Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 1
Date: 2009-09-10 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Before leaving this material world to return to His eternal abode, Lord Krishna instructs His dearmost devotee Uddhava on the transcendental subject of self-realization. Most part of the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is filled with the nectarian instruction given by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna to His dear devotee and friend Uddhava. These instructions are well-known as the Uddhava Gita. Uddhava, in his discussion with Krishna, asks a lot of very honest questions and Krishna also replies with very powerful and practical answers.
During His discussion with Uddhava, Lord Krishna instructs Uddhava to give up all attachment to his personal friends and relatives and fix his mind on Him, to be always conscious of Him, observe all things with equal vision and travel all over the world and preach. He assures that such persons who follow these instructions will be able to reach Him at the end of his life.
Pleased and overwhelmed by the loving care and concern of the Supreme Lord Krishna, Uddhava thanked Him and humbly said that unless a person is completely devoted to Him, it is very difficult to take up the process of renunciation suggested by Him. Uddhava is eternal friend and dearmost devotee of the Lord. So, there is no doubt that he will always be under the shelter of Lord. But for the benefit of foolish souls like us who are completely entangled in material life, he is humbly inquiring the Lord as follows in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.7.16
so ’haṁ mamāham iti mūḍha-matir vigāḍhas tvan-māyayā viracitātmani sānubandhe tat tv añjasā nigaditaṁ bhavatā yathāhaṁ saṁsādhayāmi bhagavann anuśādhi bhṛtyam
O my Lord, I myself am most foolish because my consciousness is merged in the material body and bodily relations, which are all manufactured by Your illusory energy. Thus I am thinking, 'I am this body, and all of these relatives are mine.' Therefore, my Lord, please instruct Your poor servant. Please tell me how I can very easily carry out Your instructions.
The basic and most important lesson we need to learn in spiritual life is to give up the bodily concept of life. Hearing the humble inquiries of Uddhava, Lord Krishna narrated to him the conversation that once happened between Yadu Maharaj and an Avadhuta brahmana. Once Maharaj Yadu during his travel, met an Avadhuta brahmana. The Avadhuta brahmana appeared young, learned, peaceful, happy and above all fearless like a child in spite of travelling alone all over the world. Pleased by his appearance, the king humbly inquired from him as to who was the source from whom he had accumulated all this knowledge. In his reply to the king, the Avadhuta brahmana lists out the twenty-four different spiritual masters from whom he got valuable instructions that has helped him attain such a transcendental state.
We always like to hear only from those whom we like and who speaks what we like. We are not humble in our approach towards learning about Krishna consciousness. Because of our selective and judgemental approach, we are not able to get the perfect knowledge. Actually, every moving and non-moving thing in this world teaches us something valuable provided we keep our minds open to receive those instructions. As we gradually develop taste in devotional service through strict sadhana and sincere service, the anarthas start to get cleared from our hearts. And the instructions coming from the chaitya-guru (Supersoul) becomes more and more audible that He starts speaking through all these various entities that we come across in our day-day life. In fact our Guru Maharaj would say emphatically, "What to speak of 24 Gurus? We can even have millions of Gurus. In fact we can learn something from everyone and hence, in that sense, everything and everybody in this world is our Guru. If we are humble and sincere, Krishna will reveal all the transcendental knowledge through all the different entities in this world. "
We seek the blessings of Gurudev and Krishna to make a humble effort to meditate how we can practically apply the lessons learnt from the twenty-four Gurus in our life in this series of mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 2
Date: 2009-09-11 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Mother Earth : The first spiritual master from whom the Avadhutha brahmana learnt the golden lesson of forbearance is from Mother Earth. In Srimad Bhagavatam verses 11.7.37 he says
bhūtair ākramyamāṇo ’pi dhīro daiva-vaśānugaiḥ tad vidvān na calen mārgād anvaśikṣaṁ kṣiter vratam
A sober person, even when harassed by other living beings, should understand that his aggressors are acting helplessly under the control of God, and thus he should never be distracted from progress on his own path. This rule I have learned from the earth.
Of the five great elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether), earth is the most harassed element. For eg, nobody plays with the fire. In fact all of us are afraid of it. Ether, we cannot even see it, so no question of misbehaving with it. But mother earth is tortured and exploited beyond limits by mankind. So much oil-drilling, atomic explosions etc are being carried out on the surface of the earth every day. Imagine if somebody pokes a driller in our body to extract blood every day! How painful it will be!? And then there is so much pollution created due to the garbage being thrown every day by the most sophisticated living entities, the human beings.
In spite of all these tortures, earth does not retaliate. In fact, she gives us all good things in return. When we dig the earth, we get water to quench our thirst, we get oil and other minerals for the various usage in industries. If we dig a hole and put seeds, by the power of the earth, we get so many different plants, trees, fruits and vegetables for our sustenance. Such is the magnanimity of the earth. That is why she is rightly called 'Mother' Earth. Krishna is so pleased with the forbearance and magnanimity of mother earth, that He expands Himself as the fragrance within the earth - punyo gandha prtivyam ca. This fragrance is so universal that all the different kinds of herbs, shrubs etc get the medicinal quality from the earth. The different flowers get the beautiful colors and pleasant fragrance from it. In fact He was so pleased with mother earth, that during His presence in this material world, He was always giving her transcendental bliss by constantly walking on her surface. What can be a better benediction than being constantly touched by the lotus feet of the Lord?!!
In the above verse, earth is addressed as dhīro - sober. Once Brahma asked Bhumi that how is it that she is tolerating all the harassments of the living entities even though it is unbearable. Mother earth beautifully replied, "Certainly it is very difficult to tolerate all the torture. But I always see the temporary nature of these entities and be fixed in my determination to serve the Lord. Therefore, so many kings have come and gone fighting for me. They have all gone away mixed with the dust, their valors are turned into historical tales, but because of my forbearance, I am still existing as I am." It is not only that the earth is tolerating our misbehaviors. She is also returning us with all good things. We should learn this well-wishing attitude from mother earth. We easily get provoked when some-one hurts us. The words "daiva vashā nugaih" in the above words is worth meditating. We should remember that everyone is acting helplessly under the control of the Lord and everything is happening only after His sanction. Not a single blade of grass can move without His will. He will never sanction anything which we don't deserve. So better take it as our reaction, whether it is good or bad. And not only that, we should also try to genuinely help and pray for the living entity who has harmed us. For eg, when we trip and fall on the earth, the earth also feels the impact. But then how do we get up? It is only with the support of the earth. We should learn this quality of 'helping even those who harm us' from mother earth.
The trees, plants and mountains of the earth are also so patient and at the same time full of magnanimity. It is very nicely portrayed by the Avadhuta brahmana in the next sloka (SB 11.7.38),
śaśvat parārtha-sarvehaḥ parārthaikānta-sambhavaḥ sādhuḥ śikṣeta bhū-bhṛtto naga-śiṣyaḥ parātmatām
A saintly person should learn from the mountain to devote all his efforts to the service of others and to make the welfare of others the sole reason for his existence. Similarly, as the disciple of the tree, he should learn to dedicate himself to others.
Mountains are source of vegetation, so many herbal trees, minerals, gold and iron mines, waterfall and rivers which are all very vital and essential for the living entities on earth.
Last week H G Arta bandhu prabhu was explaining how the mines are dug to extract iron, copper, gold etc. In different parts of India there are big mountains. Some of the companies that are involved in mining have such sophisticated machines that within months, they completely destroy the entire mountain to extract the various minerals. Even when the mountains are attacked and exploited by humans for these resources - they just tolerate and reciprocate to them with such valuable minerals like gold, iron etc.
In the above verse, the phrase parārthaikānta-sambhavaḥ is very powerful. The only reason for their (earth, tree and mountains) living is to serve others (parārtha). There is not a single day when they do not serve others. We are all svā rthas - living only for our own selves and seeing everyone as meant for our service. If at all we want to be really devotees and please Krishna, we have to cultivate this most important quality from mother earth, tree and mountain - to exist only for doing good to others.
Krishna willing, we shall continue with the lessons from the other gurus in the subsequent mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 3
Date: 2009-09-21 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of the series on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us meditate on the lessons learnt by avadhūta brāhmaṇa from his next spiritual master - Wind.
Wind: Wind is very vital for our life. If there is no air, we cannot even breathe. Fresh-air rejuvenates our health. The moment fresh air enters the pores of our skin, we feel more energetic and healthy. We practically experience how people living in cities suffer from diseases as they don't take advantage of fresh air whereas people living in rural areas inhale fresh-air and so they are hale and healthy. In Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.40-41, glorifying the qualities of his spiritual master "wind" the avadhūta brāhmaṇa says,
viṣayeṣv āviśan yogī nānā-dharmeṣu sarvataḥ guṇa-doṣa-vyapetātmā na viṣajjeta vāyu-vat pārthiveṣv iha deheṣu praviṣṭas tad-guṇāśrayaḥ guṇair na yujyate yogī gandhair vāyur ivātma-dṛk
Even a transcendentalist is surrounded by innumerable material objects, which possess good and bad qualities. However, one who has transcended material good and evil should not become entangled even when in contact with the material objects; rather, he should act like the wind. Although a self-realized soul may live in various material bodies while in this world, experiencing their various qualities and functions, he is never entangled, just as the wind which carries various aromas does not actually mix with them.
Wind blows everywhere - sometimes over a garden of flowers, place where garbage is thrown, lake or reservoir. It carries all kinds of aroma/droplets of water etc. When it blows over fire, it burns even a whole forest. In spite of auspicious/inauspicious activities it faces, wind continues to be neutral. Every day we come across different kinds of people. There is no guarantee that we will meet only like-minded people. Irrespective of the kind of people we meet we should continue with our devotional service - without being influenced by the behaviour of others. As Gurudev always insists, "We may be in this material world - but we should not be of the material world." We should not get entangled by getting attached to different kinds of people/things which we associate with in our daily life. When we associate with people of different ideologies, we easily get influenced by their nature and get deviated from the main course of devotional service. When people who are antagonistic to the process of bhakti confront us, we start doubting the process of bhakti itself. We should learn from the wind about how we should remain unaffected under all circumstances and keep following our natural course of bhakti which is "surrender to Krishna and serve." Srila Prabhupada has given us everything en bloc and it is consistent with our original eternal nature - which is being a servant of Krishna and which leads to eternal bliss - "ānanda mayo 'bhyāsāt".
The words "na yujyate" - "does not entangle himself" is worth meditating in the above verse. In spite of the changes in the body from childhood, boyhood, youth through old-age - a self realized soul does not get entangled just like how the nature of wind does not change with the place where its blowing. If we get entangled to the various persons, things, objects, responsibilities etc., that we identify with in our day-day life, we cannot lead a natural and peaceful life. Every thing in this world constantly undergoes change. And every time all these things that we are entangled to, changes, we are disturbed. Like the wind we should learn how not to be entangled with anything or anyone whom we come in contact with, so that we can preserve and exhibit our natural characters. Being ourselves gives us the maximum ease and we are at peace. Artificially trying to be different than what we are, in order to please those whom we are entangled with or dependent upon, puts us in anxiety and uneasiness all the time. Being unable to bear the burden of extending ourselves for all the expectations of others, we will explode one day.
In purport to the above verses it is mentioned that from the blowing wind we should also learn the art of moving throughout the material world without attachment. "Within this material world we will inevitably face both pleasing and disgusting situations. If, however, we remain fixed in Krishna consciousness, we will not be disturbed by the inauspicious, nor will we become attached to the materially auspicious. In the course of his spiritual duties, a devotee sometimes finds himself chanting Hare Krishna in a beautiful country atmosphere, and sometimes he finds himself doing the same thing in a hellish city. In both cases the devotee fixes his mind upon Lord Krishna and experiences transcendental bliss. Although the wind passes through the most dark and forbidding places, the wind is not frightened or disturbed. Similarly, a devotee of Lord Krishna should never be fearful or anxious, even when in the most difficult situation."
Krishna willing, we will try to understand the lessons learnt by the Avadhūta brāhmaṇa from the remaining gurus in the subsequent mail.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 4
Date: 2009-09-23 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of the series on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us meditate on the lessons learnt by avadhūta brāhmaṇa from his next spiritual master - the sky.
In the verses SB 11.7.42 and 43, the avadhūta brāhmaṇa describes what he has learnt from the sky.
antarhitaś ca sthira-jaṅgameṣu brahmātma-bhāvena samanvayena vyāptyāvyavacchedam asaṅgam ātmano munir nabhastvaṁ vitatasya bhāvayet
A thoughtful sage, even while living within a material body, should understand himself to be pure spirit soul. Similarly, one should see that the spirit soul enters within all forms of life, both moving and nonmoving, and that the individual souls are thus all-pervading. The sage should further observe that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the Supersoul, is simultaneously present within all things. Both the individual soul and the Supersoul can be understood by comparing them to the nature of the sky: although the sky extends everywhere and everything rests within the sky, the sky does not mix with anything, nor can it be divided by anything.
tejo-’b-anna-mayair bhāvair meghādyair vāyuneritaiḥ na spṛśyate nabhas tadvat kāla-sṛṣṭair guṇaiḥ pumān
Although the mighty wind blows clouds and storms across the sky, the sky is never implicated or affected by these activities. Similarly, the spirit soul is not actually changed or affected by contact with the material nature. Although the living entity enters within a body made of earth, water and fire, and although he is impelled by the three modes of nature created by eternal time, his eternal spiritual nature is never actually affected.
There are four adjectives that are used in this shloka which are commonly attributed to the sky, soul and the Supersoul.
1. vyāptyā - All-pervading: The sky is all-pervading (vyāptyā) and similarly the Supersoul is also present everywhere and therefore He is also addressed as sarva-vyāpī. The soul's presence is also felt all over the body through the activities of the different limbs of the body. In fact all the material objects are maintaining their shapes and giving different sounds only because of the sky present within them because the sky, ether and sound are very closely related. Because the sky is present everywhere all the time, it is one of the important witness of all our activities along with the Supersoul. Almost always we forget the fact that Krishna is all-pervading like the sky. He is watching us do all sorts of things, plans, thoughts, actions etc., and accordingly give us the results. Because we are forgetting the fact, we are never honest in our dealings. Bhagavatam emphatically says that we can relish devotional service only if we are ' thoroughly honest'. We can cultivate this honesty if we constantly remind our mind that the Supersoul and the sky are all-pervading. And by realizing that the Supersoul and the soul is also all-pervading like the sky and they do not belong to the body and this material world, we can become sober (dhīra) in our dealings. By seeing Krishna present within all the bodies as Paramatma we can treat everyone in a pleasing manner and with due respect.
2. avyavacchedam - The feature of being undivided: The sky is unlimited and also unbroken. It is so huge but still is a single entity. Similarly the soul is also individual and cannot be divided into pieces. And hence the consciousness also cannot be divided. In other words, all my life I am in this body and I am thinking of myself as 'this' person. I never change my consciousness to think of some other person 'x' as possessing this body. That is the nature of the soul. Similarly Krishna is also undivided and therefore devotional service unto Him must also be performed unbroken.
3. asaṅgam - Being unattached: As we saw already, sky is present everywhere. So everything and every object when they move, they are bound to have an impact on the sky. But the sky is never affected by the movements or activities of the entities within this world. It stays unattached. Similarly the soul and the Supersoul are not affected or impacted by the activities and movements of the body, senses and the mind. When we focus ourselves on the inner consciousness, upon the soul and the Supersoul, detaching ourselves from the pains and pleasures produced from the body, mind and the senses, we can remain unaffected by those pains and pleasures. It is easy said than done. We are not wood, to remain without feelings and emotions. At times we may be overcome by extreme emotions that will make us unstable. But in such trying circumstances, if we remember the example of sky and remind ourselves that we are not 'of' this world, then we can gain our composure back.
4. vitatasya - Expansive: The nature of sky is that wherever it is, it will expand itself all over that place or object. As we know even from science that ether (sky) is present everywhere. Similarly the soul's effect i.e. consciousness also expands all over the body. Wherever we pinch in the body we feel the pain, that is the symptom of soul's expansion all over the body. And when we go further up realizing the presence of Supersoul everywhere, then we can feel the pains of other's as well because the Supersoul is present in all the bodies as one. By expanding our consciousness to feel the pains and pleasures of others, we can become their suhrt - well-wisher. Just like the sky which is equal to all and has no enemies, we can also, by situating ourselves in the platform of the soul and the Supersoul, become equanimeous and well-wisher to everyone.
Sky and sound are tightly related. Sound is the subtle form that is the source of the gross form sky. That is why both are referred as nabhah. In the above verse sky is referred as nabha and in SB 1.6.25 the same term nabho-liṅgam is used to refer to the Supreme Lord who is personified by sound vibration. The sound vibration of Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavat-gita are non-different from the Supreme Lord. The sound vibration originate from the lotus naval (nābhi) of the Supreme Lord who is addressed as Padma-nābha. By being in constant touch with the transcendental sound vibration of the shastras which glorify the names and deeds of Lord Pankaja-nābha, we can move more and more closer towards the Him in our consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada makes these scientific points very clear in SB 3.26.32 purport: "Sound is the cause of the sky, and sky is the cause of srotram, the ear. The ear is the first sense for receiving knowledge. One must give aural reception to any knowledge one wants to receive, either material or spiritual. Therefore srotram is very important. The Vedic knowledge is called sruti; knowledge has to be received by hearing. By hearing only can we have access to either material or spiritual enjoyment." The above facts are always there. The only thing is we should practice to be always conscious of these facts, reminding our mind and intelligence to focus internally on the soul and the Supersoul rather than the external sense objects. Whenever we look at the sky we can remind ourselves of its qualities, and train ourselves to cultivate them.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the lessons from the other spiritual masters of avadhūta brāhmaṇa in the forth- coming mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 5
Date: 2009-09-27 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of the series on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us meditate on the lessons learnt by avadhuta brahmana from his next spiritual master - the water, (SB 11.7.44)
svacchaḥ prakṛtitaḥ snigdho mādhuryas tīrtha-bhūr nṛṇām muniḥ punāty apāṁ mitram īkṣopasparśa-kīrtanaiḥ
O King, a saintly person is just like water because he is free from all contamination, gentle by nature, and by speaking creates a beautiful vibration like that of flowing water. Just by seeing, touching or hearing such a saintly person, the living entity is purified, just as one is cleansed by contact with pure water. Thus a saintly person, just like a holy place, purifies all those who contact him because he always chants the glories of the Lord.
There are three special qualities of water mentioned in this verse which are compared to the quality of a saintly person. The avadhuta brahmana learnt that we need to develop these qualities from water to become pleasing to Lord Krishna.
1. punāty - Sanctify: After air, water is the most important and absolute requirement for us to live in this world, so much so that 75% of our body as well as the earth is filled with water. The incoming water in our body or any other thing in this world require pure water. Water is pure especially when it is flowing and it is the life of all living entities in this world. Pure water is the best purifying agent and it is used for cleaning anything and everything. A thing may be pure by itself but its 'purity' is meaningful only if it is able to sanctify the contamination of other things or objects in this world. In order to purify everything, it cannot stay in one place. It has to constantly flow to retain its freshness otherwise it becomes stagnant and stinky. And water has its nature only to flow downwards. The lower is the slope, the higher will be the force of its fall and the purer will be the water. That is why the waterfalls are very clean and pure and they also easily purify/sanctify anything that comes in contact on its way. This signifies the character of humility, i.e., the lower we bow down, the purer we become. It is very nicely stated in SB 4.9.47,
yasya prasanno bhagavān guṇair maitry-ādibhir hariḥ tasmai namanti bhūtāni nimnam āpa iva svayam
Unto one who has transcendental qualities due to friendly behavior with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all living entities offer honor, just as water automatically flows down by nature.
Our humility is the root of all the other transcendental qualities developed in devotional service. With our humility we can always bow down to the Supreme Lord and all the living entities. The more we bow down in humility and respect, the more all the other living entities will also treat us similarly. Similar to the pure water, a saintly person always traveling in all humility, just like a holy place, sanctifies all those who contact him because he always chants the glories of the Lord. Narada Muni and all others in the disciplic succession are the best practical example of this.
2. mādhurya - Sweet and Gentle: The various trees grow simply by drinking the water and give us so many tasty fruits, vegetables and beautiful flowers. We may also eat many different food stuffs but in the end, we absolutely require water to drink. That is why the other name for water is 'jivana'. When we drink pure water, we get all the energy because all the required minerals are present in the pure water. This is the causeless mercy of the Lord. Not only that the water gives energy, but it is also having the transcendental taste (rasa). Krishna says in the Gita that the He is the taste of water (raso 'ham apsu kaunteya). All the elements in the world get their unique taste from water. But we do not see water in its original form in all these objects of the world. For eg., Apple has its unique taste because of the water present inside the fruit but the water is in a hidden form inside the apple. A gentle person always keeps a low profile, doing whatever service he can to others but keeps himself in the back just like the water that gives all different taste to the different fruits, vegetables etc but at the same time does not reveal its identity. Many times, when we perform various service we encounter the situation wherein we struggle hard to do some activity but we are either not glorified enough or someone else glorified in our place. We feel betrayed. We should take the example of water which is so gentle and pleasing that it does activities which cannot be done by anyone else but at the same time does not hanker for its own glorification. We should cultivate the quality of being sweet and gentle from water by becoming nirapekṣa (zero-expectation).
3. snigdha - Soft-hearted: Water also has the quality of being very soft or soft-hearted. Fire is very hot to touch and earth is also hard by nature. But the softness of water is very soothing. There is also a medical science called 'hydrotherapy' where the various illness are cured simply through water. When we sit near the gently flowing water, we can hear the pleasing sound of its flow and it is very soothing to our mind. It is said in the purport, "Water makes a most pleasing vibration as it flows and cascades, and similarly the sound vibration of the Lord's pure devotee, who is saturated with the glories of the Lord, is most charming and beautiful". Also, when it is flowing, it does not differentiate between one living entity and the other in distributing itself. This is the symptom of its soft-heartedness. Similarly, we also need to cultivate this quality of soft-heartedness to be of any chance of receiving mercy of the Lord. Arjuna showed this quality of soft-heartedness before the battle of Kurukshetra and Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to BG 1.46, "Such a kind and soft-hearted person, in the devotional service of the Lord, is fit to receive self-knowledge."
The transcendental glories of pure water are not possible to be analysed in one mail of Granthraj and due to space constraint we have to keep it short. Every time we drink water, see or hear its flow, we can try to remember its saintly qualities of being able to sanctify, being sweet and gentle, and being soft-hearted and try to cultivate them in ourselves.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the lessons from the other spiritual masters of avadhuta brahmana in the forth- coming mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 6
Date: 2009-09-28 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of the series on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us meditate on the lessons learnt by avadhuta brahmana from his next spiritual master - the fire.
Fire is very powerful among the five great elements. It burns everything that comes in touch with it but it does not get contaminated or extinguished even if filthy things are thrown into it. Rather it burns whatever substance is thrown into it and continues to glow and retain its quality of being fiery. There are 3 verses (SB 11.7.45-47) that compare the qualities of a saintly person to the fire. In SB 11.7.45 the Avadhuta brahmana says,
tejasvī tapasā dīpto durdharṣodara-bhājanaḥ sarva-bhakṣyo ’pi yuktātmā nādatte malam agni-vat
Saintly persons become powerful by execution of austerities. Their consciousness is unshakable because they do not try to enjoy anything within the material world. Such naturally liberated sages accept foodstuffs that are offered to them by destiny, and if by chance they happen to eat contaminated food, they are not affected, just like fire, which burns up contaminated substances that are offered to it.
Saintly devotees perform fiery devotional service. They use their senses only for Krishna and all their activities are meant to please Krishna. They do extreme austerity to perform arduous services to broadcast the glories of the Supreme Lord and by this austerity and determination their fiery devotional service is never extinguished. We can many times see that the devotees who perform intense austerity, appear effulgent and glowing by the power of their fiery devotion. Even for eating, as mentioned in the verse above, they eat only those food stuff that are offered to the Lord and just to keep the body and soul together. They are satisfied with whatever meal (whether palatable or unpalatable) they get for the day. Sometimes even if they eat contaminated or spoilt food, that too gets digested by the power of their devotional service and the causeless mercy of Krishna in the form of digestive fire. It is not that those pure devotees are careless about what they eat, but they have full faith in Krishna that He will protect us from all dangers if we perform sincere devotional service.
In Bhagavad Gita verse 15.14 Lord Krishna says,
ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham
I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to digest the four kinds of foodstuff.
Srila Prabhupada explains beautifully in the purport, "According to Ayur-vedic shastra, we understand that there is a fire in the stomach which digests all food sent there. When the fire is not blazing there is no hunger, and when the fire is in order we become hungry. Sometimes when the fire is not going nicely, treatment is required. In any case, this fire is representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ...Unless the Supreme Lord helps him in digesting, there is no possibility of eating."
Hence it is ultimately the Supreme Lord situated as fire in our stomach who digests the different food stuff. Based on our mentality, Krishna changes the capacity of the fire in the stomach. If our thoughts are bad, the first thing that happens is we get indigestion problem and stomach ache. This is because the fire in the stomach gets affected by our thoughts and behaviour. On the other hand, if our devotional service is intense and our austerity is unshaken, then Krishna mercifully digests even the indigestible foodstuffs. A very vivid example is that of Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami who ate Lord Jagannath's prasadam in Puri. The unsold prasadam of Lord Jagannath which was decomposed after a few days were thrown to the cows. But the cows also will not eat it due to the rotten odor. Raghunatha dasa Goswami would bring those prasadam home, wash it, and honor it. Obviously, due to his powerful devotional service, Lord Jagannath protected him from any kind of ailments that would normally arise due to eating decomposed foodstuff. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was extremely appreciative of this austerity of Raghunatha dasa Goswami that He came to his house and forcefully snatched the decomposed prasadam that dasa Goswami was eating and honored it Himself.
Even though we may not be able to imitate such extreme austerities of saintly devotees like Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami, we can atleast take the principles of increasing our austerity in devotional service. It is an austerity to be satisfied with whatever we get by the will of providence and also to stay away from sense enjoyments. To increase our austerity, we should try to do those things in devotional service which our mind says 'it is not possible'. Suppose we cannot sit in one place and chant for 1 hour at a stretch, we can start from 1-2 rounds and gradually increase the chanting duration. An austerity remains difficult to do only if we are not consistent in performing it. If we regularly do it, the same austere activity becomes a normal and blissful activity. Again we should not become complacent on achieving a certain stage. Austerity is a continuous activity and the more we do it, the more powerful, fiery and blissful will our devotional service be.
Krishna willing, we will continue with more lessons from the fire in the next mail.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 7
Date: 2009-09-29 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of the series on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us meditate on few more lessons learnt by avadhuta brahmana from his spiritual master - the fire. In SB 11.7.46-47 the Avadhuta brahmana says,
kvacic channaḥ kvacit spaṣṭa upāsyaḥ śreya icchatām bhuṅkte sarvatra dātṝṇāṁ dahan prāg-uttarāśubham
sva-māyayā sṛṣṭam idaṁ sad-asal-lakṣaṇaṁ vibhuḥ praviṣṭa īyate tat-tat- svarūpo ’gnir ivaidhasi
A saintly person, just like fire, sometimes appears in a concealed form and at other times reveals himself. For the welfare of the conditioned souls who desire real happiness, a saintly person may accept the worshipable position of spiritual master, and thus like fire he burns to ashes all the past and future sinful reactions of his worshipers by mercifully accepting their offerings. Just as fire manifests differently in pieces of wood of different sizes and qualities, the omnipotent Supreme Soul, having entered the bodies of higher and lower life forms created by His own potency, appears to assume the identity of each.
Saintly persons maintain a very low profile. They like to remain unnoticed so that they can be immersed in thoughts of the Supreme Lord without any external intervention. At the same time they are very compassionate to the foolish souls like us who are immersing ourselves more and more into the material activities, creating newer and newer entanglements in every step of life. So out of their causeless mercy, they reveal themselves to the public and travel all over the world - even at the cost of their health and conveniences. The avadhuta brahmana is comparing this quality to that of fire as fire also sometimes remains unnoticed within ashes - but reveals itself when there is a need. Srila Prabhupada could have happily continued his stay in Vrindavana peacefully performing his sadhana in the Radha- Damodar temple but for the pleasure of his Guru and Krishna, and his causeless mercy to suffering souls like us he took the austerity of travelling all over the world and spreading the holy name of the Lord and establishing this big empire of Hare Krishna movement all over the world.
Similarly Guru Maharaj in this ripe-age of 89, that too after paralytic attacks and so many ailments need not extend himself so much in preaching activities. Yet out of compassion he continues to travel all over the world, speaking Bhagavatam, teaching us how to study Bhagavatam, caring for each one us, talking to us personally, temple projects, school, goshala and the list goes on...Even to simply jot down what Gurudev does is mind boggling...then what to speak of his holiness, who is actually involved in all these services. The secret of Gurudev is that he always considers himself as instrument in Krishna's hands. That's why he is able to things which are seemingly inconceivable for us.
The important function of the spiritual master is highlighted in the above verses comparing to the quality of fire. As we saw in the last mail too, the fire burns whatever is offered into it, and purifies them of all the contamination. We have the obvious example - the doctors put their instruments in the fire or boiling water to sterilize them. And the goldsmith burns the gold in the fire to remove all the impurities from it. Similarly, the spiritual master, out of unlimited compassion burns to ashes all our past and future sinful reactions when we surrender to them without any reservation. And the beauty is that they mercifully accept whatever offerings we give them even though it may be full of imperfections. It is very difficult to realize this by ourselves because we always think that we have done our service to the spiritual master perfectly. We don't understand that the spiritual master is not obliged to accept our imperfect offerings but still out of compassion he lovingly accepts it. So, our mindset should be to do our next service better and with least faults. Moreover, we underestimate the point of burning our karmic reactions. Every pain that we suffer in this material world is because of our past sinful reactions. Who is there in this world who will be willing to take away our past as well as future sinful reactions even if we give them a billion gold coins in return? Even our own dear kith and kins will not partake in the suffering of our sins as we know from the story of mrghari. The spiritual master, out of inconceivable compassion (adabhra karuna), willingly accepts the reactions of our sins and relieve us from the painful sufferings. Is there anyone in the entire universe more compassionate than him?
In Bhagavad Gita 15.12 Lord Krishna says - yac cāgnau tat tejo viddhi māmakam- "The splendor of the fire also comes from Me." In his purport to the above verse while glorifying the importance of fire Srila Prabhupada says - " Without His mercy there cannot be sun, without His mercy there cannot be moon, and without His mercy there cannot be fire, and without the help of sun, moon and fire, no one can live. These are some thoughts to provoke Krishna consciousness in the conditioned soul."
Just as fire is the mercy of Krishna, the spiritual master who comes in this world to uplift us is the supreme causeless mercy of Krishna. Let us try to appreciate these unsurpassable qualities of fire and saintly devotees especially the spiritual master and increase the fire of our devotional service.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the lessons from the other spiritual masters of the avadhuta brahmana in the forthcoming mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 8
Date: 2009-10-30 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Vaishnavas, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We had put a temporary hold on the "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" for a while since we were getting many other nice mails from all our devotee members of Granthraj group. We are now making a humble attempt to resume the series praying to the lotus feet of our Guru Maharaj and Lord Sri Krishna.
Last, we had seen the lessons we can learn from fire in Part - 7 of the series. There is one more verse SB 11.7.49 that continues with one more important instruction we can learn from the property of fire.
kālena hy ogha-vegena bhūtānāṁ prabhavāpyayau nityāv api na dṛśyete ātmano ’gner yathārciṣām
The flames of a fire appear and disappear at every moment, and yet this creation and destruction is not noticed by the ordinary observer. Similarly, the mighty waves of time flow constantly, like the powerful currents of a river, and imperceptibly cause the birth, growth and death of innumerable material bodies. And yet the soul, who is thus constantly forced to change his position, cannot perceive the actions of time
This example of the appearance and disappearance of fire every moment is very beautiful because we never realize that the fire is made of multiple discreet flames which appear and disappear in very short durations that with our naked eye, we cannot perceive it. But our inability to perceive this fact does not mean that it is false. In the same way time is also very subtle and powerful. It is so very powerful that its might is compared to the force of flood waters and powerful river currents. The flood waters are so powerful that even big elephants, buildings, trees etc are carried away. But when they flow, they don't look that formidable. Time is so subtle that it causes both creation and destruction at every moment but we never realize it.
Soul is the only constant element within our body. Everything else is changing at every moment. So, in effect, the soul is constantly moving from one body to another even if it looks like it is staying apparently in the same person's body. From this quality of fire and time we should cultivate the quality of renunciation, that nothing is permanent in this world. On the one hand, the force of time is so powerful that we cannot control or subdue it and on other hand, it is so subtle that it changes everything in the world constantly, without our notice. Considering this point Lord Krishna aptly says in the beginning of Bhagavat gita - 2.13:
dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā 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.
The fire is the only element that goes with the body until the body is completely finished. It goes all the way to burn it and make it disappear into ashes. Paraphrasing what Maharaj so wonderfully says, "Fire is the representation of renunciation. If we do not voluntarily take up renunciation before we die, we will be forced to take up renunciation by the burning fire which is also saffron in color."
The flickering (constantly changing) nature of this world is perceived in every object or living entity we see. Time takes everyone and every object in this world through the six kinds of transformations (shad-vikāra): everything is born, it stays for some time, it develops, it gives some by-products, then it dwindles and then vanishes... Considering that everything that is changing is not related to us (who are eternally constant), we should take shelter only of the safe lotus feet of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna who is eternally permanent.
In conclusion, we need to remember the impermanent nature of everything in this material world and cultivate renunciation every time we see the flickering flames of the fire. And once we cultivate renunciation, then we should perform fiery devotional service unto the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and attain perfection of life.
We humbly pray to the lotus feet of our spiritual master to keep us in his shelter always and guide us in the path back home back to Godhead.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the lessons from the other spiritual masters of the Avadhuta brahmana in the upcoming mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 9
Date: 2009-10-31 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Vaishnavas, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In yesterday's verse SB 11.7.49, considering fire as the guru, the Avadhuta Brahmana highlighted the forceful nature of time. Actually, we jumped one verse ahead to maintain the consistency in discussing the example of fire. Before this verse, the Brahmana takes another lesson from Moon in verse SB 11.7.48 to understand the nature of time. Today we will see this point praying for the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Time has 2 qualities - Forceful and Subtle. While learning from the example of Fire, the Brahmana highlighted the forceful nature of time - kālena ogha vegena. Ogha means a powerful flood. Just like a powerful flood takes away everything, time also takes away everything in this world to oblivion. Hence, we are advised to be conscious of the temporary nature of everything in this world from the flickering flames of the fire that appears and disappears every moment.
Now the second quality of time i.e., "Subtle" is more important. Because time acts so subtly that without our notice so many changes constantly happen in this world, in our bodies and minds. The Avadhuta Brahmana takes perfect example of the moon to highlight the temporary nature of our body. Herein he refers the time askālenāvyakta- vartmanā - the movement of the time is imperceptible.
visargādyāḥ śmaśānāntā bhāvā dehasya nātmanaḥ kalānām iva candrasya kālenāvyakta-vartmanā
The various phases of one's material life, beginning with birth and culminating in death, are all properties of the body and do not affect the soul, just as the apparent waxing and waning of the moon does not affect the moon itself. Such changes are enforced by the imperceptible movements of time.
In the entire world, time is the only element that moves continuously with a constant speed. But the beauty is it is never manifest in a tangible form to us while its impact on us is tangible. For example, as we saw yesterday, our body goes through six transformations and grows from child to boyhood, to youth to old age to death. Time acts on our body and mind all the time and the effect of that impact is seen in the form of different bodies that we possess even in one life time. To understand this concept tangibly, the Brahmana quotes the example of moon. The moon also goes through waxing and waning, changing in shape growing into a full moon and then reducing in size to become completely invisible to our naked eyes.
Here the example of moon is very fitting. The moon only appears to our eyes to be changing in size but by itself it is not changing in shape or size. Someone sitting inside the moon will not feel any increase or decrease of its size. What we are seeing with our naked eyes is only the gross object. Similarly, the body is the gross item and it appears to change every moment to external senses. But by ourselves we never feel that we are changing as a person/entity. This is the effect of the soul and it is the reality. Once we understand these properties of time, we can perceive its impact in the movement of the various living entities, objects, situations, conditions etc.
The subtle nature of time is quoted by Lord Krishna to Uddhava in another verse SB 11.22.43,
nityadā hy aṅga bhūtāni bhavanti na bhavanti ca kālenālakṣya-vegena sūkṣmatvāt tan na dṛśyate
My dear Uddhava, material bodies are constantly undergoing creation and destruction by the force of time, whose swiftness is imperceptible. But because of the subtle nature of time, no one sees this .
As aspiring devotees, we should constantly strive to perceive the impact of time on everything and become calm understanding the fact that we cannot change anything that is destined by the Lord. Srila Prabhupada insists this point in his transcendental purport to SB 1.9.16, "Kaala is identical with the Lord Himself, and therefore the influence of kala indicates the inexplicable will of the Lord Himself. There is nothing to be lamented when a matter is beyond the control of any human being."
Let us understand these subtle details and be conscious of the effects of time all over the world and learn to accept it as a matter of fact. Once we accept the effects of time without any retaliation or counteraction, immediately Krishna will give us full protection and all guidance in performing our devotional service immaculately.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the lessons from the other spiritual masters of the Avadhuta brahmana in the upcoming mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 10
Date: 2009-11-02 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of the series titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", today let us learn the first lesson learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from his next spiritual master "sun". In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.7.50 he says,
guṇair guṇān upādatte yathā-kālaṁ vimuñcati na teṣu yujyate yogī gobhir gā iva go-patiḥ
Just as the sun evaporates large quantities of water by its potent rays and later returns the water to the earth in the form of rain, similarly, a saintly person accepts all types of material objects with his material senses, and at the appropriate time, when the proper person has approached him to request them, he returns such material objects. Thus, both in accepting and giving up the objects of the senses, he is not entangled.
The first lesson to be learnt from the sun is not to have the sense of false proprietorship. Whatever opulence/talent we are blessed in this life - everything has come to us from Krishna. Since He is the owner - it is very appropriate to use them in His service. Instead of using it for Him, if we use it for our enjoyment, then it is nothing less than stealing. While listing down the qualities which please Him the most, Lord Krishna says in verse 12.13-14 of Bhagavad Gita,
adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī
santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī yatātmā dṛḍha-niścayaḥ mayy arpita-mano-buddhir yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ
One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me — such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.
In this above verse "nirmama" - refers to being free from the sense of proprietorship. Most of the problems in life are because of this "mama". We think that everything belongs to us and that we have the right/power to use them as per our own whims and fancies. In his powerful purport to verse 1.1.14, Srila Prabhupada says - "Everything is related to Him, and everything has its identity in Him."
Whether it is our family, house, job, relatives, friends, or our own body - everything is related to Him and has its identity in Him. All of the above things have value or meaning only when it is used for Krishna and in touch with Him. Else there is no life or value for these things. With Krishna we are heroes and without Him we are all big zeroes. So just like how the sun although takes large amount of water from the earth by evaporation, still gives back the water to earth in the form of rains, we should also realise that everything we are bestowed in this life - has come to us as a gift from Krishna and so we should return them back to Krishna by using them nicely in His service instead of misusing them.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the other lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the sun in the next mail.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 11
Date: 2010-09-16 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Last year in September we had started an offering on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus". But somehow we later couldn't continue the series. We seek forgivance for the same and pray for the mercy of Gurudev and all the Vaishnavas so that we can resume that topic from this mail onwards.
Just to recollect this offering is based on based on conversation between Uddhava and Lord Krishna. Uddhava requested Lord Krishna how to give up bodily attachments and remember Krishna always. In this regard, Lord Krishna narrated him the conversation between Maharaj Yadu and avadhuta brahmana who tells the king about the twenty- four different spiritual masters from whom he got valuable instructions that has helped him attain a transcendental state. In the previous offerings we heard from the Avadhuta brahmana that he learnt valuable lessons from the following Gurus:
1. Mother Earth - We should learn the golden lesson of forbearance - to never deter from spiritual progress even when harrassed by others and to see Krishna's hand in all situations.
2. Mountain and Trees - We should learn to devote all our efforts to the service of others and to make the welfare of others the sole reason for our existence.
3. Wind - We should learn to transcended material good and evil and should not become entangled even when in contact with the material objects.
4. Sky - We should learn to see that the spirit soul enters within all forms of life, both moving and nonmoving, and that the individual souls are thus all-pervading like the sky.
5. Water - We should imbibe the qualities of being humble, sweet and gentle, and soft-hearted nature.
6. Fire - We should perform fiery devotional service by which our anarthas gets destroyed. We should take shelter of great saints who like fire, keep a low profile and like to remain unnoticed; but just to deliver suffering souls travel around the world and preach the message of Lord. Also from the appearance and disappearance of flame in the fire, we should remember the imperceptible flickering nature of time, cultivate renunciation and perform fiery devotional service.
7. Moon - We should learn that just like how the apparent waxing and waning of the moon does not affect the moon itself, the various phases of one's material life, beginning with birth and culminating in death, are all properties of the body and do not affect the soul.
8. Sun - The first lesson to be learnt from the sun is not to have a sense of false-proprietorship. Whatever opulence/talent we are blessed in this life - everything has come to us from Krishna. Since He is the owner - it is very appropriate to use them in His service.
In this mail let us continue to hear from the avadhuta brahmana as to what was the next lesson he learnt from his spiritual master, "Sun". In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.7.51 he says, budhyate sve na bhedena vyakti-stha iva tad-gataḥ lakṣyate sthūla-matibhir ātmā cāvasthito ’rka-vat
Even when reflected in various objects, the sun is never divided, nor does it merge into its reflection. Only those with dull brains would consider the sun in this way. Similarly, although the soul is reflected through different material bodies, the soul remains undivided and nonmaterial.
Just like sun is one, we should also understand that Krishna as Supersoul is living in all living entities. So irrespective of whether a living entity is boy or girl, human or animal, rich or poor, tall or short, beautiful or ugly, thin or stout, healthy or sick, irrespective of nationality, color or race - Krishna is residing in everyone's heart. We are all part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and so we should not discriminate people. Even while distributing the message of Lord, we should do it without any discrimination and should not be selective in sharing the message with others. This nature will only please the Lord. While explaining about the glories of devotional service to his mother Devahuti, Lord Kapila says in 3.29.26:
ātmanaś ca parasyāpi yaḥ karoty antarodaram tasya bhinna-dṛśo mṛtyur vidadhe bhayam ulbaṇam
As the blazing fire of death, I cause great fear to whoever makes the least discrimination between himself and other living entities because of a differential outlook.
As our god-brother HG Madanmohan Prabhuji had very nicely mentioned in his recent mail on "Sharing of Service", we can do great amount of service when we serve in united manner. Lord Krishna Himself assures this in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 4.30.8:
śrī-bhagavān uvāca varaṁ vṛṇīdhvaṁ bhadraṁ vo yūyaṁ me nṛpa-nandanāḥ sauhārdenāpṛthag-dharmās tuṣṭo ’haṁ sauhṛdena vaḥ
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear sons of the King, I am very much pleased by the friendly relationships among you. All of you are engaged in one occupation devotional service. I am so pleased with your mutual friendship that I wish you all good fortune. Now you may ask a benediction of Me.
We pray and seek guidance at the lotus feet of Gurudev, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna that we see Krishna's presence in all living entities, and without discrimnation render service unto Their lotus feet.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 12
Date: 2010-09-17 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
This mail is in continuation of the offering on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" wherein we were meditating on the valuable lessons that were learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from his various spiritual masters like Mother Earth, mountain and trees, wind, sky, water, fire, moon and sun. In this mail let us hear from avadhuta brahmana the lesson that he learnt from his next spiritual master - "pigeon".
He describes how the pigeon was very attached to his wife and children and spent all its time and energy in meditating about them and enjoying with them. Once when the pigeons went out in search of food for their kids, a hunter caught the children in his net. When they returned, the mother-pigeon felt great anguish at the sight of her children in the net and without any second thought, flew towards them and thus was also caught in the net. The male pigeon became very morose on seeing the fate of his wife and children and lamented helplessly and later he lost control of his mind and fell in the hunter's net. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.7.52 the avadhuta brahmana says,
nāti-snehaḥ prasaṅgo vā kartavyaḥ kvāpi kenacit kurvan vindeta santāpaṁ kapota iva dīna-dhīḥ
One should never indulge in excessive affection or concern for anyone or anything; otherwise one will have to experience great suffering, just like the foolish pigeon.
The words atisnehaḥ means excessive attachment or affection and santaapam means great suffering. The more we are attached to something or someone in this material world, the more we suffer. If we are more attached to someone or something in this world, then we start giving more priority to them when compared to Krishna or His service. Attachment blinds us from the realities of life. It covers our real knowledge and does not allow us to think anything behind that object. Before he took to devotional service, Bilvamangal Thakur was very much attached to the prostitute that he could not find a difference between snake and the rope. In the present scenarios also, we find many people are fanatically attached to the so-called celebrities in the society and whenever such celebrities meet with some dishonor or death, these people also blindly commit suicide.
When Krishna is in center of our life, then even if death separates us, we will be able to appreciate the truth that it is His decision to take away that living entity from our life for some special reason and hence we will not land up committing the mistake of giving up our body which is a very rare and valuable gift blessed by Krishna- durlabham mā nusham janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. There is a proverb that even nectar when taken in excess becomes poison in this material world. So important lesson to be learnt is that we should not be over attached to anyone or anything in this material world. Our Guru Maharaj HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj insisted us to by-heart the following golden line of Srila Prabhupada's purport to verse 1.1.10 - "Overeating, over-sense gratification, overdependence on another's mercy, and artificial standards of living sap the very vitality of human energy." Our relationship with others should not be based on our own sense-gratification, but it should be in such a way that we can please the master of the senses-Hrshikesha. Also over-dependence on another's mercy will cause great anxiety and pain because we are dependent on the other person's reciprocation for our affection. Due to the changing nature of the material word and the unstable mind of the living entities, reciprocation of affection from other entities is also flickering, leading to disappointment. Therefore our dependence should be only on Krishna. As everyone else are also puppets in His hands, it is better to depend on Supreme Lord. Recently in the offering - "Nothing Belongs to Us", we heard from Maharaj that we should be rasika of detachment (in other words we should enjoy being detached) by doing fiery devotional service. Maharaj quoted the below verse from Srimad Bhagavata Mahatmyam
deho 'sthi-māṁsa-rudhire 'bhimatiṁ tyaja tvaṁ jāyāsutādiṣu sadā mamatāṁ vimuñca paśyāniśaṁ jagad idaṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅga-niṣṭhaṁ vairāgya-rāga-rasiko bhava bhakti-niṣṭhaḥ
Give up the thought that this body is yours. It is nothing but a collection of bones, flesh and blood. Give up the ownership on wife, children etc., realize that this world is very temporary. Show interest and relish (become a rasika) detachment from everything by performing devotional service unto the primeval Lord Govinda, with great determination.
We pray at the lotus feet of Gurudev that we always remember the temporary nature of body and its relationships and instead of wasting time in lamenting on the loss of dear and near ones, may we re-direct our senses in serving the Lord with greater determination.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 13
Date: 2010-09-18 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
This mail is in continuation of the offering on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" wherein we were meditating on the valuable lessons that were learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from his various spiritual masters. In this mail let us hear from avadhuta brahmana the lesson that he learnt from his next spiritual master - Python. Interestingly the example of python occurs in another place in Bhagavatam in the conversation between a saintly brahmana and Prahlad Maharaj in the 7th canto 13th chapter.
The avadhuta brahmana says that just like a python does not endeavor too much for its food and does not discriminate between tasty and tasteless food, a saintly person also should avoid extraneous endeavor just for the sake of satisfying the urges of the tongue and stomach. The three verses 11.8.2-4 gives beautiful description of the same.
grāsaṁ su-mṛṣṭaṁ virasaṁ mahāntaṁ stokam eva vā yadṛcchayaivāpatitaṁ grased ājagaro ’kriyaḥ śayītāhāni bhūrīṇi nirāhāro ’nupakramaḥ yadi nopanayed grāso mahāhir iva diṣṭa-bhuk ojaḥ-saho-bala-yutaṁ bibhrad deham akarmakam śayāno vīta-nidraś ca nehetendriyavān api
Following the example of the python, one should give up material endeavors and accept for one's maintenance food that comes of its own accord, whether such food be delicious or tasteless, ample or meager. If at any time food does not come, then a saintly person should fast for many days without making endeavor. He should understand that by God's arrangement he must fast. Thus, following the example of the python, he should remain peaceful and patient. A saintly person should remain peaceful and materially inactive, maintaining his body without much endeavor. Even though possessed of full sensual, mental and physical strength, a saintly person should not become active for material gain but rather should always remain alert to his actual self-interest.
If we observe our own life and also that of everyone else, we run from pillar to post, work so hard, even put our lives at risk, for the simple sake of satisfying our tongue (with tasty food) and our belly (with sumptuous food). One thing though is that how much ever we may earn, still all we require is only a few rotis or a plate of rice to sustain the basic energy in our body. So can we think for a moment what is all our endeavor for?
I remember once I was with my Guru Maharaj and we both were cooking prasadam together (he was actually teaching me to cook Kichadi and Roti). He prepared nice hot Kichadi and then I served him. It was nice and hot. Maharaj peacefully started honoring the prasadam and commented, "Even if one is a billionaire, he cannot get the fortune of eating nice hot prasadam every day." Then with his own trademark smile he quipped, "What is the use of all your money, if you cannot even eat nice hot prasadam everyday?".
The essence of his important statement is that we are all running like madmen all day all our life but in the end we cannot even get the basic food for maintaining our health. All the hard earned money will go to the hospitals, doctors and medicines. One of the senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada once made a beautiful point, "People sacrifice their health to earn so much wealth and end up spending all that wealth to regain their health." But it will be too late by then. The essence of python's example has to be carefully understood. If we misunderstand we will use this example for justifying our laziness and complacency. That is not what the avadhuta brahmana wants us to learn from the python. Rather we should learn from the python to:
1. Avoid over-endeavor (atyaahaara prayaasa) for material existence. Be materially inactive and spiritually active.
2. Be satisfied with whatever food we obtain for the day by the will of the Lord (santushtya ena kena vaa).
3. Be peaceful and patient and use all one's energy to remain alert in uplifting oneself spiritually.
Krishna and Gurudev willing, we will meditate on the above lessons from the python in the subsequent mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 14
Date: 2010-09-19 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
This mail is in continuation of the offering on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" wherein we were meditating on the valuable lessons that were learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from his various spiritual masters. In this mail let us continue to meditate on the lessons that avadhuta brahmana learnt from his next spiritual master - Python.
We should learn from the python to:
1. Avoid over-endeavor (atyāhāra prayāsa) for material existence. Be materially inactive and spiritually active. 2. Be satisfied with whatever food we obtain for the day by the will of the Lord (santuṣtya ena kena vā). 3. Be peaceful and patient and use all one's energy to remain alert in uplifting oneself spiritually.
1. Avoid over-endeavor (atyāhāra prayāsa) for material existence - Be materially inactive and spiritually active In the Nectar of Instruction, Srila Rupa Goswami says,
atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati
One's devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities: (1) eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required; (2) overendeavoring for mundane things that are very difficult to obtain; (3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters; (4) Practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically; (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Krsna consciousness; and (6) being greedy for mundane achievements.
To avoid over endeavor we need to imbibe the quality of self-content. We can see that each living entity is naturally gifted with certain specific qualities and it may not be possible to imitate everything the other person may do or obtain everything another person may possess. Even if we possess the same qualification as another person, still it may not be possible for us to obtain everything he or she may have, because our past karmas constantly act upon us and determine what we may or may not obtain in our life. And finally, even if we get all that we desire, what is the use? Nothing is permanent in this world and everything will be taken away from us within moments.
All these facts of life, should force us to become materially inactive. 'Inactive' does not mean 'no action'. It means acting in such a way that it does not produce any reactions (further karmas). That is only possible when we do yajnārth āt karmanaḥ (do our activities as an offering to the Supreme Lord) otherwise we will become karma bandhanah (bound by the reactions).
At the same time we should become 'spiritually active'. Soul is the active principle of life. In other words, we are existing (and feeling that we are existing) because the soul is present inside our body and it is highly active. Not a moment it is inactive and that is the reason we are conscious of ourselves 24 hours. Similarly our consciousness must be driven towards Krishna in whatever activity we may do. This way, we may be doing different activities (waking up, bathing, mangala arati, chanting, reading, working, sleeping and so on) but if we are conscious of the fact that we are able to do all these by the mercy of Krishna and we have to dedicate this life to the service of Krishna, then we are spiritually active.
2. Be satisfied with whatever food we obtain for the day by the will of the Lord (santuṣtya ena kena vā) This sounds very impossible to hear but it is possible to do with practice of sense control and increasing our faith in Krishna. Many times we like a particular food item and especially when we travel, we spend so much time and energy in searching out that particular item to eat. The reason we over-endeavour is because we are greedy (laulyam). It is not possible all the time to get whatever we like, especially when we travel to unfamiliar places, where the food items may not be available. But somehow we should satisfy ourselves with whatever simple food that is available in that place, or make arrangements to carry some preparations with us. It is possible to control our tongue if we think of our last days (or even old age) wherein most of the time, we will be forced to take some diet food which will not even be palatable. At the same time we should also increase our faith in Krishna, that after all He is the one nourishing all the living entities (eko bahunām yo vidadhāti kāmān). So He is duty-bound to provide us also, especially when we are engaged in His bhajana. It happened so often in the lives of so many devotees, that when we are busy in chanting or studying Srila Prabhupada's scriptures or busy engaged in some service for Krishna, automatically somehow or other the arrangement is made by the Lord for our prasadam.
3. Be peaceful and patient and use all one's energy to remain alert in uplifting oneself spiritually As a corollary to the above point, in order to control our senses, we need to be peaceful and patient. It always happens that when we do not get prasadam on time, or do not get a particular item, we get agitated. We lose patience and express our unhappiness in various ways. This again goes back to the point of uncontrolled urge of the tongue. Gurudev used to say -"You have been eating for so many days since your birth and so you will not die if you don't eat one day". To avoid the attraction of our tongue to so many different palatable food items, we can remember one thing - All the taste, fragrance etc are only upto the point of our throat. Once the food goes beyond the throat, it is obnoxious. We may eat a tasty rasagulla, but if we vomit it out, we cannot bear the smell of it even for a moment. Along with understanding this reality, we should also remember another transcendental reality, that Krishna might have had a specific reason to give us certain type of food and certain amount of food for the day. Whenever He sanctions anything for us, He does it thinking of our good only and with this thought we can bring peace and patience in us.
Everything in the spiritual life is driven towards making our life simple and cutting short the chain of karma which is forcing us to take birth again and again. By inculcating self-control, self-satisfaction, peace and patience, we can bring our tongue under control and develop attraction for Krishna. This is the lesson the avadhuta brahmana learned from the python.
We seek the blessings of all the Vaishnavas so that we can continue learning more and more lessons from these various gurus and also strive to put them into practice.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 15
Date: 2010-09-20 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Today in our series of mails on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we will look at the qualities to learn from the next spiritual master - Ocean. The avadhuta brahmana says (SB 11.8.5):
muniḥ prasanna-gambhīro durvigāhyo duratyayaḥ ananta-pāro hy akṣobhyaḥ stimitoda ivārṇavaḥ
A saintly sage is happy and pleasing in his external behavior, whereas internally he is most grave and thoughtful. Because his knowledge is immeasurable and unlimited he is never disturbed, and thus in all respects he is like the tranquil waters of the unfathomable and unsurpassable ocean.
The following are the qualities to learn from the Ocean from the above verse:
1. prasanna - cheerful/pleasing 2. gambhīra - very grave 3. ananta-pāraḥ – unlimited 4. durvigāhyo – unfathomable 5. duratyayaḥ – unsurpassable 6. akṣobhyaḥ - never disturbed
1. prasanna - cheerful/pleasing: The ocean is very pleasing to look at. Any time when people get disturbed or in anxiety, if they go to the beach of the ocean and spend some time, they will naturally become pacified and cheerful. Similarly saintly personalities are also very pleasing to look at and just by being in their presence our anxieties go away. Once H H Tamal Krishna Maharaj was so disturbed with the management difficulties that he went a long way to meet Srila Prabhupada who was in a different location. He was planning to tell Srila Prabhupada all his difficulties and just wanted to say, "I quit". But as soon as he entered Srila Prabhupada's room and saw His Divine Grace smiling compassionately at him, all his worries disappeared, he got renewed joy and became very cheerful. Interestingly, Sally Agarwal (wife of Gopal Agarwal) in whose house Srila Prabhupada was staying in Butler when he first went to the USA, did not know anything about the greatness of Srila Prabhupada in those days, but in her interview she described Srila Prabhupada's smile as 'Oceanic'. Even though His Divine Grace was a stranger in her house, but still she felt very comfortable talking to him like her father. Being so full in himself with the thoughts of Krishna, he did not expect anything from anybody and so he was easily approachable to everyone from a small child to leaders of nations.
It is important for us to be cheerful and pleasing in our behavior. After all Krishna consciousness is not a one man show. We need to interact with other devotees, general public, cheaters, well-wishers, friends, enemies all in this life. Even while aspiring to be devotees we face so much cheating, betrayal and back-biting going on between each other. In all our transactions in this world we can expect to be cheated, beaten up and driven out, but in spite of all these risks, we are adviced by Krishna to be cheerful and He gives the way to be cheerful as well in Bhagavat-gita 2.64 and 65: rāga-dveṣa-vimuktais tu viṣayān indriyaiś caran ātma-vaśyair vidheyātmā prasādam adhigacchati prasāde sarva-duḥkhānāṁ hānir asyopajāyate prasanna-cetaso hy āśu buddhiḥ paryavatiṣṭhate
But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord. For one thus satisfied [in Krsna consciousness], the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one's intelligence is soon well established.
The important thing to remember is that we have to be internally joyful and satisfied in Krishna consciousness, whatever our service or situation may be. Generally we are over-exuberant when things are going good, and we are morose when things are going bad. This is because we fail to see Krishna's hand in everything. We cannot be satisfied in Krishna consciousness when we do our service either with attachment or aversion. When we are not satisfied in what we are doing, we lose half the enthusiasm and do not put in the maximum energy and effort in our service. As a result, the service ends up in failure and our enthusiasm goes down further and along with the enthusiasm we also go down. We may put up a plastic smile or showy enthusiasm for a while, but the show will have to end one day. Unless we are internally cheerful and happy with Krishna consciousness, our smile cannot influence others.
Here in the above two slokas Lord Sri Krishna is advicing us how to become prasanna cetasa - happy minded and satisfied in Krishna consciousness.
1. When we become free from attachment (raaga) and aversion (dvesha) and control our senses , then we can get the complete mercy of the Lord (prasadam adigacchati).
2. As soon as we get the mercy of the Lord, we become happy minded and satisfied in Krishna consciousness ( prasanna cetasa).
3. As soon as we become happy and satisfied in Krishna consciousness, all the miseries are completely destroyed ( sarva duhkhaanaam haanir asya upajaayate).
4. When all the miseries are destroyed, we become established in proper intelligence (buddhi paryavatishtate) as the servant of servants of the Supreme Lord.
We did not have the fortune of seeing Srila Prabhupada personally, but we have the experience of seeing our Guru Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami, who exhibited this quality of prasannatha (cheerfulness) to the fullest. Even when the old age and disease were crippling him, he would keep us in so much joy cracking jokes upon us, making us laugh at ourselves. Never was there a dull moment in his presence. Even in his final days in the Bhaktivedanta Hospital, when all his disciples and well-wishers were coming to see him in his most painful condition, Maharaj was so cheerful that devotees were wondering if he is really seriously ill. Infact we were all shell-shocked to see his condition, but with his transcendental smile and deep realizations from the shastras he was giving us courage and strength. In confidance he would tell us, "For the amount of suffering I am going through due to old age, invalidity and disease, anyone else in my condition would die a miserable death. But attachment to Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavat-gita and chanting Krishna's holy names, is what giving me the prasannatha even in this precarious condition."
From the example of the ocean (the spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana) and our acaryas, we took a peek into the important quality of prasannatha (cheerfulness). We will look into the remaining qualities to learn from the ocean in the subsequent mails, Krishna willing.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 16
Date: 2010-09-25 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Today in our series of mails on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we will continue to look at the qualities to learn from the spiritual master - Ocean. The avadhuta brahmana says (SB 11.8.5):
muniḥ prasanna-gambhīro durvigāhyo duratyayaḥ ananta-pāro hy akṣobhyaḥ stimitoda ivārṇavaḥ
A saintly sage is happy and pleasing in his external behavior, whereas internally he is most grave and thoughtful. Because his knowledge is immeasurable and unlimited he is never disturbed, and thus in all respects he is like the tranquil waters of the unfathomable and unsurpassable ocean.
The following are the qualities to learn from the Ocean from the above verse:
1. prasanna - cheerful/pleasing 2. gambhīra - very grave 3. ananta-pāraḥ – unlimited 4. durvigāhyo – unfathomable 5. duratyayaḥ – unsurpassable 6. akṣobhyaḥ - never disturbed
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing) in the last part of this series. Today we will try to delve into the next quality - gambhira (grave).
2. Gambhira - grave: Literal meaning of the word 'grave' is 'to be grounded'. Ocean, even though is a large reservoir of water, is grounded and does not flow like a river. If we go deeper into the ocean, it is very calm and peaceful. When we are grave, we will become calm and peaceful just like the ocean. Being grave does not mean showing a very serious expression on our face but to internally realize the reality of this world (duhkhaalyam ashaasvatam) and our own existence in this world as temporary and full of miseries.
We were reminded of a phone conversation we had with Maharaj few years back when we were discussing with him on how the word 'gravity' is closely related to 'gravitational force' which keeps us on the ground. When we are grave or humble, we will be on the ground and when we are proud, we will fly. When we float in the air against the laws of gravity, there is every chance of falling down. Similarly when we were floating in mada (pride), we are bound to fall down hard. Immediately Maharaj transcendentally quipped – "Yes! Better be grave when we are alive, otherwise we will be forced to be grave... (in the graveyard)." As HG Madanmohan Prabhuji had also shared Gurudev's words on "How to be humble?" - "As soon as we remember our ashes (grave), we can become humble."
Our Guru Maharaj also used to say that to become grave, we should try to visit the graveyards and spend some time regularly. We should remember that we are also going to be there one day sooner or later. We can learn from one of the best Vaishnava - Lord Siva who always lives in the crematorium and covers his body with the ashes. Being fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness, he need not be doing this, but that is how he teaches us all the greatest lesson, that we can remember Krishna with full intensity only when we remember our last day.
Srila Prabhupada and Krishna are giving us more deeper understanding of gravity. In Bhagavad Gita verse 17.16, Lord Krishna says
manaḥ-prasādaḥ saumyatvaṁ maunam ātma-vinigrahaḥ bhāva-saṁśuddhir ity etat tapo mānasam ucyate
Satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one's existence are the austerities of the mind.
So, being 'grave' is an austerity of the mind. Mind does not let us be grave and thoughtful. Its only aim is to enjoy. So we have to force the mind to think of our own precarious condition in this world and therefore perform devotional service with utmost seriousness. Any slightest slackness leads to great danger as we understand from the story of Bharat Maharaj who had to take the form of a deer due to his attachment to the doe in the last stages of his life, even after renouncing his kingdom, family and everything else for the sake of attaining perfection of life.
When we are attached to anything, it will result in extreme pain and will not allow us to be grave. Ocean is grave because it is not attached to anything that is either born of it or sustained by it. Inside the ocean, there are so many valuable gems, minerals and so on. All those minerals, valuable gems like pearls etc are lying down in the ocean without any protective locker. It does not protest when we take those valuable gems or extract the minerals from it. But when we take those pearls out, we are protecting it so carefully inside bank lockers and other safety mechanism. Inspite of keeping it inside the bank locker, we still always meditate on the gems and feel insecure, whereas ocean which is the mother of all the valuable gems, minerals etc is grave and cheerful because it does not claim ownership of its possessions.
Being grave means we should be self-sufficient and should not expect anything from others. As long as we live in this world, we should continue to perform our service to the Lord, our responsibilities and maintenance activities without any dependence on anybody except Guru and Krishna. Our realization of our own temporary nature (and that of others), and our complete dependence on the Lord for everything will force us to be internally grave and thoughtful and this will manifest externally as a pleasing and cheerful attitude.
Krishna teaches us with His own example. He has an eternally smiling, pleasing and cheerful countenance. It is because even though everything comes from Him and completely under His control, still He stays aloof from them completely detached. When the Supreme Lord who can rightfully claim ownership of His creation, is detached from it, why should we, who are only temporary tenants in this ephemeral world claim ownership of our temporary possessions which is root cause of all the problems?
Let us pray to the Supreme Lord and His pure devotees to bestow upon us the transcendental qualities of gravity and thoughtfulness which we learnt from our spiritual master 'Ocean' today.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 17
Date: 2010-09-27 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Today in our series of mails on "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we will continue to look at the qualities to learn from the spiritual master - Ocean. The avadhuta brahmana says (SB 11.8.5):
muniḥ prasanna-gambhīro durvigāhyo duratyayaḥ ananta-pāro hy akṣobhyaḥ stimitoda ivārṇavaḥ
A saintly sage is happy and pleasing in his external behavior, whereas internally he is most grave and thoughtful. Because his knowledge is immeasurable and unlimited he is never disturbed, and thus in all respects he is like the tranquil waters of the unfathomable and unsurpassable ocean.
The following are the qualities to learn from the Ocean from the above verse:
1. prasanna - cheerful/pleasing
2. gambhīra - very grave
3. ananta-pāraḥ – unlimited
4. durvigāhyo – unfathomable
5. duratyayaḥ – unsurpassable
6. akṣobhyaḥ - never disturbed
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing) and gambhira (grave) in the last couple of mails this series. Today we will try to delve into the next quality - ananta-paarah – unlimited
ananta-pāraḥ - Unlimited: Ocean is a such a large mass of water body and it is practically not possible for us to measure the quantity of water present in it, the number of shells, pearls and so many other minerals that are present in it. Ocean also doesn’t hold back these things for its self, but it freely gives it to living entities to use the same. Similarly the knowledge of pure devotees are also immeasurable and they also freely share it with others. Also knowledge increases manifold when we share it with others. Best example of immeasurable knowledge is our founder acharya His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Can we ever imagine a person at the age of 70 to do so much volumes of translation of scriptures and that too these are not literal translations which could be done easily by any Sanskrit scholar. These are realized translations coming from the heart of pure devotee, who had faced heart attacks and so many hardships. Yet he has provided such a world class literary work. Inspite of our young age and healthy conditions, we are still struggling to study even once all the works that he has provided us. Also we have to remember that just writing alone was not his job. He was simultaneously creating a revolution in the world’s misdirected civilization; he was travelling all over the world; building hundreds of temples; preaching to foreign people who don’t even know what Vedic religion is or who Krishna is. He was accepting disciples, training them, guiding them, writing letters to them, cooking food for them, teaching them Deity Worship. How could he do this? Simply because he knew that “aham sarvasya prabhavo” – He knew that Krishna is source of all knowledge and that His knowledge is immeasurable. He also knew that just like how water in the ocean does not decrease when it gives it to other, he knew that he will not loose by sharing his knowledge with others and with great compassion, eagerness and mercy he willingly toiled and moiled night and day to translate these scriptures and share it with all.
Our dear spiritual master Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj used to tell us how we will share only when we are broad- hearted and that Krishna loves to reside in such broad-hearted people. Ultimately Krishna is source of all knowledge and if we foolishly try to withhold the knowledge with us alone then to smash our pride and make us come back to our senses, Krishna will grant us forgetfulness. It is very mind boggling to even think how much knowledgeable Krishna is as He is ananta – unlimited. I shall quote few examples which Maharaj used to tell to glorify the greatness of Lord a) We struggle so hard, spend so much time, energy and Lakshmi to create an aeroplane. To make it fly we need so much fuel and still there is no guarantee for safe flight. Whereas consider a mosquito - Krishna’s creation, it is so small and light. No petrol. No fuel. Just flies peacefully. No noise. No need of airport or control room for landing or take-off. b) Our own human body – just think of how the brain, heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas, nerves, arteries function. Can we even imagine the intelligence of the person who created this human body, so much of blood flowing throughout and yet no leakage, no screws, no bolts inside. Whereas the pipes and taps at home always have some leakage problem inspite of all the nuts and bolts and we run behind plumbers every now and then to fix. c) We boast of inventing vehicles – which wear and tear after few years and even when they are in use, get hit on the road every now and then and there is loss of life due to accidents. And our Krishna’s Solar system – various planets are revolving around the sun in their orbits for millions of years without hitting each other. There is no traffic light system for all these planets. d) At home we find it so difficult to keep track of our accounts – expenses, savings, investments etc. At work Appraisal process is a big night mare. To do the work is a challenge and more challenging than that is to show the boss what all work we have done. Apart from this, if we are appraising a team of people, then to keep track of their good/bad performance is another struggle. We take help of computers and so much of technology for these things. Inspite of all these there is no guarantee that we will get/provide fair and accurate results. Whereas our Supreme Lord Krishna is keeping track of all our karmas that we did in all our lifetimes! Just if we take ourselves, each one of us have 8 million 400 thousand species and we have done so many thing in each of our lives in the past and without any Super computer, wire, plug, hard-disk storage Krishna keeps accurate track of our actions and reactions and rewards/punishes in a very fair manner. And He is doing this for all the living entities in His creation in a flawless manner.
Honestly we have to accept that His knowledge is indeed unlimited and immeasurable. It is so vast that it is definitely not possible to list them in one mail. By realizing the Supreme Lord's magnanimity, His unlimited knowledge, intelligence, power, influence etc, we will also become full in knowledge. And this knowledge of the Absolute will give us complete satisfaction. In complete knowledge we realize that He is Vibhu and we are anu - very tiny insignificant particle in front of Him. And therefore we should be very very thankful to Him for this human birth in which we have the chance to gain spiritual knowledge. In yesterday’s offering – “Devotees don’t do cinta – They do cintan”, we heard from Gurudev how we should try to make the best use of this life and increase our spiritual knowledge by studying Srila Prabhupada’s books and spread the message to all.
We pray that we remember the words of Gurudev and strive our best to obtain whatever spiritual knowledge we can by his mercy and like the vast ocean share it with all for the pleasure of unlimited, unfathomable Lord.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 18
Date: 2010-09-28 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we were meditating on the below qualities that we need to learn from one of the spiritual masters of avadhuta brahmana - Ocean
1. prasanna — pleasing; 2. gambhīraḥ — very grave; 3. durvigāhyaḥ — unfathomable; 4. duratyayaḥ — unsurpassable; 5. ananta-pāraḥ — unlimited; 6. akṣobhyaḥ — not to be disturbed;
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing) and gambhira (grave) and ananta-paraah (unlimited) in the last few mails of this series. Today we will try to delve into the next quality - akshobhyah – never disturbed. akṣobhyaḥ - Never Disturbed. This quality of ocean is very nicely described by avadhuta brahmana in the verse 11.8.6 of Srimad Bhagavatam
samṛddha-kāmo hīno vā nārāyaṇa-paro muniḥ notsarpeta na śuṣyeta saridbhir iva sāgaraḥ
During the rainy season the swollen rivers rush into the ocean, and during the dry summer the rivers, now shallow, severely reduce their supply of water; yet the ocean does not swell up during the rainy season, nor does it dry up in the hot summer. In the same way, a saintly devotee who has accepted the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the goal of his life sometimes will receive by providence great material opulence, and sometimes he will find himself materially destitute. However, such a devotee of the Lord does not rejoice in a flourishing condition, nor is he morose when poverty-stricken.
Krishna is the goal of our life. Until we understand, realize and accept this truth, we are bound to be disturbed. We get disturbed when a) Others criticise/hurt us: To accept criticism is one of the most difficult thing in this world. We remember Maharaj saying that whenever others criticise we should know that there will not be smoke without fire. There will at least be a pinch of truth in every criticism. So we should try to introspect ourselves honestly and correct our mistakes. Even if some unjust incident is happening to us, we should remember that it is definitely due to our past karmic reactions, (if not of this birth, it would definitely be because of the baggages of sinful reactions of our past lives). So in such disturbing circumstances, we need to remember and practise the golden instruction of Gurudev - "No counteraction is the best counteraction". On the other hand, if we fail to understand this and keep counteracting to the offences made by others, then in that process, we keep increasing our baggages of sinful reactions. Also we should remember that not even a blade of grass can move without His will. Our Supreme Father Krishna has sanctioned this criticism to occur now, just to purify us and help us get rid of those reactions so that we don't carry those baggages life after life. If we are able to understand this, then we will be able to experience great peace of mind. It will also help us not to hold grudge against the people who are hurting us. b) We are not able to flourish like others: Be it family, school, work or business life has become a rat-race now. Gone are the days when people felt happy at each other's well-being. Nowadays there is either gross or atleast subtle envy when we see others flourishing. This envy which is poisonous like cancer unnecessarily disturbs us and impacts our health more apart from hurting others. So atleast for our own well-being, we should give up this quality of envy and be satisfied with whatever Krishna has blessed us with. Couple of years ago, we went to meet Maharaj. Even before we could speak anything, Gurudev said, "Never feel short of anything in life". He said these words with so much gravity that we realized that our actual problem is most of the time, we wrongly think that we deserve more than what we are blessed now. Reality is we deserve nothing and whatever we are blessed now, is completely due to the mercy of Guru and Krishna. Guru and Krishna are our best well-wishers and based on our individual karmas, capacity and sincerity, They mercifully bless us those things which would help us to go back to Them sooner. Understanding this reality we should be satisfied and grateful to Them for whatever we are blessed. Instead if we get disturbed by our overflowing desires, then we are unnecessarily delaying the process of going back to Them. In Bhagavad Gita verse 2.70, Lord Krishna says
āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭhaṁ samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśanti sarve sa śāntim āpnoti na kāma-kāmī
A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires — that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still — can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.
We get easily disturbed and distracted by the miseries of this world and waste so much of our precious time. Chanakya Pandit very nicely illustrates the value of time in his Niti shastra -"āyuhu kshana eko api na labhya svarna kotibhiḥ" - Wasted time cannot be obtained even by giving millions of gold. On our own it is not possible for us to practise this wonderful quality of akshobhyah. So we pray at the lotus feet of our merciful spiritual master Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna to bless us with strength to practise this quality of never being disturbed, so that we make the best use of remaining time.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 19
Date: 2010-10-03 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we were meditating on the below qualities that we need to learn from one of the spiritual masters of avadhuta brahmana - Ocean.
1. prasanna — pleasing; 2. gambhīraḥ — very grave; 3. durvigāhyaḥ — unfathomable; 4. duratyayaḥ — unsurpassable; 5. ananta-pāraḥ — unlimited; 6. akṣobhyaḥ — not to be disturbed;
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing), gambhira (grave), ananta-pāraḥ (unlimited) and akṣobhyaḥ (never disturbed) in the last few mails of this series. Today we will try to delve into the next quality durvigāhyaḥ (unfathomable).
5. durvigāhyaḥ - unfathomable: Ocean is so vast and deep that even centuries of research has made scientists completely insignificant. a) Every gallon of sea water contains an average of four ounces of salt. And there’s enough salt in the world’s oceans to cover the entire surface of the earth with a layer of salt more than 147 feet thick! But scientists are not quite sure how all that salt got into the oceans. b) More than a century of oceanographic research has revealed that oceans play a critical role in regulating earth's weather and climate, house extraordinarily diverse plants and animals, provide food and medicines, and significantly influence the creation and ever-changing appearance of our coastlines. However, the scientists are still paddling at the surface of this immense entity. c) Its sheer size is intimidating. Even at jet speeds, we ultimately have to sleep (or read a couple of books) while traversing the ocean. And breadth is just one of their dimensions. The ocean's depth is even harder to fathom.
These are just a tip of the iceberg. Pure devotees and their activities are also unfathomable just like the ocean. We cannot estimate the depth of their knowledge and realization as much as we cannot measure the depth of the ocean. Some of their activities will be inconceivable and even bewildering but because they are directly and fully engaged in Krishna's service, whatever they do pleases Krishna. We have the example of Srila Prabhupada in front of us.
1. When all other saints and sadhus were strictly following the traditional principle that one should not cross the ocean or preach in the mleccha countries, he defied the tradition and preached the message of Bhagavat-gita all over the world.
2. When everyone else would be satisfied just to retire in the old age and play with their grandchildren, he started a worldwide movement that took the world by storm. And that too with just 40 Rs! 3. Even though he was very sick many times, still he would continue with his travel all over the world and preach tirelessly. 14 world tours in a short span of 10 years that too at the age of 70-80!
4. He wrote so many books in such a short time that a normal human cannot write for his entire life time.
5. When he got the land in Juhu for the Bombay ISKCON temple, everyone was criticizing him for purchasing land in an area largely occupied by the fisher men and in such a far away land from the city center. At that time Prabhupada replied, "You do not know. Soon there will not be an inch of land available in this area." Everyone who visits the temple now will realize how true are his words.
There are innumerable such instances where Srila Prabhupada showed us how unfathomable and inconceivable he was and it is not possible to list them all here.
We had many such instances of our Guru Maharaj too who completely bewildered us by his inconceivable activities. Just to quote one example, so many times devotees who were personally serving him, had seen him critically ill, gasping for breath and completely wiped out. When they try to take him to the hospital, he would forcefully deny and ask them to just recite Bhagavat-gita/Bhagavatam and to the devotee's surprise very soon he would get his breath back, will look as if nothing has happened and then to the complete astonishment of the devotees, will go on to give Bhagavatam class for 4-5 hours non-stop.
Pure devotee's activities are unfathomable because they are fully charged with loving devotional service unto the Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada beautifully says in his purport to SB 9.4.68: vaiṣṇavera kriyā mudrā vijñeha nā bujhaya . Even the most learned or experienced person cannot understand the movements of a Vaishnava, a pure devotee. No one, therefore, should criticize a pure Vaishnava. A Vaishnava knows his own business; whatever he does is precisely right because he is always guided by the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
This quality of being unfathomable behooves us to simply accept the glorious activities of the pure devotees of the Lord as it is with awe and reverence and worship them with earnestness to bestow us with a drop of eagerness to render service to the Lord. Trying to get into the logic or reasoning behind those unfathomable activities spoils the pleasure of relishing it just as it is with the pastimes of the Supreme Lord.
At the end of the day, we just have to feel transcendentally proud to have born very near to the age when great acaryas like Srila Prabhupada and our Guru Maharaj appeared and gave us this transcendental mercy of unalloyed bhakti unto Lord Sri Krishna. If not for their mercy, we cannot read a single word of Srimad Bhagavat-Gita or Srimad Bhagavatam what to speak of understanding and preaching that message?
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 20
Date: 2010-10-05 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi sudHare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", we were meditating on the below qualities that we need to learn from one of the spiritual masters of avadhuta brahmana - Ocean.
SB 11.8.5
muniḥ prasanna-gambhīro durvigāhyo duratyayaḥ ananta-pāro hy akṣobhyaḥ stimitoda ivārṇavaḥ
A saintly sage is happy and pleasing in his external behavior, whereas internally he is most grave and thoughtful. Because his knowledge is immeasurable and unlimited he is never disturbed, and thus in all respects he is like the tranquil waters of the unfathomable and unsurpassable ocean.
1. prasanna — pleasing; 2. gambhīraḥ — very grave; 3. ananta-pāraḥ — unlimited; 4. akṣobhyaḥ — not to be disturbed; 5. durvigāhyaḥ — unfathomable; 6. duratyayaḥ — unsurpassable;
We had a peek into the quality of being prasanna (cheerful and pleasing), gambhīraḥ (grave), ananta-pāraḥ - (unlimited) and akṣobhyaḥ - (never disturbed) and durvigāhyaḥ (unfathomable) in the last few mails of this series. Today we will try to delve on the last quality of ocean mentioned in this verse duratyayaḥ (unsurpassable).
6. duratyayaḥ - unsurpassable: Unsurpassable normally means 'that which cannot be exceeded', 'of the greatest possible degree, quality or intensity. We all know how great, huge and unsurpassable ocean is. Even a big ship that many times act as runway for fighter jets or a passenger ship that carries thousands of people or huge cargo ships that carry thousands of tons of containers looks like a small ant compared to the enormous size of the ocean. Normally when we have to identify a personality with this 'unsurpassable' nature, we will think of someone who is materially very powerful, very expert, very skillful, knowledgeable and so on. But that almost always is accompanied with pride, conceit, envy, overconfidence etc. That is not considered bad too in this world. But when the same adjective 'unsurpassable' is to be used for a saintly personality, it actually refers to their transcendental qualities and their level of realization of the Supreme Absolute Truth. We all have heard and discussed many times about the great feats that Srila Prabhupada performed in his short visit to this planet. He has achieved so many things that are not possible to even dream of. All the temples he has constructed, all the books he has written, all the devotees he has trained, all the world tours he has made alone does not make him unsurpassable. Beyond all these achievements, it is his innumerable transcendental saintly qualities such as humility, tolerance, courage, compassion for all the living entities, complete surrender to Lord Krishna, unflinching dedication and determination to follow the instruction of his spiritual master and many other such transcendental qualities that make him 'unsurpassable'. After all, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna is completely unsurpassable. When a devotee is fully dedicated to the service of this unsurpassable Lord, they also automatically become 'unsurpassable', and Srila Prabhupada is the practical example in front of our eyes. For our own purification, we will briefly look at some of the instances that made Srila Prabhupada 'unsurpassable'.
1. Humility: Once when Srila Prabhupada was explaining about the three different classes of devotees (first class - uttama adhikari, second class - madhyama adhikari and third class - kanishta adhikari), one of the reporters asked him, "Which class do you belong?". Obviously all the devotees present there were annoyed at this question. But Srila Prabhupada very humbly replied, "Actually I belong to the fourth class (lower than the third class)". This response stunned everyone including the reporter. It is easy for someone to say when they have not achieved anything and are not an important person, but it is very difficult for someone like Prabhupada who had achieved so much in this world, to speak so humble. Truly his humility is 'unsurpassable'. There are innumerable such instances where Srila Prabhupada showed his humility, but for that we have to write a separate book.
2. Tolerance: How much he had to tolerate when he was trying to preach the message of Bhagavat-gita in India? If we were to write books, we will probably write and employ servants to print and distribute. But he was doing all this by himself. Even though he was neglected by the material-minded people still he was so tolerant in his preaching. When he went to the West, again he had to face so many difficulties and he tolerated. Who will be eager to teach the complicated subject matter to Westerners who do not have an iota of idea of the Vedic culture? But he ventured and tolerated all their mistakes, lack of proper respect, etiquette and everything. He tolerated his own bodily ailments so much that even when he was completely ill, he would continue to travel, preach and write his books. Our Guru Maharaj used to say, "Srila Prabhupada did not write these books sitting in a 5-star hotel, eating sandwich. He wrote these books after undertaking extreme austerities, that is why they are full of transcendental realizations and are so much respected."
3. Courage: Srila Prabhupada was courage personified. Being completely surrendered to Lord Krishna, he had nothing to fear in this world. Who would have the courage to call bluff on the scientists and professors calling them publicly 'fools and rascals'? Who can challenge those scientists to prove that 'life comes from matter' by even creating a mosquito on their own? He had the courage to defy all sentiments of age-old tradition of not taking the message of Bhagavat-gita outside the shores of India and preaching to the non-vedic people and converting them into first class vaishnavas. As many contemporary acaryas have approved, it is not possible for us to get another saint to surpass Srila Prabhupada's transcendental qualities in the near future.
4. Compassion: His compassion for all the living entities in well-known. ''Unsurpassable' compassion means risking one's own life to save another living entity. Srila Prabhupada risked 2 severe heart attacks in the Jaladuta to travel to the West to save the 'lost souls'. His unlimited compassion convinced him that so many souls are suffering all over the world without 'love for Krishna' and they do not even know that they are missing this which is why they are suffering. What to speak of the souls in the Western world, he is so compassionate to all the future generation 'lost cases' like ourself and many more to come, that he has put himself in his books! Even when he was in Vrindavana, he was so compassionate even to the scorpions and spiders that were living in his room in Radha-Damodara temple.
5. Complete Surrender to Lord Krishna: With all knowledge and achievements pride comes naturally. But this is where Krishna really tests us and to pass that test knowledge has to be combined with humility (vidya vinaya sampanne). Srila Prabhupada was given the title 'Bhaktivedanta Swami' because of his unsurpassable bhakti and knowledge of the shastras. But he was not proud of that knowledge thinking that he will turn the whole world to Krishna with his knowledge. When he reached USA, he wrote a poem which is famous as 'Markine Bhagavata dharma'. In that he prayed to the Lord feelingly, "How will I make them understand this message of Krsna consciousness? I am very unfortunate, unqualified and the most fallen. Therefore I am seeking Your benediction so that I can convince them, for I am powerless to do so on my own... I have no devotion, nor do I have any knowledge, but I have strong faith in the holy name of Krsna. I have been designated as Bhaktivedanta, and now, if You like, You can fulfill the real purport of Bhaktivedanta." Srila Prabhupada was so completely surrendered to Krishna that he threw himself at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and begged Him to use him in whatever way He wants, and the Lord used him to maximum capacity!
6. Dedication to Spiritual Master: We do not have any eligibility to speak of this quality (rather any of the above qualities) but having taken the service of enumerating some of the transcendental qualities of great saints, we have no escape route. By meditating on this astounding quality of Srila Prabhupada, we pray and hope at his lotus feet that one day we will also dedicate ourself to the mission of our spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada often would say that, even if you do not have any other qualification, if you have this one qualification, ie., to follow the instructions of the spiritual master, you will become successful. He has aptly written in his Bhagavatam purport 1.1.8, "The secret of success in spiritual life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings." Srila Prabhupada hardly met his spiritual master 2-3 times but the instructions he received from him was engraved in his heart. He took inspiration from those instructions (to print books and preach in the Western countries) and served those instructions with heart and soul. It would be an understatement if we say that he sacrificed his life to carry out the instructions of his spiritual master. Truly his dedication and determination to follow the instructions of his spiritual master is incomparable and unsurpassable.
It did not take much time for us to write on these qualities but to actually follow them we have to surpass one 'unsurpassable' enemy that is sitting within us - that is our own 'mind'. We fervently pray unto the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and our Guru Maharaj who gave us all the inspiration to take up devotional service, to shower their causeless mercy so that we will cultivate at least a fraction of these qualities in our life time.
With this offering, we are concluding a glimpse of the lessons learnt from 'ocean'. Krishna willing, we will try to continue with the lessons from the next spiritual master in our next offering.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 21
Date: 2010-10-20 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us learn from the next spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana - the moth. In Srimad Bhagavatam verses 11.8.7 the avadhuta brahmana tells us the lessons that we need to learn from moth.
dṛṣṭvā striyaṁ deva-māyāṁ tad-bhāvair ajitendriyaḥ pralobhitaḥ pataty andhe tamasy agnau pataṅga-vat
One who has failed to control his senses immediately feels attraction upon seeing a woman's form, which is created by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. Indeed, when the woman speaks with enticing words, smiles coquettishly and moves her body sensuously, his mind is immediately captured, and thus he falls blindly into the darkness of material existence, just as the moth maddened by the fire rushes blindly into its flames.
Chanakya Pandit says "mātravat para dāreṣu" - One should consider all women other than his wife, as mother. In this regard we are reminded of story of Jaimini which our beloved spiritual master, Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj used to narrate in a very instructive and humorous manner. Jaimini was disciple of Srila Vyasadev. Lord Ganesha and Jaimini were engaged in the service of writing Mahabharat as and when Vyasadev dictated it to them. One of the verses Vyasadev dictated was
mātrā svasra duhitrā vā / na viviktāsano bhavet balavān indriya grāmo / vidvān sam api karshati
One should not allow oneself to sit on the same seat even with one's own mother, sister or daughter, for the senses are so strong that even though one is very advanced in knowledge, he may be attracted by sex.
Lord Ganesha wrote down the verse. But Jaimini ignored it and said that he is not in agreement with it. He argued that a knowledgeable person cannot be attracted to his mother or daughter or sister under any circumstance. Vyasadev replied - "These are not my words, but are inspired by Krishna. But if you are not agreeing, you can stop writing for a while and we can resume after you understand the truth behind this statement." Jaimini then left for his ashram thinking that his spiritual master was wrong in dictating that verse. That night it rained heavily and Jaimini heard the scream of a young woman outside his ashram, pleading for help. Initially he thought that being a brahmachari he should not be worried about the woman. But as heard the pleading voice repeatedly, he went out. She requested him for accommodation. Jaimini denied. But his mind began to trick him. He started thinking, "How can I be unkind to this poor woman? What will happen to her of I don't provide her shelter now?".
Then he went out of the ashram and just for a moment, when lightning flashed, he saw the woman. He told her that as a brahmachari he is not supposed to interact with woman but since she is in difficulty, he would let her sleep inside the ashram and he will sleep outside as guard for her. He told her to lock the door and not to open the door even if he himself knocks it. The woman agreed and closed the door. But the whole night Jaimini was thinking of her. He went and knocked the door hard. But she did not open. Unable to check his agitation, he climbed the wall and through the roof entered the house. The lady taunted him. So he shamelessly asked her, "Are you married?". She said, "No". He further continued - "Any intention?". She replied, "I am waiting for a suitable person to propose." Jaimini got relieved by her reply and immediately proposed to her and she accepted his proposal. But the woman said that there is a custom in their community that as and when the wedding happens, the groom has to walk on his four limbs like a donkey and carry the bride on the back and circle the fire 4 times. Jaimini was bit hesitant but when the woman said that this can be done in privacy he was relieved. Immediately he got ready and knelt down and carried the woman 4 times. After 4 rounds he tried to catch hold of her hand, he was blinded by a beam of light and could not see anything. But in the centre of spectrum of powerful beam of light, he could see an old person with a white flowing beard, his own honoured saint Vyasadev had come in the disguise of the young woman. Jaimini felt distressed and embarrassed. Vyasadev smiled and asked him, "Are you convinced now with that verse?". Jaimini did not have any more arguments now and accepted to continue writing.
So the point is no matter how knowledgeable we are, if we are not submissive to elders and spiritual master, we will easily fall a prey to maya. In his transcendental powerful class on Jan 3 2010, while Gurudev was in Panvel, he said how great sages like Viswamithra and Parasara muni themselves were not able to control their senses. "At any point of time, please remember that we cannot control our senses on our own. We should pray to Krishna to help us in controlling them. So we should never become proud that we have controlled the senses. If at any point of time, we think that we have controlled the senses, then its like throwing Vindhyacal mountain into the ocean and saying that it will float. We must always pray to Krishna for help in controlling the senses."
It is very important to take shelter of Holy Names and Krishna and They alone would help us in our struggle against Maya. Otherwise we will be attracted to the fire of sense gratification like the moth and destroy ourselves. If we don't abide by the rules of scriptures and behave whimsically and indulge in illicit sex, then Krishna has His own ways of punishing us in the form of fiery diseases like AIDS etc. Nothing goes unnoticed and we can never ever dare to trick or cheat the omnipotent Lord. Namacharaya Srila Haridas Thakur took shelter of Lord and His Names and that's why even when the prostitute tried to provoke him, he was able to remain steady and by his pure unalloyed devotion and chanting, he was even able to change the prostitute into a devotee. Such is the potency of Lord's Names. There is no doubt that maya is very illusive, powerful and attractive. But every moment we should sincerely pray to our spiritual master and Lord Sri Krishna to protect us from her and give us strength to properly utilise this valuable life in Their service.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 22
Date: 2010-10-21 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us learn from the next spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana - the elephant. After the spiritual master moth, the avadhuta brahmana is listing the lessons that he learnt from honey-bee. But since we found that the lessons to be learnt from elephant are similar to the ones we learnt from moth, we thought of discussing on verses 11.8.13 and 14, wherein the avadhuta brahamana is explaining to us the important lessons we need to learn from elephant.
padāpi yuvatīṁ bhikṣur na spṛśed dāravīm api spṛśan karīva badhyeta kariṇyā aṅga-saṅgataḥ
A saintly person should never touch a young girl. In fact, he should not even let his foot touch a wooden doll in the shape of a woman. By bodily contact with a woman he will surely be captured by illusion, just as the elephant is captured by the she-elephant due to his desire to touch her body.
Elephants are known for their strength, eye-sight and memory power. But in spite of all these assets, the he-elephant easily falls into the hunter's trap in the forest, when it is provoked at the sight of she-elephant. In purport to verse 1.9.27 Srila Prabhupada mentions that - "As far as the women class are concerned, they are accepted as a power of inspiration for men. As such, women are more powerful than men. Mighty Julius Caesar was controlled by a Cleopatra. Such powerful women are controlled by shyness. Therefore, shyness is important for women. Once this control valve is loosened, women can create havoc in society by adultery. Adultery means production of unwanted children known as varna-sankara, who disturb the world." Unfortunately in today's world, Vedic life style is becoming a dream. There is not a single advertisement, irrespective of whether it has relevance to woman or not, has the picture of woman in it. For eyes are the entry points of sin and even if we simply walk on the roads the big banners of advertisements pollute our mind. To save ourselves from these rubbish, we should remember the golden words of Maharaj that even while walking on the road, we should keep our eyes only half open, just enough to see the path and not anything else. In verse 11.8.14 the avadhuta brahmana says
nādhigacchet striyaṁ prājñaḥ karhicin mṛtyum ātmanaḥ balādhikaiḥ sa hanyeta gajair anyair gajo yathā
A man possessing intelligent discrimination should not under any circumstances try to exploit the beautiful form of a woman for his sense gratification. Just as an elephant trying to enjoy a she-elephant is killed by other bull elephants also enjoying her company, one trying to enjoy a lady's company can at any moment be killed by her other lovers who are stronger than he.
By the process of marriage and varnashrama dharma, scriptures have regulated our life and we have to be satisfied with the spouse whom we are blessed by the Lord. Instead if one tries to enjoy others' wives we are bound to suffer. In case of Kauravas we saw that because of their dirty wish to enjoy Draupadi, they had to face miserable death in the battle-field of Kurukshetra. Ravana also faced his end at the hands of Lord Ram as he had the illicit desire of enjoying Mother Sita who was Ram's wife. So for our own well-being, we should not indulge in illicit sense-gratification activities and waste this rare human birth. But by following the scriptural injunctions, we should lead a life pleasing to Guru and Krishna.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 23
Date: 2010-10-25 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In continuation of our discussion on the topic, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", let us learn from the next spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana - the honey-bee. From this spiritual master the avadhuta brahmana is learning both "do's and don'ts". The lessons are as follows
1. Madhukari
2. Learn good from all
3. Do not over-store like greedy honey bee
1. Madhukari : Let us try to meditate on the first lesson which avadhuta brahmana is telling us in verse 11.8.9
stokaṁ stokaṁ grased grāsaṁ deho varteta yāvatā gṛhān ahiṁsann ātiṣṭhed vṛttiṁ mādhukarīṁ muniḥ
A saintly person should accept only enough food to keep his body and soul together. He should go from door to door accepting just a little bit of food from each family. Thus he should practice the occupation of the honeybee.
This is a very important lesson to be learnt from honey-bee, especially for devotees who are preaching the glories of the Lord. The natural constitutional position of honey-bee is to go from one flower to another. Similar manner saintly persons travel from door to door and accept just a little bit of food from each family, just to keep their body and soul together. They do not take shelter permanently in any family, because their permanent shelter is Supreme Lord and they know their real purpose of life. The reason for their traveling from door to door is also not for their sustenance, but to spread the message of the Supreme Lord to the suffering souls. They are mercifully giving an opportunity to the grhasthas stuck in materialistic life, to hear about the glories of Krishna and to serve them and there by help the people to advance in spiritual life. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.4.8, Shaunaka Muni while glorifying this quality of Sukadeva Goswami, very nicely mentions that the time he stays in any household is just sa go-dohana maatram - time for milking a cow.
sa go-dohana-mātraṁ hi gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām avekṣate mahā-bhāgas tīrthī-kurvaṁs tad āśramam
He [Sukadeva Goswami] was accustomed to stay at the door of a householder only long enough for a cow to be milked. And he did this just to sanctify the residence.
In his wonderful purport to the above verse Srila Prabhupada very nicely writes that Sukadeva Goswami met Emperor Parikshit and explained the text of Srimad-Bhagavatam. He was not accustomed to stay at any householder's residence for more than half an hour (at the time of milking the cow), and he would just take alms from the fortunate householder. That was to sanctify the residence by his auspicious presence. Therefore Sukadeva Goswami is an ideal preacher established in the transcendental position. From his activities, those who are in the renounced order of life and dedicated to the mission of preaching the message of Godhead should learn that they have no business with householders save and except to enlighten them in transcendental knowledge. Such asking for alms from the householder should be for the purpose of sanctifying his home. One who is in the renounced order of life should not be allured by the glamor of the householder's worldly possessions and thus become subservient to worldly men. For one who is in the renounced order of life, this is much more dangerous than drinking poison and committing suicide .
Even the Goswami's of Vrindavan never used to sleep under the shade of same tree for more than one night. To that extent they were careful not to become attached to the temporary shelters. So from the examples of such great souls, we should take the lesson of madhukari from the honey-bee and travel only for exchanging the message of glories of the Lord and leave the place as soon as Krishna katha is over. The negative impacts of lingering around the same place for any service are: a) We forget the real cause, Krishna and start thinking those temporary instruments (place, people, situations) as the ultimate cause of our service. b) Our spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that "intimate dealings" will spoil the relationship as familiarity breeds contempt.
This dependence on temporary shelters is explained nicely in the purport to verse 11.8.9, "Sometimes a honeybee is attracted by the extraordinary aroma of a particular lotus flower and lingers there, neglecting his usual activity of flying from flower to flower. Unfortunately, at sunset the lotus flower closes, and thus the infatuated honeybee is trapped. Similarly, a sannyasi or brahmacaari may discover that excellent foodstuff is available at a particular house, and therefore, instead of wandering from place to place, he may become a veritable resident of such a well-fed household. Thus he will become bewildered by the illusion of family life and fall down from the platform of renunciation. Also, if a mendicant takes unfair advantage of the Vedic custom of charity and takes too often from a single family, the resentment he causes will disturb the social order. An ideal sage should, like the honeybee, travel from place to place, but he must be careful not to become a chubby bee by going to many houses and eating sumptuously at each house. According to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, such a chubby bee will undoubtedly become entangled in the network of maya."
On the positive side, a) When honey-bee collects honey from one flower and travels to another flower, pollination takes place automatically. Similarly when we discuss Krishna katha in one place, we get an opportunity to receive the nectarean honey of Krishna katha from that place and inspired by the same, when we travel and share those inspirations to other places, we shall become Krishna's instrument in spreading His glories everywhere. b) The vital ingredient for sharing Krishna katha is humility. So when we follow the example of honeybee and move around, we will not take things for granted and would be grateful to all kinds of people and circumstances that help us, (be it favourable or unfavourable) and see them as instruments of ultimate controller, Sri Krishna. This increases the purity of our shravanam, kirtanam and smaranam of Lord Sri Krishna.
To quote the golden words of Gurudev - "To save ourselves from the pains of old-age, we should move around and preach. Instead if we remain within four-walls, then the four-walls will kill us."
We pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna that we remember this lesson and put it into practice in our life.
Krishna willing, we shall discuss the remaining lessons from honey-bee in the subsequent offerings.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 24
Date: 2010-11-23 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
It is quite some time since we had our last offering on the topic "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus". Lord Krishna and our Guru Maharaj arranged for other beautiful realizations in the forum in the mean time while there was a temporary break on this topic. Praying to the lotus feet of our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and the Supreme Lord we are humbly trying to continue this series.
In our last offering of this series we tried to meditate on the lessons to learn from honey bee. From this spiritual master the avadhuta brahmana is learning both "do's and don'ts". The lessons are as follows:
1. Madhukari
2. Learn good from all scriptures
3. Do not over-store like greedy honey bee
We already discussed about the first lesson "Madhukari" - to eat only that which is available by the will of the providence and only to keep the body and the soul together. Today we will see the second lesson - "Learn good from all scriptures". The avadhuta brahmana says that he learnt this lesson from the honey bee thus (SB 11.8.10):
aṇubhyaś ca mahadbhyaś ca śāstrebhyaḥ kuśalo naraḥ sarvataḥ sāram ādadyāt puṣpebhya iva ṣaṭpadaḥ
Just as the honeybee takes nectar from all flowers, big and small, an intelligent human being should take the essence from all religious scriptures.
The honeybee does not see the size and color of the flower from where it takes the nectar. It does not discriminate between flowers thinking, "Oh this is a big flower, I can take more nectar" or "This is only a small flower, I will not get enough nectar." All it wants is nectar, doesn't matter where it comes from. Similarly we should only be concerned about extracting good from everywhere. Our Guru Maharaj used to exhibit his uncommon humility so many times by saying that he learns good from everyone and everywhere. He once told a beautiful saying in Gujarati," naanaa te paaci levi caaturi baath", roughly translated as "We should learn good instructions even from those who are younger (or smaller) than us."
But the challenge we face is, "How do I collect good from everywhere if I do not know what is good?". Our Guru Maharaj would always say, "Good is always good, it is not Hindu good, Christian good or Muslim good. Good is that which takes you to God". Having said that, to take good from various scriptures, we should know how to identify an authentic source of 'good'. There are some basic characteristics of a scripture that is an authentic source of 'good'.
1. It is full of glorification of the Supreme Lord
2. It is full of instructions for us to improve our behavior
3. The instructions are practice-able 4. Those who read and practice those scriptural injunctions will have a change of heart and refinement of their character
5. Those who practice the instructions will develop unmotivated and uninterrupted love for the Supreme Lord
Now, before we can go to all the other scriptures to search for the essence, we should realize that we do not have all the time in the world to analyze and extract the essence from every scripture. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has also warned us, "bahu shastra bahu vaakya chitta bhrama haya - By reading so many scriptures our mind will get bewildered".
What is the solution then?
We can observe that Srila Prabhupada's shastras not only fulfill the above criterias but it was also written by an acarya who lived and showed us how to practice them. Moreover it is the essence of all the scriptures that were written in the past for the benefit of all humanity. So before we go to any other scriptures, we should thoroughly digest the message in the grantha's left by our acarya Srila Prabhupada, especially Srimad Bhagavat-gita and Bhagavatam. Since his shastras are full of good and nothing but good, we will be fine-tuned to find only good everywhere if we see through the eyes of Srila Prabhupada's books. Then we can go to any scripture and take the essence without the danger of being distracted or deviated from the main goal of our life.
To give a practical example, our Guru Maharaj's diaries are filled with good instructions from everywhere. But we can also see that he was one of the rarest devotees of Srila Prabhupada, who digested and learnt-by heart even the purports and translations of so many verses from Srila Prabhupada's shastras. His attachment to Srila Prabhupada's shastras is so inconceivable that innumerable times we have seen him, even till his last days, he would write down the verse, word-word equivalents, translation and even loads and loads of purports in his diaries. He would ask us to dictate to him and while we dictate them, he would patiently and lovingly write them down in his transcendental diaries. And after writing them down, he would memorize and then to remember it easily, would coin nice acronyms. He taught us the importance of studying Srila Prabhupada's books. He taught us how to love those transcendental vani. He taught us how to take complete shelter of those words which are the 'transcendental ecstasies' of that great acarya, Srila Prabhupada.
We can say without an iota of doubt that if not for our Guru Maharaj, we would not be having even one percent of taste for studying Srila Prabhupada's scriptures. If we follow in the footsteps of these pure devotees, who has shown us how to extract the essence from everywhere, then by their causeless mercy, we can also attain the quality like that of the honey bee.
We will try to continue with the third lesson to learn from the honey bee in our next offering on this topic, Krishna willing.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 25
Date: 2010-11-24 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
In the previous offering of this series we tried to meditate on the lessons to be learnt from honey bee. From this spiritual master the avadhuta brahmana is learning both "do's and don'ts". The lessons are as follows:
1. Madhukari 2. Learn good from all scriptures 3. Do not over-store like greedy honey bee
We have discussed about the first 2 lessons "Madhukari" and "Learn good from all scriptures" in the previous mails. Now let us learn the next lesson from the honey-bee.
sāyantanaṁ śvastanaṁ vā na saṅgṛhṇīta bhikṣitam pāṇi-pātrodarāmatro makṣikeva na saṅgrahī
A saintly person should not think, "This food I will keep to eat tonight and this other food I can save for tomorrow." In other words, a saintly person should not store foodstuffs acquired by begging. Rather, he should use his own hands as his plate and eat whatever fits on them. His only storage container should be his belly, and whatever conveniently fits into his belly should be his stock of food. Thus one should not imitate the greedy honeybee who eagerly collects more and more honey.
Srila Prabhupada used to give the example of how when a bag of rice is left in the street, all other living entities like animals and birds would take only what is required for them for one meal. But only human being has the tendency to grab the whole bag and hoard it for future. This grabbing tendency or greedy nature is very detrimental to us. We should be satisfied with the quota allocated for us by Lord and should never be greedy. When we accept the quota given by Krishna, then we are safe. This is because He knows what we can hold and so maintaining that will not be any problem. But when we are not satisfied with what Krishna has given us, and keep running for more and more, then we will have to face all the anxiety, troubles and hassles both in acquiring as well as maintaining it. All said and done, even if we acquire that and store it there is no guarantee that we would be able to enjoy that wealth or food. If we are hoarding more food-stuff than what is required, then there is every chance that it would be stolen by others or the food-item will get spoilt in due course of time or we might be diseased due to which we would not be able to enjoy that food item. Similarly in case of wealth, there is again danger of it being stolen by thieves, family members or the money value might decrease due to inflation or we might not live long enough to enjoy the wealth. The danger of acquiring more is very nicely described by the avadhuta brahmana in verse 11.8.12
sāyantanaṁ śvastanaṁ vā na saṅgṛhṇīta bhikṣukaḥ makṣikā iva saṅgṛhṇan saha tena vinaśyati
A saintly mendicant should not even collect foodstuffs to eat later in the same day or the next day. If he disregards this injunction and like the honeybee collects more and more delicious foodstuffs, that which he has collected will indeed ruin him.
There is a saying that even nectar if taken in large quantities will turn into poison. This is true with any item we use for our sense-gratification. When a person over-eats sweets, he will become diabetic. When we hoard more and more money, jewellery etc, we unnecessarily invite the attention of thieves and dacoits and be looted and killed by them. Few days ago we were going through our beloved spiritual master, HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj's diary wherein he had written the following verses from the shastras.
dānaṁ bhogo nāśastisro gatayo bhavanti vittasya yo na dadāti na bhuṅkte tasya tritīyā gatir bhavati
Money has three states of existence - to be given in charity, to be enjoyed and to be destroyed. If one does not give it in charity or utilize it, then that money will be destroyed by itself.
upārjitānāṁ arthānāṁ tyāga eva hi rakṣaṇam taḍāgodara saṁsthānāṁ parīvāha ivāmbhasām
For water in the lake, flowing is the only protection (if it is stored in a stationary place it will be spoiled). Similarly for the earned money, charity for good cause is the only protection.
So instead of hoarding or over-storage, we should make the right use of wealth and food by using them in service of Lord. In the purport to the above verse 11.8.12 it is very nicely mentioned that - "Bhramara refers to that honeybee who wanders about from flower to flower, and makshikaa is the honeybee who accumulates more and more honey in the beehive with great attachment. A saintly mendicant should be like the bhramara bee because if he imitates the makshikaa bee his spiritual consciousness will be ruined."
So let us aspire to be a like bhramara bee and a) eat only that which is available by the will of the providence and that too to keep the body and the soul together. b) learn good from all scriptures and c) let us not hoard and ruin our existence like the makshikaa bee.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 26
Date: 2010-11-27 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In this offering, let us learn from the next spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana - hunter.
In the previous offering we saw that like the honey-bee, if we greedily try to hoard wealth, food etc there is indeed no guarantee that we would be able to enjoy all that we hoard. So as our beloved Maharaj insisted from the shastras, it is better to use wealth in Krishna's service, instead of hoarding it for future use. We remember Gurudev telling us how many rich people save their wealth in Swiss Banks etc, so confidentially that even their own kith and kin are not aware of their accounts. Then all of a sudden, the rich person dies and all the money goes to the bank. Instead one can earn enough money to lead a healthy life and use the excess Lakshmi in Krishna's service. This will please both Lakshmi devi and Sri Krishna. It will also save us from all effects of all reactions to our karma. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.8.16, the avadhuta brahmana says
su-duḥkhopārjitair vittair āśāsānāṁ gṛhāśiṣaḥ madhu-hevāgrato bhuṅkte yatir vai gṛha-medhinām
Just as a hunter takes away the honey laboriously produced by the honeybees, similarly, saintly mendicants such as brahmacaaris and sannyaasis are entitled to enjoy the property painstakingly accumulated by householders dedicated to family enjoyment.
The hunter steals away the honey from the bee-hive so that it could be used by the people. Srila Prabhupada used to quote the example of "ajāgara vrtti" as to how mouse makes a lot of effort to make a hole and live. But the snake effortlessly comes and eats the mouse and stays in the hole. Similar manner saintly persons are entitled to enjoy the property of grhasthas. Some of the reasons for this is that
1. Saintly persons are seriously engaged in service of the Lord and know to rightly utilise everything in the service of the Lord.
2. They know that the real owner of all the assets in the world is Supreme Lord Krishna, irrespective of who possesses it.
They are devoid of proprietorship and do not develop attachment to others property. As our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says, "In detachment everything becomes ours. Detachment is the unique quality of Srila Prabhupada which made him so successful." The main reason for our hoarding attitude is because we think that we will live forever in this world and need to save for future. But reality is death can come to us any moment. Recently we heard about the death of 27 year old lady, a mother of six month old child, who just died all of a sudden, within a short duration of 3 days, due to bursting of one of cell in her brain. Apparently, she was a very healthy person until last week. Shocked by the incident, her relatives asked the doctor as to what could be done to avoid such things in future. The doctor being a sane person has replied that, one can just pray to God and that we are not capable of controlling or avoiding these things. Time and again Lord is mercifully giving us so many warnings and notices, to remind our dull brains that death is indeed bound to come any time. So instead of wasting time, energy and wealth in unnecessary things, we should use them properly.
Maharaj always insisted that we can take the example of Sri Rupa Goswami. In one of his nectarean classes on "Renunciation", Maharaj said, "There is no need for renouncing everything. Srila Rupa Goswmai says we should give 50% for Krishna, 25% for family and save 25% for emergencies. The thing is that these things if we don't think with common sense, then renunciation is difficult. Even if we are not able to give the percentages suggested by Rupa Goswami, atleast give 2% or 1% or even 0.5% or something you give." Let us remember the words of Gurudev and judiciously use our assets in service of Lord. We might not know how to use the wealth, on our own nicely in Krishna's service. So in such instants, we can atleast give to the saints and sages who are seriously involved in serving the Supreme Lord. By doing so we can purify our existence as well. To conclude we can remember the favourite Gujarati verse which our beloved Maharaj says -
rāvan sāathe shun le gayo, karna koy gayo shun sampathi potlun bandhe, vaikuntha na gayo koi
Ravan was a miser. What did he take with Him ? And what did Karna loose? No one takes containers full of wealth along with them to Vaikuntha when they leave this world.
Krishna willing, we shall discuss on the remaining lessons learnt by avadhuta brahmana from his other spiritual masters in the subsequent offerings.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus - Part 27
Date: 2010-12-05 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In this offering, let us learn from the next spiritual master of the avadhuta brahmana - deer. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.8.17, Lord Krishna says
grāmya-gītaṁ na śṛṇuyād yatir vana-caraḥ kvacit śikṣeta hariṇād baddhān mṛgayor gīta-mohitāt
A saintly person dwelling in the forest in the renounced order of life should never listen to songs or music promoting material enjoyment. Rather, a saintly person should carefully study the example of the deer, who is bewildered by the sweet music of the hunter's horn and is thus captured and killed.
Everyone of us like to hear music. But we must be careful in hearing the right kind of music. In the purport to the above verse it is nicely mentioned as to what kind of music we should hear and what we should avoid. "If one becomes attached to the sense gratification of materialistic music and songs, one will develop all the features of material entanglement. One should hear Bhagavad-Gita, or the song sung by the Supreme Lord." As we know hearing is the first sense which we get in the mother's womb and the last sense to leave us when we leave the body. So what we hear has a very great impact in molding our life. We may think that there is nothing wrong in listening to cinema songs etc once in a while. But even when we were students, we had experienced how songs heard weeks or months before the exams also suddenly pops up in the mind and distract us even when sitting in the exam hall. With great struggle and prayers we used to force our mind to concentrate on the exam. The point is music remains in our sub-conscious mind for a longer time and so we have to make sincere endeavour to always ensure that we follow, "hear no evil".
As Lord Krishna warns us in Bhagavad Gita verse 2.62
dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
Songs pertaining to material enjoyment will deviate us from the ultimate goal of life and can never give us permanent bliss. If we keep habituating ourselves to such music then even during our final exam, death, we will be remembering only these songs instead of Supreme Lord and so we would definitely keep continuing the miserable cycle of repeated birth and death again and again. Like the deer we would also be misled by material music and be caught by the hunter of death. As our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says - "The real meaning of initiation is to change the vibrations that are coming from our homes into transcendental vibrations." Spiritual vibrations alone have such a subtle powerful effect that it cleanses all our anarthas and gives us "bliss" which can only be experienced simply by repetitively hearing such vibrations.
Material vibrations need not necessarily limit to cinema songs and other music alone. Even words of praise and appreciation are also sweet music to our ears. When we keep hearing such praises more and more we become falsely proud and tend to forget the reality that whatever abilities are currently appearing to be present in us, are not our own. The real source for all our ability, prowess and strength is the Supreme Lord Krishna and only if He sanctions, we can take even a single step. So we should be careful not to listen to this kind of music as well. Prthu Maharaj very nicely shows by his personal example in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 4.15.22 as to how to deal with praise and appreciations.
prthur uvaaca bhoh suta he maagadha saumya vandin loke 'dhunaaspashta-gunasya me syaat kim aashrayo me stava esha yojyataam maa mayy abhuvan vitathaa giro vah
King Prthu said: "O gentle Suta, Magadha and other devotee offering prayers, the qualities of which you have spoken are not distinct in me. Why then should you praise me for all these qualities when I do not shelter these features? I do not wish for these words meant for me to go in vain, but it is better that they be offered to someone else."
So let us be careful to use our ears, only in hearing the music pertaining to glorification of the Lord, be it either in the form of His Names (Mahamantra) or His pastimes and instructions (Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam etc). By doing so we will be making the right use of ears and thereby purify our existence.
We pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna that we hear only the right kind of music and never ever forsake the transcendental vibrations.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus - Part 28
Date: 2010-12-07 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In this offering, let us continue to learn from the spiritual master - deer. Emphasising the importance of not listening to mundane music, the avadhuta brahmana further says in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.8.18,
nṛtya-vāditra-gītāni juṣan grāmyāṇi yoṣitām āsāṁ krīḍanako vaśya ṛṣyaśṛṅgo mṛgī-sutaḥ
Becoming attracted to the worldly singing, dancing and musical entertainment of beautiful women, even the great sage Rshyashrnga, the son of Mrgi, fell totally under their control, just like a pet animal.
Rshyashrnga son of sage Mrgi, was intentionally brought up by his father in an atmosphere of complete innocence. Mrgi Rshi thought that if his son were never exposed to the sight of women he would always remain a perfect brahmacari. But by chance the inhabitants of the neighboring kingdom, who were suffering from a long-term drought, received divine advice that rain would return to their kingdom only after the brahmana named Rshyashrnga stepped foot in it. Therefore they sent beautiful women to the hermitage of Mrgi to entice Rshyashrnga and bring him back with them. Since Rshyashrnga had never even heard about women, he easily fell for their trap.
In the above example given by avadhuta brahmana we can see how great sage like Rshyashrnga could also be bewildered by listening to worldly music. The easy source for mundane music is Television. The best thing is to not have TV at home. But in situations wherein all the family members have not yet taken to process of bhakti, it might so happen that TV cannot be thrown out. In one of his nectarean classes on initiation our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj said - "Controlling our eating, thinking, seeing, hearing and touching is initiation. We may have TV at home. But it is upto us to decide whether we are going to waste time seeing it or use time in Hari-kirtanam." Maharaj said that we need to find a quite corner in the house and sincerely do our sadhana. When we consistently do our sadhana sincerely and pray to Krishna earnestly, then Krishna will make the necessary arrangements to throw the demon out. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita verse 2.67
indriyāṇāṁ hi caratāṁ yan mano ’nuvidhīyate tad asya harati prajñāṁ vāyur nāvam ivāmbhasi
As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.
In purport to the above verse Srila Prabhupada gives us the way as to how we can overcome this danger. He says - " Unless all of the senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, even one of them engaged in sense gratification can deviate the devotee from the path of transcendental advancement. As mentioned in the life of Maharaja Ambarisha, all of the senses must be engaged in Krishna consciousness, for that is the correct technique for controlling the mind."
May be even if we are not voluntarily wanting to listen music, sometimes while travelling in bus or flight etc, we are exposed to mundane music. How to handle such situations ?
Based on our past experiences, we had noticed that on days when we had even an iota of interest to listen to Krishna katha and sincerely prayed to Lord to specifically arrange for transport in which there should not be any mundane music, Lord had mercifully reciprocated by making arrangements for protecting us from unavoidable sense- gratification. So sincere prayers for engaging our senses in Krishna's service is the key. By our own endeavour it is not possible to overcome maya. As Gurudev in his transcendental pravacan in Panvel on January 3, 2010 said, we definitely need to accept the truth that maya is very powerful and we can overcome it, only by praying to Krishna and rendering service unto Him and His devotees.
Krishna willing we will continue with the lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahamana from the other spiritual masters in the subsequent mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 29
Date: 2010-12-08 Author: Kalacakra Krishna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In this offering, let us continue to learn from the spiritual master - fish. In Srimad Bhagavatam 11.8.19 the avadhuta brahmana says
jihvayāti-pramāthinyā jano rasa-vimohitaḥ mṛtyum ṛcchaty asad-buddhir mīnas tu baḍiśair yathā
Just as a fish, incited by the desire to enjoy his tongue, is fatally trapped on the fisherman's hook, similarly, a foolish person is bewildered by the extremely disturbing urges of the tongue and thus is ruined.
Human birth is very rare gift for us and we have got this. We never know when the next chance would be. There are 8 million 400 thousand varieties of species. Except in this species of life, in all other species, we will not have this ability to inquire about God and to distinguish what is good or bad for us. So how much important it is to make the best use of this life ? And when can we make the best use ? Only as long as our body co-operates. Of course there are paramahamsas who are completely absorbed in thoughts of Krishna irrespective of their bodily situations. But for ordinary souls like us, good health is indeed the greatest wealth. Our body is temple of Supreme Lord and so it is important to take a care of our health in a proper manner. Then only we can engage the same in service of the Lord. Our duty therefore is to nourish it with Krishna prasadam. But instead if we are carried away by the urges of our tongue and over-eat, then we would have to face the music accordingly.
If we eat more sweets then we will suffer from diabetes, dental problems etc. Similarly if we don't control our tongues and eat lot of spicy food we will suffer from abdominal diseases. Srila Prabhupada makes a punching statement in SB 1.1.10 purport - "In Kali-yuga, the duration of life is shortened not so much because of insufficient food but because of irregular habits. By keeping regular habits and eating simple food, any man can maintain his health. Overeating, over-sense gratification, overdependence on another's mercy, and artificial standards of living sap the very vitality of human energy."
So even if someone comes and gives us a plate full of rasgullas, we should have the common sense to remember the limitations of our body and take just one and distribute the rest to other living entities. By doing so we can share the mercy of Lord with others and save ourselves from becoming selfish and greedy and also from ill-health. In Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6 verse 16, Lord Krishna says
nāty-aśnatas tu yogo ’sti na caikāntam anaśnataḥ na cāti-svapna-śīlasya jāgrato naiva cārjuna
There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogi, O Arjuna, if one eats too much or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.
In purport to above verse Srila Prabhupada very nicely explains about the evil effects of over-eating and the importance of regulated eating. - "Too much eating means eating more than is required to keep the body and soul together. There is no need for men to eat animals, because there is an ample supply of grains, vegetables, fruits and milk. Such simple foodstuff is considered to be in the mode of goodness according to the Bhagavad-Gita. Animal food is for those in the mode of ignorance. Therefore, those who indulge in animal food, drinking, smoking and eating food which is not first offered to Krishna will suffer sinful reactions because of eating only polluted things. bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt - Anyone who eats for sense pleasure, or cooks for himself, not offering his food to Krishna, eats only sin. One who eats sin and eats more than is allotted to him cannot execute perfect yoga. It is best that one eat only the remnants of foodstuff offered to Krishna. A person in Krishna consciousness does not eat anything which is not first offered to Krishna. Therefore, only the Krishna conscious person can attain perfection in yoga practice."
According to Ayurveda, the proper balance in the stomach is one-half food, one- quarter water and one-quarter air. If we don't follow this balance then we would suffer due to various diseases and obesity etc and spend our valuable time, energy and wealth in fixing these problems, instead of utilising them for serving the Lord.
Krishna willing we will continue with the lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahamana from fish in the subsequent mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus - Part 30
Date: 2010-12-10 Author: Kalacakra Krishna das
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In this offering, let us continue to learn from the spiritual master - fish. In the previous offering we saw that we should not overeat and thereby fall a prey to various diseases. But is fasting a way to control our tongue ? The avadhuta brahmana clarifies this doubt through the below verse 11.8.20 from Srimad Bhagavatam.
indriyāṇi jayanty āśu nirāhārā manīṣiṇaḥ varjayitvā tu rasanaṁ tan nirannasya vardhate
By fasting, learned men quickly bring all of the senses except the tongue under control, because by abstaining from eating such men are afflicted with an increased desire to gratify the sense of taste.
Whimsical fasting is of no use. Srila Prabhupada in his wonderful purport to verse 6.16 makes it very clear that one who artificially abstains from eating, manufacturing his own personal process of fasting, cannot practice yoga. The Krishna conscious person observes fasting as it is recommended in the scriptures. He does not fast or eat more than is required, and he is thus competent to perform yoga practice. Supreme Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita verse 2.59
viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ rasa-varjaṁ raso ’py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.
In Srirangam there lived a person by name Dhanur das who was very much attracted to a prostitute, so much so that even when the Lord was brought in utsavam in the streets of city, he was fanning her. Looking at this pathetic condition, Sripada Ramanujacharya inquired him politelty as to why he was behaving like this - for which he replied that he had not seen anyone else with more beautiful eyes than that lady. Then the great sage Ramanujacharya asked him as to what he would do if he showed him someone far more beautiful than this. Dhanur das replied that he would devote his life to that person. Praying to Lord Ranganathji, Sripada Ramanaujacharya took that person in front of the Lord. Reciprocating the earnest prayers of His dear devotee, Lord revealed the supreme beauty of His eyes and immediately there was complete transformation in Dhanurdas. Eventually, he became a very nice devotee among the disciples of Ramanujacharya. In the above pastime we see that the sage by giving Dhanurdas the highest taste of darshan of Lord, helped him to give up the taste for mundane things.
So simply by fasting or abstaining our senses from the sense objects, whimsically on our own accord, we would not be able to attain complete control over our tongue or any of the other senses. Only by engaging the senses in a higher taste we can control them. And that higher taste in case of tongue is Krishna prasadam and Krishna katha. By tasting and talking about Krishna's mercy (prasadam) we would be free from all contaminations.
Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj used to say in Gujarati - "jevu bhojan, tevu bhajan, ane tevu pachhi vesh, ane tevu bhaashan" - meaning, "Whatever food we eat, the bhajan comes accordingly and dress and speech accordingly". If we eat saatvic food offered to the Lord, then we will be able to Krishna's bhajan and wear simple clothes and our speech will also be pure - about Krishna. Whereas if we eat taamasic/raajasic food then our bhajan will be on mundane things like women and that will reflect in our degraded way of dressing and speech. This point is nicely explained by Srila Prabhupada in his purport to verse 3.11 in Bhagavad Gita as follows .
āhāra-śuddhau sattva-śuddhiḥ sattva-śuddhau dhruvā smṛtiḥ smṛti-lambhe sarva-granthīnāṁ vipramokṣaḥ.
"By performance of yajna one's eatables become sanctified, and by eating sanctified foodstuffs one's very existence becomes purified; by the purification of existence finer tissues in the memory become sanctified, and when memory is sanctified one can think of the path of liberation, and all these combined together lead to Krishna consciousness, the great necessity of present-day society."
The potency of prasadam is inconceivable, so instead of whimsical fasting, we need to honour and distribute prasadam to all as per scriptural injunctions.
Krishna willing we will continue with the lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahamana from fish in the subsequent mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus - Part 31
Date: 2010-12-11 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In this offering, let us continue to learn from the spiritual master - fish. In the previous offerings we saw that we should not overeat and thereby fall a prey to various diseases. Also it is not possible to control the tongue by fasting whimsically. We can control the tongue only by honouring Krishna prasadam and by talking about Krishna. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 11.8.21, avadhuta brahmana explains why it is important to control the tongue. He says
tāvaj jitendriyo na syād vijitānyendriyaḥ pumān na jayed rasanaṁ yāvaj jitaṁ sarvaṁ jite rase
Although one may conquer all of the other senses, as long as the tongue is not conquered it cannot be said that one has controlled his senses. However, if one is able to control the tongue, then one is understood to be in full control of all the senses.
Tongue is more sharper than sword. So when it is not used properly it is capable of hurting other people. There is a famous couplet that the wounds caused by fire also would heal faster, than the wound caused by tongue. So if tongue is so dangerous weapon, then we should be really very careful while using it. By misusing it we simply earn enmity of people around us and loose the good harmony and peace of mind. Whereas when we use tongue for talking about Krishna, encouraging people to take to the path of Krishna consciousness and for speaking to all in a kind manner, then that usage will give us great bliss and peace of mind. When we speak about Krishna it is blissful both to speaker and the listener. But living in this material world, we are bound to do our prescribed duties both at work and at home. Not all of us would have the opportunity to directly serve the Lord in temple. So both at home and work, when we have to speak we should remember to use the "Triple Filter" suggested by Socrates - The first filter is to check whether what we are speaking is truth or not. The second filter is to check whether the message is good or not and the third filter is to check whether it is useful to others or not. Both while hearing some thing from others and while telling something to others if we use this triple filter, then we will be saved from so many gossips and unneccessary talks. Lord Krishna Himself has not only given us this triple filter in Bhagavad Gita verse 17.15. But He has also mentioned how we should utilise the tongue. He says,
anudvega-karaṁ vākyaṁ satyaṁ priya-hitaṁ ca yat svādhyāyābhyasanaṁ caiva vāṅ-mayaṁ tapa ucyate
Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature.
In Nectar of Instruction verse 1, Srila Rupa Goswami very nicely says
vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt
A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world .
Srila Prabhupada has beautifully translated the words vaaco vegam as "tolerate the urge to speak". It is very interesting to note that whenever we see some one doing some thing wrong, we simply cannot tolerate and we are in hurry to chastise and scold the other person. We don't even wait to give a moment of thought as to why the other person is doing it. So by our intolerance, we loose the relationship with that living entity. Whereas we have seen in the lives of great acharyas like Srila Prabhupada and our spiritual master, how much they have tolerated our offences. It would have hardly taken any time for them to chastise or scold people whenever they made mistake. But they had a pure, kind love by which they could encourage and attract any kind of misdirected soul to the path of bhakti. Indeed as Srila Rupa Goswami says thats how they could do a magical touch in the hearts of so many living entities around the world, both during their physical presence and their apparent absence. By the mercy of Lord Krishna, even now their vani continues to live and keeps guiding the suffering souls. So taking inspiration from the lives of such great souls, we should use our tongue properly in a manner pleasing to Guru and Krishna.
Krishna willing we will continue with the lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahamana from the other spiritual masters in the subsequent mails.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 32
Date: 2010-12-13 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
This is in continuation of the offering, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus", where in we were discussing on the wonderful lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the various people whom he met in his life. In the next few offerings we will try to understand the lessons learnt by the avadhuta brahmana from the prostitute named Pingala.
Once the prostitute Pingala, desiring to bring a lover into her house, stood outside in the doorway at night showing her beautiful form. This prostitute was very anxious to get money, and as she stood on the street at night she studied all the men who were passing by, thinking, "Oh, this one surely has money. I know he can pay the price, and I am sure he would enjoy my company very much." Thus she thought about all the men on the street.
As the prostitute Pingala stood in the doorway, many men came and went, walking by her house. Her only means of sustenance was prostitution, and therefore she anxiously thought, "Maybe this one who is coming now is very rich...Oh, he is not stopping, but I am sure someone else will come. Surely this man who is coming now will want to pay me for my love, and he will probably give lots of money." Thus, with vain hope, she remained leaning against the doorway, unable to finish her business and go to sleep. Out of anxiety she would sometimes walk out toward the street, and sometimes she went back into her house. In this way, the midnight hour gradually arrived. As the night wore on, the prostitute, who intensely desired money, gradually became morose, and her face dried up. Thus being filled with anxiety for money and most disappointed, she began to feel a great detachment from her situation, and happiness arose in her mind. And in great relief she prayed some most meaningful and beautiful verses which are very famous.
The example of Pingala has to be taken in a broader sense. Most of us if not all, behave similar to Pingala in our own material or spiritual activities. We can try to look at some of those similarities.
1. The prostitute stood outside the doorway to show her beautiful form. We all want others to notice us, notice our work and appreciate us for whatever we are. We have the mentality of exhibitionism. We always think that we are good looking, we are intelligent, we are noble etc, and we also want others to think about us the same way. But for that, everybody should think and see similar to us which is impossible. In our material duties this attitude of exhibitionism may be required to a certain extent on the ground of competition, survival of the fittest etc. But in spiritual activities it will create a very high negative impact to the service as well as the servitor. The foundation of spiritual life is to keep ourselves humble and unnoticed so that the bad quality of pride and conceit does not enter in us. After all, whatever we are proud of is transient in nature and moreover it is ultimately not ours. Being conscious of the Original Proprietor of our body, mind, intelligence, wealth, family etc we should try to keep a low profile, not exhibiting ourselves. 2. The prostitute was very anxious to get money. The mentality of expectation and exploitation is revealed in every step of ours. We do not want to do anything without remuneration. And that remuneration also we want more than our actual worth. And we think that without that remuneration our life will become zero. This remuneration can be in any form - money, appreciation, name, fame etc. Whatever we do, if we do not get anything in return, we feel that it is a waste of our time and energy. Wheras, in the highest level of devotion, our acaryas have shown that they do not even want the transcendental bliss (which naturally comes in that intense state of bhakti) for the fear that it will impede their service to the Supreme Lord. They were not anxious about getting these reciprocations for their sincere service attitude. Because, as soon as there is anxiety devoid of Krishna, we cannot perform our service in full capacity.
3. The prostitute was judging every men who passed by. When we are anxious for achieving something, then immediately the judging/calculative mentality begins. For eg., when we do book distribution, our aim is not giving Krishna to everyone, rather we are anxious to sell the books and increase our score. Hence we do the book distribution under bodily conception like a business. We look at each person and study them, "He looks like a pious person, he may buy", "He doesn't look like interested, I don't need to waste my time on him" etc. All this mundane attitude is due to a bodily conception of life - aham mameti and they lead only to suffering and distress.
We had an interesting experience yesterday while distributing books near a temple. There were a lot of people visiting the temple and many of them looked pious and devoted. We thought it will be easy for us to distribute books to them but to our surprise very few of them bought it. Whereas when we were winding up and packing our books, one of the shop-walla selling balloon and toys in front of the temple came and had a curious look over the books and asked a few questions. When we saw him initially with old dirty clothes and unshaved beard, we thought he is just playing around with us. But on speaking with him more we realized how much sincere he was and how much higher realization he had. What started as a simple question and answer became an hour's discussion of the philosophy of Gita. He then promised to take the Bhagavad-gita from us next time we go there (since he did not have enough money yesterday).
We can learn from so many stalwart book distributors from the past and present who have had so many beautiful realizations when they prayed to the Paramatma in the other's hearts and given them the books. That is the real mercy we can get by distributing Srila Prabhupada's books, not by increasing our scores.
4. Not being successful in her attempt Pingala became gradually morose and most disappointed, she began to feel a great sense of detachment and happiness in her mind.
Lord Rshabhadev says, "parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam - As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance ." We are always defeated in this world. Sometimes it may look like we are getting a lot of wealth, name and fame but eventhough it externally appears to be a victory for us, it is actually a defeat as long as that wealth, name, fame etc does not lead us to surrender more and more to the Supreme Lord. On the other hand, one may not get any wealth at all or may suffer great loss in their business, work etc, but if that loss leads to detachment from mundane things and appreciation of the Lord's supreme mercy, it is actually the real victory. Symptom of a happy and blissful mind is factually realizing the presence of Krishna in our hearts and the first step for this is detachment, doesn't matter if that comes through surplus of something or a lack of it.
Parikshit Maharaj the emperor of the whole world, who possessed all the riches, so famous as the grandson of the great Pandavas and who was protected by the Supreme Lord Himself when he was in his mother's womb, externally seemed to have been defeated by the Brahmana's curse. But by choosing not to counteract the curse and taking it as an impetus to remember Krishna more intensely, he became fully detached from everything and ultimately became victorious. Parikshit Maharaj beautifully prays in SB 1.19.14: tasyaiva me ’ghasya parāvareśo vyāsakta-cittasya gṛheṣv abhīkṣṇam nirveda-mūlo dvija-śāpa-rūpo yatra prasakto bhayam āśu dhatte
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the controller of both the transcendental and mundane worlds, has graciously overtaken me in the form of a brahmana's curse. Due to my being too much attached to family life, the Lord, in order to save me, has appeared before me in such a way that only out of fear I will detach myself from the world.
Parikshit Maharaj saw Krishna in the form of the brahmana's curse (dvija shaapa rupah). Naturally it became the source of his detachment (nirveda-mulah). Pingala also saw Krishna's hands in her apparent failure to fulfill her desires. The important point to understand here is that only when we see the hands of the Supreme Lord in our disappointments and sufferings, can we become fully detached from them and get attracted to Krishna. If we see any other living entity as the cause of our disappointments and sufferings, it will lead to reactions and counteractions.
We sincerely pray that all the hammerings and punches we are getting from the different living entities, situations etc may lead us to see Krishna's hand in everything and develop unflinching faith towards the all-merciful Lord.
Krishna willing, in the next few offerings we will try to see some of the very powerful prayers by Pingala.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 33
Date: 2010-12-16 Author: Sudarshana devi dasi
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We are continuing with the topic, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and in this offering we will see the first song of the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment. Pingala sings in SB 11.8.30
piṅgalovāca aho me moha-vitatiṁ paśyatāvijitātmanaḥ yā kāntād asataḥ kāmaṁ kāmaye yena bāliśā
The prostitute Pingala said: Just see how greatly illusioned I am! Because I cannot control my mind, just like a fool I desire lusty pleasure from an insignificant man.
After standing at the door way for a long time to attract the passing men to her body, and failing in her attempt, the prostitute Pingala is completely frustrated and by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, detachment arose in her heart. When we become detached to a situation and observe as a 3rd person, we can see things more clearly. Pingala is able to realize that all that money and sex pleasure she was attracted to, all these days, was due to her being immersed in the illusion. The word vitatim means 'expansion' and hence moha-vitatim means, 'expanding illusion'. Everyday as her earnings was growing, the paraphernalias in her house (to fulfill her own enjoying propensity as well as to attract the visiting customers) was also increasing. We too encounter this situation many times. With increasing wealth, we try to invest them in different ways like gold, land, house, shares and so many other means. And to make sure that our standard of living is accepted by everyone else, we increase so many paraphernalias in our house. While the new items are being bought, our attachment to old items don't go away easily and we retain them as well. In due course of time our house becomes filled with so many unwanted items that we hardly have any space to move about.
Unfortunately with all these investments and unwanted paraphernalias, we only increase our illusion and attachment. Like for eg., when I have 10 Rs, I am attached to only 1 ten rupees. When I have 100 Rs, then I am attached to 10 ten rupees. So my illusion has increased 10 fold. This is the simple understanding of the phrase moha-vitatim. If we extend this to everything else that is material, then the illusion increases unlimitedly! Mind-boggling! If my illusion has expanded to such an extent, where is the time to think of Krishna?!
Then Pingala rightly says that the ultimate reason for this constantly expanding illusion is avijita ātmanah - uncontrolled mind! The uncontrolled mind submerges us fully in illusion. The kaama - lust is like fire and as we try to satisfy them more and more it is like adding ghee to the fire. The fire will only keep growing as we add more and more ghee. Similarly, by trying to satisfy all our lusty desires, our illusion and attachment will grow more and more only to completely burn us out into ashes. So in order to conquer this expanding illusion, we have to change from avijitaatmanah (being conquered by the mind) to jitaatmanah (conquerer of the mind/senses). Conquering the mind means not falling prey to its tricks. It does not mean that we should not invest our savings in anything or buy nothing for household utility. It means that we try to keep up to the Vedic standard of living. Vedic living means simple living with minimum necessity. When a TV bought by the neighbor does not pressurize me to buy a TV for myself, then I become jitaatmanah. When the mind listens to us and becomes satisfied with whatever we provide it, it can be utilized for the right purpose ie., to serve the Supreme Lord. And when we conquer the mind this way, then we can conquer the unconquerable Lord Himself! As King Citraketu rightly prays in 6.16.34: citraketur uvāca ajita jitaḥ sama-matibhiḥ sādhubhir bhavān jitātmabhir bhavatā vijitās te ’pi ca bhajatām akāmātmanāṁ ya ātmado ’ti-karuṇaḥ
Citraketu said: O unconquerable Lord, although You cannot be conquered by anyone, You are certainly conquered by devotees who have control of the mind and senses. They can keep You under their control because You are causelessly merciful to devotees who desire no material profit from You. Indeed, You give Yourself to them, and because of this You also have full control over Your devotees.
So when we become, sama-mati, jitātma and akāmātmanā then we can conquer the unconquerable Lord. Pingala teaches us that to get closer to the Lord, we have to first of all recognize this uncontrolled mind and how foolish we are to run behind this continuously expanding illusion. When we realize the reality, then we will understand that the only way we can conquer this mind is to engage it in the service of the Supreme Lord (sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor) as Maharaja Ambarisha has shown us in practice.
Krishna willing, we will continue with the beautiful teachings of the prostitute Pingala in the subsequent offerings.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 34
Date: 2011-02-17 Author: Kalacakra Krishna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
Due to Krishna's arrangement, we could not continue on this series of offering last month. We seek forgiveness for the same. By the grace of Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, we shall continue with the topic, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and we will see the second song of the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment.
The feeling of 'being loved' actually gives us real happiness and confidence in life. It actually gives us the impetus to love that beloved more and more. It is not possible from a material perspective to keep loving someone who does not reciprocate in kind. When we love someone we naturally want that love to be reciprocated. But more often than not, we always see that it does not happen. Strange enough, both the parties feel the same way - that they love more than being loved. How is it possible? The only reason is that we have forgotten to reciprocate Lord's love towards us.
There is a difference between saying "The Lord is dear to me" and "I am dear to the Lord". In the first sentence, we imply that I am loving the Lord more. In the second sentence, we imply that the Lord is loving us more than we loving Him. The latter statement is the real fact. We are not at all loving Him. At the best, we are afraid of Him or materially motivated to grab something from Him. Otherwise, there is no question of our doing samsara dhava's, or om namo bhagavate vasudevaya's or mahaprasade govinde's. But the Lord is loving us so dearly that irrespective of whatever we are, whether we love Him or not, He continues to love and care for us. Just by thinking every moment how much the Lord loves us itself will advance our bhakti in leaps and bounds.
Pingala sings in SB 11.8.31:
santaṁ samīpe ramaṇaṁ rati-pradaṁ vitta-pradaṁ nityam imaṁ vihāya akāma-daṁ duḥkha-bhayādhi-śoka- moha-pradaṁ tuccham ahaṁ bhaje ’jñā
I am such a fool that I have given up the service of that person who, being eternally situated within my heart, is actually most dear to me. That most dear one is the Lord of the universe, who is the bestower of real love and happiness and the source of all prosperity. Although He is in my own heart, I have completely neglected Him. Instead I have ignorantly served insignificant men who can never satisfy my real desires and who have simply brought me unhappiness, fear, anxiety, lamentation and illusion.
Pingala sincerely laments for serving sinful men of this world without paying attention to Supreme Lord who is staying within us.
"The Lord is staying so near (samipe) to us as Paramatma. He is the most dear (ramanam). He is the one who gives actual love and pleasure (rati pradam). He is also the bestower of all the prosperity (vitta pradam). He is eternally (nityam) situated within our heart." But due to so many anarthas which blind our eyes like smog, we fail to see the Lord and neglect His presence. Serving the Lord will give us so much bliss and He alone can reveal to us what real love is. Such a person we have neglected completely (vihaaya).
She further says - "On the other hand out of complete ignorance (ajnaa) I was worshipping most insignificant men ( tuccham) who cannot satisfy my real desires (akaama dam), who is the source of unhappiness (duhkha), fear (bhaya), a nxiety (aadhi), illusion (moha-pradam) and lamentation (shoka)." We also keep running around from place to place in search of happiness and love. Since there is danger in every step in this world, we are bound to face only unhappiness, fear, anxiety, illusion and lamentation.
It is nice to remember all that we get from the living entities around us through the acronym - UFAIL. If you run after the living entities for love and pleasure, 'u' fail. If you run after the Supreme Lord for love and pleasure (who gives them to us irrespective of all our anarthas) then you succeed. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.84.31, Narada Muni says
sannikarṣo ’tra martyānām anādaraṇa-kāraṇam gāṅgaṁ hitvā yathānyāmbhas tatratyo yāti śuddhaye
In this world familiarity breeds contempt. For example, one who lives on the banks of the Ganges might travel to some other body of water to be purified.
This is very true not just with the Supreme Lord but also with His dear devotees. Many a time we don't realise the value or greatness of the great acaryas and Vaishnavas when they are physically present with us. Not realising the value of their presence, we take them for granted, ignore or out of familiarity even do the offence of finding faults with them. But once they leave the world, then we repent for not making the best use of their invaluable association. The Supreme Lord is present not only within our hearts but also within the hearts of all living entities. So remembering this, if we treat all living entities lovingly then we will become eligible candidates to Goloka by the mercy of Guru and Krishna. If we neglect Krishna present in our heart and hearts of others, then the result is "U FAIL" - unhappiness, fear, anxiety, illusion and lamentation
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-Four Gurus - Part 35
Date: 2011-02-18 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We have been meditating on the lessons from various gurus of the avadhuta brahmana in the offerings titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and today we will continue to hear from the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment.
In verse 11.8.32, Pingala laments how foolishly she has tortured her own soul by not engaging herself in the service of Lord. She says
aho mayātmā paritāpito vṛthā sāṅketya-vṛttyāti-vigarhya-vārtayā straiṇān narād yārtha-tṛṣo ’nuśocyāt krītena vittaṁ ratim ātmanecchatī
Oh, how I have uselessly tortured my own soul! I have sold my body to lusty, greedy men who are themselves objects of pity. Thus practicing the most abominable profession of a prostitute, I hoped to get money and sex pleasure.
The prayers of Pingala are very much applicable to us. We should not falsely think that Pingala is a prostitute and so her prayers and instructions are not applicable for us. When we honestly introspect ourselves, we will realise that we are also not much different from her. We are all blessed with BMW (Body, Mind and Words) by the Lord. When we make proper use of this BMW by engaging our senses in His service, then we will experience bliss and also make the people around us blissful. But if we misuse our senses, then we are not displeasing Lord and people around us, but we are actually torturing our own soul. The words "paritaapito" (subjected to great pain) and "anushocyaat" (pitiable) in the above verse are worth meditating. When we don't engage ourselves in service of the Lord, we are actually torturing our soul. In the purport to verse 4.23.28, Srila Prabhupada while explaining the verse 11.20.17 from Srimad Bhagavatam very nicely explains this act as suicide.
nṛ-deham ādyaṁ su-labhaṁ su-durlabhaṁ plavaṁ su-kalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā
"When one wants to cross a large ocean, he requires a strong boat. It is said that this human form of life is a good boat by which one can cross the ocean of nescience. In the human form of life, one can obtain the guidance of a good navigator, the spiritual master. One also gets a favourable wind by the mercy of Krishna, and that wind is the instructions of Krishna. The human body is the boat, the instructions of Lord Krishna are the favourable winds, and the spiritual master is the navigator. The spiritual master knows well how to adjust the sails to catch the winds favourably and steer the boat to its destination. If, however, one does not take advantage of this opportunity, one wastes the human form of life. Wasting time and life in this way is the same as committing suicide." Many a time we think that people around us are a source of happiness and take shelter of them. But they themselves are in pitiable (anushocyaat) condition. So how can they help us or please us? A drowning man cannot save another person from drowning. So instead of running behind such false temporary shelters for our sense pleasure, we should take shelter of the all blissful, eternal, Supreme Lord.
We definitely cannot separate ourselves from this material world. We have our family, prescribed duties etc. Our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that doing our prescribed duties immaculately well as an offering to the Lord is also devotional service. So serving parents, taking care of children are all devotional service. If we neglect them and do arati for Krishna, we are not pleasing Krishna. Human life is a very rare and valuable opportunity. But in spite of hearing these words repetitively our mind, most of the times do not realise the importance of the same. Only when the merciful Lord gives some jerks in life, then we come back to our consciousness. So how to keep us focussed always in service of the Lord? How to avoid giving pains to the soul? The answer for this is in one of the favourite verse of Maharaj Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.1.4, which he had made all of us memorise along with translation
nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-’bhirāmāt ka uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt pumān virajyeta vinā paśughnāt
Glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is performed in the paramparaa system; that is, it is conveyed from spiritual master to disciple. Such glorification is relished by those no longer interested in the false, temporary glorification of this cosmic manifestation. Descriptions of the Lord are the right medicine for the conditioned soul undergoing repeated birth and death. Therefore, who will cease hearing such glorification of the Lord except a butcher or one who is killing his own self?
We pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna that we remember these important lessons and engage our BMW properly both in doing our prescribed duties and sadhana for Their glorification.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 36
Date: 2011-02-19 Author: Kalacakra Krishna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We have been meditating on the lessons from various gurus of the avadhuta brahmana in the offerings titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and today we will continue to hear from the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment. In verse 11.8.33 Pingala says
yad asthibhir nirmita-vaṁśa-vaṁsya- sthūṇaṁ tvacā roma-nakhaiḥ pinaddham kṣaran-nava-dvāram agāram etad viṇ-mūtra-pūrṇaṁ mad upaiti kānyā
This material body is like a house in which I, the soul, am living. The bones forming my spine, ribs, arms and legs are like the beams, crossbeams and pillars of the house, and the whole structure, which is full of stool and urine, is covered by skin, hair and nails. The nine doors leading into this body are constantly excreting foul substances. Besides me, what woman could be so foolish as to devote herself to this material body, thinking that she might find pleasure and love in this contraption?
In Sanskrit, sharira (body) is defined as shiryate iti sharirah - that which decays constantly is called sharira. But we falsely take pride of the same. shariram vyaadi mandiram. It is actually a temple of disease. This is the reality. If at all any organ is working alright in this body, it is completely due to Lord's mercy and not because of just the food we eat or medicines we take. It is actually a bag of bile, stool and urine. If we remember this truth, we will never feel proud of the same or misuse the same. Our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj used to say, "If we don't clean our body daily, then we cannot tolerate it ourself. What is there to be proud of 50 kgs of urine and stool we carry in this bag?" Every moment the body keeps changing. The body which we had during our childhood days is no longer with us. The so-called external beauty or youthfulness is also temporary. Our hairs are going to become grey and white and our skins are going to wrinkle with age. No matter whatever external make-up we put, we cannot hide the reality.
Maharaj always quotes the following instructive verse from Bhagavata Mahatmya (from Padma Purana) which gives a similar explanation about the actual constitution of our body.
asthi-stambhaṁ snāyu-baddhaṁ māṁsa-śoṇita-lepitam carmāvanaddhaṁ durgandhaṁ pātraṁ mūtra-purīṣayoḥ jarā-śoka-vipākārtaṁ roga-mandiram āturam duṣpūraṁ durdharaṁ duṣṭaṁ sa-doṣaṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguram kṛmi-viḍ-bhasma-saṁjñātaṁ śarīram iti varṇitam asthireṇa sthiraṁ karma kuto 'yaṁ sādhyen na hi
The body is supported on columns of bones held together by a network of nerves and tendons smeared with flesh and blood, covered all over with skin full of bad smell being a receptacle of urine and stool. It is ever afflicted with old age, sorrow and it is home of diseases, frail, difficult to satisfy, hard to maintain, corrupt, faulty, and momentary. It has been characterized as having its finality in what goes by the name of worms, faeces and ashes. Why then should one not perform with this unstable body, action leading to immortality? In one of the nectarean lectures given on Dec 1, 1973, in Los Angels, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada explains the reality of the body very nicely through the following story.
"Once a beautiful woman was being pursued by a man. He was wooing and canvassing, but she was a chaste lady. She did not agree to his proposals. But that man kept after her. So one day she said, "All right, come to me after three days. I will accept you." Now, the next morning she began taking very strong purgatives and laxatives, and she vomited and passed stool the whole day and night. She kept all the stool and vomit in a bucket. On the third day, when the man came, he couldn't recognize her; she had become ugly from all that vomiting and passing of stool. He asked her, "Where is that woman?" She replied, "I am the same woman. You don't recognize me?"
"No, no, you are not. She was so beautiful, and you are ugly." "No, no, I am the same girl." "Then why do you look so ugly?" "Because I have separated my beauty." "You have separated your beauty?" "Yes, I will show you. Come here."
Then she showed him all the stool and vomit in the bucket. She said, "So, here is my beauty. Now add it to me, and then I shall again be beautiful."
This is a very good lesson. As Shankaraacarya said, etam maamsa-vaasaadi vikaaram. He is teaching renunciation: "Why are you attracted to this beautiful woman? What is her beauty? It is simply a combination of stool, urine, flesh, and bone. That's all." This is actual knowledge."
The body has life, only as long as the soul and Supersoul are present in it. As soon as They leave, the body has no value. People don't give any respect to dead bodies. They try to dispose it as soon as possible. So understanding the power of eternal spirit soul and real constitution of the body, we should utilise and devote this valuable lifetime in the service of the Lord.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 37
Date: 2011-02-26 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We have been meditating on the lessons from various gurus of the avadhuta brahmana in the offerings titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and today we will continue to hear from the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment
In verse 11.8.34 of Srimad Bhagavatam Pingala regrets for neglecting the magnanimous Lord who awards us everything. Lord Himself declares in Bhagavad Gita verse 10.8 - "aham sarvasya prabhavo" - He is the source of everything. But we are so ungrateful that we don't remember how much the Lord is helping us every moment. Irrespective of our behaviour, the Lord is mercifully giving us air to breathe, water to drink, food, clothes, shelter and energy to speak and do our activities. But we are misusing His energy in unwanted things and on top of this, we don't even have the courtesy to thank Him. In verse 11.8.35 Pingala very nicely prays
suhṛt preṣṭhatamo nātha ātmā cāyaṁ śarīriṇām taṁ vikrīyātmanaivāhaṁ rame ’nena yathā ramā
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is absolutely the most dear one for all living beings, because He is everyone's well-wisher and Lord. He is the Supreme Soul situated in everyone's heart. Therefore I will now pay the price of complete surrender, and thus purchasing the Lord, I will enjoy with Him just like Lakshmidevi.
The word suhrt in the above verse means well-wisher. We would be well-wishers only to those whom we like and that too only for the time when they are favourable to us. Our love for others is completely selfish, motivated and based on their actions. But all-merciful Supreme Lord's love is completely transcendental. Irrespective of whether we are good or bad, rich or poor, king or thief, sage or demon, the Lord wishes for everyone's well-being. Being the Supreme Father, He awards benedictions/punishments to help us come back to Him faster. So Pingala very nicely prays that just like how Lakshmidevi is completely surrendered unto Lord's lotus feet, she will also pay the price of complete surrender and purchase the Lord.
Forgetting our own inebrieties, we might wrongly wonder how can this Pingala although being a prostitute, say that she can purchase the Lord or how is it possible for her to have His darshan. In one of the nectarean class on verse 1.2.12 of Srimad Bhagavatam given in Los Angels on Aug 15 1972, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada very nicely explains, what are the qualifications required to see the Lord. His Divine Grace gives very nice example of how the way we look at a defective car and the way a mechanic looks at it are different. So even for looking at a material object like a car, we need to have some qualification. Then what to speak of seeing Supreme Lord Krishna. Srila Prabhupada then describes how a thief heard from a professional reciter of Srimad Bhagavatam, the beauty of Krishna and the jewels He is wearing. So with great eagerness to find out Krishna and to steal away the jewels, the thief goes to the forest of Vrindavan where the Lord mercifully appears before Him and the thief becomes purified by the association of the Lord. Dhruva Maharaj was also a small child. But because of his determination to see the Lord and by the mercy of his spiritual master Narada Muni, he was able to have darshan of the Lord within a few months.
Quoting Srila Rupa Goswami's words, His Divine Grace says - krishna bhakti rasa bhaavitaa matih kriyataam yadi kuto 'pi labhyate - So Rupa Goswami advises that "Krishna consciousness, if it is possible, please purchase. Don't delay." Krishna-bhakti-rasa-bhaavitaa matih kriyataam. "Purchase immediately!" Krishna-bhakti-rasa-bhaavitaa matih kriyataam yadi kuto 'pi. "Where it is available? It is very nice thing." "Yes, it is available. You can purchase. The movement is going on." "And what is the price?" "Price?" " It is such a nice thing; you have to pay price." "Yes, there is price." "What is that?" Tatra laulyam ekalam mulyam: " Simply your eagerness. That is price. This price you have to pay." Then you get Krishna. Immediately. Krishna is not poor. And the Krishna-seller, the Krishna devotee, he is also not poor. He can distribute Krishna free. And he's doing that. Simply you have to purchase by your eagerness. That is wanted. Tatra laulyam. "Oh, eagerness? I have got eagerness." "Oh, it is not so easy." Tatra laulyam ekam mulyam janma-koti-sukrtair na labhyate: "This eagerness cannot be achieved even by pious activities for millions of births." If you simply go on doing pious activities... Because without being pious, you cannot approach Krishna. So if you go on doing simply pious, janma-koti- sukrtair... Sukrti means pious activities, simply pious. Still, this eagerness is not awakened. So this eagerness is a very important thing. But it can be awakened by the association of devotees. Therefore we are giving chance to everyone to invoke that eagerness. Then you will see God eye to eye. It is not difficult. Tac chraddadhaanaa munayah. T hose who have developed that eagerness, faith, that "I must see Krishna in this life..." This life is meant for seeing Krishna. It is not meant for becoming dogs and hogs. Unfortunately, the whole civilization is going on, they are being trained to become dogs and hogs. It is the only institution that is teaching people how to see Krishna. This is the only institution, this Krishna consciousness movement. It is so important."
So even if we have so many anarthas within us, if we have at least a bit of eagerness to see the Lord, and willingly surrender then merciful Lord enters into our life and purifies our existence. Indeed if we take on step towards the Lord, He takes 10 steps towards us. Our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that it doesn't matter what type of service we do, there is nothing like big seva or small seva - simple surrender to Lord and dedication to serve is what that matters. Maharaj used to quote the below verse from Gautamiya-tantra, the Hari- bhakti-vilasa states:
tulasī-dala-mātreṇa jalasya culukena vā vikrīṇīte svam ātmānaṁ bhaktebhyo bhakta-vatsalaḥ
Sri Krishna, who is very affectionate toward His devotees, sells Himself to a devotee who offers merely a Tulasi leaf and a palmful of water.
Lord is so kind that He voluntarily sells Himself to those who are willing to pay the price of simple devotional service. May we always remember the magnanimity of the Supreme Lord and always be grateful to Him.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 38
Date: 2011-03-16 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We have been meditating on the lessons from various gurus of the avadhuta brahmana in the offerings titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and today we will continue to hear from the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment.
In verse 11.8.36 Pingala says
kiyat priyaṁ te vyabhajan kāmā ye kāma-dā narāḥ ādy-antavanto bhāryāyā devā vā kāla-vidrutāḥ
Men provide sense gratification for women, but all these men, and even the demigods in heaven, have a beginning and an end. They are all temporary creations who will be dragged away by time. Therefore how much actual pleasure or happiness could any of them ever give to their wives?
In her profession as a prostitute, Pingala was dependent on the sense-gratification provided by the men in this world. But now she realised not just the men of this world, even the demigods are all temporary creations of the Lord. They are all limited by Supreme Lord in the form of Time and hence could not provide permanent shelter or satisfaction to the living entities. We are all anu and Supreme Lord is Vibhu who is eternal and can stay with all of us, all the time. Although our soul is eternal, we cannot stay with other living entities all the time and provide them shelter all the time.
In one of the Bhagavatam classes, our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj was revealing us the truth -"We are actually alone in this world. Although we may have a family, school or office each of us are enjoying/suffering our karmas all alone. When we are sick, we suffer the pain alone. Our near and dear ones might assist us. But they have no clue of the pain we are undergoing. When we are attending exams, or attending interviews etc, we are all alone. The only companion for us at all circumstances is the omnipresent Lord. Not realising this truth we keep running around false shelters and when that crumbles we are shattered. All these other shelters have a beginning and an end and are temporary. The Supreme Lord's shelter alone is permanent."
In this regard, we are reminded of a short story about a poor man who was approaching a king to find out some way to get rid of his poverty. As he was approaching the palace, the guards asked him to wait outside the king's room. The poor man was waiting for a while. But the king never turned up. So he just peeped into the room through the window and there he found the king kneeling before the Lord and sincerely praying to the Lord asking for help. After seeing this, the poor man decided to leave without meeting the king. When the guards asked him the reason, he said he found that both the king and himself were on the same boat. Both of them are beggars and are in need of help. Since the king himself had taken shelter of Supreme Lord for help, he decided that it is also wise for him to beg from the Lord than to ask help from the king.
The phrase kaala vidrutaah in the above verse is also worth meditating - "separated and thus disturbed by Time". We are all under the control of Time. Time brings us together and separates us. In Srimad Bhagavatam, while consoling King Citraketu who was lamenting for the death of his son, Saints Narada Muni and Angira Muni say in verse 6.15.3 yathā prayānti saṁyānti sroto-vegena bālukāḥ saṁyujyante viyujyante tathā kālena dehinaḥ
O King, as small particles of sand sometimes come together and are sometimes separated due to the force of the waves, the living entities who have accepted material bodies sometimes come together and are sometimes separated by the force of time.
So no matter how much ever we love someone, how much ever we are strong or rich, if Krishna in the form of Time, does not allow us we will not be able to help our near and dear ones or receive help from them. So whenever we are able to help others, we should remember that we are just instruments and that "Time" had brought us together. So we should never be puffed up that we are the doers. And whenever we are not able to help, we should remember again that Krishna in the form Time is in control of everything and so without becoming morose, we should pray/chant for the well-being of others.
As Pingala mentions in this song, we are just temporary creations and are completely controlled by Time. So we have to take shelter of Supreme Lord Krishna at all times and never waste "Time". Since Time is Krishna, wasting time means we are neglecting Krishna.
We pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva and Srila Prabhupada that we remember this lesson and always take shelter of the Supreme Lord without wasting time.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krishna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 39
Date: 2011-03-24 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We have been meditating on the lessons from various gurus of the avadhuta brahmana in the offerings titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and today we will continue to hear from the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment.
In verse 11.8.37 Pingala blissfully and humbly prays to the Lord as follows
nūnaṁ me bhagavān prīto viṣṇuḥ kenāpi karmaṇā nirvedo ’yaṁ durāśāyā yan me jātaḥ sukhāvahaḥ
Although I most stubbornly hoped to enjoy the material world, somehow or other detachment has arisen in my heart, and it is making me very happy. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vishnu, must be pleased with me. Without even knowing it, I must have performed some activity satisfying to Him .
When one sincerely repents for the mistake, Lord reciprocates to such a repentant soul in an unimaginable manner, as per His own sweet will. The devotees in Bhagavatam have repeatedly shown this to us in many instances. As soon as Parikshit Maharaj sincerely repented for disrespecting Samika Muni, Lord miraculously arranged for Sukadeva Goswami and all the sages to meet Parikshit Maharaj at the bank of Ganges and gave an opportunity for him to hear Srimad Bhagavatam before his death. As soon as Vyasadev sincerely repented for not glorifying the Supreme Lord, he was bestowed the darshan of his spiritual master Narada Muni who inspired him to glorify Supreme Lord through Srimad Bhagavatam. So the important lesson we should learn from these souls is that we should not voluntarily commit sins and if we do something unwillingly or unintentionally we should sincerely repent and seek forgiveness for the same. In his purport to verse 1.19.1 of Srimad Bhagavatam, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada says - "Repentance is natural for a good man like the King, and such repentance delivers a devotee from all kinds of sins accidentally committed . The devotees are naturally faultless. Accidental sins committed by a devotee are sincerely regretted, and by the grace of the Lord all sins unwillingly committed by a devotee are burnt in the fire of repentance."
Pingala was a prostitute by profession and had been engaged in illicit sense gratificatory activities throughout her life. But when she sincerely repented for having wasted her life in material enjoyments instead of serving the Supreme Lord, pleased by her repentant attitude the Lord immediately bestowed her with the gift of detachment in her heart. The line "yan me jaatah sukhaaavahah" is worth meditating. Pingala could experience that this feeling of detachment to material things was giving her so much bliss. All her anxieties had vanished and she felt very peaceful. Our beloved spiritual Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj always says that -"An attached person never smiles at anyone whereas detached person smiles freely at everyone." When we are attached we are caught up in dualities of likes and dislikes, love and hatred, profit and loss etc. When we are attached we keep a lot of expectations on everybody and every situation. Expecting something from this world and its inhabitants is a painful experience because every time we are defeated. To live a life according to the expectations of others is also painful. Because no one in this world can always act in the way we expect, nor can we satisfy everyone by our actions and behaviour. Pingala understood all this by the mercy of the Lord and as a result detachment arose in her heart.
Another lesson to be noted here is that Pingala is realising that she is experiencing happiness only because the Lord is pleased. This is addressed by her phrase "vishnu kenaapi karmanaa". She says that somehow or other unknowingly she might have committed some action which pleased the Lord and therefore He has showered His causeless mercy by bringing forth detachment in her heart. Without pleasing the Lord we cannot acquire qualities like humility, detachment etc. And without being detached we cannot be truly happy in this world.
Lastly the word - 'duraashayaah' has been given a very nice synonym - "in one who so stubbornly hoped for material enjoyment". Most of us can identify ourselves in this category; We so stubbornly hope against hope for the enjoyment in this world which has nothing but 'sufferings' and 'miseries' to offer. We are so stubborn in our propensity to enjoy this world that if Krishna and His devotees give the higher taste of enjoyment in the form of kirtans, service, prasadam etc, we reject it just as a jaundiced person will hate sugar candy. As Srila Rupa Goswami says in the Upadeshaamrta the only solution for this jaundiced existence is to continue to take the sweet holy names which will gradually purify our existence.
We pray at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, our beloved spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and all the exalted Vaishnavas that we shall practice detachment to everything material and perform our duties carefully without any expectation of material enjoyment.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi. Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus - Part 40
Date: 2011-03-25 Author: Kalacakra Krsna das
Dear Prabhujis and Matajis, Hare Krishna. Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
We have been meditating on the lessons from various gurus of the avadhuta brahmana in the offerings titled, "Lessons from the Twenty-four Gurus" and today we will continue to hear from the prostitute Pingala, one of the gurus from whom the avadhuta brahmana learnt the important lesson of detachment. In verse 11.8.38 Pingala says
maivaṁ syur manda-bhāgyāyāḥ kleśā nirveda-hetavaḥ yenānubandhaṁ nirhṛtya puruṣaḥ śamam ṛcchati
A person who has developed detachment can give up the bondage of material society, friendship and love, and a person who undergoes great suffering gradually becomes, out of hopelessness, detached and indifferent to the material world. Thus, due to my great suffering, such detachment awoke in my heart; yet how could I have undergone such merciful suffering if I were actually unfortunate? Therefore, I am in fact fortunate and have received the mercy of the Lord. He must somehow or other be pleased with me.
The word nirhrtya in the above verse means "removing". When we have a thorn in our leg, it causes a lot of pain and misery. To remove the thorn the doctor might have to cut open that portion. Though it will be very painful, it is absolutely required to remove the thorn. But fearing the pain, if we allow the thorn to stay, then the damage will be more severe. We can experience relief only after the removal of the thorn. Similarly when we have the attachments and Krishna removes it, it might be painful for some time, but we can experience real peace only after we give up those attachments. Attachment to beauty, wealth, fame, followers etc are indeed a curse for they takes us far away from the Lord. We tend to forget the Supreme Lord and see His hands in all these things and falsely start believing that we are getting all this because we deserve it and due to our own endeavour. The moment the thought "I " and "Mine" enters us we go very far away from the Lord. That's why Kunti Maharani prays to Lord to continually give her miseries so that she can always remember the and be in the association of the Supreme Lord. In verse 1.8.25 and 26, Kunti Maharani prays
vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat tatra tatra jagad-guro bhavato darśanaṁ yat syād apunar bhava-darśanam
janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhir edhamāna-madaḥ pumān naivārhaty abhidhātuṁ via tvām akiñcana-gocaram
I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths. My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling.
In a similar mood, Pingala also prays here that she is thankful to the Lord for bestowing her great suffering and in fact considers it as a great fortune to have undergone that suffering, which has gradually helped her to become detached from material sense gratification, by His causeless mercy. Though it may not be possible for us to pray to Krishna like Kunti Maharani, we can at least remember to see the sufferings that we are undergoing in life as causeless mercy of Lord. Lord is bestowing these things so that we become detached from these material sense gratifications and become attached to Him alone. The words "shaman rcchati" meaning "obtaining real peace" in the above verse is worth meditating. As Lord Krishna Himself promises in verse 5.29 of Bhagavad Gita
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.
The real goal of life is not for us to enjoy, but to please the Supreme enjoyer Sri Krishna. He is our true well-wisher. So whatever happens in life is for our good only. When we live every moment of our life in this mood, we would be able to experience real peace.
Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi.