The keyword is responsibility. Conditional souls are lazy. They have an inborn tendency not to accept responsibility. Especially there is a tendency in the conditioned soul not to accept responsibility for his spiritual growth, for improving himself. A person may be busy, busy, busy doing so many tasks putting in 70 hours a week, but if by doing so, he avoids the work of improving himself, of refining his character, he is lazy.
"O Brahmana Vyasadeva, it is decided by the learned that the best remedial measure for removing all troubles and miseries is to dedicate one's activities to the service of the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead [Sri Krsna]"
The Lord's pure devotees, however, take compassion upon such unfortunate persons and, in a missionary spirit, try to persuade them into the line of devotional service. Only by the grace of pure devotees can such unfortunate men be elevated to the position of transcendental service.
The material miseries of the living entity, which are superfluous to him, can be directly mitigated by the linking process of devotional service. But the mass of people do not know this, and therefore the learned Vyasadeva compiled this Vedic literature, which is in relation to the Supreme Truth.
Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti has pointed out that the original cause of offending the Lord and falling down from one's position is one's not learning how to properly worship a bona fide spiritual master. One who is trained to offer respectful obeisances and worship to the bona fide spiritual master automatically offers proper worship to the Supreme Lord. Without the mercy of a bona fide spiritual master, even a so-called religious man will gradually become atheistic, offend the Lord by foolish speculation and fall into a hellish condition of life.
The Lord never bestows upon such servants the brilliant opulences of the upper, lower and middle planetary systems of this material world. When one possesses material opulence in any of these three divisions of the universe, his possessions naturally increase his enmity, anxiety, mental agitation, pride and belligerence.
Although the topic of death may be very overwhelming, fearful and we may not even wish to comtemplate on this subject matter, Bhagavatam at once makes this subject matter insignificant. This is the beauty of Bhagavatam. By this culture one can become fearless and attain eternal bliss.
This granthraj email group should live forever. All glories to all the devotees for their wonderful contributions. I always look forward for new message anxiously.
By hearing about and glorifying the Lord, all a person’s activities become molded into spiritual activities, and thus all conceptions of material miseries become completely vanquished.
One must have full faith in the words of the spiritual master and similar faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then real knowledge of atma and Paratmatma and the distinction between matter and spirit will be automatically revealed.
The community is quite colorful, with devotees coming from different backgrounds: North America, India, Trinidad, Dominican Republic (Central America), Bulgaria, and Bosnia. There are local students of the Minnesota State University (who were attracted by college preaching of His Holiness Ganapati Maharaja) and also a devotee from Israel, Saguna Mataji, who regularly teaches Bhagavad-gita course at the university.
I do not mind My personal distress. I only wish for the happiness of Krsna, for His happiness is the goal of My life. However, if He feels great happiness in giving Me distress, that distress is the best of My happiness.
The other day Murli Prabhuji wrote very wonderfully about how difficult it is to transcend the material identification and forget that we are soul and not the body. Despite being the ABC of spiritual life, we still fall into the trap every day of our lives, and that is why our devotional life is sometimes frustrated. Gurudev refers to the solution found in Srimad Bhagavatam's two wonderful verses.
Material happiness is just like the filthy , polluted river; because it is a mere reflection of the TRUE happiness in the spiritual world. We can never achieve the happiness we are looking for no matter how hard we endeavour in material life. Instead we should look upwards, toward Lord Krishna, who is the source of real happiness, and stop chasing after the reflection of this happiness in the material world. This bhakti is the only thing that can satisfy us completely.
Unless one renders devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, one cannot possibly become completely detached from this material world, nor can he possibly manifest real knowledge.
The glorification of these five items [association with devotees, chanting the holy name and so on] is to make known the complete superiority of these five practices of devotional service.
Simply by chanting and hearing of the transcendental name, form, etc., of the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, one can achieve the cessation of unlimited miserable conditions. Therefore what to speak of those who have attained attraction for serving the flavor of the dust of the Lord’s lotus feet?
Though the spiritual master's Vyasa puja is a very great event for all to celebrate and take their spiritual vows seriously, the day of our spiritual master taking sannyasa is also an equally momentous occasion for if not for his mercy, we would not have had this great opportunity to see and hear him preach and travel as part of his sannyasa duties.
Glorious is that devotee who does not give up the shelter of His Lord, and glorious is that Lord who does not abandon His servant. If by chance a servant falls down and goes somewhere else, glorious is that master who captures him and brings him back by the hair."
On my one volume of SB, Gurudev has autographed on 21/Dec/1998 as followed:
"The perfection of human existance is to always study Srimad Bhagavatam. Please utilize every second at your disposal to learn this great scripture "
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami has described how the foolish materially attached men are wasting their valuable time in the improvement of the material conditions of life by sleeping, indulging in sex life, developing economic conditions and maintaining a band of relatives who are to be vanquished in the air of oblivion.
At the last stage of life, the different gates of the body are choked by the effects of disease, which are caused by an imbalance of bile, mucus and air.
Krsna really knows what we all need - our inebrity is sometimes our faith in Him dips - and even when bad things happen to us, we do not realise that Krsna's hand is there protecting us, minimising the effects of this material world.
Is Krishna partial? Does He favour one and not the other? It sometimes appears that way, does it not? Bhagavatam 7.1.9 and the verses that follow, answers this question so nicely. Here is a summary of Srila Prabhupada's translation and his well set out and detailed purports.
When the demigods finished offering their prayers, they anxiously waited for their enemy Vrtasura to be killed. This means that the demigods are not pure devotees.
This material world is called the world of death. Every living being, beginning from Brahma, whose duration of life is some thousands of millions of years, down to the germs who live for a few seconds only, is struggling for existence.
Every living being, beginning from Brahma, whose duration of life is some thousands of millions of years, down to the germs who live for a few seconds only, is struggling for existence. Therefore, this life is a sort of fight with material nature, which imposes death upon all.
The present human civilization is primarily based on the principles of sleeping and sex indulgence at night and earning money in the day and spending the same for family maintenance.
Whenever pure topics of the trasncendental world are discussed, the members of the audience forget all kinds of material hankerings, at least for the time being. Not only that, but they are no longer envious of one another, nor do they suffer from anxiety or fear.
In the process of evolution from the lower to the higher grade of living, the human form of life is a great boon. But maya is so strong that in spite of achieving this great boon of the human form of life, we are influenced by temporary material happiness, and we forget our goal of life.
GREAT NEWS please everybody check wwww.chakra.org - http://www.chakra.org/2002/05/14/dwaraka.dham/index.htm
IT IS WONDERFUL the article is there and on the front page is our GURUDEV and SRI SRI RUKMINI DEVI DWARAKA
DISH We are so HAPPY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Indeed, Dwaraka is the Dham as we all know Lord Krishna resided over 100 years in this Dham but what many of us don't know is that ISKCON has a small guest house with 20 beautiful rooms (please see more photos on ttp://photos.yahoo.com/murli038) and very enthusiastic devotees who under the care and constant supervision of founder of Dwaraka project HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj) are progressing nicely, with the construction of a nice ISKCON temple for the pleasure of Sri Sri Rukimi Devi Dwarakadhish.
All the devotees connected with this Krsna consciousness movement must read all the books that have been translated (Caitanya-caritamrta, Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita and others)
A little practical application for having faith and keeping our minds fixed and focused on the absolute, the supreme truth, with support from the Gita and Srila Prabhupada's purport.
While one is performing devotional service in the association of pure devotees in full Krishna consciousness, there are certain things which require to be vanquished altogether.
There are two classes of men: vidvan, learned, and the fools, not learned, known as the fool. Human being, they are, of course, very intelligent than the animals. But amongst themselves there are more intelligent, less intelligent. On the whole, they are more intelligent than the animals.
In Bhagavatam there is a nice historical account between Lord Siva and Daksa. Daksa had offended Lord Siva by harsh words. Lord Siva did not take any offence but his followers did. As a result both parties started to curse and counter curse each other.
How can one be DIRECTLY connected to Lord Krsna? As marginal energies we have the ability to 'switch' over and come under the control of the spiritual energy and be directly connected to the Lord.
There is no point in arguing that a materialistic man can be happy. No materialistic creature—be he the great Brahma or an insignificant ant—can be happy. Everyone tries to make a permanent plan for happiness, but everyone is baffled by the laws of material nature.
Granthraj refers to the king of all Scriptures, Srimad Bhagavatam. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krsna Movement translated this great literature in English and broadcast its sublime message throughout the western world.
Following an experience I went through lately (details of which I won't bore you with) I realised how important constant association with devotees is and how easy it is to forget Krsna when not in the right association.
Preacher is not Absolute, his message is Absolute. Therefore, we should see what are the contents of the message, and not the preachers external appearance, style, etc. or in other words 'inner substance' and not the 'external form'.