"If, by the grace of the Lord and the great-souled devotees of the Lord, a living being becomes fortunate enough toassociate with the unadulterated devotees of the Lord and gets a chance to hear the unadulterated glories of the Lord,certainly the flow of devotional service takes place like the flow of a river.
Everyone feels bewildered and anguished at some point of time because of dysfunctional relationships. Dealing satisfactory with other individuals at all times requires wisdom and in the Bhagavatam verse 4.8.34 the formula is given for avoiding suffering in the material modes by acting properly in our relationships.
On the pretense of doing devotional service we must not be careless in our material duties. There should not be any room for lethargy. Maharaj said - "Devotional service begins from doing material duties nicely. A grain of practice is worthier than tonnes of faithlessness. In transcendence there is no rest.
Frankly speaking we can hear this hundreds of times but it is very difficult to practice. Our basic idea is that the right punishment (whatever we think as right) has to be given to the offenders. When we see that our desire is not working, the offenders are going scott free, we either fume or take the judgement in our hands
Our life is just like that of bubbles on water, which appear and immediately disappear. It is also compared to the life of mosquitoes whose lifetime is very very short. This is our position. One hundred years may appear very long for us. But in the scale of eternity, this is nothing.
In this context, H.G.Sarvaishvarya Prabhuji from Gainsville, shared a nice pastime of the devotee-couple,"Raakha and Baakha" who were disciples of Srila Naamadev who was ardent devotee of Vittal Krishna.
By the grace of Gurudev,we were able to listen to the rhymes of school children of Sri Prahlad International School in Rajkot. The rhymes were very nicely composed by H.G.Atmaprasad Prabhuji from Minneapolis.
We should always put our legs into the other's shoes and feel for them and then only we will be their friends. We must avoid too much of selfish activities. On the other hand, self - ish activities (activities pertaining to the self or atma or soul) actually purify us.
The way to remember the above easily is SLMUD. Thus we are all in the mud and mud means contamination and hence it is important for us to be always wakeful and see to it that we are not contaminated. Maharaj gave many practical instructions on how to get out of this SLMUD.
We like to be owners of many things in this world.Though we may speak about the temporary nature of this world, our existence in this body etc, many a times we fall a prey to this illusion that we are the owners and get entangled in the web of attachment.
Just like the father and mother play the most important role in bringing up the child, the spiritual master plays the most vital role in bringing us up in spiritual consciousness. Hence it is never correct to underestimate the role of the spiritual master in our lives.
Today is the most auspicious occasion of appearance of Bhagavad Gita - the day when Lord spoke the Supreme Knowledge through His Lotus Mouth to deliver suffering souls. The effect of loving recitation of Bhagavad Gita on this day is very auspicious.
It is important to do each and every service, be it related to household duties, official work or spiritual sadhana with full care and attention for pleasure of Krishna. Srila Prabhupada in his letter to one of his disciple says "Surrendered devotee sees that everything is part of Krishna's plan,
We are mostly running after seeing other's defects. Even if our own defects become visible we tend to "sweep them under the carpet". When the floor is black, the dirt will not be visible. Similarly when our heart is dirty, our own defects are not visible to us.
Whatever form of material existence one is in, one is invariably ignorant of his real situation. In other words, existence in the material world is due to the multiple reactions to our sinful lives. Ignorance is the cause of sinful life, and sinful life is the cause of one's dragging on in material existence.
Normally we are doing so many activities in our day to day lives and all these activities are creating bondage in this material world, because we think always that we are the ultimate doer and ultimate cause.
Every day you have to read my books. Do you know that every day even I read my own books? Do you know why I read my books? I read my books everyday because even I learn something new when I read them.
To avoid this, we must always visualize the last day of our life. At the last moment, all the possessions become useless. We should be attached only to the minimum extent and we must be detached to the maximum extent. We are worried about our own journey and only remembrance of Krishna will help.
The word "santatayaa" in the above verse means - "without any gap" or un-interrupted. Consistency is a factor which is liked and appreciated by all in all walks of life. If sun is not consistent in its service, then the normal life of living entities in the world would be affected.
It is often the case with many of us that after getting used to the Krishna conscious philosophy, we automatically develop a desire to preach to others. This is a very good thing but at the same time, the preaching mentality comes with some inner motives like adoration, distinction, name and fame etc, which are hard to detect by oneself.
The realization from this knowledge is that if everything is His energy, then we should not get stuck with His energies, but go to the energetic. Energy is always completely under the control of the energetic. All His energies are serving Him according to His order. Service means movement.
The Supreme Lord is also known as Hrsikesa, master of the senses, which indicates that our senses and sense objects are formed by the Supreme Lord. As such, He can control our senses and out of His mercy engage them in the service of the master of the senses.
Ever since our beloved Guru Maharaj took the mangala aarathi class on 01.12.07, there is one mantra chanted by all the devotees in Abudhabi and that mantra is "Doesn't matter". This mantra gives a smooth sail for all of us who are captivated in the midst of the hurricane of material existence.
Srila Gurudev explained that we are contaminated. The Process of purifying our existence is a continuous process. 80,000 rishis including Yamaraja had recited Srimad Bhagvatam for 1000 years and not just for 7 days and there was no death at that time.
Often when sitting in Bhagavatam class, after half an hour or sometimes less than that my legs start giving trouble and I find it hard to concentrate on hearing. When the morning class goes on for over an hour or two then hunger creeps in or I start thinking about other things.
Maharaj categorically stated that devotees do not criticize anybody. By doing this, we save half our life. When two people meet, we always have the tendency to talk about and criticize the third one and this has to be avoided.
A detached person never cares. As it is “DETACHMENT SHOULD BE OUR NATURE” . This is as plain as daylight. Manage whatever is there and be detached. The main reason for not having pleasing attitude is on account of anger, especially suppressed anger is very dangerous.
Preaching Krishna to others is the best help we could do to others and to please Supreme Lord. We might initially think our lack of proper communication skill etc would be a problem and so we might not be the correct instrument in the hands of Lord.
Srila Prabhupada refers to the word 'kashaaya' as trash. And he says in the purport, "Material desires in the mind are the trash of material contamination." Trash is meant to be thrown out, not to be preserved. Just imagine, if we keep the garbage that gets accumulated in our house for days together how bad it stinks!
Dhrtarashtra is a perfect representation of our position in this material world. None of us want to die. The word 'jijeevishah' means one who wants to extend his life at any cost.
We understand from Bhagavad Gita that the aim of all the Vedas is to understand the Supreme Lord (vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah). So studying scripturesis one of the imporant activity in devotional service and in any path of spiritual realization.