Transcendental Tit-bits Dear Vaishnavas, Hare Krishna. Please ...

Transcendental Tit-bits

Dear Vaishnavas,Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

When I visited Rajkot recently and spent a little time with my spiritual master, I had noted down some of the profound realizations that he spoke out of his vast and transcendental experience. I am sharing those points with you all. We will definitely find these punching realizations as very helpful in our day to day dealings as well as to increase the fabric of our devotional service.

1. When Krishna is really merciful with us, we will dig into our own heals and see the faults in ourselves.

2. Our tendency is to blame everybody except ourselves. That is completely barred in Srimad Bhagavatam.

3. There is always a grain of truth in any criticism. So let us always try to improve ourselves.

4. You should find out your own service to your taste. You alone or with your friends. If you don’t find any service, japa mala is there. Just chant. If you chant loudly and hear your own sound vibration, your mind will not freak out.

5. Effective path is not defective. Defective path is not effective. According to the scriptures, our path must be organized.

6. Unless we come to the right understanding, our mind will not work transcendentally. Always sinful activities have a toll on our mind. Since mind is the controller of all the senses, our bodily function is spoiled. If mind is disturbed, digestion is disturbed. If digestion is disturbed, blood circulation is disturbed. Eventually sanction of Krishna is required for the normal functioning of the body.

7. It is only by Prabhupada’s mercy that some mumbling of mahamantra is there. Our mind is in so many things that we do not concentrate on the chanting.

8. Do anything and everything but do not disturb your mind and also do not disturb the mind of others. Disturbing the minds of others is the greatest violence. That is why Prabhupada did not allow even TV in our community.

9. Even when we are within the Kali yuga, we can be out of Kali yuga by following Prabhupada’s chalked out path.

10. Our intake of prasadam must be in proportion to our body. All the ingredients that we consume come from Krishna’s energy. Krishna and His energy are non-different.

11. Vedic tradition is “As soon the child is born, the father and mother should keep quiet.” No raising voice. Otherwise the children get the habit. Ultimately they become royal edition of animals.

12. I remember we were all sleeping on the floor. There was no separate bed-room. Nobody had back-ache. My sister, mother and all had to pull the water from the well, carry them on their heads and then walk miles together. Today’s lady will not survive for one day in their life-style. The men folk were also working hard in the fields. But we were all healthy because there was no pollution. The ladies were so strong that if the doctor comes and they hit him, the doctors will fly 80 miles.

13. As soon as you give importance to the body, austerity will disappear. Our life minus austerity means hospitalization.

14. The doctors were so pure during our time. They were called vaidyas. They were bhaktas. They sit only on the ground and they find out all our problems only with the pulse. There were no operations at all. Nowadays the doctors kill you even before you die.

15. Service is very much required so that our mind won’t freak out.

Though there is volumes that can be spoken on each of these realizations, I shall leave it to you for your personal meditation. By meditating on these transcendental words of wisdom and practicing them we can definitely improve the standard of our lives tremendously.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,Kalacakra Krsna das.

Purifying our Polluted Life

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

The following is an excerpt from a lecture given by our spiritual master in Malaysia on the Bhagavat gita verse 8.14.

ananya-cetāḥ satataṁ yo māṁ smarati nityaśaḥtasyāhaṁ su-labhaḥ pārtha nitya-yuktasya yoginaḥ

For one who always remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Prtha, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.

"Ananya-cetāḥ, without deviation. If you stay in the city there are so many deviations because every vibration whether it is a material vibration or the transcendental vibration, it preserves itself in the atmosphere and as we think, those particular types of vibrations are attracted. Suppose somebody wants to rob the bank, so he thinks about robbing the bank. He meditates on that. It is his devotional service. Bank is his god. And then because he thinks that way, all the ideas from the atmosphere they come to him. "Where is the bank? Which is a good bank to rob? Which time? Which bank is closed on Sunday? What time it is closed, how to enter into it? How to break it? How to get away from it without being arrested?" All these things are planned in his mind. He also gets all the vibrations, because there are vibrations for robbing also, in the atmosphere. In the same way the devotees think that, "How to glorify the Lord? Where to go? What is to be done?" Then he gets that information, scriptures, association and things like that.

This is how it is always essential to vibrate the auspicious things. If you continue to vibrate the inauspicious things or if you continue to think inauspiciously, then you are destroyed. Forget about the vibration. Talk comes afterwards, but the ideas come before. And as soon as the ideas are polluted, your whole life is polluted and in order to stop this pollution, we are advised in this verse that ananya-cetāḥ satataṁ yo māṁ smarati nityaśaḥ and then He gives us the reward. 'Those who regularly always remember Me'. Somehow or the other find out the ways and means so that He will not get out of our sight, then tasyāhaṁ su-labhaḥ pārtha. 'I am very easy to attain, dear Arjuna, I am very easy to attain'. Why? nitya-yuktasya yoginaḥ, by regularly remembering Me."

Maharaj continues further to explain how to remove our inauspicious thoughts and actions...

"As soon as vidushita aashayam (SB 2.2.37) as soon as the goal of existence is polluted, we cannot win. And in order to have the fresh true goal of existence, we must come to the scriptures.

pibanti ye bhagavata ātmanaḥ satāṁkathāmṛtaṁ śravaṇa-puṭeṣu sambhṛtam

punanti te viṣaya-vidūṣitāśayaṁvrajanti tac-caraṇa-saroruhāntikam

Those who drink through aural reception, fully filled with the nectarean message of Lord Krsna, the beloved of the devotees, purify the polluted aim of life known as material enjoyment and thus go back to Godhead, to the lotus feet of Him [the Personality of Godhead].

Best verse from Bhagavatam, you know? How to have an unpolluted aim of our existence, pibanti ye bhagavata ātmanaḥ satāṁ. Those who hear, those who drink the nectar of Bhagavatam through the mouth of the devotee and what do they do? kathāmṛtaṁ, the nectarean topics of Krishna. śravaṇa-puṭeṣu sambhṛtam, they fill Krsna katha in their ear holes then the effect is; punanti te viṣaya-vidūṣitāśayaṁ, punanti they are completely purified of their

polluted aim, foolish goal of existence. This is the way to clear our goal of our life.

You have to come to the transcendental activities of the transcendental Supreme in order to become transcendental yourself. You must be surcharged with transcendental activities and transcendental ideas. Otherwise you will be seized by the material ideas. If you are not transcendental means the miseries are awaiting for you. As soon as you are captured by the materialistic ideas the miseries start. Very nicely it is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam that if you are not attracted to the owner of five great elements, earth water fire air and ether, these are the great elements and if you are not attracted to the controller of these elements, then each element becomes your enemy, element becomes your enemy. This is why the scriptures insist that you do anything and everything. Doesn't matter. You carry on Krsna conscious way, honestly earning your maintenance. But that's it, don't increase your unnecessary necessities and then your goal will be completely purified. And then punanti, you can purify then. Whatever dirt you have accumulated you can purify then. The main thing to be understood, very clearly to be understood. And if you do that, if your goal of existence is purified and if you follow it with a purified means then vrajanti, then you attain tac-caraṇa-saroruhāntikam, His lotus feet. This is the way to attain and that is the meaning of this verse ananya-cetāḥ satataṁ."

I pray unto the Supreme Lord that let me be purified of all the polluted thoughts and actions in my life and let me always meditate on the auspicious Lord's names and pastimes. Thought it is very difficult in my current conditional state, it is definitely possible if only I take advantage of the causeless mercy of the Lord and my spiritual master.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,Sudarshana devi dasi.

Real Target

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

Once there was a flock of cranes passing living happily in a lake under the guidance of their noble king crane Musthika. One day, one of the cranes suggested that they would get more tastier food in a lake in the neighbouring village. Tempted to taste the crabs and fishes, the flock of cranes decided to move to the new lake, and failed to heed to the advice of their king. King Musthika knew that the new place, being inhabited by humans, was not a safe place for their flock. But since all other cranes were eager to fly, he had to accept their proposal. After finishing their food, they were about to take rest near the lake without knowing that a big net had been kept and they all got stuck into the net, except for the King Musthika and one another crane. Seeing the result of their greedy desire, the other crane asked the king crane to escape from that place. The King retorted immediately that unless my subjects are saved, I do not want to be saved alone and what is the use of my life without my subjects ? Since I am also responsible for this decision, I therefore deserve death along with my subjects. The Hunter came after some time and was extremely happy to see that so many cranes were caught for food. When he came nearby, he was surprised to see these two cranes were free but still standing near the net and not flying away. When the hunter came to know the reason, he had a change of heart on the sacrificial tendency of the King and because of the noble act of the King he set free all the cranes and all the cranes flew away happily.

Prahlad Maharaj in a very wonderful prayer nicely describe the tendency expressed by the King crane Musthika, in Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.44,

prāyeṇa deva munayaḥ sva-vimukti-kāmāmaunaṁ caranti vijane na parārtha-niṣṭhāḥ

naitān vihāya kṛpaṇān vimumukṣa ekonānyaṁ tvad asya śaraṇaṁ bhramato ’nupaśye

My dear Lord Nrsimhadeva, I see that there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are interested only in their own deliverance. Not caring for the big cities and towns, they go to the Himalayas or the forest to meditate with vows of silence [mauna-vrata]. They are not interested in delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Krishna consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet.

Prabhupada translates nicely for the word "parārtha-niṣṭhāḥ" as - interested in working for others by giving them the benefit of the Krishna consciousness movement, by enlightening them with Krishna consciousness.

naitān vihāya kṛpaṇān vimumukṣa eko - As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals.

Prabhupada in his excellent purport emphasise this point very nicely. A Vaishnava like Prahlada Maharaja is not interested in such a bluff of spiritual advancement. Rather, he is interested in enlightening people in Krishna consciousness because that is the only way for them to become happy. Prahlada Maharaja says clearly, nānyaṁ tvad asya śaraṇaṁ bhramato ’nupaśye : "I know that without Krishna consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy." One wanders within the universe, life after life, but by the grace of a devotee, a servant of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one can get the clue to Krishna consciousness and then not only become happy in this world but also return home, back to Godhead. That is the real target in life.

In Krishna consciousness movement sometimes in devotional service we become so selfish and that we do not have time for others and also we are not showing any interest in encouraging others to develop in devotional service especially with regard to preaching. We may know so many tools and techniques of taking classes but we do not want to give out the secret because of envy and we always want to be glorified for our preaching. This tendency needs to be curbed and we need to elevate everyone to become a good preacher and by doing so we are getting purified and Krishna says that he becomes dear to those who gives this confidential knowledge to others.

It is imperative that we should guide all the devotees who are slowly developing in Krishna consciousness and guide them nicely and thereby their transcendental knowledge gets solidified and they convert so many neophytes to become devotees of the Lord or otherwise we become krpanas. As our Maharaj says that we should handover the programs to younger generations with proper guidance and they should be able to handle nicely better than us.

I humbly pray to the mercy of Supreme Lord, Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev that I should leave this krpana mentality and should be broad minded while executing devotional service in order to achieve the real target of my spiritual life - Krishna Prema.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,Sajjana Priya Krishna dasChennai.

Are we Mayavadis?


I was very fortunate to have the association of my Spiritual master recently, where among the many topics I was enlightened, one was how even after taking up the process of bhakti, we are behaving like ordinary men and were fighting with one another and behaving like enemies. Maharaj very gravely replied "Actually Gopalkrishna we all are Mayavadis. We like to call ourselves devotees but our actions deny the very existence of Krishna. We do not believe in Krishna and that's why all are actions are based on bodily relationship."

I did not really understand the deep meaning of the above statement of Maharaj but upon meditating on this for a few days I realized that there were two parts to the statement:

1. He politely used the word "we" instead of "you" and 2. There must be some reference in Srimad Bhagavatam on this, as we all know that Maharaj does not speak a word outside of the scriptures. And it was with his mercy that I came upon these verses in Bhagavatam Canto 4 Chapter 3 (Talks between Lord Shiva and Sati) Verse 22 & 23:

SB 4.3.22pratyudgama-praśrayaṇābhivādanaṁvidhīyate sādhu mithaḥ sumadhyame

prājñaiḥ parasmai puruṣāya cetasāguhā-śayāyaiva na deha-mānine

My dear young wife, certainly friends and relatives offer mutual greetings by standing up, welcoming one another and offering obeisances. But those who are elevated to the transcendental platform, being intelligent, offer such respects to the Supersoul, who is sitting within the body, not to the person who identifies with the body.

In the purport Srila Prabhupada explains the delicate situation very beautifully: - It may be argued that since Daksha was the father-in-law of Lord Siva, it was certainly the duty of Lord Siva to offer him respect. In answer to that argument it is explained here that when a learned person stands up or offers obeisances in welcome, he offers respect to the Supersoul, who is sitting within everyone's heart. A Vaishnava sees the body as a temple of Vishnu. Since Lord Siva had already offered respect to the Supersoul in Krishna consciousness, offering respect to Daksha, who identified with his body, was already performed. There was no need to offer respect to his body, for that is not directed by any Vedic injunction.

And in the next verse Lord Siva says that:

SB 4.3.23sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditaṁ

yad īyate tatra pumān apāvṛtaḥsattve ca tasmin bhagavān vāsudevohy adhokṣajo me namasā vidhīyate

I am always engaged in offering obeisances to Lord Vasudeva in pure Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness is always pure consciousness, in which the Supreme Personality of Godhead, known as Vaasudeva, is revealed without any covering.

In the purport Prabhupada very straightforwardly explains to us that: Therefore a meaningful word in this verse is adhokṣaja, for it indicates that the activities of our material senses will fail to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One cannot realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead simply by the attempt of one's speculative mind, but if one desires he can subdue all the material activities of his senses, and the Lord, by manifesting His spiritual energy, can reveal Himself to the pure devotee. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead reveals Himself to the pure devotee, the devotee has no other duty than to offer Him respectful obeisances. The Absolute Truth reveals Himself to the devotee in His form. He is not formless. Vaasudeva is not formless, for it is stated in this verse that as soon as the Lord reveals Himself, the devotee offers his obeisances. Obeisances are offered to a person, not to anything impersonal. One should not accept the Māyāvāda interpretation that Vāsudeva is impersonal. As stated in Bhagavad-Gita, prapadyate, one surrenders. One surrenders to a person, not to impersonal non-duality. Whenever there is a question of surrendering or offering obeisances, there must be an object of surrender or obeisances.

Though Srila Prabhupada has highlighted the personal feature of the Supreme Lord many many times in his writings we almost always behave in an impersonal way. For e.g. - We treat our elders devotees as something to be written-off.- We envy devotees who are equal to us in age and foster a meaningless competitive attitude.- We treat people without any feelings as cash-cows who can be called upon when need be.- A good look at our shopping list will make it clear whom we shop for - whether it is for Krishna or for ourselves.- Many occasions we forget the existence of deities in our homes, and the list goes on

So in all our actions we deny the existence of Krishna and we completely forget the reason for which we have come to this transcendental temple of Srila Prabhupada i.e. "to learn on how to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna and to love him".

This is due to disregarding the simple (I repeat simple) instructions of our spiritual master and Srila Prabhupada and therefore without undergoing proper purification, in a premature stage we automatically assume as if by right that we are Krishna conscious and get frustrated and angry in situations that go against our desires that are products of our mental concoctions.

I pray to my spiritual master to give me the strength to follow his simple instructions and guide me in behaving properly with everyone in a way that would please him and Krishna thereby helping me to purify my existence.

Thank you very much.Hare Krishna!

Your servant,GopalKrishna dasChennai.

Nityam Bhaagavata Sevayaa

Hare Krishna Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

First of all we would like to thank Guru Maharaj for suggesting us to come back from Auckland to India and it is because of his causeless mercy that I am able to study Srimad Bhagavatam today. It was my longing desire to read Srimad Bhagavatam for all these days but because of my anarthas I could not do it everyday. However, these days by Krishna's mercy and Gurudev's mercy I am able read much more regularly and interestingly I find that somehow or other they have arranged enough time for me to read that too in the busy morning time.

As we all know, this opportunity of human life is rarely obtained and secondly, the opportunity to take birth in a family where there is cultivation of spiritual knowledge is even more rare. While reading the 1st Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, I came across this beautiful verse SB 1.13.17

evaṁ gṛheṣu saktānāṁ pramattānāṁ tad-īhayāatyakrāmad avijñātaḥ kālaḥ parama-dustaraḥ

Translation by Srila Prabhupada!!! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!!!

Insurmountable, eternal time imperceptibly overcomes those who are too much attached to family affairs and are always engrossed in their thought.

In the purport Srila Prabhupada explains very nicely how to use our valuable time in this human birth as follows:

Our duration of life is measured, and no one is able to enhance it even by a second against the scheduled time ordained by the supreme will. Such valuable time, especially for the human being, should be cautiously spent because even a second passed away imperceptibly cannot be replaced, even in exchange for thousands of golden coins amassed by hard labor. Every second of human life is meant for making an ultimate solution to the problems of life, i.e. repetition of birth and death and revolving in the cycle of 8,400,000 different species of life. The material body, which is subject to birth and death, diseases and old age, is the cause of all sufferings of the living being, otherwise the living being is eternal; he is never born, nor does he ever die. Foolish persons forget this problem. They do not know at all how to solve the problems of life, but become engrossed in temporary family affairs not knowing that eternal time is passing away imperceptibly and that their measured duration of life is diminishing every second, without any solution to the big problem, namely repetition of birth and death, disease and old age. This is called illusion.

But such illusion cannot work on one who is awake in the devotional service of the Lord. He further states that:

Therefore, any comfort of life or any material happiness which does not warrant an eternal life is but illusion for the eternal living being. One who understands this factually is learned, and such a learned person can sacrifice any amount of material happiness to achieve the desired goal known as brahma-sukhaṁ, or absolute happiness. Real transcendentalists are hungry for this happiness, and as a hungry man cannot be made happy by all comforts of life minus foodstuff, so the man hungry for eternal absolute happiness cannot be satisfied by any amount of material happiness.

Through this verse, Vidura explains Dhrtarashtra how by the influence of imperceptible time, old age creeps into our life and we suffer due to various inabilities. The word imperceptible used here is very apt as we think that we would be like this forever. But when time takes a toll on us we would loose the capacity of our senses. So it is utmost important for us not to waste valuable time when we are young, hale and healthy.Therefore our beloved Gurudev repeatedly

instructs all of us to keep in touch with Krishna through Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.

I therefore pray to Gurudev to keep me under his shelter so that I can keep myself aloof from frivolous family and social activities by being engaged in this transcendental activity of nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā

Thank you very much.Your servant,Prasannalakshmi devi dasiChennai.

Follow One - Nine Will Come

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev. All glories to Vaishnavas.

The following is an excerpt from the lecture given by our Guru Maharaj HH Mahavishnu Goswami on 29.7.2007 on SB 1.9.26 at Sri Sri RadhaNeelMadhav Dham, Rajkot.

puruṣa-sva-bhāva-vihitān yathā-varṇaṁ yathāśramamvairāgya-rāgopādhibhyām āmnātobhaya-lakṣaṇān

At Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira’s inquiry, Bhīṣmadeva first defined all the classifications of castes and orders of life in terms of the individual’s qualifications. Then he systematically, in twofold divisions, described counteraction by detachment and interaction by attachment.

Detachment always has counteraction and attachment has interaction. Detachment is the main quality of person who has unflinching faith in Krishna. The material examples always fall short of the spiritual reality. But if we have full faith in Krishna, then we know that interaction is not possible because our dependence on near and dear one are also maintained by Krishna. There is nothing that we do, that is the inner idea. Also honestly speaking, we don't have genuine care for others but just showy care. One thing is definite, whenever we meet our near and dear ones, we should feel that it's a re-birth. Your presence here and your child at home mean when you both meet again it's a rebirth, because while coming to the temple from home there are so many possibilities. For your child also, he may walk and fall down or anything. We don't know what is going to happen. So whenever we see the living entities also there should be feeling like a second birth.

Living entities are changing every moment and everything is changing at every second of our existence. The continuous regulated flow of the blood in our body depends upon the Vedic culture. Vedic way of life is the only way which allows your blood to flow uninterrupted because this way we are obeying Krishna. Just as now we are sitting in the temple we are obeying the police department, by not doing any crime. We are behaving in full cooperation with the department. This way we are at ease. Similarly Krishna demands full cooperation. In Bhagavad Gita 18.66, Krishna says - "sarva-dharmān parityajya...", Leave everything and take My shelter. Parityajya means an order, not request. Those who have unflinching faith in Krishna run after Him and do not waste their time. Sign of detachment is that we always depend on Krishna. Naturally we are very attached because since last so many birth we have been saying mine-mine-mine. But there is only one facility in this birth which is higher intelligence, therefore we can understand there is something else which is better than attachment. Other animals cannot understand this.

Maharaj explained the first paragraph of the purport, there are four varnas and varnas depend upon our activities. They are meant to set up in any societies according to modes of material nature. First the modes of goodness-the intelligent class are brahmanas. Every society must have the intelligent class. Second the Ksatriyas, they have to protect so they have to be active. Intelligent class is steady and guides the Kshatriyas. Before the Mahabharat war Vedic culture was rampant, mode of goodness was very prominent but slowly the passion was added and later passion and ignorant combined. So they became vaisyas - mercantile class. They do cow protection and farming and carry on different types of business. Last class is sudras, they are meant for service. According to the tendencies these varnas must be preached. But today law preaches the opposite. Prabhupada gives nice example that modern laws prevailing today are like putting your turban on feet and shoes on head, but this can never work. Only Vedic rules can govern our life properly.

Here in the first sentence Prabhupada insists by referring shloka from B.G.- 4.13, that by birth these castes can never

be fixed. No doubt the child born in the brahmana family gets the best facility to develop brahmanas. Prabhupada explains here as that just as doctor's son has the best possibility of becoming a doctor but without being admitted to medical college it is not possible. By birth he cannot be a doctor. Eventually the motto is to rid ourselves from material bondages namely birth, death, diseases and old age. Before accepting this body we have to have birth and at the end attain death, in between old age and be diseases trouble us many times. Anybody by any means cannot get away from this, and we have to undergo with it. But now passion and ignorant is rampant, nobody wants to come out of ignorance and as time passes all these things are increasing. The whole atmosphere must surcharge with goodness. Prabhupada worked very hard to introduce the same system of varna, now that western people are carrying on preaching and deity worship nicely by his grace. He showed that according to qualities we can have this divisions in any societies, without birth qualification, not only Indians but people all over the world have to set up this system. Please remember this is a rational approach to varna caste system. Everything depends on quality and if you want to improve the quality in Kaliyuga there is no other way but to start remembering Krishna through his names.

Krishna willing - I shall continue the remaining part of Maharaj's nectar in my next mail.

Thank you very much. Please chant always.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Nayan Priya Krishna dasRajkot.

Follow one, Nine will come - Part II

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev. All glories to Vaishnavas.

In continuation with yesterday's mail, I shall share Maharaj's nectar on Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.9.26. Srila Prabhupada, in the second paragraph of the purport to this verse explains about the varnashrama principles which Bhismadev higlighted to Maharaj Yudhishtir.

Bhishmadeva advised for all human beings nine qualifications:(1) not to become angry(2) not to lie(3) to equally distribute wealth(4) to forgive(5) to beget children only by one's legitimate wife(6) to be pure in mind and hygienic in body(7) not to be inimical toward anyone(8) to be simple(9) to support servants or subordinates.

Maharaj explained that, "The first quality we all should have is unflinching devotional service. There may be 100 types of good qualities but with sincere devotion to Krishna rest all will follow. This is the easiest way. So as soon as we go to Krishna, all good qualities assemble in him. So the underlying principle is if you are unflinching devotee all good qualities must be there. Krishna is 1 therefore if you follow 1, 9 will come. All the above 9 good qualities are bound to manifest in soul surrendered to Krishna.

Detachment means not throwing away your belongings but there should be no attachment, by always keeping in mind that one day we all have to leave these things.Whenever there is attachment death becomes more difficult. We have to train ourselves to detach, just as though you are capable of working, still at the age of 60, you have to retire from the government job. Whatever survival activities are there they should be purifying us. If you obey Krishna He sides with you, if you disobey Him He leaves you. Always remember Krishna and chant. Those who accept this their generations which are gone will be liberated up to 27 generations, this is the vast effect of chanting. Enormous profit is there by just chanting. It will also purify the 27 coming generations. Even in demons, devotional service could purify so much. So what to talk of living entities? It's an immense profit - just chant - the profit is inconceivable.

No doubt struggle of life is increasing. But even in this life if you obey Krishna the comfort will be there. This simple thing has to be passed on to our children, otherwise they will not survive. Unless there is a touch of Vedic culture, our generation will not improve. We have to adopt it with full heart. There is no other alternative to Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita. We have to come to this. There is no other way. To obey Krishna is for our benefit. Krishna sent Srila Prabhupada especially to elevate us, to remove us from the clutches of Maya. Srila Prabhupada has given us so much in his purports that to understand only Srimad Bhagavatam, our entire life will be short and just these two paragraphs give us so much knowledge. So please work and just concentrate on this and nothing else."

I beg for the blessing of Gurudev to shower upon me his mercy so that I chant the Holy name of the Lord very sincerely and without any material desire.

Thank you very much. Please chant always.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Nayan Priya Krishna das

Rajkot.

Time is Overtaking us


In our day to day activities, sometimes we tend to get ourselves more absorbed in acquiring material opulence that we forget to prioritise time for spiritual activities. Prabhupada gives a valid reason in this regard in the purport of verse 3.1.44 of Srimad Bhagavatam that "Ordinary living beings work for the improvement of their conditional lives".This propensity always makes us forget our ultimate goal of life and therefore we are not able to advance in spiritual life and thereby one more birth is assured for us (what species of life we don't know). By this way we are forgetting that the Supreme Lord in the form of Kala is overtaking us every second of existence. We are completely oblivion of this happening. I had planned to read a lot of verses during my holidays in Chennai but eventually my propensity to improve the conditional life was overtaking so much of my mind and energy and thereby miserably failed in that process. This is due to lack of sincere desire for me to read the scriptures and thereby time has overtaken me without my knowledge and three weeks of vacation evaporated very quickly.

Srimad Bhagavatam warns of this time factor overtaking us very subtly through verse 1.13.20

yena caivābhipanno ’yaṁ prāṇaiḥ priyatamair apijanaḥ sadyo viyujyeta kim utānyair dhanādibhiḥ

Whoever is under the influence of supreme kaala [eternal time] must surrender his most dear life, and what to speak of other things, such as wealth, honor, children, land and home.

Prabhupada in his word to word equivalent has translated the word abhipannaḥ as overtaken. In his unparalleled purport, His Divine Grace, gives the wonderful influence of supreme kala for our contemplation and realization - "A great Indian scientist, busy in the plan making business, was suddenly called by invincible eternal time while going to attend a very important meeting of the planning commission, and he had to surrender his life, wife, children, house, land, wealth, etc. During the political upsurge in India and its division into Pakistan and Hindustan, so many rich and influential Indians had to surrender life, property and honor due to the influence of time, and there are hundreds and thousands of examples like that all over the world, all over the universe, which are all effects of the influence of time."

The only solution to the effect of influence of time is given by Yamaraj himself in Srimad Bhagavatam verse - 6.3.27:

My dear servants, please do not approach such devotees, for they have fully surrendered to the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are equal to everyone, and their narrations are sung by the demigods and the inhabitants of Siddhaloka. Please do not even go near them. They are always protected by the club of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore Lord Brahma and I and even the time factor are not competent to chastise them.

I pray to the Supreme Lord, Spiritual master and Prabhupada to bestow their causeless mercy to this obstinate mind to at least create a desire to accept the Supreme Lord as all in all and fully surrender to His lotus feet without any reservation.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev, Sajjana Priya Krishna dasAbu Dhabi.

Coming Out Of Illusion


In Srimad Bhagavatam, while explaining about the cosmic manifestation process to Brahma, Lord Krishna says in 2.9.34

ṛte ’rthaṁ yat pratīyeta na pratīyeta cātmanitad vidyād ātmano māyāṁ yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ

O Brahmā, whatever appears to be of any value, if it is without relation to Me, has no reality. Know it as My illusory energy, that reflection which appears to be in darkness.

In this verse Lord is explaining what is reality. All the things in this universe and also on various universes have no value if there is no relation to the Lord. So practically whatever work we are doing or whatever we are thinking should be linked to Krishna only and no one else. This will happen only when we are in Krishna Consciousness. To develop Krishna Consciousness, we should always keep company with devotees, observe the regulative devotional principles, follow in the footsteps of the acharyas and in full obedience carry out the orders of the spiritual master. We can get Krishna only by devotional service and nothing else. We must understand Krishna is the Supreme and all the things seen in this world are His part and parcel. When we fail to understand this relation between the creator and His creation, we are in illusion.

Many a times it becomes our habit to see things separated from Krishna. We look at family as "my" family, "my" house, "my" office, "my" nation etc and completely ignore/overlook the true relation between Krishna and the Lord. This is illusion. The family in which we are born is Krishna's family, the house where we live is His house and the work we do daily is also His. Once we realise this absolute truth, our entire behaviour to other souls will change. We would not decry the people nor would we grumble about circumstance. We will have a sense of responsibility and care that this person belongs to Lord and so I need to behave properly with them. The house belongs to Krishna's and so it is utmost important for us to abide by His rules and use it for His pleasure.

In his wonderful purport to the above verse, Srila Prabhupada has quoted a nice example.Misconceiving one thing for another thing is called illusion. For example, accepting a rope as a snake is illusion, but the rope is not false. The rope, as it exists in the front of the illusioned person, is not at all false, but the acceptance is illusory. He further says - In darkness no one can see the things in a room. Therefore a person in the dark is afraid of snakes and scorpions, although there may not be such things. But in the light the things in the room can be clearly seen, and the fear of snakes and scorpions is at once removed. Therefore one has to take shelter of the light of the Lord, as in the Bhagavad-Gita or the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and not the reflective personalities who have no touch with the Lord. No one should hear Bhagavad-Gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam from a person who does not believe in the existence of the Lord. Such a person is already doomed, and any association with such a doomed person makes the associator also doomed.

Hence, to conclude that we can come out of dakness of illusion of our own independence only by taking shelter of the light of Lord which has been blessed to us in the form of Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam

Thank you very much.Your humble servant,Prabhupadananda dasAbu Dhabi.

Marital Harmony

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis!Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva!!

It was an excellent mail by HG Kalachakra Prabhu related to marriage, posted in Granthraj, stressing the importance on serving the Supreme Lord, together in marriage.

In the olden vedic days, almost 10-20 people used to stay under one roof, the figure was much more than what I have mentioned. But now even husband and wife find it difficult to stay with each other. Reasons for this are many & the list is endless.

Some time back, HG Swayam Sphurathy Prabhuji took a discourse on Samachar and related to the above subject. He highlighted as to why marriages are not sustaining nowadays. Marriage ceremony, considered to be vivaha-yajna, is meant to regulate the human mind so that it may become peaceful for spiritual advancement. In this yajna it is customary that we invite all the demigods to shower their blessings on the newly wedded couple, but how can the Devi-Devtas come to the arena which is so contaminated. We all are aware that most of the people come directly from the beauty parlour (which is the most contaminated place) or saloons to the ceremony. What to talk of the relatives, even the bride & groom follow the same. Ideally after visiting these contaminated places, we should have bath, but nowadays who cares for this cleaning, all they care is for external beautification.

Another thing is the use of dry-clean clothes by the bride & groom and many other people during such an auspicious ceremony.One of the active components used in the process of dry-cleaning is petrol, which is nothing but fossils (decayed dead bodies of other living entities). As far as possible these dry cleaned items should be avoided in all auspicious ceremonies. With so much contamination and without the blessings of the demigods, how can the marriage live longer.

Secondly, people are mad after making money for sense gratification. Women too have lined up for being independent. As they begin to develop their career skills, their marital life gets affected with all the puffed up ego, and further intolerance to any small things. Unless, women are completely Krsna conscious, they start thinking "I am earning now, why should I listen to my husband and so on" Being more career oriented, they neglect and end up giving meaningful time to the family.

Thirdly, with the advent of satellite television, all the minds which were polluted already, becomes more glued to the idiot box. Instead of sitting with the family members, the couple starts engrossing themselves in the one eyed equipment, and waste their precious time. Both don't have ample time to understand each other, forget question of serving or caring for each other. Ultimately, frustration creeps in and tolerance escapes from their hearts. Being selfish in nature, we always tend to think during any minor conflicts, "What has he/she given me", but when we sit and think on that, we'll find that we are the ones who always receive more than we give.

In one of the nectarean purports, Srila Prabhupada strongly states that modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. Nor is the moral condition of woman very good now.

As stated in Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.14.19

yām āhur ātmano hy ardhaṁ śreyas-kāmasya māniniyasyāṁ sva-dhuram adhyasya pumāṁś carati vijvaraḥ

O respectful one, a wife is so helpful that she is called the better half of a man's body because of her sharing in all auspicious activities. A man can move without anxiety entrusting all responsibilities to his

wife.

Srila Prabupada highlights in the purport that, "by the Vedic injunction, the wife is accepted as the better half of a man's body because she is supposed to be responsible for discharging half of the duties of the husband. But, in this age of Kali, marriage is based on the personal beauty and as soon as there is a break in personal sense gratification, there is disruption or divorce. But when husband and wife aim at spiritual advancement by mutual cooperation, there is no consideration of personal beauty or the disruption of so-called love. In the material world there is no question of love. Marriage is actually a duty performed in mutual cooperation as directed in the authoritative scriptures for spiritual advancement. But of this Kali-yuga it is said, "dām-patye abhiruciḥ" - Marriage will take place simply because of mutual liking, that's all. Liking one moment means disliking the next moment. That is a fact. So a marriage based on mutual liking has no value."

The more the wife is tolerant the more there is marital bliss in the family, it may take some time to adjust but overall patience and tolerance always is our good friend and reaps good results. Sometimes in a moment's misunderstanding we prepare ourselves to be separated.

As Srila Prabhupada rightly states that dāmpatye kalahe caiva, whenever there is fight between husband and wife, we shouldn't take it seriously. But in the modern civilization, the husband and wife quarrel is taken so seriously that immediately they go to the court and there is filing of divorce, and the combination, the married life, dissolved, and both are unhappy.

Separation might be the easiest way to get out of the problem, but tolerating the reverse situation even though difficult, will certainly be beneficial in the long run. It's better that before taking any drastic step, remember all those days spent together sharing grief and joy, and better not to get carried away by others views on your married life.

A faithful wife is supposed to cooperate with her husband in fulfilling all material desires so that he can then become comfortable and execute spiritual activities for the perfection of life. If, however, the husband is progressive in spiritual advancement, the wife undoubtedly shares in his activities, and thus both the wife and the husband profit in spiritual perfection.

May Lord Krishna and Gurudev bless me forever to discharge my duties as a wife, along with advancing in the spiritual arena. Hare Krishna

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Nayana Priya devi dasiAbu Dhabi.

Eradicate the Doubts


The following is an extract from the lecture given by our spiritual master in the holy dham of Vrindavan. Our heartfelt thanks to HG Ananta Vijaya Krishna das Prabhu for transcribing this nectar and sharing it with all of us.

"The beginning of the devotional service is from the unflinching faith in the existence of the Supreme Absolute Truth, which we doubt very much. Kali-yuga, you know? samshayah everywhere, it is doubtful, completely doubtful. Somehow or the other we are all in Krishna's dhama, it's a great fortune to recite Krishna's names on this transcendental land. You should completely drive away the doubts from your mind. Complete, eradicate, just brush it off. There is no place to doubt. How can you doubt the Personality of Godhead, who has created this body, you know? And how much complicated machinery it is, you know? Every second of the moment, since last, when we were in the womb of the mother and it was only 3 months since then our heart is working. Is there any authority in the world, are there any scientists who can make the heart like this. They wanted to prepare the heart and the brain particularly because our brain is a nice computer. There is no need of any button here, there is no plug, you eat kichadi and computer works. You computer will never work with the kichadi and we are very proud, such a big thing we have and then we, (he he he he he he.) Go on. And this computer is automatic and it starts from the 3 months in the womb of the mother and it is with you, there is no need of repairing at all because if we repair it, it goes out of order, we can not meddle with the brain. No, can't do that. Such a complicated machinery, Krishna maintains by His energy, by the external energy. Have we the capacity, in any way can we compete with the Absolute Truth? And we are doubting, "there is no Krishna, he he he he." [laughs] And we are breathing His air, which is His energy;

BG 7.4bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca

bhūmir āpaḥ, we are drinking His water, we are taking snāna with the water, ha he han han, I have a great reservation, I can't see Krishna. Because you are thinking you cannot see you cannot relate with Krishna.

Even the murti, the murti is Krishna Himself. We are very many times accused that we are worshipping the statues, you know. Those who call murtis statues, they are themselves statues. And I'll tell you one thing - what is statue worship. Here also we may have so many statues, not in Vrindavana, I don't see but maybe in Delhi or Matura.

In London there is a statue of Churchill standing like this, you know, since last maybe 25 years. And it's a nice square in Parliament Square . Thousands of cars are going, the poor fellow is inhaling the fumes all the time. Then he has his friends; pigeons. They come and sit on his head and the shoulders and put nice decoration, gawd. And if he's very dirty then the municipal sweeper comes with the sweeper brush and come on, "boom boomie boomie boomie." And nobody looks at him, he has to tolerate the rain, cold, snow, whatever it comes, he has to tolerate. That is statue worship. For our murtis, see how we have palatial buildings. Has anybody a sitting hall like this? And we don't do anything, we chant; Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And we are the owners of this hall. We don't do much, we don't do much. This is for our murti. The meaning of the murti, the translation was completely wrongly given and forced upon our brain by our Britishers guests. They were here guests for 300 years. And they were unpaid guests. We paid that time. And this is how they tried to destroy our own culture by giving us the wrong translations. Murti doesn't mean statue or idol. Murti means deity, transcendental form of the Lord. And that murti has so much capacity that millions of people are coming and going and having the darśana. Who are inviting them? That is ākarṣaṇa, He attracts. If it is a stone, or wood, or oil paint or whatever it is, has it any capacity to attract? Frankly speaking this is a stone, but a murti is carved according to the descriptions of the scriptures. And because it is a murti now, it is no more stone. If it would have been an

ordinary stone we might have thrown it out, or if you take a picture of Krishna or any pastimes, frankly speaking that picture is nothing but an ordinary paper. If there would not have been the association of Krishna with that paper we would have thrown that paper away. The same way, if your life does not have any association with the Supreme Absolute Truth, it is to be thrown away. It will be rejected by anybody and everybody. But if you carry Krishna with you constantly, continuously; teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, [BG 10.10] this is the condition; teṣāṁ, you have to worship Him and how? Satata-yuktānām, always. You arrange your activities in this way then you will not forget Him for a single second and your life will be completely, highly elevated.

Just to utter His names, we want to have the communion with the Lord, but we don't follow the process. Communion with the Lord, by the transmission of the transcendental sound of maha-mantra

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare HareHare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is non-different from the complete spirit, whole spirit, Krishna. As soon as you utter Krishna's names, Krishna is with you. It's non-different. This is the completely perfect method to approach the Lord. Don't create unnecessary doubts because of the three modes of material nature "

I pray that I always follow the words of my spiritual master and Krishna and never let the devil of doubt enter my heart.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Sudarshana devi dasi.

A Humble Heart

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances! All Glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!

All our attempts in devotional service are aimed at pleasing the Supreme Lord and win His heart. In our material life, people may be impressed by our family, our beauty, education, our abilities etc., but as far as the Supreme Personality Of Godhead Sri Krishna is concerned, He only values the feelings in our heart and our virtues. Hence cultivation of virtues is an integral part of devotional service. In the thirteenth chapter of Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the Lord describes the process of knowledge and the first item mentioned is 'amaanitvam' or 'Humility'. This is time and again emphasized in all the scriptures and by all the acharyas, the reason as told by one of the Christian saints being that, "Humility is to the virtue what the chain is to the rosary. Remove the chain and all the beads escape. Take away humility and all other virtues disappear."

Srila Prabhupada in his purport to BG 13.8-12 describes humility as "Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others." He adds that the material conception of life makes us very eager to receive honor from others. If we think a little, we will find that this demand for respect and honor arises because we are doubtful about our qualifications. We always hanker for this recognition from others so that we can feel that I am somebody. But this hankering leads to a lot of disturbance in our minds. Whenever we do not get the response we expect, there is a feeling of hurt and we keep on nursing these hurts and there is no way we can engage ourselves in the process of devotional service. As our spiritual master always stresses, "No expectation is the best expectation."

I came across a very touching story which gives the real meaning of humility and I wish to share the same here with all of you. Once, in a small village, there lived a rich man who never gave alms to the poor or to any charity of any kind. People of the village always referred to him as "the miser" and never by his name. In the same village, there lived a poor shoemaker. He was an extremely generous man. No one in need was ever turned away from his door. One day the miser died. When the miser died, he was not mourned. No one followed his coffin to its final resting place. No one prayed on his behalf. In fact, the village elders, decided to bury him at the far end of the cemetery, since he had cared so little for other people or their welfare. As the days passed, the village headman began to hear disturbing news about the shoemaker. "He no longer seems to care about people", it was said. "He won't give a penny to anyone. He refuses every charity and every beggar who comes to his door, no matter how worthy or hungry they are."

"Has anyone asked the shoemaker about this?" the village head man inquired."Yes" one man replied. "He says he needs all his money for himself."

The village headman went and asked the shoemaker the reason for the change of his heart. The shoemaker, after a long pause, began to speak. "Many years ago, the man you called the miser came to me with a huge sum of money. He asked me to give it away in charity. He made me promise never to reveal his name or our arrangement as long as he lived. And since he paid me a small salary for the service, I agreed. Once every month, he visited me late at night and handed me money to give away. And if I had not distributed every paisa the next time he came, he would become very annoyed. I became known as a great benefactor, even though I never spent a penny of my own money. Frankly, I'm surprised nobody ever asked me about it before. How could a shoemaker possibly give away as much money as I have all these years?"

The village headman called all the villagers together and told them the story. "The miser lived by the scriptures, keeping his charity a secret", the headman said. "He asked for nothing in return. He wanted nothing for himself. This is the sign of a humble heart. The whole village walked to the cemetery that day and prayed beside the rough, untended grave. After the prayers for the dead had been recited, the headman spoke in a trembling voice, "When I die, I ask only

one thing of you. Please bury me here, next to the humble man known as the miser."

Where am I that for any simple deed, I expect the rest of my life to be filled with rewards, fame and reputation? I always forget the fact that I belong to the exalted parampara of His Divine Grave Srila Prabhupada who was giving and giving and giving for the benefit of the whole humanity. That is why my spiritual master always reminds me who am dull headed "Vaijayanthi where is your offering to Granthraj?" Never once has he asked as to whether I have written to Granthraj. I pray at the lotus feet of my spiritual master to give me the blessing to understand and realize what real humility means.

An offering is a present to the deity or a revered person by way of sacrifice, given in worship or devotion. Thus an offering is an act of sacrifice over which we give up our proprietorship and hence we have no expectation or demand from that. I have to get this fact firmly impressed in my mind so that I can gradually develop this exalted virtue of humility.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Vaijayantimala devi dasiAbu Dhabi.

Heaven or Hell, A Devotee is Fixed in His Service


There is a very powerful section of description in the 13th chapter 1st canto of Srimad Bhagavatam titled, "Drtharashtra Quits Home". In this chapter the narration is filled with instructions that have high practical value. The behavior of each personality in this chapter is worth meditating and practicing in our lives.

To give a short synopsis to this chapter, the chapter begins with Vidura returning back to Hastinapura after completing his pilgrimage wherein Yudhistira Maharaj rules the kingdom after gaining victory in the battle of Kurukshetra. He very respectfully and reverentially takes care of his old uncle Dhrtharashtra and aunt Gandhari. When his uncle Vidura returns to the kingdom, he along with all other relatives were wonderstruck in joy and astonishment. They enquire about his welfare and welcome him with unlimited love. After answering their enquiries, Vidura without wasting much time turned his attention to his elder brother Dhrtarashtra and try to open his eyes to the reality.

Here we can understand and appreciate Vidura's behavior as a devotee/preacher. Having experienced the bliss of self-realization in his pilgrimage, he has no reason to come back to enjoy the opulences of the kingdom. If we were in his situation, definitely we would readily accept the offer of staying forever in the kingdom that too with so much love and attention. With a nephew like Yudhistira Maharaj who is so loving and kind towards him, the attraction to return back and stay in the kingdom would naturally be great. But the reason for Vidura's return to the kingdom was entirely different. His only aim was to somehow liberate his elder brother Dhrtarashtra at the end of his life. He just performed this job and went back again on his path of self-realization. Whereas we can remember that the same Vidura stayed for a long time when Duryodhana was ruling, inspite of the fact that Duryodhana was never respectful to him nor heard his good advice. Not only that, he was always cursing and chastising Vidura in mean words. Inspite of all this, he tried his best to give good counsel to Dhrtarashtra and Duryodhana at every circumstance till the end. Both in staying with the cruel Duryodhana and in leaving the courteous Yudhishtira Maharaj, Mahatma Vidura revealed the perfect nature of a pure devotee, ie., the only aim in their lives is to preach the message of Lord Sri Krishna and save the ignorant living entities from the path to hell. They don't care how dangerous the place, person or the circumstances may be, nor are they attached to favorable situations and amicable persons. Lord Siva aptly glorifies the devotees of Krishna to Parvati in Srimad Bhagavatam (6.17.28) as follows:

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyatisvargāpavarga-narakeṣv api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada too exhibited the same quality in his life. Initially when he had to face so many troubles in the West to establish the Krishna consciousness movement, he never shirked away from his service. At the same time, later when the movement started spreading like wild-fire and so many opulent buildings and farms were being setup in quick time, he did not get himself into a comfort zone and get attached to the opulences thinking that he can take nice rest and spend his last days peacefully. He was ready to go even to the most hellish part of the world to preach Krishna consciousness and at the same time neglect heaven-like opulences like a handful of dirt.

I pray with all due humility to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and my spiritual master to bestow upon me this quality to treat every situation and person equally and perceive everything in this world from the point of view of preaching the message of devotional service unto Him and not with the aim of my own sense gratification.


Preaching is the Essence


The Recent mail from H G Kalacakra Prabhuji on "Devotee Fixed in His Service" is a nice one to meditate upon. A devotee's only aim of life is to preach the message of Lord Krishna to save the ignorant living entities from the path to hell. They don't care how dangerous the place, person or the circumstances may be, nor are they attached to favorable situations and amicable persons".

Especially I have always had the feeling that sufficient time should be given, ideal situations to be available and then only I would like to preach. Preaching is one of the most essential part of devotional service and always we have the tendency to give some reasons or other to avoid it or escape under the shelter that we have not read adequately and therefore not qualified for preaching. This type of tendencies makes us lazy and lethargic and thereby faith in the shastras also dwindles in due course of time.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said, "Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa". This is a very important statement to meditate upon and we can see in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam the exalted devotee Prahlad Maharaj while preaching to his demoniac friends (who are totally oblivion of knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of irreligious situations prevailing during the reign of Hiranyakashipu) gives one of the most important instructions for them to preach the message of the Lord and thereby the Supreme Lord can be satisfied.

SB 7.6.24tasmāt sarveṣu bhūteṣu dayāṁ kuruta sauhṛdam

bhāvam āsuram unmucya yayā tuṣyaty adhokṣajaḥ

Therefore, my dear young friends born of demons, please act in such a way that the Supreme Lord, who is beyond the conception of material knowledge, will be satisfied. Give up your demoniac nature and act without enmity or duality. Show mercy to all living entities by enlightening them in devotional service, thus becoming their well-wishers.

Prabhupada in his super-excellent purport has given so many IMPORTANT ADVANTAGES for preaching the message of the Lord.

1. Preaching is the best service to the Lord. 2. The Lord will immediately be extremely satisfied with one who engages in this service of preaching Krishna Consciousness. (na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ: "There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear").3. If one sincerely tries his best to spread Krsna consciousness by preaching the glories of the Lord and His supremacy, even if he is imperfectly educated, he becomes the dearmost servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 4. As one performs this service for humanity, without discrimination between friends and enemies, the Lord becomes satisfied, and the mission of one's life is fulfilled. 5. That is the easiest way to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 6. By such preaching, the preacher becomes satisfied, and those to whom he preaches are also satisfied. This is the process of bringing peace and tranquility to the entire world. 7. People are generally ignorant of Krsna consciousness, and therefore to become their best well-wisher one should teach them about Krsna consciousness without discrimination.

In addition to these advantages I am a miser if I don't mention our Maharaj's instructions on Preaching.

1. Preaching purifies our existence. 2. Atleast in Vyasa aasan we are not covered by material modes of nature. 3. Preaching solidifies our knowledge and increases our faith in shastras. 4. Preaching also accelerates our advancement in Devotional service.

We should get inspiration from H G Kalacakra Prabhuji for starting the orphanage program in Chennai and also our HG Svayam Prabhuji started so many programs in UAE and also thinking of one more program in Ruwais - 250 kms from Abu Dhabi. I was thinking what we can get from orphanage program or the program in Ruwais, but now I understood from this super-excellent verse and purport of Srimad Bhagavatam the greatest importance of Preaching. It will be a failure on my part if I don't mention about the wonderful preaching programs being conducted in Singapore under the guidance of able preacher H G Devakinandan prabhuji.

Therefore it has become sine qua non (most essential) that everyone of us with whatever puny capacity should glorify the Lord and always seek out opportunities for preaching and thereby somehow or other try to satisfy the Supreme Lord.

I pray to the Supreme Lord and Spiritual master and Prabhupada and all the wonderful Vaishnavas to shower their causeless mercy on this obstinate soul and thereby a particle of inspiration would enable me to preach the glories of the Supreme Lord and may be I will be able to satisfy the Supreme Lord in this life itself.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Sajjana Priya Krishna dasAbu Dhabi.

Forgive and Forget


In our last posting, we saw the extraordinary character of Mahatma Vidura. In the same chapter we can learn another great quality from another saintly personality - Yudhishtira Maharaja.

After listening to the strong advice of Vidura, Dhrtarashtra and Gandhari along with Vidura himself left the palace for the forest without anybody's notice. The next day morning, Yudhistira Maharaj became anxious on not seeing his two uncles and aunt and enquired Dhrtarashtra's secretary Sanjaya as follows (SB 1.13.33-34):

ambā ca hata-putrārtā pitṛvyaḥ kva gataḥ suhṛtapi mayy akṛta-prajñe hata-bandhuḥ sa bhāryayā

āśaṁsamānaḥ śamalaṁ gaṅgāyāṁ duḥkhito ’patat

pitary uparate pāṇḍau sarvān naḥ suhṛdaḥ śiśūnarakṣatāṁ vyasanataḥ pitṛvyau kva gatāv itaḥ

Where is my well-wisher, uncle Vidura, and mother Gandhari, who is very afflicted due to all her sons' demise? My uncle Drtharashtra was also very mortified due to the death of all his sons and grandsons. Undoubtedly I am very ungrateful. Did he, therefore, take my offenses very seriously and, along with his wife, drown himself in the Ganges?

When my father, Pandu, fell down and we were all small children, these two uncles gave us protection from all kinds of calamities. They were always our good well-wishers. Alas, where have they gone from here?

It is a well-known fact that Dhrtarashtra himself was one of the main supporter of his son Duryodhana's heinous acts against Pandavas all through their lives. It was only because of his excessive attachment for his own son that Dhrtarashtra secretly wished that Pandavas may die and his son will become the King. Even though Dhrtarashtra's nature and desire were known to everyone, but still Yudhistira Maharaj in the above verses reveals two very unique and rare saintly qualities of a devotees.

1. Consider everyone else except oneself as good.2. Remember only the good deeds of others and forget all their bad behaviours.

Dhrtarashtra's sons inflicted so many difficulties on the Pandavas such as, Trying to kill with poisonous snakes, Great fire, Cannibals, Insulting Draupadi by vastra-haran, Exiling them to forest etc. In creating all these difficulties, Dhrtharashtra played a crucial role. But Yudhistira Maharaj did not remember any of them, even though they had to suffer to such an extreme. On the other hand, he only remembered the good days they had when they were small children when uncles Dhrtharashtra and Vidura would play with them and took care of them especially while their father was dead. This is the greatness of a devotee, he forgives and forgets the wrong-doings of the others.

If we were in Yudhistira's position, we would be definitely nurturing our anger for years to take revenge on the person who was the cause of our sufferings.

Yudhistira Maharaj was able to behave this way because he had this other special quality of a devotee, ie., considering everyone else except himself as good. He was still not able to forgive himself for killing the sons of Dhrtarashtra and

considered himself the most sinful living entity. He thought this way: "When we did not have our father, our aunt and uncle brought us up, but in return, we killed their sons who are their shelter especially in their old age. Who can be more ungrateful than us (Pandavas)". Thinking this way, he provided all facilities to protect his uncle and aunt in the palace. In fact he respected Dhrtarashtra so much that he would not take a decision without consulting him.

This is a very important and vital lesson we should learn from Yudhishtira Maharaj. There are so many people who happen to be an intermediate cause of trouble to us but we should learn to forgive and forget and nurture good feelings for everybody. In this way, our minds will have more time and energy to meditate on Krishna and serving other suffering jivas.

Several years back once my spiritual master gave me a powerful instruction - "Remember two 'F's - Forgive and Forget. Others may do whatever they want, but you be your own and fully absorb yourself in Bhagavatam and Krishna."

I sincerely pray to the Supreme Lord and my spiritual master that let me cultivate the nature of "forgiving and forgetting" other's mistakes and put more energy in rectifying my own mistakes.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,Kalacakra Krsna das

One Pointed Attention

Dear Devotees,Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

Recently HG Devakinandan Prabhu gave an amazing class stressing the importance of being attentive to Bhagavatam. I would just like to share a verse from Srimad Bhagavatam which re-iterates the importance of the above message.

While explaining the process of Divinity and Divine service to the sages of Naimisaranya, Suta Goswami says in SB 1.2.14

tasmād ekena manasā bhagavān sātvatāṁ patiḥśrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca dhyeyaḥ pūjyaś ca nityadā

Therefore, with one-pointed attention, one should constantly hear about, glorify, remember and worship the Personality of Godhead, who is the protector of the devotees.

In the translation Prabhupada tell us "one pointed attention". The opposite of this is to have our attention branched into many other areas. This is the main problem. We are always bothered about so many other things that we forget Bhagavatam. But Srila Prabhupada tells us that there is not a single reason in the world why we should divert our attention to other things other than Bhagavatam, but that it is in our best interest to only give our full attention to Bhagavatam and nothing else.

Here are two such amazing quotes. In the purport of S.B 1.2.5 he says: - One should learn the Srimad Bhagavatam and make an all-around solution to all problems pertaining to social, political or religious matters. Srimad Bhagavatam andKrishna are the sum total of all things.

So by learning Srimad Bhagavatam all our problems are solved as it gives us information on everything life has to offer both in the material and spiritual worlds. So in that sense our attention which is always diverted to solve and find solutions should always come to Bhagavatam, and there is no need for our attention to go elsewhere for any reason. We should also note that Srila Prabhupada says by learning Srimad Bhagavatam and not by just reading. So by carefully learning Srimad Bhagavatam (by patiently studying the verses and purports, by taking notes and inquiring from the spiritual master) we can surely make an all around solution provided we are serious about it. The main source for our attention to be diverted also comes from family, when we plan and think so much on how to keep our family going. But even in that sense we have no excuse in not being attentive to Bhagavatam.

As Srila Prabhupada says in the purport of S.B 1.2.10: - "In the absence of voluntary restraint, there is propaganda for family planning, but foolish men do not know that family planning is automatically executed as soon as there is search after the Absolute Truth."

And the best way and place to seek after the absolute truth is through Bhagavatam. So when we approach Bhagavatam we don't need to separately divert our attention to other things in life to carry on. Rather by just immersing our attention in Bhagavatam, we can live our lives naturally, without being in an awkward position and without being embarrassed by the material conditions.

To conclude let us remember the golden words of Srila Prabhupada -"Srimad Bhagavatam and Krishna are the sum total of all things."

Please pray that I depend more on Bhagavatam rather than depending on my own whims.

Thank you very much.Your servant,Madanmohan dasSingapore.

Understanding the Lord's Favor

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept my humble pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

While explaining about the equanimous nature of Supreme Lord to Parikshit Maharaj, Sri Sukadev Goswami says in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 7.1.9

jyotir-ādir ivābhāti saṅghātān na vivicyatevidanty ātmānam ātma-sthaṁ mathitvā kavayo ’ntataḥ

The all-pervading Personality of Godhead exists within the heart of every living being, and an expert thinker can perceive how He is present there to a large or small extent. Just as one can understand the supply of fire in wood, the water in a waterpot, or the sky within a pot, one can understand whether a living entity is a demon or a demigod by understanding that living entity's devotional performances. A thoughtful man can understand how much a person is favored by the Supreme Lord by seeing his actions.

The omnipresent Supreme Lord, resides in the heart of all living entities and provides equal opportunities to everyone to come to Him. But based on the behaviour of the individual soul, He showers His blessings accordingly. So if out of laziness, we try to ignore Supreme Lord and enter into world of darkness, we cannot foolishly tell that Lord did not favour us. Krishna is bhāva-grāhī-janārdana. In the material world, people may fail to understand our feelings. But our Supreme omniscient Father, is well aware of each and every single thought of ours. As soon as we desire to serve Him or even, humbly realise our inabilities in serving Him, He immediately arranges all situations favorable to us to perform the devotional service. The last line in the translation - "A thoughtful man can understand how much a person is favored by the Supreme Lord by seeing his actions" is worth meditating.

Behind all our successful actions in our life, be it material or spiritual, we should always remember it is ONLY because of Lord's favour. As the Lord Himself nicely declares in Bhagavad Gita 10.41 - "Know that all beautiful, glorious and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor." So realising this truth, may we desire always to cleanse our thoughts words and deeds through the sublime process of bhakti and make our heart, a pleasing place for the Lord to reside.


Causeless Mercy of the Lord

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

One who comes in contact with Krishna consciousness in any way is at once liberated from material existence, but his liberation in the initial stages is imperceptible. Imperceptible means that something cannot be perceived, experienced, or measured. Lord Krishna imperceptibly killed all of the Kauravas on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, so in the same way Lord Krishna imperceptibly liberates all those who come in contact with bhakti. To understand this better we should look to the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita: 11.32-34.

In these three verses, Lord Krishna explains how he has imperceptibly killed all of the Kauravas, even prior to the battle having commenced. He states that "they have already been destroyed by Me" and "they are already put to death by My arrangement". Yet, factually speaking (or perceptibly speaking), they were all alive and fighting ferociously on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Bhishma was not dead; he was shooting arrows at Arjuna and inflicting physical pain on Arjuna with his attacks. How was this possible when they had already been killed by the Lord? It is because Lord Krishna imperceptibly killed them, meaning he did it in a way that could not be perceived, experienced, nor understood. Thus the time factor was required to bring the perceptible and imperceptible realities into one frame of view, but factually Lord Krishna had already killed all of the Kauravas.

Lord Krishna further confirmed this when He told Arjuna to become "His instrument and kill the enemies", despite having just said that all the soldiers were already killed by Him. The divine plan or will of the Lord is the factual reality, and that path of divine fate is unswerving like the flow of a powerful river. The flow of a river will always predictably follow the path of the riverbed. Once the Lord has made a determination or has decided on an outcome, that very decision is reality and truth, with only the time factor separating the perceptible and imperceptible realities.

In same way, factually Krishna has liberated all devotees (including neophytes) who have come in contact with bhakti, but He has chosen to do it imperceptibly, and thus we have no practical experience of it. The time factor is required to bring the perceptible (currently our conditioned state) in line with the imperceptible (our liberated state). As neophytes we do not experience that we are liberated (i.e. liberation has spiritual perceptions of bliss, etc.). Since Lord Krishna has "imperceptibly" liberated all of us, we have no experience of this. Just as Lord Krishna imperceptibly killed all of the Kauravas on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, so in the same way, Lord Krishna imperceptibly liberates all those who come in contact with bhakti. This is His causeless mercy, awarding liberation to anyone regardless of their spiritual qualification. If you simply come in contact with the Lord's bhakti, you are already liberated from material existence - only the time factor is required to bring the perceptible and imperceptible into one frame. How is it that contact with bhakti causes imperceptible liberation? Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita 2.40:

nehābhikrama-nāśo ’sti pratyavāyo na vidyatesv-alpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt

In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.

Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport that the practice of bhakti results in eternal benefit for the conditioned soul, and there is never any loss or diminution to this eternal spiritual credit. Once one has even come in indirect contact with bhakti, he has opened his spiritual bank account and has begun accumulating this devotional credit which is eternal. "Even a small beginning of such activity finds no impediment, nor can that small beginning be lost at any stage." Even the tiniest (sv-alpam) endeavor in devotional service brings eternal spiritual results, which can never be

lost at any time. Perceptible liberation occurs when we have become 100% Krishna conscious, always absorbed in the Lord. But for those of us who are conditioned souls, to whatever degree we advance in bhakti, we will always continue from that point and move higher and higher towards liberation. If in this life we have perfected our spiritual life 10%, then from next life we will continue from 11%; we will never lose that spiritual advancement that has been accumulated. Thus it can be visualized as a devotional bank account where one can only make deposits, but never has any of the balance debited. It will continue to increase and increase until we have reached the level of 100% pure devotion to the Lord. At that stage imperceptible liberation transforms to perceptible liberation.

Thus for anyone who takes to bhakti, even in the smallest way, liberation is guaranteed, and only the time factor acts as the separator between perceptible and imperceptible realities. In this way, even the most neophyte devotee is factually liberated by the divine will of the Lord, but in the initial stages it will be imperceptible untill the passage of time (and accumulation of devotional credit) raises him to the level of 100% pure devotional attachment to the Lord.

We sincerely pray at the Lotus feet of Guru Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada & Lord Krsna to bestow his mercy upon us so that we can get real taste of Bhakti.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Tusta Krishna das & Suniti devi dasiSharjah.

Transcendental Qualities of Sri Prahlada Maharaj


Our shastras are so full of transcendental instructions provided to us in so many ways. Some instructions are straight-forward coming from the lotus mouth of the Lord or His pure devotees. Some lessons we can get through instructive pastimes or (allegorical) stories. And some of them we can get it through narrative qualities of pure devotees.

Prahlada Maharaj is one such Mahajana devotee from whom we can draw inspiration to perform bhakti eternally. His transcendental qualities are mentioned in the 4th chapter of 7th canto which are worth meditating and following.

SB 7.4.31-32brahmaṇyaḥ śīla-sampannaḥ satya-sandho jitendriyaḥ

ātmavat sarva-bhūtānām eka-priya-suhṛttamaḥ

dāsavat sannatāryāṅghriḥ pitṛvad dīna-vatsalaḥbhrātṛvat sadṛśe snigdho guruṣv īśvara-bhāvanaḥ

vidyārtha-rūpa-janmāḍhyo māna-stambha-vivarjitaḥ

Here is the list of each of Prahlad Maharaj's qualities mentioned in the above 2 verses that we can meditate upon:

1. brahmaṇyaḥ śīla-sampannaḥ: He was completely cultured as a qualified brahmana, possessing all good qualities

2. satya-sandhaḥ: He was determined to understand the Absolute Truth

3. jita indriyaḥ: He fully controlled the senses and mind.

4. ātmavat sarva-bhūtānām: Like the Supersoul, he was very kind to every living entity.

5. eka-priya-suhṛttamaḥ: He was the best friend of everyone.

6. dāsavat sannata arya-aṅghriḥ: To respectable elders, he was very obedient, acting exactly like a menial servant.

7. pitṛvad dīna-vatsalaḥ: To the poor, he was very kind like a father

8. bhrātṛvat sadṛśe snigdhaḥ: To the equals he was affectionate like a sympathetic brother

9. guruṣv īśvara-bhāvanaḥ: He considered his teachers, spiritual masters and older godbrothers to be as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

10: vidyārtha-rūpa-janmāḍhyo māna-stambha-vivarjitaḥ: He was completely free from unnatural pride that arises from good education, riches, beauty, aristocracy and so on.

Simply by possessing these transcendental qualities, Prahlad Maharaj was able to attract the attention of the Lord which is not possible by any amount of self-motivated austerities and penances. The Lord is easily pleased by simple and straight-forward devotional qualities but any amount of artificial and complicated gymnastics will not attract His attention. He is the closest observer (upadṛṣṭā) of what is going on in our minds and He can never be cheated. The sooner we come to terms with this truth, the sooner we can start acting in the right way, following the footsteps of

Prahlad Maharaj.

My humble prayers to the lotus feet of the Lord's pure devotee Sri Prahlad Maharaj to bestow upon me the qualification to possess these transcendental qualities so that I can become a devotee in the real sense.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Kalacakra Krsna das.

Lord Helps Devotees In Serving Him


By the magnanimous mercy of Lord Narasinghadev, we were able to visit the holy dham of Ahobilam - where Lord Narasinghadev had manifested once again, the pastimes of rescuing His dear devotee Prahlad Maharaj from his demoniac father Hiranyakashipu, as per request of His devotee Garuda. Pastimes of Lord are eternal like Him and they keep taking place eternally in various parts of the Universe and this holy dham in one such place.

The holy dham of Ahobilam is on a hilly forest region, wherein there are 9 self manifested Deities of Lord Narasimhadev. To take darshan of Lord, we would have to pass through forest path and speciality of some of these 9 temples is that the only way to reach Lord is only by walking through these forest for several kilometers, climbing up-hill. Fortunately these places are not still affected by modern transportation or communication or even restaurants. Due to the personal appearance of Lord, Mother Nature is at her best and all we could see there is greenery and sound of birds and transcendental vibration of "ugram viram mahavishnum" mantras coming from these temples, glorifying Lord Narasinghadev, echoing in all directions in the mountains.

Had it been a normal trekking exercise, definitely it would not have been possible for anyone of us to climb up those mountains. But by mercy of Lord Narasinghadev, people of all age-groups, right from 5 year old kid to those who were in the advanced age group (60s thru 70s), amidst so many health issues were able to have the all auspicious darshan of Lord at all 9 different places in two days. After going there, I could see how many devotees of Lord, despite their physical inabilities were so eager to have darshan of Lord and were willing to take austerity of travelling all the way up the mountain.

When we get anything easily, we mostly fail to realise it's value and tend to become falsely proud. Lord Narasinghadev who slays out all such demoniac anarthas from our heart, has very nicely chosen these places, just to remind us that even to have darshan of Lord, His mercy and our endevaor both are required. We cannot see the Lord, easily according to our plans or by any short-cuts. For few of the temples, there were facilities to travel by jeep. But we heard that just by booking those jeeps, there is no assurance that we would be able to see the Lord. There were so many instances that people who took jeeps had to walk longer distances as their jeeps would get stuck on the way (purely by will and grace of Lord Narasimha) and hence resulting in them walking more kilometers than what they would have done if they had taken normal path. Even if the jeeps don't get stuck, travelling in the jeep itself is such a "self-realising", Krishna conscious experience. Since the terrain is not smooth, the drivers travel at such rash speeds that all we could do is helplessly chant Lord's name for protection. Seeing our puny attempts, the magnanimous Lord protects us by helping us to reach there safely and blesses us with His divine darshan.

When Lord Brahma prays for creative energy, Lord Krishna instructs him in Srimad Bhagavatam 3.9.38 as follows ..

yac cakarthāṅga mat-stotraṁ mat-kathābhyudayāṅkitamyad vā tapasi te niṣṭhā sa eṣa mad-anugrahaḥ

O Brahma, the prayers that you have chanted praising the glories of My transcendental activities, the penances you have undertaken to understand Me, and your firm faith in Me-all these are to be considered My causeless mercy.

In his marvellous purport to above verse, Srila Prabhupada says "When a living entity desires to serve the Lord in transcendental loving service, the Lord helps the devotee in so many ways as the caitya-guru, or the spiritual master within, and thus the devotee can perform many wonderful activities beyond material estimation."

Bottom line is, whatever austerities we are able to perform, whatever service we perform and even our faith in Lord are all ONLY due to His causeless mercy and there is no reason to be proud of anything. I pray that I remember this truth always.


I Am Not This Body

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva!

"I am not this body", This is always an alluring statement to live. We may have some degree of understanding, however that gyaan is rarely translated to action. Verses of Bhagavad Gita 2.13 in particular, shed lot of light in a common sensical way:

dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarātathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

I am currently travelling in India with family and visiting my relatives along with my twin children after four years. Whoever, sees my children who are now over five feet tall, express surprise and talk about how small they were when they first saw them. Of course, since almost all of us are living a bodily conception of life, we escape the thought of that soul or the source of that consciousness that is beyond material nature, and that constitutes our real self.

Srila Prabhupada in one of his lectures states: "Now we are working under the designation of this body. Everyone is working under this designation of this body. When we become above the designation of the body, that is our real, constitutional position. So first of all, to realize that "I am not this body," and the next stage is that "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of Krsna. Therefore as part and parcel is meant for giving service to the whole, my constitutional position is to serve Krishna." That is perfection of life."

After reading the above conclusion, i questioned myself. Lord Krishna is the owner of both material and spiritual nature. So, even if i consider myself as the body and serve Lord Krishna and his devotees, what is wrong? The answer was there in the previous statement that i did not read properly:

BG 18.54brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

Srila Prabhupada explains: So without being brahma-bhūta, that "I am spirit soul," Krsna consciousness does not become very perfect. If we are in the bodily concept of life, then it is rather difficult. It will take time. Because unless you come to the platform to understand that you are not this body, you are spirit soul, the actual devotional service does not begin. But to the neophyte student, the chance is given to develop this devotional service: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ. The method is by constantly being engaged in devotional service, one becomes realized soul. God helps him, Krishna helps him. Then he becomes a perfect, liberated soul.

I humbly request at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva that even though i am deeply in the bodily concept of life, i keep trying vigorously to come to the perfectional stage of devotional service.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Manohar Krishna das Patna.

Maharaj Please Hear Us


In today's mail, I would like to share with all of you a very nice rhyme which has been composed by HG Atma Prasad Prabhuji - our God-brother from Minneapolis, who is currently serving in Sri Prahlad International school in Rajkot. The speciality is that he does not know Gujarati or any of the other local Indian languages and the children also sometimes find it difficult to understand his western style of English. Inspite of these shortcomings, he has very nicely found a way to express his thoughts through simply moral rhymes and teach them to the children. It is an awesome sight to behold the children singing these rhymes so cheerfully with nice actions.

Maharaja Please Hear Us

ChorusMaharaj, Maharaj Please Hear Us

We have learned some real good stuffMaharaj we have learned one thing

And today for you we will sing

Verse 1 :If our room is clean, then our mind is clean.

If our mind is clean, we can do anything.If our room is dirty, then so are we.And if we are dirty, we're not happy.

ChorusVerse 2 :

Wasting time is the greatest crimeBecause wasted time means a wasted mind

So best use your time, when your in your primeand your whole life will be sublime

ChorusVerse 3:

If your wealth is gone, there is nothing wrong.If your health is gone, thats a different song.

But if your character dies, then the world will cry,Because only saintly behaviour lets humanity thrive.

H G Atma Prasad Krishna Prabhuji is a very simple, sincere, cheerful and dedicated devotee. He met the devotees in Minneapolis a few years back when he was doing his graduate in the University of Minnesota. One day he got a Bhagavad-gita from the devotees who were distributing Srila Prabhupada's books in the campus and never looked back in his devotional service since then. He has recently completed his graduation and has been serving in our Rajkot temple in the Sri Prahlad International School as a teacher for classes upto 4th Standard. He is very meek, humble at the same time sincere and focused in his service. While there are so many Indians in the current generation who cannot even read or recite the sanskrit language nicely, Atma Prasad prabhu, with the boundless mercy and expert guidance of our spiritual master, learned to read and write the Bhagavad-gita / Bhagavatam slokas in devanagri script itself.

Along with the unlimited mercy of our Guru Maharaj Srila Mahavishnu Goswami, he has also been cultivated in Krishna consciousness all these years by H G Purnendu Prabhu and H G Anasuya mataji who have been conducting Namahatta programs in Minneapolis for more than a decade. Purnendu prabhu and Mataji have so very patiently brought up a young group of devotees in Krishna consciousness which include Atma Prasad Krishna Prabhuji, Gopika Mataji, Ananta Vijaya Krishna Prabhuji and Sevananda Prabhuji. These devotees are very focused in their service to Krishna and go out of their way to preach. Atma Prasad prabhu has very nicely cultivated a group of devotees and has been coordinating a lot of satsang programs and festivals, tours etc.

We humbly take inspiration from such exalted devotees and pray for their mercy who are mature way beyond their age and experience in Krishna consciousness. They are the beacon lights of the future of this Krishna consciousness movement.


Obtaining the Mercy of the Lord


Sudarshana devi dasi had written a couple of days ago about our mind-boggling trip to ahobilam dham last week end. I would like to add a couple of my humble appreciations.

Out of the 9 Nrsimhadev deities present there, 4 of them are on the top of steep hills which takes an arduous walking austerity through thick forest and the pathway filled with stones, rocks and woods. The rest of the 5 deities reside surrounding the foothills of the mountains. And out of the 4 deities on the top of the hill, two are the most difficult - Jwala Nrsimha and Pavana Nrsimha. The path leading to Jwala Nrsimha temple is very steep and we have to pass through big rocks. It is about a 4 km walk up the mountain. Whereas Pavana Nrsimha presents to us a slightly different kind of austerity - beginning with a steep climb of 700 steps and then a 6 km walk through the jungle with the path full of stones. It is much easy walking with slippers on, but the austerity is felt when we walk bare foot, every stone that we put our foot on, relieving us of our past sins by giving us the reactions through pain. Of course, we can withstand the pain by sincerely chanting the holy names and glories of Lord Nrsimhadev.

But the most astonishing thing that struck me when we at last reached Pavana Nrsimhadev was that it was a very small temple and along the side there was a small room for the Pujari. Apart from this there is absolutely nothing in that place. I was just wondering where does the Pujari get the paraphernalias for worshiping the Lord and for even maintaining himself. There is absolutely no electricity in that entire area and after 6 pm the temples are closed. Thinking about the situation that a person stays there all alone and performing the archana non-stop, simply blew me off. That pujari prabhu has only two jungle dwellers helping him if he is in need of anything and the jungle dwellers eat only meat, as we could feel the intense smell of dead animals around. Even in this condition, the pujari just asked us to wait for a few minutes and came back to the temple to offer very nice sweet rice and pancamrta to the Lord and then offered it to us as well.

We could not help but be awed by the Pujari prabhu's intense faith in the Lord and his unshakable determination to serve Him. I am here sitting in nice A/C room comfortably and still cribing about so many silly things. As Srila Prabhupada says in his purport to BG 2.41, "Faith means unflinching trust in something sublime", we could perceive this unflinching service mood in this prabhu.

Secondly when we came down we took prasadam in the local mutt there. The devotees who are serving there in preparing the prasadam and serving it to the visiting devotees are all quite in their middle-age, fifty-plus. The whole day they keep serving, preparing prasadam as per the preference of the visitors and moreover, the prasadam is absolutely free of cost. In most temples or mathas, even the prasadam that is distributed after a charge, is not served with the mood of servitorship. Whereas here, I could see that they were all so very humble while serving, even if there are hundreds of devotees to be served at once. Moreover, they serve prasadam irrespective of anytime we come during the day. We can even inform them to prepare the prasadam in advance and they dutifully prepare the prasadam and wait until we come and honor the prasadam. The first day of our visit, we came late from our tour but the prabhu who cooked the prasadam waited for us without resting until late in the night to serve us, eventhough many of our troup were tired and went to bed.

This showed to me another facet of the unflinching service mood of the devotees there. Even though I am half their age, my body will not bend to serve prasadam to others and then honor it. Nor will I kindly wait for the visitors to honor the prasadam. I will probably be sulking inside for the unfortunate situation I am being put in. What is the use of all the hi-fi philosophy that we speak, if we cannot bend to serve others?

As our Guru Maharaj has succinctly put it in his powerful statement recently, "Srila Prabhupada called bhakti as devotional service, because there cannot be service without devotion and there cannot be devotion without service."

I humbly pray unto the Lord, my dear spiritual master and offer my humble obeisances at the lotus feet of such elevated vaishnavas, that let me get this mood of servitorship to all the living entities by distributing them prasadam, the mercy of the Lord. Only by giving mercy to others can we get mercy of the Lord.


The Lord's Transcendental Benedictions


We all look to seek benedictions from the Lord, which are mostly materially motivated. Of course the Lord bestows upon us whatever we deserve but that is not the real indication of His benedictions. Srila Sukadeva Goswami reveals what is the real benediction of the Lord in SB 2.2.12 as follows:

adīna-līlā-hasitekṣaṇollasad-bhrū-bhaṅga-saṁsūcita-bhūry-anugraham

īkṣeta cintāmayam enam īśvaraṁyāvan mano dhāraṇayāvatiṣṭhate

The Lord's magnanimous pastimes and the glowing glancing of His smiling face are all indications of His extensive benedictions. One must therefore concentrate on this transcendental form of the Lord, as long as the mind can be fixed on Him by meditation.

We may have so many benedictions in the form of nice family, wealth, job, friends etc but what is the use of all these impermanent benedictions? As Prahlada Maharaj prays to the Lord, "kutrāśiṣaḥ śruti-sukhā mṛgatṛṣṇi-rūpāḥ - what is the use of all these mundane benedictions which are like mirage in the desert? They are only pleasing to hear but not of tangible value." Elderly people in the marriages and other family functions bless the young ones by saying "āyuṣmanbhava", "dīrgha sumangali bhava" etc. But what is the guarantee that a person will live long? Or even if he lives long what is the use of that long life if it is not used in Krishna's service? Hence instead of running after such short-lived benedictions, Srila Sukadeva Goswami is revealing to us the real and 'extensive' benedictions of the Lord which He manifests through His transcendental pastimes which are magnified in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam and the glowing glances of His smiling face which are revealed to us through His transcendental deity forms. But the subtle thing is that these magnanimous revelations have to be fixed in our minds as long as possible in the form of meditations (yāvan mano dhāraṇaya avatiṣṭhate).

Once we relish the taste of this extensive benedictions in the form of His forms, names and pastimes, we will not even turn to the other cheap forms of benedictions (rasa-varjaṁ raso ’py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate - By tasting the higher taste of Krishna consciousness one can give up the taste for the lower sense gratifications).

My sincere prayers unto the Lord and my spiritual master that let me put my heads into the transcendental glorifications of the Lord in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam and submerge myself in relishing it. There is no other way to save oneself from this dangerous material world.


Qualification to help

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept my humble pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

In one of his lecture on the verse Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.13 at New Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada explains how spiritual master knows what is the condition of his disciple. Just like a physician knows. By simply feeling the beating of pulse, a... An expert physician can know what is the condition of this patient, and he treats him and gives him medicine accordingly. Similarly, a spiritual master who is actually spiritual master, he can know, he knows the pulse-beating of the disciple, and he therefore gives him particular kind of medicine so that he may be cured. In Srila Narada Muni, the spiritual master of Srila Vyasadev, instructs him as follows:

atho mahā-bhāga bhavān amogha-dṛkśuci-śravāḥ satya-rato dhṛta-vrataḥurukramasyākhila-bandha-muktayesamādhinānusmara tad-viceṣṭitam

O Vyasadeva, your vision is completely perfect. Your good fame is spotless. You are firm in vow and situated in truthfulness. And thus you can think of the pastimes of the Lord in trance for the liberation of the people in general from all material bondage.

We might wish to help out the masses in some way or other. Liberating people from the material bondage is the greatest help. The qualities to be possessed by such persons who do such help are listed very nicely by Narada Muni in the above verse .

1. amogha-dṛk - Clear Vision - If we don't have clear vision of what needs to be done in this lifetime, we can never reach perfection and what to speak of saving other souls.

2. śuci-śravāḥ - Pure Hearing - This has a transcendental effect on our consciousness. When we live in atmosphere filled with transcendental sound vibrations - especially the words from the mouth of pure devotee - that sound itself would rejuvenate our senses.

3. satya-rataḥ - Truthfulness -- Lord is pleased with those who are truthful in their dealings with others and also in their vows of devotional service.

4. dhṛta-vrataḥ - Firm determination -- The quality of truthfulness and firm determination go hand in hand. If we don't have firm determination to be focussed in devotional service, we would not be truthful. Also when we ourselves don't practise what we want to preach others, then our preaching would not be effective.

Narada Muni knew that his disciple Vyasadev possessed all the above wonderful qualities and hence he is the right person, to deliver the people through Srimad Bhagavatam. Though we may not be qualified to liberate other souls, we must sincerely aspire to possess above qualities, to save our own soul.


Practical Grhastha Ashrama


While I had the great fortune of spending a few days with Maharaj in Rajkot recently, I noted down some very powerful words that Maharaj spoke out of his years of experience and realization. Maharaj, having gone through all the ashramas in sequence is able to judge the problems of each ashramas, especially Grhastha ashrama which is such a challenging ashrama for the sheer reason of our direct involvement with the material modes and nature.

He was helping a couple very patiently in trying to understand the basic etiquettes and requirements of Grhastha ashrama and how to solve marital tensions. Here are a few powerful statements that Maharaj made during his discussion.

1. In Grhastha life, one word we should remember - ADJUST.Maharaj gave a very nice example in this regard. He said, "In the school, the teacher teaches Maths. She writes on the board, 2 + ? = 5. The answer '5' is fixed. We cannot change it. So the students subtract 2 from 5 and write the answer as '3'. In the same way, in Grhastha ashrama also we should fix the result, ie., to be together. Then whatever problems or misunderstandings that come by, we should solve them by keeping in mind the end result. The best way we can be together is to always try to adjust and tolerate each other patiently."

2. As long as the child is there in the house, it should see only harmony between the parents. Any quarrel in front of the child will only be detrimental to the child's future. As parents we should remember this before we fight.

3. Don't brood over the past. Our past karmas are like shot arrows. Once the arrow is shot we cannot do anything. Better would be to think what we can do for the present and future and start acting accordingly.

4. One rule we should always follow: Whenever there is disagreement, at least one party should keep quiet because for fighting we need two parties.

5. There should be free flow of air in our house. As soon as there is no free air and good space in our home, there is disruptions. Space is also energy of Krsna, so if there is not enough space there is quarrel. But to increase the space, we need not get a bigger spacious house. The need is for spiritual space. And to increase the spiritual space, we need constant spiritual vibration of Mahamantra, Gita and Bhagavatam in our homes. By increasing the spiritual vibration, we can increase the transcendental space within ourselves as well as in our homes. This will let sanity prevail around us.

Maharaj gave many more practical instructions in regard to sustaining a peaceful Grhastha ashrama and they are like treasure-house for us who are suffering from the disease of quarrel and hypocrisy in this age of kali. Worst come worst we should remember the sloka from SB 1.2.13,

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥsvanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

O best among the twice-born, it is therefore concluded that the highest perfection one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one's own occupation according to caste divisions and orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead.

Whenever we quarrel, we can remind ourselves of this sloka, and think, "Is Krishna going to be pleased with our fighting with our spouse

?". This will help us stay a bit sane and do whatever it takes to please the Supreme Lord and as we know He is most pleased when we serve Him together.

I sincerely pray unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master to help me remember his golden words and try to implement them in my day to day life.


Way To Attain Peace Of Mind

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

Of all the types of anarthas we possess, envy upon other living entities and the Supreme Being is the most dangerous because it is the only anartha which cannot be engaged in Lord's service and it is the root cause of our separation from the Supreme Being. One worst dimension of this anartha is that a person possessing envy rarely accepts the fact that he is envious.So the chances of correcting himself becomes very rare. Due to this envious propensity, we lament when others get opulences and become happy when they lose their opulences. In Mahabharata, Duryodhana was the symbol of envy towards Pandavas(devotees). He was always morose at the success of the Pandavas. By political manipulation, he divided the kingdom into two halves and gave a forest which is good for nothing to Pandavas . However they made a beautiful palace there with the help of the Devatas and they performed a great yajna where all kings of the world were invited including Duryodhana. When Duryodhana was walking through the palace, his whole body was agitated by seeing the opulence of the palace and he uttered the following words.

shriyam tathaa vidhaam drishtva jvalantim iva paandave amarsha vashamaapanno dahye ahamathochitah

vahnimeva pravekshyaami bhakshayishyaami vaa vishamh apo vaapi pravekshyaami na hi shakyaami jivitumh

Having seen the wealth and goods of the Pandavas, I burn, as it were; coming under the influence of the burning sadness, I think this is fair. I will immolate myself in fire, or else I will consume poison; or else I will drown in water, for I indeed see no purpose in living.

We see in the above words of Duryodhana that he feels he is correct in his envy towards the Pandavas and felt very insecure and found no purpose in living. People like me exactly possess the same mentality and the result is we lose sight of the opulences we are having. Actually Duryodhana was having better opulence than the Pandavas and more military power due to the presence of great generals like Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Vidura. However he forgot all these things and was agitated by the opulence of the Pandavas. He wanted them to lose all those opulences and suffer and hence he invited them for the game of dice. Maharaj beautifully says, "When we're envious of somebody we want that person to suffer different kinds of tension though we don't gain anything by that person's suffering".

In spiritual life also, when some people advance very fast and they also get lot of material opulences, we start feeling insecure due to our envy for them and start doubting the Lord's mercy and sometimes feel no purpose in continuing spiritual life. In a subtle way, we want them to face lot of obstacles in material and spiritual life and when it happens we feel very happy. However the reality is the Lord is unlimited and he can nourish the spiritual lives of any number of living entities provided they are sincere. So on our part, it is just required to become sincere in our spiritual endeavours without looking at other's plates and the Lord is there to take us to His lotus feet without fail.

As Maharaj always says, "Krishna Consciousness is not competition. It is all about how nicely we serve Krishna to the best of our ability and remain satisfied in His service".

I humbly pray the lotus feet of Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees so that I'll become sincere in my spiritual endeavors and stop envying the opulences of others and stop praying for their downfall.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,Narahari Krishna das

Chennai.

Effective Preaching

Dear Prabhujis and Matajis,Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble pranams! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!

We know that preaching is the best way to please the Lord. But sometimes when we preach to new people, they don't take it seriously and we become discouraged by their response. How can we effectively preach the glories of Lord? In Srimad Bhagavatam, Narada Muni while glorifying the preaching qualities of Prahlad Maharaj explains in verse 7.8.1 as to how he was able to influence even the demoniac children to take up the process of Krishna consciousness very seriously.

śrī-nārada uvācaatha daitya-sutāḥ sarve śrutvā tad-anuvarṇitamjagṛhur niravadyatvān naiva gurv-anuśikṣitam

Narada Muni continued: All the sons of the demons appreciated the transcendental instructions of Prahlada Maharaja and took them very seriously. They rejected the materialistic instructions given by their teachers, Sanda and Amarka.

The demoniac children accepted Prahlad Maharaj statements even though he was a small boy but they did not accept the teachers' instructions who are experienced and old. Srila Prabhupada in his unparalleled purport, gives four main reasons for effective preaching.

1.Qualification of a devotee. 2.Sincerity 3.Seriousness 4.Follow the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master.

1. Qualification of a devotee: It is very important to be linked to a bonafide sampradaya else our preaching would not be effective. Guru Aashraya - Taking shelter at the Lotus feet of Guru is important as the seed of Bhakti comes through the mercy of Guru and Krishna. Even though there are so many pseudo teachers who are very effective because of Kaliyuga effects, their teaching sustains only as long as the leader is alive. Once he passes away the faith also dwindles and pseudo teachers philosophy evaporates in course of time. But in case of Hare Krishna movement, we find that the movement is spreading rampantly all over the world even after the physical disappearance of Srila Prabhupada(founder acharya) more than 30 years ago.

2. Sincerity: Unless we are sincere in following our devotional practices, the preaching would not be effective to others and will not influence others. The Paramatma in the heart of other living entities, is watching us always and therefore unless the sincerity is there in preacher's behaviour, the Paramatma will not direct the living entities to accept our preaching. Whatever activities we perform in devotional service needs to be done with real sincerity.

3. Seriousness :- Actually speaking we are not becoming serious always because1. We have little faith in shastras, guru and sadhu . 2. We have no idea of the Spiritual world and its opulence and eternity. 3. We hope to live for a long time in this material world and try to postpone our seriousness in that process.4. Fear of getting committed to this process will enable us to lose the comfort zone of sense gratification. 5. Austerity to the body is becoming very cumbersome. 6. We don't want to lose our social position and designations.7. Ultimately we don't have any sincere desire to do this process seriously.

Seriousness will come when we intensify the study of shastras very committedly, because Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita have been spoken in serious circumstances to Arjuna and Parikshit Maharaj (one in the Warfield and other waiting for death). For us we do not know when that circumstances will crop up and therefore we have to become seriousness now itself or otherwise we will be left in lurch. As Kulashekara always says in Mukundamala stotra. No.33 -"O Lord Krishna, at this moment let the royal swan of my mind enter the tangled stems of the lotus of Your feet. How will it be possible for me to remember you at the time of death, when my throat will be choked up with mucus, bile and air." Remembering this verse we have to become seriousness in devotional service very quickly.

4. Following the instructions of a bonafide spiritual master - Following the spiritual master's instruction in toto is important. But we would like to follow, whatever is comfortable to us and we tend to neglect other instructions. We fail to understand that simply by following the instructions we will be able to achieve 1) qualification 2) sincerity 3) seriousness in devotional service. The secret of success in spiritual life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings.

I therefore sincerely pray to the Supreme Lord, Prabhupada and Gurudev to shower their causeless mercy on this errant soul to at least follow the instructions of Spiritual master to the maximum extent so that devotional service and preaching would become effective one day.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Sajjana Priya Krishna dasAbu Dhabi.

The Supreme Shelter


One of the important lessons that our Guru Maharaj always taught us is, "Do not depend on anybody for your devotional service. As long as you have the strength to carry on a certain service, you keep doing it and Krishna will automatically arrange for all facilities like men, finance, etc."

He would often quote this punchline from Srila Prabhupada's purport, "Overeating, over-sense gratification, overdependence on another's mercy, and artificial standards of living sap the very vitality of human energy."

Once Maharaj asked me to do some service and I accepted his instruction. But I was not confident of doing it myself and was looking for someone to team up with me. When Maharaj asked me later about the progress in the service, I said that I am waiting for one of the devotees to work with me. That's when Maharaj again repeated the same statement, Do not depend on anybody for your devotional service.

It is a plain and simple truth that by depending on so many jivas, we lose our dependence on Krishna. In this world there are only two persons who are worth depending upon - Guru and Krishna. By putting ourselves completely at Their mercy, we can become successful in the discharge of our devotional service. Lord Krishna is the ultimate master. He knows exactly what a jiva requires and will supply that to him at the right time. Our faith in Krishna and Guru can be measured by how patient we are in waiting for Their mercy and how grateful we are to Them for whatever they provide us.

But to be a truly self-realized bhakta, we should not look forward to see how far we have to go to collect that mercy, nor should we wait for someone to assist us. We can remember the words of Lord Sri Krishna in the 3rd chapter of Gita describing the nature of a true self-realized devotee of Krishna thus:

BG 3.18naiva tasya kṛtenārtho nākṛteneha kaścana

na cāsya sarva-bhūteṣu kaścid artha-vyapāśrayaḥ

A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being.

Most of the time we look at only the first part of this verse and jump in joy thinking, "If I become self-realized, I don't have to do any work." But actually what Krishna says is that the self-realized devotee does not have any purpose to fulfill by doing his prescribed duties. In other words, he does not have an agenda behind performing his duties. That is why Krishna says in the second part of the statement that neither does he shy away from doing such work. When we are situated in this state, then we will not be depending on anyone for our own service and duties.

I humbly pray unto the lotus feet of my Guru Maharaj and Lord Sri Krishna, that let Them be my only shelter and let my mind not look for any shelter other than Them.


Accepting Tribulations as the Lord's Benedictions


As aspiring devotees many times we come face to face with tribulations in our lives and almost always we are bewildered as to how can the Lord put us in so much trouble in spite of our sincere service. We do not know how to practically apply the teachings of the Lord in the form of Srimad Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, especially in trying circumstances.

The best way to overcome the effects of tribulations is by patiently accepting them as the ultimate plan of the Lord. When Yudhishtira Maharaj was intensely lamenting post the battle of Kurukshetra, the Lord arranged for him to hear transcendental instructions from Sri Bhishmadev so that he will be pacified. At that time, Sri Bhishmadev says these beautiful words (SB 1.9.16 & 17)

na hy asya karhicid rājan pumān veda vidhitsitamyad vijijñāsayā yuktā muhyanti kavayo ’pi hi

tasmād idaṁ daiva-tantraṁ vyavasya bharatarṣabhatasyānuvihito ’nāthā nātha pāhi prajāḥ prabho

O King, no one can know the plan of the Lord [Sri Krishna]. Even though great philosophers inquire exhaustively, they are bewildered. O best among the descendants of Bharata [Yudhishthira], I maintain, therefore, that all this is within the plan of the Lord. Accepting the inconceivable plan of the Lord, you must follow it. You are now the appointed administrative head, and, my lord, you should now take care of those subjects who are now rendered helpless.

In the purport Srila Prabhupada makes a few punching statements, "A devotee's duty, therefore, is to ungrudgingly accept tribulations from the Lord as a benediction." He then says,

"A pure devotee of the Lord accepts tribulations as favors from the Lord. Since the Lord is absolute, there is no mundane difference between the two."

Tribulations are bound to create disturbances in our minds. And they unsettle us in so many ways, because we always like to plan ahead. We might have made so many plans thinking that things will happen in a certain way. When even one of the plans go awry, we lose our faith, because we always want things to go according to OUR plans. We don't remember that there is another superior power who is making plans not only for us but for every living entity in this world. So, he must be making plans with everyone's welfare in mind, whereas our plans are almost always self-centered.

Taking this point into consideration, we should come to the conclusion of Srila Prabhupada in his above words that whether it is pain or pleasure, Krishna always arranges it for our good only, so we should accept either of them as the Lord's benedictions.

Writing the above words was easy for me. But practicing is a whole new world of its own. I sincerely pray that let me remember these points always and more importantly at the times of trying circumstances.

Thank you very much.Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,Kalacakra Krsna das

Focused Devotional Service


The key to success in spiritual life is intense focus in our service. We can realize Krishna through a dedicated attempt to glorify Him by our service. We should always try to remember that every act of ours is an attempt to glorify Him and please Him. By remembering this frequently, we can increase our focus in our service.

When the focus is not there in our service, we do things half-heartedly. We do not put our heart and soul in the projects and whenever there seems to be a lull or a low ebb in the course of our service, we lose the enthusiasm and think that probably we are not meant for this service or that we should focus on something else.

But Lord Krishna says in the Gita very clearly that all this is due to the propensity to enjoy the results for oneself. Enjoying the results oneself is also another form of sense gratification. Therefore Lord Krishna says in BG 2.44,

bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasāmvyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ samādhau na vidhīyate

In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.

The word 'resolute determination' is very important. One should completely resolve himself with staunch determination to serve the Lord at any cost. But this resolute determination does not arise if we look forward to name, fame, wealth, women etc as an outcome for our devotional service.

Name, fame, wealth etc will automatically come as a result of our devotional service, but when we perform sincere and unmotivated devotional service, instead of hankering for these things, we would rather be praying to Krishna to take these hurdles away from us because our focus in Krishna's service becomes so intense that we lose the taste for everything else. This will happen when we truly relish every act of our service. Then we can realize the prayer of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu,

na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye mama janmani janmanīśvare

bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi

O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only want your causeless devotional service birth after birth.

I pray from the core of my heart that let me not get side-tracked by any benefit that I may get as part of the half-hearted devotional service. The only result that I want from my seva is an ever-increasing impetus to do more and more seva. I pray unto you all sincere souls to bless me to have this benediction from the Lord.


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