Accepting the Destiny - Part 1 Date: 2011-06-25 Author: Vaijayantimala devi dasi Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble pranams! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev! The following is a humble attempt to transcribe the enlightening lecture delivered by our beloved God brother HG Devakinandan prabhuji in Chennai on 27th May 2011 on Srimad Bhagavatam verse 7.2.40 pathi cyutaṁ tiṣṭhati diṣṭa-rakṣitaṁ gṛhe sthitaṁ tad-vihataṁ vinaśyati jīvaty anātho ’pi tad-īkṣito vane gṛhe ’bhigupto ’sya hato na jīvati Sometimes one loses his money on a public street, where everyone can see it, and yet his money is protected by destiny and not seen by others. Thus the man who lost it gets it back. On the other hand, if the Lord does not give protection, even money maintained very securely at home is lost. If the Supreme Lord gives one protection, even though one has no protector and is in the jungle, one remains alive, whereas a person well protected at home by relatives and others sometimes dies, no one being able to protect him. 1. Nothing is in our hands: This is a verse that Maharaj found very humorous and very very enlightening. In Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.19 Prahlada Maharaj prays bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha nārtasya cāgadam udanvati majjato nauḥ taptasya tat-pratividhir ya ihāñjaseṣṭas tāvad vibho tanu-bhṛtāṁ tvad-upekṣitānām My Lord Nrsimhadeva, O Supreme, because of a bodily conception of life, embodied souls neglected and not cared for by You cannot do anything for their betterment. Whatever remedies they accept, although perhaps temporarily beneficial, are certainly impermanent. For example, a father and mother cannot protect their child, a physician and medicine cannot relieve a suffering patient, and a boat on the ocean cannot protect a drowning man. Here Prahlada Maharaj gives three examples of how powerful the Lord’s protection is and no matter what we do, we cannot do anything in this world until we get the blessings of the good Lord. There is not a blade of grass that can move without His sanction. There is not a crook in this world or a criminal in this world who can plan a crime without His sanction. Very powerful statement. Prahlada Maharaj says that very often, we love our children like anything. But when the child falls sick, we have all been in situations where we are helpless. We want to make sure the child gets better but no matter what we do, until the time is right, the child does not recover. The second example is the example of the physician. When we are sick, no matter how much money we may have in this world, the money we know cannot cure diseases. You may have the best physicians in the world and even then they will not be able to help us. If Krishna does not want, then there is no physician in this world who can prolong even an inch or a second of a moment longer than what is destined. The third example is very nice. He says what is the use of a boat which is floating on the ocean for a man who is drowning. A man who is drowning cannot swim. So even if he sees a boat in the ocean, it is no point because he cannot swim to the boat and he will drown. So Prahlada Maharaja uses these examples to tell us that, frankly speaking, until and unless Krishna gives mercy, Krishna gives sanction, there is no possibility of us being able to do anything in this world. The example that is given in the verse SB 7.2.40 is so practical. How many times we have been in this situation. Some of us have actually lost money on the street and you may have come back to the same place and found it. But you have kept your money very safely in the bank and because of inflation or this or that, the money has lost its value. How many of us have kept money so well? My father has this habit. He keeps something so securely that he forgets where it is and half the time goes in trying to find out and if I ask him where he kept it, he will say, I have kept it in such a good place that now I have forgotten. If Krishna wants, no matter how well you keep something, you may end up losing it because he does not give you the memory to remember it. But you may keep something very haphazardly, but if Krishna wants to protect it, then nobody can touch it. So every time Maharaj read this verse, he would laugh because he said, "By nature, living entities are stingy pokers number one. We love our money so much that it is very very hard to part with it. Very often Krishna finds His own ways to make us part with the money. We try very hard but eventually either the money goes in His service or it goes in the service of maya or if you keep it very well, when you are dead or you are dying, we realize that we cannot take it with us. When we realize that nothing can come with us, then we accept our destiny. It is very important that when you cannot accept that nothing goes with you, then you cannot accept anything in your life. That is why we always must remember the day of our death." Maharaj kept saying this a million times over that until you remember that you are going to die, you think that everything is within our control, but actually, it is not true. Nothing is in our control. Really really nothing and this is a fact. That is why Alexander the great – he was a great warrior, great conqueror but you all know historically he conquered the whole world but at the end of the day, he died of a simple fever and he died at the height of his empire’s conquest. He was very young when he was dying and he told his ministers that he has three wishes and they must fulfill them when he dies. "The first wish is that you must put me in a coffin and you must open the coffin and make sure my hand is outside. My palms should be facing outside." Then he said, "All my doctors who are working very hard to save me now should carry my coffin when I am gone, and thirdly I want that whatever money I have in coins is strewn on the streets." So the ministers asked him why all this elaborate arrangement and he said that "I have realized one thing now at the point when death is coming. I want people to know that at the point when someone leaves this world, his palms cannot carry anything with him. They will be open but they cannot clutch anything. I cannot take Greece with me. I cannot take Rome with me. I cannot take anything. Even this body I cannot take with me. The second thing, I want everyone to know who are the doctors who treated me, not because I want the people to throw stones at them, but because the fact is, no matter how hard they try, when my time has come, they cannot do anything and the third point that I want everyone to know is, I want all my coins strewn all over the street, so that everybody will know that these coins which make me conquer kingdom upon kingdom, unfortunately, will not save me at the point of my death." So they said this is very nice. But Alexander added one last point. He said that "This is all nice, but you also realize that when coins are thrown on the floor, everybody will pick up the coins and they will hold it very tight in their hands and they will go home thinking, I am able to save this money and that is the truth of this world that we never learn our lessons." We never learn our lessons until and unless we come to Krishna and that is why a million births have gone by and hopefully not a million births will go by so that we learn our lesson that nothing is in our hands and everything is in His hands. Not knowing that destiny is not in our control we plan so many things whereas Krishna’s plans are the supreme. The next question comes, how to know Krishna's plans and Prabhuji's explanation on the same shall be offered in the next mail, Krishna willing. Thank you very much, Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev, Vaijayantimala devi dasi, Chennai. Accepting The Destiny - Part 2 Date: 2011-06-26 Author: Vaijayantimala devi dasi Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble pranams! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev! This is in continuation of the previous offering transcribing the lecture delivered by our beloved God brother HG Devakinandan prabhuji in Chennai on 27th May 2011 on Srimad Bhagavatam verse 7.2.40. In the last offering, we saw that Prabhuji explained that nothing is in our hands and everything is in the Lord’s hands. So destiny is really not under our control. But we plan so many things. So how to know Krishna’s plans? Here we continue the transcription of the same. 2. How to know Krishna’s plans? In Srimad Bhagavatam 7.10.64, Maya Daanava says, devo ’suro naro ’nyo vā neśvaro ’stīha kaścana ātmano ’nyasya vā diṣṭaṁ daivenāpohituṁ dvayoḥ Maya Dānava said: What has been destined by the Supreme Lord for oneself, for others, or for both oneself and others cannot be undone anywhere or by anyone, whether one be a demigod, a demon, a human being or anyone else.