From Self-Respect to Self-Realization: Maslow’s Stages of Need, Faith in Gurudeva, Yukta-āhāra and the Bhajana of Rūpa-Sanātana, and the Gauḍīya Maṭha’s Preaching
• The Stages of Need: Using the “Abraham Maslow theory”, Gurudeva describes the stages that all beings pass through: first food, drink, hunger, thirst and sleep; then protection from nature and safety; then “love and belongings”, a family and companions. These first stages are found in every living being, from the insect and the animal to man, which is why the theory is drawn as a triangle.
• Self-Respect: In the fourth stage a person wants self-respect: the family for whom he sacrificed should respect him, the son should at least offer praṇāma and listen. Even in the maṭha one hopes that those for whom one has done sevā for so long will respect one.
• Parents, Property and Lost Faith: Parents educate their children but do not hand over all their property, otherwise they will have to stretch out their hand; nowadays children send parents to an old-age home and donate there rather than serve them. Ninety-nine per cent do not serve their parents; money becomes the big thing, and wills leave the property to the son only after death. Everyone says trust is finished: the son has no faith in the father, nor the father in the son.
• Self-Realization: After self-respect should come self-realization, ātma-bodha, the fifth stage. He tells his listeners to go on with firm faith in their Gurudeva: Gurudeva is there and Gurudeva is needed, so why search elsewhere, leaving him aside?
• Safety and Shelter: At night everyone needs shelter. Dacoits cut throats; in Govardhana thieves snatch a good blanket given to a sādhu and sometimes beat him. In winter one needs a hollow or a house; birds build nests, and the cuckoo lays her eggs in the crow’s nest. On the road we want a temple to stay in at night, a mosquito net, an AC or a fan, and hot water.
• Rūpa-Sanātana and Yukta-āhāra: For Rūpa-Sanātana such austerity was possible: sometimes they ate something, sometimes they drank water from a leaf, and by the influence of their bhajana not even a tiger came near, whereas to us even a dog comes. We cannot compete with them, nor with Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, who did bhajana in a latrine. Bhajana is certain, but take yukta-āhāra: accept what is favourable to your body and do bhajana. He mentions that he had told this theory in Malaysia and that it was put on Facebook.
• Prasāda in the Gauḍīya Maṭha: Recounting a visitor’s remark, he says the children of the Gauḍīya Maṭha never stay hungry; there is so much prasāda that the whole day is prasāda, little children dance in kīrtana, and pārāyaṇa is also done.
• Answering Claims of Bigger Preaching: To those who belong to the same sampradāya yet keep their distance, ask who their mūla-ācārya is. Where there is faith, love comes. More followers does not mean greater preaching: more people go to a vegetable shop than a diamond shop, and a primary school, found in every village, has far more students than a university. Putting tilaka on a donkey does not make it a bhakta; see how much you are in āśraya. “We do not criticize anyone.”
• Svāmī Mahārāja’s Sannyāsa: Svāmī Mahārāja took sannyāsa from Parama-guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who gave Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja the task of performing the saṁskāra and yajña and preparing the daṇḍa; the questioner had not heard this and was shown the photographs. “You are preaching, that is good, preach even more; but this doles not mean you are big and we are small.” The recording ends as he begins an example of the firefly.
Verses quoted
• No full verse is recited in this talk
• 00:15:40: yuktāhāra-vihārasya… [Bhagavad-gītā 6.17; alluded to only by the phrase “yukta-āhāra”, not recited]
