Vapu or Vani?
Question: We often hear in lectures that Vani is more important than Vapu. Vani means instructions of the spiritual master. Vapu means physical presence of the spiritual master. My next question is we happen see the some devotees get very very good association of the spiritual master or some devotees he also inhibition and try away from talking or revealing their mind to the spiritual master and just contented to hear lectures or have darshan who is right and lucky? How should the second set of devotees be? How should they rectify themselves?
Radhanath Swami: Srila Prabhupada was in his second meeting with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. It was during the Varaja Mandal Parikrama. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was in Koshi and it was advertised that he would be giving a lecture and there was also a Parikrama going to holy place called Seshsayee. So most of the devotees went to Seshsayee but Srila Prabhupada was thinking that what will I learn at Seshsayee? All the holy places are at the lotus feet of my Gurudev. So he sat and so many people were asking questions and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati was lecturing on so many various topics of devotional service and Srila Prabhupada silently sat and listened attentively and submissively. He didn’t say anything. People were coming and people were going he was speaking from many many hours but Srila Prabhupada just sat and with an open heart and open ears just absorb what his Gurudev was saying. He said nothing to his guru, he just listened. Next day Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati left and Srila Prabhupada also left. Sometime after that at the Gaudia Matha in Allahabad, Srila Prabhupada had a business in Allahabad at that time. He was in the Grihastha Ashrama. He visited the Gaudiya Matha and one brahmachari I believe his name was Atulananda. He said that Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati is coming to give initiation and he recommended Srila Prabhupada’s name for initiation. That time his name was Abhaycharan. And he only sat in the presence of his guru twice. When Bhakti Siddhanta saw him he said yes I have noted that this young man he likes to hear. He does not go away. Just by sitting and listening attentively is inquiring submissively. If you have a question you ask it. If you have no question just by sitting in a room with hundred and two hundred and three hundred people if you are sitting and hearing attentively you are getting the most intimate association with your spiritual master. And who is the lucky one the person who is listening attentively because he is really getting the association with that spiritual master’s divine grace. In Srila Prabhupada’s life when he first came to America you know that Robert Nelson is actually a nice boy he was living with Prabhupada day and night. And so many other they were living with him day and night for months and months and months. But many of them never became devotees. They were asking so many questions, they were sitting next to him. They were very friendly with him. But they never became devotees and I know people who never spoke one single word to Srila Prabhupada in their whole life but in the few occasions they simply sat in a lecture with six- seven hundred people and they listened attentively and they dedicated their life to what they heard and they are the most intimate lucky devotees in all over the world. So we should know that “Krishna Consciousness is not quantitative it is qualitative”. As Nityaditya Maharaj said many of Prabhupada’s God brothers who are Sanyasis and brahmachari’s they were with Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati personally individually for years and years and years together almost constantly. Srila Prabhupada met with him only a few times rarely asked any questions but whatever Srila Prabhupada Bhakti Siddhanta spoke he heard attentively with the receptive heart and with the willingness to surrender what he heard. “If you listen attentively and you have the willingness to surrender to those instructions you are lucky.” And that’s what Srila Prabhupada appreciated most often times if devotees were doing very well he would not come to that place he said you are doing so well I don’t have to burden my time going there to try to inspire you, you are already doing so well. So we should understand that our receptivity is what will bring us the divine grace of our Guru and to our life.