For his final class in Bombay, Prabhupada elaborated upon some of the qualities of a brahmacari described by Narada Muni. One of these qualities is dakshah, or expert. He gave the example of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami who was completely disinterested in material affairs. Yet when it was required, he rescued his uncle from a difficult situation by expert political dealings. Prabhupada said that being a devotee does not mean we cannot do anything else. “This is called dakshah.” Not that because he has become Krishna conscious and Vaishnava, he is unable to do anything of this material world. No. One who is Krishna conscious, he is conscious of everything, and he knows how to deal with them. That is called dakshah; not that ‘Because I have become Krishna conscious I have no knowledge in other things.’ No. That is intelligence, to know something of everything and to know everything of something. That is wanted. You may be expert, a devotee. You know everything of devotional service, but you should not be callous. You know something of everything.”
Another quality he described was sraddadhanah, being fully faithful to the words of one’s spiritual master. Of course, Srila Prabhupada is the epitome of this quality. He told us that when he read a purport on a verse in Bhagavad-gita by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, he realized the importance of his Guru Maharaja’s instruction to him to preach in the English language. He urged us to take particular note of the Thakura’s advice. “sraddadhanah, faithful. Faithful to whom? To the spiritual master. Whatever he says, the brahmacari should take it: ‘Yes, it is my life and soul.’ That is the explanation given by Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. He is explaining with reference to the verse vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana. He very nicely explains. You have perhaps read it. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has taught very, very nicely about guru. Therefore he has written in Gurv-ashtaka, ‘yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah.’ “He is the practical example of guru-bhakti, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. He accepted his guru, Narottama dasa Thakura. So he said, ‘I am not interested for my salvation or going back to Godhead. I am not interested. Interested means it may come; it may not come. That I don’t mind. But I am interested only with the words of my guru. That is my life. Whether I will be successful or not successful, it doesn’t matter. I must take the words of my Guru Maharaja as my life and soul.’ Actually that is the secret of success. Yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau, tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakasante mahatmanah. So that is the secret of success, sraddadhanah, to accept the words of guru very, very faithfully.”
Prabhupada’s words had all the more impact because he is the embodiment of faith in guru. With nothing more than faith in the words of his spiritual master, he struggled for thirty years to preach in India before Krishna rewarded his efforts with the phenomenal success of his worldwide ISKCON society. It is evident that all the secrets of Vedic knowledge have been revealed to Prabhupada, and now he is revealing his secret of success to us.
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 1 by Hari Sauri Dasa
