ISKCON Arcana Journal -1- Anxiety for Serving Krishna is Good

The ISKCON Deity Worship Journal

®r…la Prabhup€da Speaks Out

Anxiety for Serving Krishna is Good

This exchange between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples took place in Melbourne, Austrailia, on April 26, 1976

Devotee (1): So if we’re performing the Deity worship and we get in anxiety, how to make it nice...

®r…la Prabhup€da: Yes, that is KŠa anxiety. If you become anxious how to worship the Deity, how to dress KŠa nicely, how to do, if you remain, that will develop your anxiety for KŠa. Therefore Deity worship is essential. To get up exactly in time, to offer ma‰gala-€rat…, to dress, this anxiety is the beginning of KŠa anxiety. Then, when you become perfect, you’ll always be anxious for KŠa. And that is the perfectional stage. Therefore, by the injunction of the astra, regulation, is a way of creating that anxiety. So we must follow. Then we’ll come to the real anxiety.

Guru-kpa: Not artificially.

Devotee (1): So therefore it is good that we have so much Deity worship to do that we’re very, very busy and we do not have any time to worship the Deity. We have so much to do.

®r…la Prabhup€da: So what enough time do you want? To go to the cinema? (Laughter) Then? Your time has to be occupied by KŠa anxiety. That’s all. And as soon as you go to another anxiety, then it is m€y€.

Guru-kpa: If we have four hours to dress the Deity, we can use the whole four hours. But sometimes we only have an hour and a half, so we have to rush. So that is anxiety.

®r…la Prabhup€da: No, anxiety does not mean laziness, that “I am in anxiety for four hours. The Deity cannot be opened now. I am in anxiety.” That is negligence. That is not anxiety.

Devotee (2): When we are distributing books, ®r…la Prabhup€da, and we are not doing so good and we are in anxiety, that is also spiritual? Srila Prabhupada

®r…la Prabhup€da: That is.... For selling books anxiety is KŠa anxiety. If you become very anxious how to sell more books, that is KŠa anxiety. That is not trade anxiety; that is KŠa anxiety.

Guru-kpa: So some people say that “When I go on sa‰k…rtana to sell books I become in too much anxiety if I’m not doing well, so I’d rather not do it.

®r…la Prabhup€da: No, that is KŠa anxiety. He does not know. Let him know that that is KŠa anxiety. Mother Yaoda, became the mother of KŠa so that she would always remain in anxiety for KŠa, whether KŠa is safe. That is mother’s anxiety. Therefore she became mother. How to become in KŠa anxiety? This philosophy nobody knows. Everyone takes KŠa as the father. Father means I’m anxietyless: “Father, you supply my wants.“ And to become father of KŠa means to purchase anxiety for KŠa. This philosophy they do not know. To accept KŠa as father means “My father is there. I have no anxiety.” And if you accept KŠa as your son, then you are full of KŠa anxiety. This is the philosophy. And these m€y€v€d…s, they cannot understand. They think that KŠa is born of this father and mother, how He is God? But they do not know the philosophy.

Pu˜a KŠa: They talk of €nti.

®r…la Prabhup€da: Mother Yaoda is always anxious. “KŠa is crawling. Whether He is falling down in some water or some monkey has come, hurting Him, or...?” Always. Or “He is touching some fire.” Always anxiety. And besides that, the demons are coming. So this is perfection. Always remain in anxiety for KŠa.

Guru-kpa: (break) They just think, na ocati na k€‰kati.

®r…la Prabhup€da: M€y€v€d… rascal, Caitanya Mah€prabhu has condemned them, m€y€v€d…-bhaya unile haya sarva-naa. If you have m€y€v€d… association, then your bhakti life is finished. Don’t touch them.

Drawing by bhakta Pieri Maximilian