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When I had joined, that time had come,
I remember, and it was in May of 1971.
So, the Sunday feast came, my first Sunday feast,
which was a big deal in ISKCON in those days.
[The Path of Singing, Dancing and Feasting]
And I remember this one devotee, his name was Baladev,
and it was the custom of the brahmacharis,
everyone really, but especially the brahmacharis,
to not only shave your head on Sunday, but what we call 'back-shave'.
You can shave your head, but 'back-shave' means
if you go in the other direction, then it's very shiny.
So we like to do that: back-shave our heads, tilak.
This was the feast; an opportunity to preach to people,
a really joyous celebration.
And Guru Mahārāj quotes Vasu Gosh the famous, of
"Yadi gaura nâ hoito, tabe ki hoito, kemone dharitâm de
râdhâr mahimâ, prema-rasa-sîmâ, jagate jânâto ke";
his song where he reveals why Mahāprabhu came,
the joyous celebration of the glories of Rādhārāṇī and her Kṛṣṇa-prem.
But in another śloka— I don't know if it's in that song,
but in another one of his songs—he said,
"What kind of sādhana is this? Where by singing and dancing and feasting,
that's the path, that is our path; singing and dancing and feasting."
So we heard Śrīla Prabhupād say this so many times,
and I always thought that it originated with him, and perhaps it did,
but even Vasu Gosh, in the time of Mahāprabhu,
he's also saying how wonderful this process is.
So anyway, at that Sunday feast, I remember that devotee Baladev,
he was preaching to a guest and he said—
as we hear, "Brahma, Paramātmā, Bhagavān":
the jnani's target is the impersonal brāhmaṇ,
the yogi's target is the Paramātmā;
the Supersoul within the heart of every living being;
aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs: 5.35);
in the heart of every atom.
And then on that point he said, "And the yogīs,
sometimes we hear they're blazing a fire in the summer time,
a circle of fire, and sitting in that as an austerity."
Like, this type of heat. Now, imagine when it's hot like this,
to blaze a fire-circle and then sit in the centre and meditate.
Or, he said, in the Winter in Badrinath, it becomes ice-cold,
the water freezes and you have to poke through the ice to get some water to bathe,
at that time, they're meditating.
So, his point was: these yogīs, jñānīs,
they're performing so many austerities on their path.
And then he picked up a gulab-jamun; a sweet ball,
and with the sugar juice dripping down on his wrist,
he said, "But the bhakti yogi, he feasts!"
And he threw the gulab-jamun in his mouth
and went ... and juice was dripping down his chin and he was laughing,
and I thought, I like it here! I'm stayin'.
I thought, if somebody can say something like that,
that's enough for me.