The living entity under the clutches of maya wants to enjoy this material world, but unless you give him directions and remind him, he cannot make progress in pursuing his shadowy objective in life.
While going through 3rd canto Summary for 9th chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam I came across a very powerful and wonderful statement by Prabhupad that "Voluntary endeavour is the only way for spiritual perfection"
In the episode of Daksha cursing Lord Siva in 4th Canto, there is cursing and coutercursing that goes on between Daksha's party and the followers of Lord Siva. Nandishvara, a devoute follower of Lord Siva was very much angered by his master (Lord Siva) being cursed by Daksha and began to countercurse him.
How many of us seek help when we are unable to do find a solution ? We always want to do it ourself and it is the false ego which comes in our way to seek help from an expert. Even among children we can find them fighting telling that I can do it myself - you don't have to teach me
When our hearts are filled with greed, envy and attachments - there would be no place for Krishna-katha in them. These poisonous thoughts agitate the mind and would not allow us to focus on scriptures or forms of the Lord. Bhakti should not be performed with some motive for name, fame and wealth.
On days when we work for extended hours, we would find it very difficult to chant our regular rounds. Sometimes we are bewildered as to whether we need to continue work or to give up. It becomes a challenge as to what needs to be prioritised.
Vrttasura very well knew that he would definitely be killed in the battle. But still he cheerfully continued with his duty without giving up. Its indeed a very inspiring quality exhibited by Vrttasura. Many a times when problems come up, I tend to give up - rather than to face it.
In the struggle for material existence we have forgotten Krishna who is our loving father. As Paramatma He is always alert and knows what we need. However we have not been able to recognize His presence. In the process we fail to ask for His help when we are genuinely in need.
Maharaj said: Why are you talking of material devastation when your body is going to be first devastated? (Maharaj then gave definition for devastation as total destruction). As soon as you follow irreligion your body is going to be devastated. Do you really want healthy body or not?
This verse completely rejects the theory of brahma satyam jagan mithya, which states that spirit, or Brahman, is real, whereas the manifested material world, with its great variety of things, is false. Nothing is false.
While the Lord has such magnonimous and merciful nature, we find in this world, people falling at the feet of politicians (by default unqualified) who have sychophantic attitude and demands such pranams from innocent public only to show that they're superior and others are inferior.
Although we come alone to this world, and no-one else accompanies us in our final journey after death, during the short period of stay in this world, we interact with so many living souls. Being subjected to material modes, sometimes we may experience good relationship with all and sometimes adverse situation.
The main point in the lecture was Maharaj emphasizing the service attitude of Govardhan hill and how this hill practically demonstrated to us how to serve Krsna and not to neglect Lord Krsna at all the times - good or bad.
We see that the percentage of people suffering from various physical disabilities is increasing day by day because of sedantic nature (work involving sitting in same posture for long hours) of work done by Kali yuga people.
Here he states Arjuna not to worry for something which is not worthy of worrying. In material existence we take so many bodies and without fail in all these bodies, we think we're the controllers and the anxiety follows without fail. And in the Bhagavad Gita there is only one point stressed by the Lord from begining to end.
The Damodara pastime of the Lord shows how the Supreme Personality Of Godhead is bound by the tassel of pure love of the devotee. On the day of Diwali, the Lord reminds us how he is very easily available to devotees, but not to tapasvis, yogis, jnanis and others who have a bodily concept of life.
This verse clearly shows us, that anything that is not related to the Lord will only agitate us. Simply put, whenever we are not in relation with the Lord we are put into so called miseries by the mind. The mind wreaks havoc as it is not anchored to its constitutional anchor point, the lotus feet of the Lord.
The life of all the human beings involves performance of sacrifice in one way or the other. We see that the parents are sacrificing so much for their children, the social workers are sacrificing for the society's welfare and the national leaders are sacrificing for their nation.
In our day to day lives, we are put into so many situations wherein we have to make important decisions. Due to our immaturity and limited/lack of experience our decisions may not be right all the times. So how can we assure that our decisions are correct?
Everyone in the material world is engaged in a struggle for existence. Everyone tries to save himself from danger, but when one is unable to save himself, he then takes shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
If we listen to His words and rise up immediately, then that obedience will please the Lord, who will provide us all the strength to carry on with day's work. Whereas if we listen to our mind and continue to sleep for a longer time, then by disobeying His words, we are putting ourselves in a troublesome position.
In Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 1 Chapter 11, the Lord's Entrance to Dvaraka dham is very nicely described. The inhabitants of Dwaraka were missing Lord's personal darshan for a long period of time during the Kurukshetra war, were very eagerly waiting for His arrival.
In the episodes describing Dhruva Maharaj's story, this point is very nicely elaborated. Dhruva Maharaj, after ruling this planet for 36000 years, decided to quit this world and went to Badarikashrama to perform austerity in loving devotional service.
Recently one devotee in Dubai met with a major accident (head-on collision) and his car was almost crushed to be scrapped. But he escaped from that accident with minor bruises and aches and fully conscious. His wife also a devotee was wondering that how he came out of the car which is almost crushed into pieces.
After quoting this verse Maharaj said, "When we chant the glories of Krishna and His holy names, even 'time' is afraid of us and fails to rob our lives". Now we may get a question - If this is the case, the devotees should not die at all because sun cannot take away the lives of devotees.
The ‘Damodar’ month or the Karthika month is of great spiritual significance for all the devotees. We get an opportunity during this month to glorify the wonderful Damodara form of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada describes this as a unique picture of subordination of the Supreme Lord before His foster mother Yashoda.
Even while we are performing devotional service, we always pray to Krishna to fulfill our desires. We never realize that Krishna has a specific plan for each one of us. The actual mood, as we are taught repeatedly is to pray to Krishna to decide whatever plan is best according to Him and not according to us.
The danger of slipping from our daily sadhana is - first day, we would be upset for not being able to do it. As days go, the feeling of guilt decreases and tricky mind justifies that we have no time for these things.
While Dhruva Maharaj goes to the forest to find Lord Krishna, Narada muni intercepts him and on seeing his intense desire to see the Lord, he describes him the transcendental form of the Lord. This form is not an imaginary representation which can be made according to one's own conception