Page 31 - OSSISPS - Eng
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3                                    preaching Means fighting

           that all else is nonsense. He was not always belligerent, but his
           “occasional aggressive tactics showed us that holy men sometimes
           have to be hell-fire men.”  As Çréla Prabhupäda said, “Sometimes
                                   1
           when we preach we have to act like kñatriyas.”  But it was not only
                                                     2
           “sometimes” that Çréla Prabhupäda would provoke and antagonize
           people. For instance, once in Japan, where few people were
           interested to assist the devotees, he blasted the Mäyäväda concepts
           of an Indian man who until then had been helping his disciples—
           thus alienating him. Later, Çréla Prabhupäda commented, “Never
           mind. One day he will appreciate how we have chastised him for
           his rascaldom.”  Another time, speaking to a man in Kolkata:
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             Prabhupäda said, “Kåñëa is the Supreme Lord, and all others are
             demigods.” The man became a little nervous and quoted a popular
             Bengali impersonalist who taught that all gods and all methods of
             worship are the same.
             “He’s an upstart,” Prabhupäda said. “That is not the teaching of the
             Gétä. What is this other teaching? It is all utter confusion.”
             “If you go on speaking like this,” the man said angrily, “I’ll have to
             leave this place. Please don’t criticize this paramahaàsa.”
             “Why not?” Prabhupäda said. “He is a concocter.” The man got up
             and left, calling out, “You don’t know Kåñëa!” as he left the room. 4
           Similar to this, on several occasions Çréla Prabhupäda got into
           shouting matches, mostly with Indians.  He described his preaching
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           technique:
             I am a little temperamental. I used to use words like rascal and so on.
             I never compromised. They used to call it “preaching with a pickax in
             one hand and a Bhägavatam in the other.” That is how I preached. 6

           1 Mukunda Goswami, Vyäsa-püjä   5 Examples are in conversations on 18
           (2010).                         Jan 1971, Allahabad; 22 Dec 1976, Pune;
           2 Told by Hådayänanda Däsa Goswami.  and several times with Dr. Chaturbhai
           3 See My Glorious Master, pp. 137–56.  P. Patel in Mumbai.
           4 SPl ch. 28, “India Revisited: Part 2.”  6  TKG’s Diary, 13 Oct.
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