Srila Prabhupada talks about Bhagavat saptaha or the 7-day recitation of SB which we know is not the process to be followed in this age. Just because Sukadev Goswami did it for Parksit maharaja, does not mean we do the exact same thing.
Actually, the SB clearly states within the text that nitya bhagavata sevaya-always chanting, 24 hours daily, then all the dirty things in the heart become washed away. Not just for 7 days which is the watered-down version.
When it was brought up Prabhupada’s reply was- no acarya has mentioned this 7-day recitation of SB. And yet we see in various “institutions” around us they encourage this Bhagavata saptaha affair because they know the sentimental Hindus will pay for it, but they keep the blind followers in the dark about the actual way to worship and serve Srimad Bhagavatam. This is misleading and once again proves to those who know and care, they are not fit to be spiritual leaders.
damaghosa das
————————–
That must affect them. [break]
Srila Prabhupāda: …saptāha, it is not authorized.
Acyutānanda: No. But in some editions of Bhāgavatam they have a Bhāgavata–māhātmyam, and there’s a story about bhakti and jnāna and vairāgya and Nārada Muni.
Srila Prabhupāda: That no ācārya has mentioned.
Harikeśa: That’s Gītā Press again. That’s Gītā Press.
Acyutānanda: They say how this is the instructions for how Bhāgavata should be read in seven days up to this canto.
Srila Prabhupāda: Gītā Press was Māyāvādī. [break]
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This lady? That man there? He’s our accountant, Mr. Krishna. He lives with us full-time. He’s doing very good service.
Vāsughoṣa: About two months ago in Hyderabad they had a very big Bhāgavata-saptāha. One thousand and eight brāhmaṇas chanting Bhāgavatam for seven days, and it was presided over by a big Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, Rāmānuja-sampradāya. And all the local Marwaris, they gave lakhs of rupees for prasādam and so many things.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They hurt our collection, I think.
Vāsughoṣa: No, they haven’t given anything to our temple, but for this, the same people, some of them, most of them refused even to become members. One man who refused me to become a member, he gave fifty thousand rupees for prasādam.
Srila Prabhupāda: Why they refused us or help us?
Hari–śauri: He’s talking about some Bhāgavata-saptāha they had there.
Srila Prabhupāda: Because it is…
Acyutānanda: They are the “Hindus.” We are the foreigners.
Yaśomatīnandana: But they don’t go too long, because in Ahmedabad they have started one Gujarat, one Bhāgavata–hṛdaya–pīṭha.(?) Just outside Ahmedabad. And he had a plan to build a whole huge temple and dharmaśālās and schools, gurukulas. That Krishna Shankara Shastri, that poor fellow, he started something, and now he has scarcity, he cannot find funds to finish his project. So, the project is lying idle for almost two years. They collected sixty, seventy lakhs initially, but then…
Srila Prabhupāda: Sixty seventy lakhs? And he squandered it?
Yaśomatīnandana: No. He has got land and he has got some buildings, but now he has no funds to go further. And there also no local people give. All he collected in London and Africa from the Gujaratis. [break] …in becoming trustees and managing the things, but they will not give any money.
Srila Prabhupāda: So, bring some sitting place.
Vāsughoṣa: Every brāhmaṇa got 116 rupees, and they brought him a cādara and they paid for prasāda. Lakhs of people came from all over central India, Andhra Pradesh, thousands and thousands. They paid for prasādam. Whole pandal, huge pandal, they went to this exhibition ground. They gave, the rest of the money went to the Rāmānuja Swami.
Acyutānanda: Oh, that was the yajna.
Vāsughoṣa: Jeer Swami. Shriman Narayana Jeer.
Acyutānanda: That’s not a Bhāgavata-saptāha.
Vāsughoṣa: Yes, Sahasra–Bhāgavata. They had one thousand…
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that Donghari Maharaja?
Yaśomatīnandana: That Donghari is very famous in Gujarat, so now he has mostly become famous all over India.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But they are booking thirty rooms in our guesthouse for ten days for the program.
Acyutānanda: You’ve got new japa beads, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Srila Prabhupāda: Yes. From tulasī. It was made in Honolulu. In Honolulu tulasī plants are very luxurious. Hyderabad local people, they are not sympathetic with our temple? Huh? Not sympathetic?
Acyutānanda: But when their caste guru comes they may come out, because that’s a big thing. Narayana Jeer, Rāmānuja-sampradāya, so Rāmānujas have to pay their respects to their own ācārya. The temple is being built. And the location of Hyderabad is such that there are so many guesthouses, because it’s near the station, Nampally Station. There are many guesthouses. So, from all over India people who stop in Hyderabad, they come to the temple. So, from all over Andhra we got invitations from people who had come to the temple. (plane going over)
Acyutānanda: There’s the Vṛndāvana Hotel, and that Ashoka?
Acyutānanda: Annapurna Hotel, so many guesthouses.
Srila Prabhupāda: They visit our temple?
Vāsughoṣa: All those brāhmaṇas that came for the yajna, and everybody, after the yajna ended at about six-thirty, they immediately came to the temple, our temple, afterwards. Everybody knew. We distributed thousands of books there. It was very good book distribution. We sold in one day, you know, we were selling two thousand rupees a day worth of books. Everybody that came there was very pious.
Srila Prabhupāda: We took advantage.
Srila Prabhupāda: Unless one is pious how he can…
Vāsughoṣa: Yes, we went there every day, and we had all day book distribution and kīrtana. Actually, some of the Marwaris were good friends of ours, so we wanted to get…, they announced that we were there, and we were selling books over the loudspeaker system. Very good. They gave us…, we had a good place for book distribution.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In Bombay also Shrimati Morarji had a big program in her house recently. There were huge crowds, and our devotees went there to distribute books afterwards.
Yaśomatīnandana: They didn’t like it, though. Ghaja, Ghaja came, from Śrī Nāthajī, has come to her house.
Srila Prabhupāda: What is the idea, Ghaja(?) Due to her influence people came. Not for the Ghaja(?). She is influential and something is being done, everyone knows that.
Acyutānanda: In Bangalore we went to another Rāmānuja sannyāsī’s āśrama, and he invited us to see an initiation, and they burned the śaṅkha–cakra on the shoulders, by fire, branded. That means they’re initiated. August 14, 1976 – Bombay conversations