Srila Prabhupada Leads us to Krishna

Hare Krishna dear devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances! All Glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!

While reading Vaijayantimala mathaji's email consisting of acronyms HOTLID and GOODKIDS.

H - Hunger
O - Oldage
T - Thirst
L - Lamentation
I - Illusion
D - Death

G - Good
O - Obedient
O - Orderly
D - Disciplined
K - Kids
I - In the
D - Devotional
S - School.

It occurred to me that devotional service in a sense is so simple (although not so easy). It is easy to get confused while studying various theism and deep philosophy. We should not forget the bottom line.. that of being GOOD. Being kids is significant here. As adults we often think we are the doer and owner of this and that, however, a kid has no such ego/pride, and are excellent learners.

SB 1.7.7
yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣe
bhaktir utpadyate puṁsaḥ śoka-moha-bhayāpahā

Simply by giving aural reception to this (SB) Vedic literature, the feeling for loving devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sprouts up at once to extinguish the fire of lamentation(śoka), illusion(moha) and fearfulness(bhaya).

In the purport by Srila Prabhupada, it is stated: "Loving devotional service to the Lord begins with the hearing about the Lord. There is no difference between the Lord and the subject matter heard about Him. The Lord is absolute in all respects, and thus there is no difference between Him and the subject matter heard about Him. Therefore hearing about Him means immediate contact with Him by the process of vibration of the transcendental sound. And the transcendental sound is so effective that it acts at once by removing all material affection mentioned above. As mentioned before, a living entity develops a sort of complexity by material association, and the illusory encasement of material body is accepted as the actual fact. Under such false complexity, the living entity under different categories of life becomes illusioned in different ways. Even in most developed stage of life, the same illusion prevails in the form of many isms and divides the loving relationship with the Lord and thereby divides the loving relationship between man and man. By hearing the subject matter of Srimad-Bhagavatam this false complexity of materialism is removed, and real peace in society begins, ..."

This material world is transient and a perverted reflection of the Absolute. It is a great virtual reality show by the Lord, full of misery, in order to teach the conditioned souls ever eager to enjoy and lord over transient material nature, rather that return to their constitutional position of favorable, uninterrupted and unreserved  loving devotional service towards Lord Sri Krishna.

Lord Sri Chaitantya Mahaprabhu (due to His causeless mercy) has made the process easy by devotional service of the servants of the servants of the Lord.

Here is my share of acronyms which I try to call while praying...

"Dear Srila Prabhupada! Please LEAD US TO KRISHNA".

L: Loving (service)
E: Enthusiastic (service)
A: Austere (service)
D: Determined (service)

U: Understanding
S: Steady(service)

T: Together (with/serving other devotees)
O: Obedient (to Gurudev)

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki Jai! Sri Bhakti Vinod Thakur ki Jai!
Jai Prabhupada! Jai Gurudeva!  

Your servant,
Manohar Krishna das
Minneapolis.