A servant remembers: Nanda Kumar Das shares memories of Srila Prabhupada

A SERVANT REMEMBERS

Shri Nanda Kumar Dasa ( Craig Joseph )

This article has been originally posted on the Mithuna Twiins Astrological Services Facebook group.

Regarding the stories about stealing, here are several things that come to mind. It’s kind of long, but I hope it has value to help see things from the higher perspective.

Srila Prabhupad told me one day… “During the early part of Hitler’s attempt to conquer the world before World War II broke out, when he wanted to take over a particular area he would send spies, both physical and astral, to the enemy camp, and through gossip and telling lies and stories, they would get them to fight with each other and become divided. There is strength in unity, and he knew that if he got them to fight amongst themselves, it would disempower them, and it did. When they lost their power in this way, he would simply walk in with his men and take over without any resistance of any kind from them. Hitler was a student of the Vedas, and knew from the section that dealt with black magic how to conjour ghosts and get them to become his servant and accomplish various tasks for him. In that way, he won many of the early battles without even having to fight.”

On another occasion, Srila Prabhupad was talking about ghosts and the subtle realms, and how they affect our daily lives even though we don’t know it is happening. He said… “There is another existence going on all around you that is just as full and complete as what you experience every day, but you are not aware of it. From that place, there are many entities who do not have your highest good in mind, and are actually trying to take your power and cause you to fight with each other, since they know that is how they can conquer you. And since misery loves company, and they are suffering due to having mundane material desires with no physical body to satisfy them with, they harass those who do have physical bodies and try to get them to suffer with them, and also try to steal their energy and possessions for their own selfish desires.”

Then someone asked His Divine Grace… “Are there ghosts in this room?” He closed His lotus eyes for a few moments, then said very quietly and gravely… “They are wall to wall!” He emphasized how important it is to keep our bodies and environment very clean and free from accumulated material essence like dirty clothes, dirty plates, or having places where energy is allowed to accumulate without being cleansed on a regular basis, like under beds and in corners. He said… “In India and the Vedic culture, you never have dirty clothes around, since you wash your cloth when you take your bath. In the west, these things are not known and taught, and that is why so many places are haunted, and so many people are troubled by these entities without even knowing it. If you keep your body and environment very clean, they cannot exist and cause you trouble.”

I had a Native American teacher for several years in New Mexico. Her name was dona Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios. She was a Huichol Indian elder and shaman from Mexico who looked very much like Srila Prabhupad’s sister Pisima, and was a natural devotee who had a spiritual experience with a Deity of Lord Nrsimhadeva that I brought to one of her all night ceremonies in Taos. She told us one day… “Of all the things I have taught you, the most important is to smudge your body and surroundings morning and night with sage. Most of the problems in the material world come from the presence of ghosts, and ghosts cannot stand the smell and energy of sage, so when you smudge your body and surroundings, they leave and can’t affect you.

Another Native American smudge story is this… Once a wealthy student of Rolling Thunder, a powerful shaman and multi-tribal mystic from the Shoshone Reservation in Northern Nevada invited him and two other powerful medicine men, Semu Huaute, a California Indian, and Archie Fire Lamedeer from the Sioux Nation in South Dakota, to his home in Northern California to help him deal with a series of negative events that happened in his house and to his family. Although Archie was a native shaman, he didn’t look like a normal Sioux Indian. He wore Hawaiian shirts, had short hair and smoked a cigar, and used humor and lightheartedness in his work. The three of them knew right away what the cause of the trouble was and said that smudging with sage would take care of it. Archie started moving around the house with a smoking sage bundle, fanning it with an eagle feather over the bodies of those who were present and into all the corners and under the furniture, explaining how ghosts were the problem, and they like to hide in dark places that don’t get cleaned regularly. All of a sudden, there was a loud explosion in the attic, and although most of the people were frightened by the sound, not knowing what had caused it, Archie started to laugh and said… “I know what that was. Let’s go up there and I’ll show you!” They climbed the stairs into the attic and he pointed to an open space at the end of the room where a window had been. They went to the place and when they looked out of the hole in the wall, they saw the complete window lying in the yard 30 feet away. Archie said… “Those ghosts don’t like that sage smoke, and they’ll run away from it to avoid it. If it touches their ghostly body, it takes away their power, contrary to what it does for good people. If you don’t open a window or a door before you start to smudge, they will open it for themselves as they did here.”

Srila Prabhupad also taught us to hate the disease but not the diseased person. Another Mexican Indian shaman I’ve met and who gave me a great blessing is don Miguel Ruiz, the author of the popular book The Four Agreements. He is a Toltec Indian shaman and healer who is also a medical doctor, and one of the most powerful people I’ve ever met. One of the Agreements is “Don’t take anything personally” and it refers to how we respond when someone judges or says something about us that we don’t like or agree with or feels like an attack. It also refers to how we project blame onto others in situations like that. In the case of stealing, although the thief is responsible to some degree, the higher understanding is to avoid judging the person and judge the disease instead. The disease is being in the material world in the kali yuga and being susceptible to be affected by subtle energy and subtle entities who encourage us to dishonor other people’s boundaries, fight with each other over whatever, and steal. The big picture and spiritual understanding of theft is to catch the thief for sure, and do whatever is necessary to help them to atone, and try to prevent them from stealing again, but not to blame them or create unnecessary drama or separation at the soul level. Just like Srila Prabhupad said, if you don’t want someone to steal your things, you should lock them up, and if it happens again, get a better lock. But whatever we do, we shouldn’t fall prey to maya’s suggestion and encouragement to get caught up in the negative energy of quarrel and hypocrisy that is the prevailing atmosphere here in the kali yuga.

All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupad.

IMAGE: Shrila Prabhupada by Abhaya Mudra Dasi.

Everyone should encourage Nanda Kumar’s literary project. He has announced that he intends to write his memories of being with Shrila Prabhupada now during this holy Margashirsha month which represents Lord Krishna.