The great devotees named alwars, sang many poems about the Lord as chariot driver and in Chennai there is a famous temple known as Parthasarathy temple where the Lord is worshipped with a whip in his hand as chariot driver.
Once a father and son went to the kite flying festival. The young son became very happy seeing the sky filled with colorful kites. He too asked his father to get him a kite and a thread with a roller so he can fly a kite too. So, the father went to the shop at the park where the festival was being held.
Generally the activities done by Him reveal His great powers and His compassion to the living entities etc., But there are some specific lilas where the Lord shows one exceptional quality namely submission to His devotees. The Lord performed one such lila in this auspicious karthik month which is glorified and celebrated all over the world.
The scriptures tell us that when the Absolute truth descends in various incarnations and performs activities, they are much different from the activities of conditioned souls. All the activities of the Supreme Lord are transcendental and untouched by piety or sin.
One of the wonderful activities of the Lord is the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material manifestation which is a great puzzle even for great scientists and scholars.
All great acharyas like Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Vallabha and Caitanya were free from all material attraction but they were all attracted to the Lord's qualities.
We have been meditating on the qualities of Parabrahman. Though the Absolute truth has infinite qualities, His most important quality is His compassion to all living entities. The Lord is merciful to all living entities because they’re His children.
Though we see many people/devatas qualified with many qualities/opulences in the material world, their opulences are much different from the Lord’s opulences. The key difference is that the qualities/opulences possessed by us are tainted with the three modes of nature whereas the Lord’s opulences are beyond the modes of nature.
We see in this material world, that a person possess a maximum of one or two opulence that too in limited measure. But he/she is glorified like anything because he is above all others for that opulence alone. But he might be lesser than others in other qualities.
Lord Caitanya explained the word Brahman, indicating that Brahman means the greatest, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Brahman indicates that the greatest is full with six opulence; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the reservoir of all wealth, all fame, all strength, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation.
For those who want to offer many things to the Lord and serve Him personally, also for those who cannot see the Lord in their hearts, or the Lord's incarnations in person, the Supreme Brahman the Personality of Godhead manifests in the form of deity known as archa vigraha. This is the most merciful manifestation of the Absolute Truth.
To show special favour to those who are not yogis and also to give happiness to the devotees who are longing to see Him, the Supreme Lord who is Parabrahman incarnates in this material world in His various avatara forms. By seeing these beautiful forms, one can develop love for Him in any of His form and perfect his existence.
According to the Vedas, the Absolute Truth is a person with an infinite form composed of bliss and consciousness. The form is eternal in contrast to the temporary forms of this world, which are made of matter and finite.
We saw how the Supreme Absolute Truth, Parambrahma is infinitely greatest by His nature. The form of the brahman / Parabrahman is also infinitely great and exalted. According to the Vedas, the Absolute Truth is a person with an unlimited form which is non material.
The Lord's nature, as the greatest of all, is also demonstrated in the pastime of Gajendra Moksha. When the elephant Gajendra was caught by the crocodile teeth and pulled inside the water, the elephant cried out for help. Lord Hari appeared there along with Garuda and saved the elephant from the crocodile.
When Mother earth informed Narada Muni that she is neither greatest nor unlimited and that she comes from the subtle form gandha (smell), he then prayed to the deity in charge of smell and asked, "I think you’re wonderful, unlimited and greatest.
The word 'Brahman' comes from the root 'brhad' which means infinitely great. The Vishnu purana gives the meaning of the word 'Brahman' as brhattvaad brmhanatvaac ca tad brahma paramam viduh - "The Absolute truth is called paramam brahma because it is infinitely greatest and most exalted (brhattvaad) and it can make others great and exalted (brmhanattvad)."
The Vedic literatures point out that the ultimate aim of human life is to inquire into the Supreme Absolute Truth. And one of the important terms used in the Vedic literature to denote the Supreme Absolute Truth is ‘Brahman’. The scriptures like Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita are called brahma vidya.
Whenever anyone approached our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj and inquired him about how we can face challenging people/situations in life - one of the famous instructions given by Maharaj is - "No counteraction is the best counteraction."
As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time can break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.
In all our scriptures - be it Bhagavad-Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam or other Puranas we hear so many nice pastimes of Lord and the devotees. We come across many instances wherein devotees undergo so many challenging situations, the way they deal with it and attract the mercy of the Lord.
HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that whatever be our condition, the best time to do devotional service is "NOW". We may be sick or healthy, rich or poor, good or bad mood, angry, upset or frustrated, distressed or happy or elated - whatever be the state of mind - the best time is "NOW".
Today we came across an interesting story. There were two friends Raghu and Ravi in a village. Both of them had planted different plants in their garden. Raghu was giving a small amount of water to his plants and didn't always give a full attention to them
Negative emotions cause great damage to our well-being. So "throwing them out" does not mean we have to throw them back at the people who harm or trouble us. Because when we throw it out like that, it will just bounce back on us with more force. Negative emotions are like fire and so they need to be handled or extinguished carefully.
Whatever is inside the cup is what will come out. Therefore, when unprecedented events happen in life, whatever is inside us will come out. It's easy to fake it, until we get rattled. So we have to ask ourselves...what's in my cup?
actually nonviolence means not to put others into distress. People in general are trapped by ignorance in the material concept of life, and they perpetually suffer material pains. So unless one elevates people to spiritual knowledge, one is practicing violence. One should try his best to distribute real knowledge to the people, so that they may become enlightened and leave this material entanglement
Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.
Prabhupad never discussed about gopi bhaav in public. Never. Once Prabhupada was in Radha kund and people were expecting him to talk about Radhaji, you know. They thought that Prabhupada will give some Radha pastimes. Instead he took class from "Nectar of Instructions"
If you come to Prabhupad, he will guide you slowly. yasya prasaadaat bhagavat prasaado(Guru ashtakam). He has prasad with him, so he can give you prasad. The thing is the mere show as rath cart killing, mere show of gopi bhav, will not help you. That much understanding we must have. These are all mere shows.
Throwing oneself under the rath cart means killing oneself. We should come here and kill ourselves by cleaning the whole building. (Referring to temple and services Maharaj said) This is rath cart. It is not actual rath cart that we should fall under. (Not just the chariot) Do you follow me? We have killed ourselves.
Whether chappatis or bread, you are going to get anywhere, and even if you don't get, you do not lose anything. As it is we are overeating and because we are overeating, we are oversleeping. And because we are overeating and oversleeping, we have over sense gratification.