If I think I am vaisnava I may think

[Paramananda das]

dear vaisnavas
Please accept my humble obaisences
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
This is to address to controversy and misunderstanding related with a lecture of Gaura Govinda Maharaja posted in the Email magazine of Madhavananda das Prabhu
your servant
Payonidhi das


Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has prayed:
(1)
kṛpā koro vaiṣṇava ṭhākura, sambandha jāniyā
bhajite bhajite, abhimāna hau dūra
(2)
‘āmi to vaiṣṇava’, e buddhi hoile, amānī nā ho’bo āmi
pratiṣthāśā āsi’, hṛdoya dūṣibe, hoibo niraya-gāmī
(3)
tomāra kińkora, āpane jānibo, ‘guru’-abhimāna tyaji’
tomāra ucchiṣṭha, pada-jala-reṇu, sadā niṣkapaṭe bhaji
(4)
‘nije śreṣṭha’ jani, ucchiṣṭthādi dāne, ho’be abhimāna bhāra
tāi śiṣya taba, thākiyā sarvadā, nā loibo pūjā kā’r
(5)
amānī mānada, hoile kīrtane, adhikāra dibe tumi
tomāra caraṇe, niṣkapaṭe āmi, kāńdiyā luṭibo bhūmi
TRANSLATION
1) O Vaisnava Thakura! Please give me your mercy – knowledge of my relationship with Bhagavan and the ability to do bhajana, sending my false ego far away.
2) If I think “I am a Vaisnava,” then I will never become humble. My heart will become contaminated with the hope of receiving honor from others, and I will surely go to hell.
3) Give me the mercy that I can renounce the false conception of my being guru and can be your servant. Let me accept without duplicity your remnants and your foot-bath water.
4) By thinking that I am superior (guru) and giving my remnants to others, I will bring about my destruction. Let me always identify as your disciple and not accept any worship or praise from others.
5) In this way I can renounce the desire for honor for myself and can offer respect to others. Weeping sincerely at your lotus feet and rolling on the ground, I pray that you will give me the ability to chant nama purely.
Certainly this song is for all of us, not only for those gotten an official stamp of approval in ISKCON to be a Guru, but it is especially meant for them as it is a song about a devotee accepting worship
Gaura Govinda Maharaja has asked us to focus our attention on this one sloka:
āmi to vaiṣṇava’, e buddhi hoile, amānī nā ho’bo āmi
pratiṣthāśā āsi’, hṛdoya dūṣibe, hoibo niraya-gāmī

If I think “I am a Vaisnava,” then I will never become humble. My heart will become contaminated with the hope of receiving honor from others, and I will surely go to hell.

There is so many pitfalls when one thinks ;"I am a vaisnava".Lets analyze a few of them:
If I think I am vaisnava I may think ,let me take this sloka of Bhaktivinoda ( ami to vaisnava) and beat others with it that they are not vaisnavas only me( obviously this is for internal contemplation,not to be used as a rod against others,thus creating vaisnava aparadha, justifying ones own shortcomings and lazing out at others,Krsna Himself may have told a devotee, you are my dear devotee,how are we to know?Srila Prabhupada once told a devotee that asked this question if he has served Krsna his whole life certainly he should be seen as a devotee, jivera svarupa hoy Krsna nitya das)
If I think I am vaisnava I may think "I am "natural" vaisnava", and therefor I do not have to strictly follow regulative principles and chant minimum 16 rounds.
I if think I am vaisnava I may think, it is 16 rounds maximum no need to ever chant more.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think, I do not need to love and respect others.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think, I am a Guru, now let me live of the wealth of my disciples in great comfort and luxury.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think it is ok to steal money from the temple and congregation, because I am a preacher, TP, Vice TP etc.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think only Prabhupadas disciple have any advancement
If I think I am vaisnava I may think Krsna is not really the Supreme friend and controller, and well wisher,maintainer and protector of all.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think illicit sex enhances bhajan.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think there is no need to preach to the non devotees,they are demons anyway and will never listen to me or interested to buy a book about Krsna.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think temples are meant for comfort only and Srila Prabhupada is wrong when he says ,temples are not for eating and sleeping but bases from where his books are distributed.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think, no need to do service.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think, I need a new wife (or husband), Srila Prabhupada wont mind (he did speak out against divorce,he does mind)
If I think I am vaisnava I may think let me jump in a bogus way in the asramas, grhasta , sannyasa,grhamedhi (vantasi)
If I think I am vaisnava I may think I do not need to take the good advise of senior or even younger devotees, or peers.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think only sannyasis and Gurus in ISKCON and leaders are real vaisnavas,(there may be pure devotees in any asrama ,even among devotees that do not live in a temple,Srila Prabhupada himself was such an example)

If I think I am vaisnava I may think why should I read Srila Prabhupadas books, strictly fast on Ekadasis and Visnutattva apperance days.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think why should I not take grains on Janmastami and other apperance days,let me enjoy.(sastra has forbidden grains on these days)
If I think I am vaisnava I may think let me become a Guru, and then marry my own disciple(the best one I can find) and steal some money and leave ISKCON.
If I think I am vaisnava I may think ,let everyone worship my feet though I never finish even 16 rounds, or I finished 16 rounds let them worship my feet and drink my "holy carnamrta" bath my feet with Pancamrta and the Deities of Krsna with only water and some juice(Pancamrta is the actual way to bathe Deities ,not with sugar and other concocted ingredients, pancamrta is not for regular Gurus, Srila Prabhupada was a nity siddha)
If I think I am vaisnava I may think Srila Prabhupada, Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada, and all our acaryas
and Lord Caitanya are mistaken when they have asked us to chant 64 rounds every day as our first duty.(Srila Prabhupada reduced it later to minimum 16 rounds)
The list can be made longer .
The fact is this is all ways real vaisnavas do not think.On top of this Vedanta Desika (a famous acarya in the Sri Sampradayya ) in his commentary to Isopanisad has stated that those who use their worship of Lord Vasudeva for obtaining wealth is not a vaisnava (pure vaisnava).In Jaiva Dharma Bhaktivinoda Thakura has mentioned how those who are afraid of snakes and such things due to the bodily concept of life should never think they are vaisnavas.Pure vaisnavas have so many good qualities, especailly the vaisnavas in the line of Lord Caitanyam this is explained in Caitanya chandramrta by Srila Prabhodananda Sarasati Thakura:

Sri Caitanya-bhakta-mahima
Glorification of Lord Caitanya's Devotees
18 The splendid path of pure devotional service, which bewildered the great sages in the past, which material intelligence has no power to enter, which Sukadeva Gosvami was not able to understand, and which merciful Lord Krsna never revealed to His closest friend, is the place where the dear devotees of Lord Gaura happily enjoy pastimes.
19 Talk of impersonal liberation will not become bitter, the shackles of blind adherence to social and Vedic convention will not become loosened, and the tumultuous debate of Vedic scholars on the merits of various useless spiritual paths will continue as long as a devotee who is like a bumblebee drinking the nectar of Lord Caitanya's lotus feet does not appear before the eyes.
20 Where is renunciation? Where is tranquil indifference to the temptations of sense pleasure or the torments of hell? Where are great waves of humbleness? Where is uncommon prowess? Where is the path of intense devotion? Where are these virtues present in the same way they are present in those who have made Lord Gaura the goal of their lives?
21 Even once seeing Lord Gaura's handsome face, which is overcome with feelings of love of Krsna, and which has blossoming lotus eyes filled with a great flood of tears, a person becomes maddened with newer and newer feelings of devotional love. He never abandons the ocean of sweetness that is Lord Gaura's feet.
22 They who follow the rules of varnasrama-dharma, worship Lord Visnu, visit holy pilgrimage places, and study the Vedas, but do not serve the lotus feet of the dear devotees of Lord Gaura, cannot understand the transcendental abode of Vrndavana, which is beyond the reach of the four Vedas.
23 If by churning the shoreless ocean of nectar one attains the incomparably sweet essence of all nectar, that nectar will taste very bitter to those who touch the splendour of the lotus feet of Lord Krsna who now displays His transcendental form of Sri Gaurasundara.
24 Humbly thinking oneself lower than a blade of grass, natural gentleness and charm, speaking words as sweet as nectar, spitting at the insignificant sense gratification of this world, disinterest in the affairs of this world, and overwhelming love for Lord Hari are the transcendental virtues of the devotees of Lord Gaura.
25 Worship millions of the most exalted spiritual masters if you wish! Study millions of Vedic literatures if you wish! But know it is they who have attained the merciful sidelong glance of Lord Caitanya who will understand the great secret that is pure love for Lord Krsna.
26 Let renunciation be multiplied millions of times! Let millions of virtues, beginning with peacefulness, sense control, tolerance and friendliness, be multiplied millions of times! Let there be millions of meditations on the words tat tvam asi! Let there be devotion to Lord Visnu multiplied millions of times! All this taken together does not equal even a millionth part of the multitude of perfect transcendental qualities possessed by the great souls who find transcendental bliss in the splendour of the toenails of the dear devotees of Sriman Caitanyacandra.
27 Some dance so enthusiastically they seem to leap over the mountains and oceans, and others repeatedly revile Indra and the other demigods. Who among the devotees headed by Advaitacandra is not now overwhelmed with bliss in the dancing festival of Lord Caitanya?
28 In this world there has not been, there will not be, and there is not now the touch of this kind of nectar from the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is only by the great mercy of Lord Gaura, who enjoys transcendental pastimes, and by the power of devotional service to Him, that the non-envious devotees know anything about this nectar.
29 Lord Caitanya is worshipped by the Upanisads. Lord Caitanya destroys the pride of the arrogant demigods and sages who do not worship His lotus feet. Ah, what person is so fortunate that he has personally seen Lord Caitanya?
30 Even without following any religious rituals, one who wholeheartedly takes shelter of Lord Gauranga, the master of all transcendental opulences, will attain everything he might wish

those not devotees of Lord Gauranga can be summed up in one of his verses from there:
43 Pathetic is his noble birth! Pathetic is his eloquence! Pathetic is his fame! Pathetic are his scholarship, wealth, and handsome young body! Pathetic is his status as a brahmana! Pathetic is his observance of varnasrama-dharma! Pathetic is he who in the age of Kali does not worship the golden form of Lord Gopinatha
Aspiring to serve the vaisnavas that are like bumble bees at Lord Caitanyas lotusfeet.
Payonidhi das

[Paramananda das]

If we have any tinge of material desires ,then why should we think I am a devotee?

[Paramananda das]

If I am a fallen sannyasi I may think it is ok to embrace a woman .