Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
We have been meditating on glorifying the Lord in the offerings titled, "108 Ways of Glorifying the Lord". In the last few offerings, we were seeing few of the glories of Lord mentioned in Sri Ishopanishad. We now move on to Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Today we shall meditate on the following glories.
Glorification 25 - The Lord's personal presence confirms victory: It is mentioned in Bhagavad Gita verses 1.14 to 1.19 that various warriors on the side of Pandavas including Lord Krishna blew their respective conch shells. The sound vibration of these different conch shells were so tumultuous that it shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhrtarashtra. When Bhishma and others on the side of Kauravas blew their conch shells nothing of this sort happened to the Pandavas. This was only due to the fact that Lord Krishna was on the side of the Pandava's army. As mentioned in the last verse of Bhagavad Gita 18.78,
yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇo yatra pārtho dhanur-dharaḥ
tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtir dhruvā nītir matir mama
Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.
Sanjaya told Dhrtarashtra, "You are thinking of victory, buy my opinion is that where Krishna and Arjuna are present, there will be all good fortune." He directly confirms even before the war begins that there is no hope for Dhrtarashtra and he should not expect victory. Before the battle begun and when various kings were taking sides, Duryodhana and Arjuna visited Lord Krishna. Duryodhana wanted the entire army of Krishna and Arjuna just wanted Krishna to be with him. When both of them visited Lord Krishna, He was sleeping. Duryodhana sat near Krishna's head whereas Arjuna being a humble devotee sat at the lotus feet of the Lord. As soon as Krishna opened His eyes He saw Arjuna and He asked Arjuna what did he want, Himself or His army. Duryodhana was worried that Arjuna might ask for the army, but Arjuna being aware of Krishna's potency and being a humble devotee asked for Krishna to be on His side. Duryodhana was very happy with this proposal and was criticizing Arjuna in his mind for his foolishness. But in the end of the war it turned out that inspite of having a huge army, Duryodhana was defeated and destroyed, whereas the Pandavas were victorious. This was all due to the presence of the Lord on the side of the Pandavas. This clearly shows that victory belongs to one who takes shelter of the Lord and one has nothing to fear, even in the midst of the greatest calamity.
Glorification 26 - The Goddess of fortune follows the Lord everywhere: Lakshmi's other name is Chanchala, or restless since without Narayana she doesn't stay in one place. Inspite of this, foolish people only worship Lakshmi without worshiping Lord Vishnu and due to this their fortune doesn't favour them all the time. The wealth that they obtain is only temporary and doesn't stay with them for long. As mentioned in Brahma-samhita 5.29, the Lord is served by hundreds and thousands of such goddess of fortunes. And each one of them does not have any other goal but to remain at the lotus feet of the Lord and serve Him eternally.
In his wonderful purport to verse 8.8.9 of Srimad Bhagavatam, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada very nicely explains, "Material enjoyment entails money, beauty and the reputation they bring, which can all be achieved by the mercy of the goddess of fortune. The goddess of fortune, however, never remains alone. She always stays at the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. If one wants the favor of the goddess of fortune, mother Lakshmi, one must worship Narayana, because she is by nature bhagavat-paraa. The devotees who always engage in the service of Narayana can easily achieve the favor of the goddess of fortune without a doubt, but materialists who try to get the favor of the goddess of fortune only to possess her for personal enjoyment are frustrated. The celebrated demon Ravana, for example, wanted to deprive Lord Ram of Lakshmi(Sita), and thus be victorious, but the result was just the opposite."
In order to advance in our spiritual life, we should take inspiration from the goddess of fortune and should endeavor to serve the Lord and His devotees with one-pointed attention.
I pray at the lotus feet of all the vaishnavas and Lord Krishna that I am able to follow these instructions and internalize them. Krishna willing, we shall continue our journey of glorifying the Lord in the upcoming offerings.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Anand Patil
Pune.
Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.