The Open Secret for Spiritual Success - Part 3

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

This is in continuation of the previous offering - "The Open Secret for Spiritual Success" wherein we were meditating on Srimad Bhagavatam verse 2.1.12. We saw

1. All shastras and acaryas freely distribute to us the open secret for spiritual success - harer nāmānukīrtanam - constant chanting of Holy Names.
2. By offending a devotee either intentionally or unintentionally, we will lose taste in chanting the names constantly.

Now we shall see further.

While discussing the glories of Holy Name and Krishna katha, one of the devotees shared a very nice verse 9.24.62 from Srimad Bhagavatam

yasmin sat-karṇa-pīyuṣe yaśas-tīrtha-vare sakṛt
śrotrāñjalir upaspṛśya dhunute karma-vāsanām

Simply by receiving the glories of the Lord through purified transcendental ears, the devotees of the Lord are immediately freed from strong material desires and engagement in fruitive activities.

In his wonderful purport to the above verse His Divine Grace very confidently and happily shares his own experience. His Divine Grace says, "At the moment, devotees in the Western countries are being attracted by Kṛṣṇa consciousness and becoming uninterested in materialistic activities, and therefore people are trying to oppose this movement. But they cannot possibly check this movement or stop the activities of the devotees in Europe and America by their artificial impositions. Here the words śrotrāñjalir upaspṛśya indicate that simply by hearing the transcendental activities of the Lord the devotees become so pure that they are immediately immune to the contamination of materialistic fruitive activities. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam. Materialistic activities are unnecessary for the soul, and therefore the devotees are freed from such activities. The devotees are situated in liberation (brahma-bhūyāya kalpate), and therefore they cannot be called back to their material homes and materialistic activities."

The qualification required is to simply hear about the Lord from the devotees through purified ears. But when we fail to do this we lose the consistency and taste for chanting the Holy Names and get back to the material rut. But for those who have full faith in the spiritual master and do sincere aural reception of the Lord glories, those who surrender unto the acaryas - for them there is no chance for going back to material home - and there is sure place reserved for them in Goloka. There are so many souls who are touched by Srila Prabhupada both in his vapu form and vani form and all of them are living examples for the above fact.

While discussing the last statement of the above purport, one devotee shared the example of HG Rasada Prabhuji from France, who had a glorious departure from this world amidst kirtans in Sri dham Vrindavan. Rasada Prabhuji was about 19 years old when he first came to the temple. His external appearance was very shabby and dirty. So devotees gave him nick-name as "Pig pen".  But some how by the mercy of prasadam at the temple, he had somehow become so attracted to Srila Prabhupada's lotus feet and was eagerly trying every opportunity to touch them. Since he did not appear clean, devotees were hesitant to let him near Srila Prabhupada. But since disciple-Guru relationship is eternal and continues birth after birth, somehow Srila Prabhupada could understand his thoughts and he carressed him and encouraged him when he caught hold of his lotus feet. After this his spiritual life began to bloom so nicely. He decided to stay in the temple and he used to do cleaning service. He did not mind devotees calling him as "Pig pen" and was always saying - "Prabhupada saved me!"  Once when other devotees were trying to distribute books, he joined them by getting on to the sankirtan van and to their surprise he could distributed so many books. When devotees asked him how he could distribute all the books, he said - "I showed the people the picture of Srila Prabhupada and just said, "Prabhupada saved me."

Krishna willing we shall try to meditate more on this topic in the subsequent offering.

Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.