Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva wanted to bestow benedictions upon Prahlāda Mahārāja, one after another, but Prahlāda Mahārāja, thinking them impediments on the path of spiritual progress, did not accept any of them. Instead, he fully surrendered at the Lord's lotus feet. He said: "If anyone engaged in the devotional service of the Lord prays for personal sense gratification, he cannot be called a pure devotee or even a devotee. He may be called only a merchant engaged in the business of give and take. Similarly, a master who wants to please his servant after taking service from him is also not a real master." Prahlāda Mahārāja, therefore, did not ask anything from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rather, he said that if the Lord wanted to give him a benediction, he wanted the Lord to assure him that he would never be induced to take any benedictions for the sake of material desires. Exchanges of devotional service for lusty desires are always very prominent. As soon as lusty desires awaken, one's senses, mind, life, soul, religious principles, patience, intelligence, shyness, beauty, strength, memory and truthfulness are all vanquished. One can render unalloyed devotional service only when there are no material desires in one's mind.
Give and take
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 7
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Nectar of Instruction
Even in ordinary social activities, these six types of dealings between two loving friends are absolutely necessary. For instance, when one businessman wishes to contact another businessman he arranges a feast in a hotel, and over the feast openly expresses what he wishes to do. He then inquires from his business friend how he should act, and sometimes presents are exchanged. Thus whenever there is a dealing of prīti, or love in intimate dealings, these six activities are executed. In the previous verse, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī advised that one should renounce worldly association and keep company with the devotees (saṅga-tyāgāt sato vṛtteḥ). The International Society for Krishna Consciousness has been established to facilitate these six kinds of loving exchanges between devotees. This Society was started single-handedly, but because people are coming forward and dealing with the give and take policy, the Society is now expanding all over the world. We are glad that people are donating very liberally to the development of the Society's activities, and people are also eagerly accepting whatever humble contribution we are giving them in the shape of books and magazines dealing strictly with the subject matter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We sometimes hold Hare Kṛṣṇa festivals and invite life members and friends to participate in the feasting by accepting prasāda. Although most of our members come from the higher rungs of society, they nonetheless come and take whatever little prasāda we are able to offer them. Sometimes the members and supporters inquire very confidentially about the methods of performing devotional service, and we try to explain this. In this way our Society is successfully spreading all over the world, and the intelligentsia of all countries is gradually appreciating our Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. The life of the Kṛṣṇa conscious society is nourished by these six types of loving exchange among the members; therefore people must be given the chance to associate with the devotees of ISKCON because simply by reciprocating in the six ways mentioned above an ordinary man can fully revive his dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
It is a system in India that if somebody's invited to take prasādam, he takes something, some fruits, some sweetmeats, something, and offers to the Deity. Of course, that is distributed amongst the prasādam, but it is the system. When a, when a man goes to see a saintly person, or goes to a temple, he takes some fruit, as far as he, as he can acquire. So giving and taking, eating and feeding. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati ca. Guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. You have to hear Bhagavad-gītā and, if you have got any distress, you have got any confidential thing, you have to submit to Kṛṣṇa, "Kṛṣṇa, I am in suffering this way. I am fallen in this tossing ocean of material illusion. Kindly save me. I can understand now that I have no identification with this material world.
Now, every human being, he has got a philanthropic view. Now, the other day I met one gentleman. So I did not know that he is not a family man because in India we are supposed to accept anyone, any gentleman, as family man. So he said, "Yes, I am not family man." Then what he is doing? He is earning nicely, but he is helping one orphanage. That's nice. He said that "I have got many sons in this orphanage." That is very good. So this natural inclination for loving an orphanage is there, is there. So this give and take, this inclination, is there in the human being.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we practice this. As far as possible, we are giving and taking. We are... We have made this program, life membership. We are giving our books, knowledge. Whatever we have got, little knowledge, we have written in our books, we are giving them: "Take it." And they are also giving: "Take this eleven hundred rupees." So this is dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. And they also come here to inquire: "Swamiji, your movement is very nice.
So this little fruit, little flower and little water can be secured any part of the world by any man, poor or rich. And can be offered. Simply we have to try, we have to learn how to love Kṛṣṇa. And love begins with this give and take. You give something to your lover; he gives you, something to you. In this way love develops. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. The development takes place, loving affairs, by giving and taking. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva. When you create loving transaction with any boy or girl or any man, any friend, the give and take.
So Kṛṣṇa is teaching us give and take. "You give something," Kṛṣṇa is begging. "You try to love Me. You learn how to love Me. Give Me." "Sir, I have nothing to give You." "Oh, you cannot collect a little fruit and flower and leaf and little water?" "Oh, yes. Why not? Anyone can collect." So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is so nice.
Initiation Lectures
I give him something: "My dear, you take this." And when he offers also, if he also loves you, he also return you. Not exactly for returning. It is love to give and take. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati ca. Opening mind. "My dear lover, I like this." And the other party also opens his mind. Guhyam ākhyāti... Guhyam means very confidential things. Ākhyāti, disclosed, exchanged. Guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati ca. And bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva. And giving the lover to eat something and accept from him some eatable. These are the six ways of increasing love.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So can you make a rough sketch just of this building and in front a temple with arches. I will take and give you photograph. You have got those photographs, Śyāmasundara?
Śyāmasundara: You haven't given me yet.
Prabhupāda: Second set of photographs that was taken?
Śyāmasundara: Oh, oh, of the temple. Yes, I have.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can make drawing.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Yogeśvara: The love of which they are speaking is a love that binds everything together, that bathes everything in light and love.
Prabhupāda: So there is no action? No action?
Yogeśvara: No, he says there is action.
Prabhupāda: What are those activities?
Yogeśvara: Giving.
Prabhupāda: Giving and taking also. (break)
Yogeśvara: ...there is giving. There is also taking. But it's not... The person who has achieved this ultimate perfection, whenever he takes, he immediately gives it to someone else.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. The transaction between two lovers, one gives, another takes. Sometimes one gives, another takes, another gives, and one takes. This is exchange. Similarly, feeding. I give something to my beloved to eat something. He also gives me something. I eat also. Similarly, I disclose my confidence unto my beloved. My beloved also discloses her or his confidence. These are loving exchanges.
Prabhupāda: First symptom. Just like when a boy goes to love a girl, he brings something. That is ordinary etiquette. So first beginning of love is dadāti, pratigṛhṇāti. If I love you, I must give you. And if you offer me, I will take it, I will take something. Pratigṛhṇāti. Exchange, giving and taking. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti, bhuṅkte bhojayate. If you love somebody, give him to eat, and whatever he gives you, you also eat. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. And if you love somebody then you disclose your mind to him and try to understand him also. By these six processes the symptoms of love is there.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dhanañjaya: Jaya. This is varṇāśrama institution.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is above varṇāśrama. It is above varṇāśrama. Varṇāśrama there is give and take, but here there is no give and... Here is simply give, no take. That is above varṇāśrama.
Dhanañjaya: So the workers are giving to the devotees and the devotees are giving to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They become devotee, they will give to Kṛṣṇa. You also become devotees. Not that they become devotee and you exploit them very nicely. That is not.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Just a boy loves a girl. He presents something to the girl. So, if you accept presentation by others, we should give him also something. And, if I have got some confidential thing, I must disclose it to the lover, and the lover is also expected, he should not keep anything confidential. He should disclose it. These are the six reciprocal exchanges between the lover and the beloved. If I love you, because you are beautiful, for my sense gratification, but I keep everything secret, that is not love. That is sense gratification. Lust. These are the signs of love.
- dadāti pratigṛhṇāti
- bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva
- guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati
- ca ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam
Prīti means love. These are the symptoms. Give and take, eat and give to eat, open you mind, and know the other party's mind also. This is love. The more you increase the six kinds of exchange, there is increase in the love.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is for this purpose. People may come, see God, then you can think of God. There is no difficulty. If you see something, you think of it. That is man-manā bhava. And if you regularly do it then you become a devotee. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī. And when you come to the temple you worship Him. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26). Worshiping means give and take. Take blessings and offer little fruit or little flower. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. And if you cannot do anything, just offer your obeisances. Very simple thing. Even the child can perform it. But they will not do it. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhā prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Why does he not do it? That is explained.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: These six is sufficient.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You gave two. He wanted to know what the first...
Prabhupāda: Oh, dadāti pratigṛhṇāti, to give and to accept. And (Hindi), to give him food, and when he offers, take it. You open your mind to him and let him open his mind to you. Guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. Guhyam means confidential. Unless you love me, how can I speak to you my confidential subject? So give and take, the English word is love. This is love, beginning. In European, American countries there is free love. So they offer flower. He or she accepts. And in this way love begins. Kṛṣṇa also says, love of Kṛṣṇa begins also in that way. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. (break) These things. Simply with love if you offer to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa: aham aśnāmi, "I eat." Is Kṛṣṇa hungry? Tad aham aśnāmi. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Tad aham aśnāmi. Yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. The real thing is love. Patraṁ puṣpam is no value. Or luci puri is no value. The real value is love.
Rāmeśvara: How much have you paid so far?
Jayapatākā: Since April I've paid twenty-one thousand.
Rāmeśvara: He's already paid twenty-one thousand rupees of it back.
Prabhupāda: So you can take fifty thousand also. If they have returned twenty-one thousand, you can pay fifty thousand, loan more.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can pay fifty thousand...?
Rāmeśvara: He'll take a loan.
Prabhupāda: Give and take, give and take, give and take.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The thing is, I've given them seventy thousand...
Prabhupāda: That's all right. They have returned twenty-one thousand.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Then you can pay another fifty thousand. In this way transaction will go on.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: At the present moment BBT can't give them so much money.
Prabhupāda: So give them something. Twenty-one thousand give them, thirty thousand. Then again... If they are returning, you give them. Give and take, give and take.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But that returning which we are doing, we are putting in a separate Bengali...
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, it is returning.
Rāmeśvara: Our idea is that from all the money that is collected, we will reinvest in Bengali books.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Prabhupāda: Besides that, whenever you require money, you can ask. He'll give.
Kīrtanānanda: Thank you, Prabhupāda. I prefer to give it. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: No. Give and take. (break) You are fulfilling my dream, New Vrindaban. I dreamt all these things. Wonderful things have been done. He is the first student, from the very beginning. When I was in the storefront he was bringing carpet, bench, some gong, some lamp. In this way...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's still bringing gifts.
Prabhupāda: Sevā-vṛtti, service attitude. Jaya. (pause) Live long, serve long.
Correspondence
1972 Correspondence
Why you are asking me for photos? The photo business Gurudasa knows, he will supply you. Regarding Gauracand Goswami, the Rs. 10/- is our monthly contribution towards seva puja. You can continue that, it has nothing to do with rent. Simply give and take a receipt, that's all.
| Page Title: | Give and take |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Gopinath |
| Created: | 05 of Oct, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=6, Con=10, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 19 |