnavas? Which sastra did it come from? Which planet could we find such friendly association? The whole night was spent searching for such that place. Nothing, nowhere. And it went on for some time like that. We searched through bhur, bhuvah, svah, Mahar, Jana, Tapo, Satyaloka. We searched in Brahmaloka, Sivaloka, Ayodhya, Dwaraka, Mathura, and finally Vrindavana. Nowhere to be found. So we went to ask one of our preceptors. Where were these people to be placed? And why so difficult to place them? We decided to return back to gate one. One of the pillars said no illicit sex. Was that too cloudy of an instruction? Did that exclude GALVA? Should we allow GALVA the right to be called third-gender Vaisnavas? Something seemed awry here. Hey, some Catholic churches are allowing same sex marriages. Why not? No need for childeren, right. Something still didn't seem right. Maybe we remove one of the four regulative principles. There, that's better. Three regulative principles. A tripod is better than no-pada. Hmm. Ok. You guys and gals, open the doors. Today we are gay-friendly. Everything is adjusted. No, wait a minute. Why can't we eat meat and be Vaisnavas also. Some of the Buddhists do, don't they? Ok. meat-friendly Vaisnavas or Himsa-friendly Vaisnavas. That's better. Now, let's see, what about intoxication. Why can't we come drunk to your temple? Hmm. Ok. Drunk-friendly Vaisnavas. This is getting rather absurd, don't you think. Ok. Last. Gambling-friendly Vaisnavas. Yeah, now our temples are adjusted. No more four regs! Yeah, now we can do anything we want. We will all be gurus, right? Why not? We're free.. MORAL of this story: A Vaisnava is A Vaisnava is A Vaisnava. Or if that moral is unclear: You don't become more happy and friendly by doing away with all your teachers, past, present and future. Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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