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Oath

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 7

SB 7.5.23-24, Purport:

In other places, the following offenses are listed: (a) to be against the scriptural injunctions of the Vedic literature or to disrespect within one's heart the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam while externally falsely accepting its principles, (b) to introduce differing śāstras, (c) to chew pan and betel before the Deity, (d) to keep flowers for worship on the leaf of a castor oil plant, (e) to worship the Deity in the afternoon, (f) to sit on the altar or to sit on the floor to worship the Deity (without a seat), (g) to touch the Deity with the left hand while bathing the Deity, (h) to worship the Deity with a stale or used flower, (i) to spit while worshiping the Deity, (j) to advertise one's glory while worshiping the Deity, (k) to apply tilaka to one's forehead in a curved way, (l) to enter the temple without having washed one's feet, (m) to offer the Deity food cooked by an uninitiated person, (n) to worship the Deity and offer bhoga to the Deity within the vision of an uninitiated person or non-Vaiṣṇava, (o) to offer worship to the Deity without worshiping Vaikuṇṭha deities like Gaṇeśa, (p) to worship the Deity while perspiring, (q) to refuse flowers offered to the Deity, (r) to take a vow or oath in the holy name of the Lord.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 33:

After He had stolen some yogurt from the pots of two gopīs, Kṛṣṇa told one of His gopī friends, "My dear beautiful friend, I can take oath that I have not stolen even a drop of yogurt from your pot! But still your friend Rādhārāṇī is very shamelessly smelling the flavor of My mouth. Kindly forbid Her from this devious policy of putting Her face near Mine." When Kṛṣṇa was speaking like this, the friends of Rādhārāṇī could not check their laughter. This is an instance of laughter in ecstatic love.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Canakya, Canakya Pandit. He was a great politician and brāhmaṇa.

Yamunā: Was he in Lord Caitanya's time?

Prabhupāda: No, no. He was five thousand years..., not. Three thousand years.

Haṁsadūta: He was a great devotee?

Devotee: No.

Haṁsadūta: No?

Guest (1): He was politician. He was a mathematician.

Prabhupāda: He was very learned scholar, brāhmaṇa, rigid brāhmaṇa. That's all.

Guest (1): He was insulted once in boyhood by something of Mahātmānanda.

Prabhupāda: Nanda.

Guest (1): Then he took oath that "All right, today I turn my (indistinct) and one day I will dethrone you from here. Then you can call me (indistinct)," and he went away. (tells story)

Haṁsadūta: Great determination.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yamunā: He was a great devotee?

Prabhupāda: No.

Yamunā: So he's not authority.

Prabhupāda: No, no, he was not authority in the spiritual sense. He was a politician, moralist, politician. That's all. Worldly man.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Atreya Ṛṣi: ...has done, and what everyone likes to do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Atreya Ṛṣi: And then we will decide.

Jayatīrtha: That's nice. That's nice. So I can go on and read these...?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: I hope this isn't, er... Anyway, this is discussing the responsibilities of the GBC men in their zones. So we've already said to organize opening new temples, to appoint temple presidents for new temples, to be responsible for training all temple presidents and insuring spiritual standards. In the case of major deviation or resignation...

Prabhupāda: Now, you... First of all, you finish one business. That Oath of Allegiance, so addition, alteration, you have made, complete, so that it may be typed?

Jayatīrtha: Satsvarūpa is...

Satsvarūpa: The only thing we've done is comment that Asnani's form hasn't specified on devotional principles.

Prabhupāda: So make addition, alteration, I say. You amongst yourselves.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, add that one must follow four regulative prin...

Satsvarūpa: I can just add what Brahmānanda Mahārāja has.

Prabhupāda: So do it amongst yourselves.

Jayatīrtha: All right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda wants to finalize.

Prabhupāda: Discuss and do it, and make a final...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Oath of Allegiance is a legal document also, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Eh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's both a legal document and a spiritual document.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Everything we have is spiritual.

Prabhupāda: We cannot avoid.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But there must be legal also. That's the point.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: So somebody can read it?

Prabhupāda: So next make this final.

Atreya Ṛṣi: I recommend that you put Brahmānanda Swami's reco..., on the top part, just...

Prabhupāda: Hmmm? What is that?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Brahmānanda Swami's proposals, top portion, we'll just add?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So whatever you make, addition, alteration, make it copied.

Atreya Ṛṣi: And give it to be typed.

Prabhupāda: Don't keep it. Finish one business.

Satsvarūpa: So it's just a matter of typing it, then?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Satsvarūpa: We can't sign anything now. It's not any...

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, you are... You make some addition, alteration, to that. So make it complete. Then retype and then sign.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Now I have elected this committee in Europe because the German trouble is going on. When the German trouble is over, there is no need of committee. It is only for this particular purpose because there we have to defend court, we have to see... So two, three heads, not one head. One head may be puzzled. Committee means for special purposes. Otherwise, the standing committee, GBC, is already there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just as a question...

Prabhupāda: Just like I appointed the committee to investigate...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bali Mardana.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that committee is not standing. Yet similarly, a committee may be formed for some special circumstances, but otherwise the GBC committee is sufficient.

Jayatīrtha: The main point about that is that the GBC, we all meet together once a year...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And form all, what is to be discussed, what you are going to do, future. Just like you can discuss the German affairs, and find out how to defend ourselves. Of course, it is in the hands of the lawyer. Still, we can suggest...

Jayatīrtha: Take, for another example, there's the ISKCON Food Relief Program. Now, last year we discussed this, but no one was given any specific responsibility for it, and nothing really has been... Some money has been collected, but nothing major has been done. My idea would be that if there were a committee, say, of two, three men formed who would conjointly discuss and work on these projects, such as this ISKCON Food Relief, then more would get done.

Haṁsadūta: No, I think it's entirely an individual...

Prabhupāda: I think this Oath of Allegiance should be signed by the presidents also.

Jayatīrtha: That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Also.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not only the GBC, but the president.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I just want to ask a question. We're in a... This meeting right now is concerning ISKCON and the GBC, but are we going to have some kind of meeting regarding the BBT? Because that's a very pressing matter also. Is that going to come in in these discussions, or are we going to have a separate meeting?

Prabhupāda: The BBT I am conducting personally.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But you mentioned in Miami... This is the reason I'm bringing it up. In Miami we mentioned that we would be discussing at Māyāpur. Something, you know, should be done so that...

Prabhupāda: What is that something? The first something is that everyone is complaining that they are not getting books. You just, first of all, do it, how to stop these complaints.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I don't think that part is anymore important.

Atreya Ṛṣi: "I further state that I am holding monies and movable and immovable..."

Prabhupāda: No, why he's...? He's not holding money, GBC.

Atreya Ṛṣi: So this I'll take out.

Prabhupāda: No, GBC, practically does not hold any money.

Atreya Ṛṣi: No.

Prabhupāda: Then why you...?

Haṁsadūta: You can say, "Any monies or properties under my direction..."

Jayatīrtha: That's what it should say.

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is that?

Haṁsadūta: Under, under his direction. Any monies or properties under his direction.

Atreya Ṛṣi: That would be a separate oath. That would be a separate thing, Prabhupāda.

Haṁsadūta: Maybe that should just be left out because if we're going to have some legal document like an umbrella, then that will take care of all those things.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Well, that should be in the pledge, in the agenda.

Prabhupāda: No, no, GBC... Does GBC members deal with money?

Haṁsadūta: No, he does not personally. He doesn't have anything personal.

Prabhupāda: No, no. I mean...

Brahmānanda: But he puts his signature.

Atreya Ṛṣi: No, no. As GBC, we do not deal with money. In other words, if you're dealing with money, it's the temple president.

Prabhupāda: The GB...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Not as...

Prabhupāda: The GBC should see that it is being done properly. Why he should...?

Haṁsadūta: But sometimes it...

Prabhupāda: ...involve himself in the...

Rūpānuga: Well, for example, in New York...

Prabhupāda: ...internal management?

Rūpānuga: Well, in New York, for example, I just recently signed with Gopī-jana-vallabha Prabhu the papers on the farm. I signed conjointly with him on the farm because the officers had to sign, and we just recently had a thing in New York, ISKCON, Los Angeles, New York.

Prabhupāda: No, no, "sign" another thing. That I have signed, many.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes Mahā-Viṣṇu wanted to see Kṛṣṇa. That is mentioned in the Bhāgavata, and He took Arjuna with Him.

Indian man: That's right. That's right. My father, mother, did their entire lifetime pūjā of Śrīnāthajī, Śrīnāthajī.

Prabhupāda: Śrīnāthajī is Gopāla.

Indian man: Śrīnāthajī, we consider Him as Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes, He is Kṛṣṇa. He's our Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava. It is decided by the court. Śrīnāthajī, there are... Mādhavendra Purī's worshipable Gopāla... He discovered Gopāla in Govardhana. That Gopāla was delivered to... Who is the ācārya? Vallabhācārya. And it is decided by the court that Śrīnāthajī originally belongs to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, by the court. This Mādhavendra Purī is the spiritual master of Īśvara Purī. And Īśvara Purī is the spiritual master of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So from Mādhavendra Purī is Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava. So his Deity is Gopāla. That Gopāla is Śrīnāthajī.

Indian man: When I was a young boy, eight years old, I went to Śrīnāthajī with my father, mother, and there I had to take the brahma-samāna,(?) which is the oath, taking of the oath in front of the Mahārāja and the priest of the Śrīnāthajī temple. And is that equal to initiation, or is that just a ceremony by itself?

Prabhupāda: No, initiation is another ceremony.

Indian man: What are the qualifications required for a person in working life like me, household like me, like myself, to get initiated?

Prabhupāda: No, you can be initiated. There is no... Because you are following the rules and regulations. That's it. We initiate a person who follows the rules and regulations.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I'd just like to point out to Your Divine Grace that preaching center means no Deities. It just means Pañca-tattva worship.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And if we find that there's good...

Prabhupāda: The devotees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And if there's good reaction from the people in the city, then later on we can propose to install Deities.

Satsvarūpa: Then we switched onto other topics. There was a resolution that there will be no marriages of girls until they are sixteen years old, not before.

Pañcadraviḍa: What about the schools?

Gargamuni: That's for America.

Rāmeśvara: In America.

Satsvarūpa: In America. The next resolution is that each GBC member is advised to take a turn as Śrīla Prabhupāda's secretary and they should approach Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja for that assignment. Then another resolution: All devotees are expected to shave their heads once a month. If there is a necessity to keep hair, it shall not be longer than it would grow in one month. Next resolution: Individual GBC members are responsible for their presidents signing the oaths of allegiance to ISKCON and Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Pañcadraviḍa: Can I say one thing? I think we should say that to Śrīla Prabhupāda that this resolution regarding the women was also to establish schools for them to protect them from local laws, to establish schools where they can learn domestic arts.

Rāmeśvara: That's true.

Pañcadraviḍa: That was passed.

Satsvarūpa: Resolved: Tuṣṭa Kṛṣṇa's group in New Zealand and Siddha-svarūpānanda Swami in Hawaii should pay the same price for BBT books as the temples in the ISKCON, not less, as they are paying now. It is well known that these groups preach actively against ISKCON. In response, although we should point out their philosophic defects, we should not directly confront them but remain aloof from...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, no fighting with them.

Prabhupāda: This is to give them chance. They are chanting. Some way or other, keep them alive.

Satsvarūpa: Resolution: An international life membership committee is formed headed by Brahmānanda Swami and Jayatīrtha, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, and Ādi-keśava Swami. Each GBC man is responsible to try to recover devotees, blooped devotees, in his zone. That means fallen devotees. Say, if Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa has left, then wherever he is living in the world, that GBC man of that area should try to contact him, or Madhudviṣa, like that. They're responsible for them, trying to recover them. Resolved: A committee to be formed to discuss the improvements in the Māyāpur festival and set programs. Advisory committee of Jayapatākā Swami, Rāmeśvara Mahārāja, Bhavānanda Swami, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, Mahendra and Balavanta. This is an advisory committee which will plan for an action committee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you repeat who they are?

Satsvarūpa: Jayapatākā Swami, Rāmeśvara Swami, Bhavānanda Swami, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, Mahendra and Balavanta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is this for the festival? Could I be added to them? Is that all right, Śrīla Prabhupāda? I'd like to be added to that committee to help with the festival if that's all right with the GBC.

Gurukṛpā: Sure.

Satsvarūpa: Next year at the Māyāpur festival, separate but equal facilities will be arranged for the women. It was felt that they weren't equal this year, that perhaps next year the new building could be divided in half, that they could have the same type of facility but kept separate.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Now we have got enough place.

Discussions -- June 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: We had a GBC meeting, and we made a system so that there are three GBC men assigned to every American property, and they can't even be mortgaged without the signature of these three men.

Prabhupāda: And that declaration should be taken. That you are already taking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I am in the process of getting them all, oaths of allegiance.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Oath of allegiance. That should be maintained.

Rāmeśvara: So we've already fixed it up for the American temples, with three GBC men assigned to each building, but it hasn't been mentioned in the will.

Prabhupāda: No, why not?

Rāmeśvara: It should be. So we'll have to add a clause...

Prabhupāda: Add it.

Rāmeśvara: ...to deal with the other properties.

Prabhupāda: Add it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Add it right now, Prabhupāda says. "Temples outside of India..." That's how it should be worded. "Centers" or "Temples outside of..."

Rāmeśvara: "Properties outside of India."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Properties outside of India may only be..." I think we can say, "in principle should not be..."

Prabhupāda: There should be inventory of all the properties in this will.

Correspondence

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Paramahamsa -- Vrindaban 4 September, 1975:

Regarding Manasvi, you should immediately prosecute. The charge should be Breach of Trust and Misappropriation of Funds. I have received today the Oath of Allegiance duly signed by him and notarized. When required it will be supplied to you. Therefore I wanted this declaration. Immediately prosecute.

Page Title:Oath
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:29 of Jun, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=0, Con=7, Let=1
No. of Quotes:10