Respectful Behaviour - Part 1

Date: 2020-11-04 Author: Vaijayantimala dasi

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

In the recent offering titled, "Offer All Respect to Others" HG Sudarshana devi dasi mataji mentioned about the importance of respectful dealings with everyone and how we should never behave in a way belittling others in any way. In Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.26 Lord Rshabhadeva gives the following instruction to His sons.

sarvāṇi mad-dhiṣṇyatayā bhavadbhiś carāṇi bhūtāni sutā dhruvāṇi sambhāvitavyāni pade pade vo vivikta-dṛgbhis tad u hārhaṇaṁ me

My dear sons, you should not envy any living entity—be he moving or nonmoving. Knowing that I am situated in them, you should offer respect to all of them at every moment. In this way, you offer respect to Me.

In the synonyms, we find that Srila Prabhupada writes vivikta-dṛgbhis means possessing clear vision and understanding that the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His Paramatma feature is situated everywhere. In the purport he writes, "According to the Vedic statement: īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam [Ishopanishad mantra 1]. The Supreme Lord is situated everywhere, and wherever He is situated is His temple. We even offer respects to a temple from a distant place, and all living entities should similarly be offered respect."

In the granthraj offering, mataji had referred how Saubhari muni failed to pay respects to Garuda who is a direct servitor of the Supreme Lord. Instead in the name of being compassionate to the fishes, he cursed Garuda. There is a beautiful incident in which we see the respectful dealing by Garuda. Garuda’s mother Vinata has been enslaved by Kadru, the latter having resorted to deception, to make Vinata her slave. Kadru stipulated that the only way for Vinata to be liberated is for Garuda to get the pot of nectar which keeps in his kingdom. The nectar is safeguarded carefully by Indra. But Garuda deals with all the barriers easily, and also defeats every celestial who stands in his way.

Indra, observing Garuda flying with great speed, hurled his weapon towards the bird. Garuda, despite being struck with the weapon, smiled and told Indra in polite words, “O King of the Devas, I respect the rishi (Dadhici) from whose backbone this Vajra weapon was made; I respect you too. To honour this, I will shed a single feather. But know that I have not felt any pain due to this weapon”. Saying this Garuda dropped a single feather. Beholding this act and seeing the beautiful feather, all the creatures became excited, and said, “Let this bird of beautiful feather be called ‘Suparna’ (one of fair feathers)” We see that the Lord declares in Srimad 10.28 - “āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ - Of weapons I am the thunderbolt.” This is the respect, the Lord has for the weapon, considering the ultimate sacrifice of sage Dadhici. Reminded of this, we see that Garuda offers his honor and respect for the weapon which represents the great sage.

Krishna willing we shall try to see few more examples from scriptures which reveal to us the importance of respecting everyone.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev, Vaijayantimala devi dasi Chennai Respectful Behaviour - Part 2

Date: 2020-11-05 Author: Vaijayantimala devi dasi

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

This is in conclusion of the previous offering titled, "Respectful Behaviour" wherein we saw that, recognising the omnipresent nature of the Supreme Lord, we should offer all respect to others. In this regard we saw the example of Garuda offering respect to Indra as well as the Vajrayudha which was hurled upon him by Indra. Now we shall see few more examples from scriptures.

In Srimad , Hanumanji single-handedly devastates Ashokavana, decimates the demon-brigade, and kills their commander Aksha, the son of Ravana. Although blessed with ’s boon that his missiles would do him no harm, out of respect for the Creator, he allows himself to be chained by the Brahmastra thrown at him by Indrajit. Thus Hanumanji shows his honor and respect for the weapon, which represents Lord Brahma.

We observe the same behaviour manifested by the Supreme Lord Himself. In Srimad Ramayana, Indrajit got the Nagastra from praying to Lord Brahma and Nagastra is capable of binding any human being. Since the Lord descended in human form, as a mark of respect to Lord Brahma, Lord allowed Himself to be bound by the Nāgastra and He wanted Indrajit to enjoy the benefits of his penance to Lord Brahma. Lord Rama Himself states it to the monkeys who were attacked by Indrajit,"This Indrajit is tormenting all the worlds on the strength of boons given by Brahmaji. And since time is in his favour, he will win over us now. To honour the boons of Lord Brahma, I need to tolerate this for sometime." Honouring the weapon of Brahmaji, the two sons of the venerable Dasaratha, allowed themselves to be knocked down by the missiles of Indrajit.

We also see that the Narayanastra weapon in could be counteracted only by dropping all the weapons and bowing down and Lord Krishna insturcted the to just submit and bow down to this weapon.

Thus we see that anything which represents an honorable personality was shown great respects by the Lord Himself and also by His devotees. It is very nicely mention in the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.41, “It is emphasized here that we should offer respect to everything that exists, recognizing it to be the energy of the Lord . The example may be given that if a man is important, his property is also important. The President of a country is the most important person in the country, and therefore everyone must respect his property. Similarly, everything that exists is an expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and should be respected accordingly.”

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