Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda told that—“A flattering person can never become a preaching personality.”
Those who are running like crazy here and there to preach the glories of Caitanya Deva without any proper achar and prachar can never be called genuine followers of Śrīman Mahāprabhu. Preaching is not a matter of advertisement.
When Śrīla Bhakti Promad Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja was asked by some devotee whether he can go for preaching, then he answered that— “What preaching? Do bhajan!” One should preach in front of himself first. All these examples can give us clear conception about actual preaching. According to gauḍīya-siddhānta our preaching and bhajan can express the same significance. Śrīla Prabhupāda told that— “To get established in the teachings of Śrīman Mahāprabhu is called preaching.”
Once my Guru-pada-padma told me that— “My son you need not run here and there unnecessarily, just try to do your bhajan perfectly, then automatically everyone will be attracted. Just like a nice flower attracts all honey bees by its sweet fragrance, not going to invite honeybees, they automatically coming to collect honey. Same way if your bhajan is perfect then everybody can come to you to get perfect guidance from you; you need not run here and there without any reason.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura used to say that Hari-kathā–kīrtana is not a matter of advertisement. First of all, we should get established in acharan to do actual Hari-nāma–kīrtana. Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that – “To chant Hari-nāma and to meet with Śrī Hari all the same”. Hari-nāma–Hari-kathā are not an object of this world. They are the transcendental sound vibration (śabda-brahma) appearing from Vaikuṇṭha on the tongue of a pure devotee. There are two kinds of śabda, one is material sound and the other is transcendental sound. Material sound is inert, it has no life itself, but śabda-brahma is non different from the object it means, it is fully cinmoye and can act according to His own will. So according to this Siddhānta only those Vaikuṇṭha pārṣads they have the right to preach actual Hari-kathā und Hari–kīrtana.
Below you will find one excerpts from the book— “My Lectures in England and German”, by Śrīla Bhakti Hridoya Bon Gosvāmī Mahārāja–
“The personality of Śrī Caitanya reveals to us the medium as identical with the Word. God is ultimately his own Medium of Appearance. Even the Sanskrit language is a product of the deluding potency of God in the same way as any other language of the world. The Word is not any language of this world. In this sense the Samskritists are not in a better position than those who are entirely ignorant of that language, for understanding the subject-matter of the scriptures of India. The misinformed Samskritist is in a worse position in this respect than the others, because he may be more disposed to rely on the resources of mundane scholarship for arriving at the Truth. But this is not the path of the Sruties or the Upanisads, which lies in the preceptorial order.
The only path is that of listening to the discourses about God that have been recorded in the scriptural literature. It is, however, also forbidden by the scriptures of the Hindus, to listen to those discourses from the lips of any person who is not a Sadhu (in true sense). We are enjoined to listen to the words of a Sadhu by the method of unconditional submission to the word of a Sadhu as well as to medium of His descent. The medium is not less divine than the Word. But this part of the doctrine was never before given to the world in its elaborate form we have it now. The personality of Śrī Caitanya has revealed the Divinity of the function of the Medium.”
Once Śrīla Prabhupāda started speaking Hari-kathā in front of a marmot gathering at the bank of Godavari River Kabur (South India) the spot where Rāya Rāmānanda-samvad took place (I mean the place where the discourse between Śrīman Mahāprabhu and Śrī Rāya Rāmānanda took place). Some of our guru-varga like Śrīla Hayagriva Brahmachari (Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Madhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja), Śrīla Ramanada Prabhu (Śrīla Bhakti Rakshak Śrīdhar Dev Gosvāmī Mahārāja) etc. were present there. Śrīla Prabhupāda went on speaking Hari-kathā continuously for two hours in Bengali language. When the Hari-kathā was over, Śrīla Hayagriva Brahmachari started speaking in front of Prabhupāda with a very humbly or appealing mood that— “Śrīla Prabhupāda! We wonder how you speak in Bengali language because they don’t understand Bengali language.” Śrīla Prabhupāda was very harsh to give the answer in low voice that— “Neither I have spoken Bengali nor English or any other language, I have only spoken Hari-kathā (Vaikuṇṭha-śabda-brahma) which can touch the heart of any fallen soul (if there is no aparādha present in them).”
At the time of Śrīman Mahāprabhu when Nityānanda and Haridas were sent from door to door to preach Hari-nāma by the order of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, then surely, we should understand that was aprākṛta Hari-nāma. Their Hari–nāma was direct Vaikuṇṭha–nāma, not a mere imitation. Also, at that time massive preaching was possible because Śrīman Mahāprabhu purposely wanted to transmit some special power among devotees (His pārṣads and followers) to make a multiple reaction in the preaching field. In the same way at the time of Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda that kind of actual preaching was only possible because Śrīman Mahāprabhu and his pārṣads they all appeared in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda while he was doing śata koṭi (hundred cores) nama- yajña at Braja Pattan (which is at present known as Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, Śrī Dham Mayapur) to give direct order to him to go for massive preaching.
Usually, we can see that some company engaging some of their representative to go for canvasing of their products, to find a nice place in the market. Do you think our original preaching is like that? Do you think we can apply the same formula?
Yes it is true that Śrīman Mahāprabhu sent Nityānanda Prabhu and Śrīla Haridas Ṭhākura to distribute Hari-nāma-kṛpā, and also it is true that Śrīman Nityānanda Prabhu opened one absolute market of Hari-nāma (Nama-hatta) at Godrumdvip to deliver all fallen souls. All our Gauḍīya guru-varga collected pūrṇa-kṛpā from that Nama Hatta by the order of Śrīman Nityānanda Prabhu, because he is the absolute authority of distributing Hari-nāma. Also, under the guidance of Śrīman Nityanada Prabhu Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura wanted to identify himself as a sweeper of that Nama Hatta, so all our guru-varga also wanted to identify as the sweeper of Nama Hatta under the guidance of Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura. The main duty of one sweeper of Nama Hatta is to sweep away all garbage from that aprākṛta Nama Hatta. They can never allow any garbage to enter into that aprākṛta Nama Hatta place to contaminate that place. That is called actual preaching, I mean the only duty of an ācārya is to give full protection to siddhānta-vani vaibhava.
So actual preaching means to distribute kṛpā of Nāma-prabhu among people in front of whom preaching done by some exalted sādhu. So those who are not completely established in the acharan and adarsha shown by Śrīman Mahāprabhu, they have no right to go for preaching. This is the order from Śrīla Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura.
So one exalted sādhu–sannyāsi can go for preaching and all other can stay under his strict guidance in the preaching field, and at least they all should have good moral character and submission, otherwise in the name of preaching day by day only garbage can increase to bring bad name of our sampradāya.
Gaura Hari Hari Bol