Prabhupada and the “Party Spirit” 

Regardless of approach, everyone has a direct line to reaching Prabhupada’s mercy.  For some, it may be their service to his mission, even if they don’t find much time to read.  The heart of attachment to him is dedication, and it may be taken up in many individual ways.  Some devotees stress obedience to the vows of sadhana, and another party takes as more important the spreading of the teachings to new people.  And everyone draws examples from the life of Srila Prabhupada to support their own ways of serving him— whether by cooking, preaching, worshiping the Deities, leading kirtanas, giving classes, teaching children, or whatever.  For example, some parents believe in “indulging” their children up to the age of five because Srila Prabhupada said something to this effect.  Or some devotee parents will say Prabhupada’s father sent him to college for a career, using that as an example for their children’s future.  A business-inclined devotee will look at Prabhupada’s life during his pharmaceutical business and take direction from that.  A family man sees Prabhupada’s responsibility towards his family members as a model, and it helps him to chalk out his own life.  Each is a testimony to Prabhupada’s dearness and greatness.  In a 1966 lecture on the Bowery, Prabhupada emphasized “dovetailing our consciousness with the Supreme.”  He said, “Don’t stop your activity (that’s not possible), but act in a way that you can serve the Lord of the senses with your senses.”  So everyone’s service is possible.  And yet we must admit that there are servants who are pleasing and those who are more pleasing.

Let me not be upset or envious of the existence of the “party spirit” among Prabhupada’s followers.  Don’t be bewildered by their propaganda and by the attention Srila Prabhupada gives them.  Let me give as many authentic views as possible of Prabhupada.  Memoirs are nice, but tell them gently, not to prove that you are a good disciple or to prove one of your pet theories.  Let us appreciate how Srila Prabhupada is everyone’s best example.  Choose your own way to serve him.  A successful servant is one who thinks of him intensely while trying to carry out his instructions. Another way of saying it is that a devotee should offer his whole life and whole self to Srila Prabhupada.  Decide on how best to do this, and then give all you have as an offering to him.  Furthermore, anyone who gives himself or herself and serves Prabhupada, remembering him in a humble way, will overcome all material difficulties.  Thus it happened to Prahlada Maharaja, who was a perfect devotee in krishna-smaranam:

Thus the weapons of the demons had no tangible effects upon Prahlada Maharaja because he was a devotee undisturbed by material conditions and fully engaged in meditating upon and serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unchangeable, who cannot be realized by the material senses and who is the soul of the entire universe. —Bhag. 7.5.41

But does this mean that it is entirely individual, with no definitive view of the lilas and instructions of Prabhupada?  Yes, there is a consensus view.  The meaning of Prabhupada’s life, according to his faithful devotees, is conclusive.  Yet even within authorized ISKCON understanding and carrying out of instructions, there are inevitable parties.  This party spirit exists even in Goloka among the different wings of gopis or among devotees serving in the various rasas.  Mother Yasoda and her friends look upon Krishna’s activities differently than do the young gopis, and the cowherd boys have their own point of view.  So let us work in a party of like-minded devotees for carrying out Prabhupada’s instructions.  By taking up the service of Srila Prabhupada which most attracts our heart and to which we feel we can give our greatest efforts, we will enter into association with devotees who are like us.  A certain group, for example, will gather up from Prabhupada’s writings all he has said about living on farms and feel nourished carrying on cow protection and ox power, convinced they are carrying out Prabhupada’s most important mission.  What about those distributing his books — are they opposed to the varnasrama servants?  No, although sometimes, in the rhetoric of the party spirit, devotees may sound like that.  Let us not be agitated or discouraged by the party spirit.  Let everyone come together, at least sometimes, and appreciate Prabhupada as universal teacher.  Let’s all draw the same conclusion from his life and teachings — that he is our inspiration, which is expressed in