TEXT 15
Thus practicing control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic transcendentalist attains to the kingdom of God [or the abode of Kṛṣṇa] by cessation of material existence.
PURPORT
When one preaches or acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is in a state of active samādhi. He is either preach, or think about further plans for the preaching, or study the scriptures. Thus, he will be always, constantly connected with God and no kind of matter will defile him. In this way, anyone can become a dear servant of God, and he will gain knowledge, maturity, and spiritual senses. At the same time, there is no particular difference whether a person is in a spiritual society or outside such a society, whether he has a large social circle or a small one, whether he is married or not. And the position of a bona fide spiritual master is that he teaches all of that, as we see in the example of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
The preacher also does not need any recognition in the material world or in the spiritual community. Sometimes we get recognition and preach, then we lose recognition and continue to preach. Such a devotee practically attains all the qualities described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura, after the failure of His temple mission, after the fall of almost all of His sannyāsīs, pointed out to Śrīla Prabhupāda that in this age the main chanting is to spread the spiritual message in the form of a printed word - books - and now there is also an Internet.
Śrīla Prabhupāda also gave a personal example of how to act in the event of the death of a spiritual organization (in his case it was the Gauḍiya Math), he left it. However, in our case, this point is not required, even if the organization (ISKCON) is half-dead, one may stay there and preach to them and to the outside world, since the basis of everything is knowledge and preaching universally applicable anywhere. On the other hand, the influence of various heresies and materialism within ISKCON may be strong, therefore, a devotee may leave the organization and in many cases this can improve his position.
It is clear that being in the formal structure of ISKCON does not determine devotion to Śrīla Prabhupāda, just as it is clear that each administration wants to convince everyone otherwise. Any organization based on the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda is one of the branches of His movement in any case, and each of them can insist on its own selectness and truthfulness. They can argue with each other, and in some ways this is acceptable because it allows to better understand the philosophy and ideas of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the same way, philosophical "wars", discussions within one organization, can be useful; while the philosophy of "there are many Vaiṣṇavas, so there are many opinions and all these opinions are correct" is materialism and this is really dangerous.
When there is a spectrum of opinions or even trends in an organization, it may even be good and favorable, but such diversity will become an amorphous mess without a natural dialogue, as a result, people's consciousness will be blurred and they will lose conviction. Once again: intelligence is always needed in the spiritual life, and any rule of writing, used only externally, formally, is always wrong. The organization must work, that is, people must develop an understanding of many aspects, but following one or another formal philosophy and one or another formal rules will lead to stagnation and decline. The presence of discussions and healthy criticism allows to maintain integrity and purity, while agreeing with everything under the guise of "criticism is an insult" leads to decline. This is a living movement; otherwise there will be another Orthodox Church as a result.
Devotion to Śrīla Prabhupāda determines by understanding and adherence to Him, not by formal ISKCON membership or external discipleship. Contextual quoting of Śrīla Prabhupāda is meaningless in this regard, because one such quote (for example, that one should be in ISKCON) can be answered with other quotes and the question can be fully revealed. But the point is that some kind of social preaching by such organizations is also somewhat acceptable; and those who want to leave will still leave with or without quotes.
Śrīla Prabhupāda created the organization mainly for the publication and distribution of books, he did not have a mission to create something else. The organization as a collection of temples or monasteries was a failure at the beginning of the last century; however when the distribution of books increased, Śrīla Prabhupāda practically showed how everything else is born out of the distribution of His books: temples, communities, and so on.
The life of a temple or community is given by the distribution of books or the philosophy of Śrīla Prabhupāda, everything else will be some kind of sectarianism. We don't even need to try anything like that, everything has already been tested by other denominations and there is a result. The temple should be supported mainly by money from the distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, but not by money from other sources. This rule is specially established so that society does not perish spiritually.
In other words, if temples or community are supported by other incomes, the temples may remain, but there will be little spiritual life in them. We know that it is not always easy to maintain a temple by distributing books, but in another case, only rituals and public programs will remain in the temples. There are already many such temples around the world, but they are of little use. God does not need another series of materialists in religion; it makes no sense to create another clone of the Protestant or Orthodox Church.
There is no difference between a Christian rite or a Hindu rite, between the formalized Bible or the formalized books of Śrīla Prabhupāda from which contextual quotes are often extracted just to justify one's own materialism. One way or another, temples and an ordinary church have not been counted for a long time, since 1935 such plans have not existed, therefore: "harer nāma" - where there are an open discussions and distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, there will be spiritual life.
The future became so clear. After some time the material world will read Śrīla Prabhupāda's books even more, so the books were printed, and they must continue to be printed and distributed - they will all be in demand. The x-hour - a nuclear war or other catastrophes - could have already come many times, but thanks to the preaching, it is still being postponed. Humanity has long earned the consequences, but the distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and preaching on them sanctifies this world, and people are given more time to accept spiritual life voluntarily and not under the blows of their fate. It is our business to try to follow instructions, and it is not our business to think whether the result will work or not. Even if one book is distributed per year, one still need to follow this instruction. We also need to read and understand these books ourselves.
Criticism of materialistic religious organizations is good both for them and for the preacher; but if they somehow painfully react to this, then one can not criticize them but simply preach the spiritual message oneself. Those who follow the instructions receive the blessings, the presence or absence of membership in the organization does not play any role in this. A spiritual mission is a "spiritual preaching machine" based on open communication, but it is not a gathering of people who are engaged in satisfying each other's senses, searching for earnings, or enjoying real or fictional rasas. The age of Kali is very strong and many people simply do not understand where humanity is going, to what consequences, and that their methods of solving problems do not represent anything significant. One way or another, nowadays the situation is not very good everywhere; and we are interested in preaching, only it can really change something for the better inside the denomination and outside it.
TEXT 16
There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogī, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.
PURPORT
Sleep is an absolute waste of time. When a person develops spiritually, he begins to see this and he becomes sorry to waste time on sleep. It seems to us that sleep is a kind of pleasure while we are in an illusion, but having a higher consciousness, a person understands that this lapse into unconsciousness is not good. However, sometimes a person needs to sleep more due to heavy loads, in this sense, sleep is a good thing because after resting one can continue to preach in an even mind. All such external components as sleep, food, and others can always be assess in terms of their help to spiritual life. It helps - it means good, it interferes - it means bad.
As far as food is concerned: a spiritually developed person does not attach much importance to it. The preacher as a soul is active, therefore all functions of the body work well, and when the fire burns well in the body then almost any food is easily digested. Of course, devotees cook for God and therefore do it as best as possible, but food is spiritualized from the level of human consciousness and not from the quantity and material quality of food. Also the offering process is a part of the pāñcarātrika. All together it means that one shouldn't make too much cult of food. Lord Caitanya was offered dozens of types of food, and when we will preach on the uttama level then we can afford such a variety. On the other hand, there are many examples of great devotees eating very sparsely, so it is better to be just practical with food.
Of course, the altar, the deity, and the offering of food are an essential part of neophyte devotee's spiritual life and devotion. However, now I regret that at one time I did not understand what is important in spiritual life and what is secondary, and I lost a lot of time on things that not so important. Fortunately, we had a real spiritual teacher who encouraged us to distribute books or sometimes even pushed us to distribute books. This is also why good spiritual experience was accumulated. A person who did not actively distribute books or preach in his life, will not understand many things until the end of his days and will not get rid of significant defilements. There is simply nothing to replace it, nothing to make up for it. Sannyasa means going door-to-door preaching therefore a devotee who distributes books is a real sannyāsī. Titles are not important, the experience that he gets is important.
TEXT 17
He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.
PURPORT
Everything should be regulated, only preaching has no boundaries. A person can preach constantly and sometimes interrupt for some food and sleep. Real preaching leads one into samādhi, and Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote his books exactly at this level. God just dictates everything. The same thing happens to varying degrees when we preach on the street, on the Internet, or give lectures. This is the highest position of a devotee. In a sense, this is higher than a personal relationship with God. No matter what rasa a person is in, God will always be satisfied with the preaching and it never brings dissonance to the relationship with Him.
It is both easy and difficult to satisfy Lord Caitanya. On the one hand, He does not consider offences and bless everyone. But in the later period of His presence He was strict, and it was almost impossible to approach Him. Therefore, serving Śrī Caitanya in His highest mood is a difficult task.
"Some learned devotees say that Navadvīpa is identical with the land of Vrndavana. Others say that Navadvīpa is actually the spiritual planet Goloka. Some say that Navadvīpa is the planet Śvetadvīpa, and others say that Navadvīpa is actually the spiritual sky of Vaikuṇṭha. All glories to the wonderfully splendid land of Navadvīpa" (Gaura-Gaṇoddeśa-Dīpikā, 18).
It is difficult to determine where Lord Caitanya is in the spiritual world. His abode is all taken together, but it is also different from everything else. He reveals Himself to those who are consistently elevated and thus devotee can see His abode. Lord Kṛṣṇa is available in Goloka, devotees of all rasas live with Him; on the planet of Lord Caitanya there are mainly His disciples and His preachers. However, in another sense, Lord Caitanya does not live in the spiritual world, He continuously preaches in the material worlds, experiences the eternal happiness of His feelings. He has no other interests than preaching the holy name and His higher feelings, but this is the secret of His favor.
Lord Caitanya is powerful in appearance, and He is powerful in his feelings. He is God, the source of all incarnations, He is manifest both the greatness of Lord Nārāyaṇa and the attraction and feelings of Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Rādhārāṇī's feelings multiplied by His strength constitutes His beauty and the power of His emotions. The Supreme king, the king of the Supreme rasa - from Him emanates the greatness of such love. All the devotees in His abode are as golden as He is.
TEXT 18
When the yogī, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in Transcendence—devoid of all material desires—he is said to have attained yoga.
PURPORT
All these rules and regulations constitute a series of conditions, the purpose of which is to bring a person to God. When a person reaches the realization of God, the rules begin to play a lesser role for him, but they need to be explained to those who are below. This material world is a hellish place where thousands of problems constantly arise, so a devotee has to develop perfect intelligence by thinking for himself and for others. And just as the mystical yogī hones his exercises year after year, so the devotees hone their preaching. The preachers have unlimited patience and they are far superior to any of the yogīs.