Letters from Srila Prabhupada Vol.1 1947-1969 (in pdf) - Krishna Path

472 Letters from Srfla Prabhuptida
Murti is situated in the temple of Jagganath
Puri. Sometimes when you may go
to India and visit the temple of Jagganath,
you will find this Murti.
Affection for God-brothers is nice, it is
a good sign. Affection for God-brothers
as well as for all other living entities, even
they are not God-brothers, these signs are
seen in the advanced devotees. There are
three kinds of devotees: The lower grade
devotees, they have high regard for the
Deity in the temple, but not very much
regard for devotees or people in general .
The second grade devotee takes compassion
with innocent non-devotees. In that
stage, he has got 4 kinds of vision: one is
that he always keeps Krishna as the most
Lovable Object, second is that he makes
intimate friendship with his devotee Godbrothers
or any other devotees, third is
that he takes compassion with innocent
non-devotees, and tries to convince them
about the importance of Krishna Consciousness,
and fourth is that he does not
take any serious interest for the atheist
class of men. The first grade devotee, of
course, sees everyone in relationship with
Krishna and as such, he makes no distinction
between a devotee or non-devotee.
His vision is high grade, because he sees
that everyone is engaged in Krishna's service
directly or indirectly. This position of
high-grade devotee should never be imitated.
It was possible only in Lord
Chaitanya or Lord Nityananda, or Haridas
Thakur. Thakur Haridas was so powerful
that he could convert even a harlot.
But we should not try to imitate Haridas
Thakur or Lord Chaitanya. Our position
is in the second grade platform. We
should not be satisfied remaining in the
third grade platform. But we should try to
elevate ourselves in the second grade platform.
So far the first grade platform is
concerned, it is not attained by our endeavor,
but it is possible when we have full
Grace of Krishna. It completely depends
on the causeless Mercy of Krishna.
Subhadra is yoga maya. The spiritual
energy is called yoga maya. And she has
16 different expansions. Out of these 16
expansions, Subhadra is one. The mahamaya
of the material energy is also expansion
of the energy of yogamaya; and both
yogamaya and mahamaya are equally important
to Krishna as much as any government
department is equally important for
functioning of the government. The police
department may be horrible for the criminals,
but to the government it is a department
as good as university department.
Similarly, mahamaya is horrible to the
conditioned soul, but to the liberated soul,
there is no fear of mahamaya, because he
is protected by yoga maya. It is stated in
the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna said the
following: "I am not visible to everyone
on account of being curtained by yoga
maya." So when a conditioned soul surrenders
unto Krishna, the yogamaya
winds up the curtain and Krishna is visible
to the devotee.
Hoping you are all well.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami