Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, naaham ninde na ca staumi / sva-bhaava-vishamam janam bhutair aakramyamaano 'pi /dhiro daiva-vashaanugaih
Please accept my humble pranams! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
The following is the concluding part of the transcription of the wonderful class by our beloved God brother HG Devakinandan prabhuji on 28-04-2011 in Abudhabi on Aila Gita. In the last offering we saw that in order to keep up our spiritual unity we should remember and follow the following verse from Srimad Bhagavatam 7.13.42
eteshaam shreya aashaase / utaikaatmyam mahaatmani
This should be our prayer for every devotee. This should be the way we act with every devotee. Everyone is different. Accept it. Krishna created this world so that each one is different. Imagine if we have 200 persons of the very same nature in the house, we will become mad. Nobody can tolerate more than one person of the same nature. Krishna is very merciful. He makes one person with one type of character and another person is different. Otherwise we cannot tolerate. It is a fact. If we accept everyone is different there is no fighting because we just accept his nature. Only we have to adjust with each other. The more we tolerate, the more we adjust. The more we adjust, the more we tolerate. It is not our business to condemn anyone. No. No condemning. Maharaj said, "If you do not like a person, you do not have to praise him either but you do not have to condemn him also. You just have to accept him and you just have to serve him. As long as the person is with Krishna, what is there for us to complain?" That is how Maharaj solved 90% of our problems. So Maharaj said, "By seeing the hand of Krishna, do not make small things into big things. Mind's nature is very small thing; It will tell, 'It is a very serious problem. We have a crisis.' There is no crisis. The only crisis is we have forgotten Krishna and we are inventing a crisis in our head."
Our sadhana is not good. We are not with Bhagavatam. Let us improve ourselves. Then all problems go away. The moment we think we can use a material solution to solve a material problem, our material solutions will become worse than our material problems. Prahlada Maharaj says, "dukhaushadam tadapi duhkham" (SB 7.13.42) is the spiritual way to see the hand of Krishna in everything. This is the royal road. This is the way to go. We take the verse, photocopy it, make it big, we put it in front of our phone because we have to talk to the devotees. So every time a devotee is talking to us and we are really getting angry, we should repeat to ourselves loudly, "Different people are of different mentalities." Of course the person on the other end may think we are mad, that he is saying something and we are saying something, but it will save the day. Maharaj said, "The next time you get angry with anyone please turn to Srimad Bhagavatam 7.13.42. While you are thinking you are very great, tolerating others, do not forget others are equally great, tolerating you, because you also have a different mentality." This way Maharaj gave us the royal road.
He was with us and he was not with us. He loved all of us but at the same time he tolerated everyone. He was very happy with us. Sometimes he was really fed up with us. But in both situations, he loved us and he served us. As a true father, for him everyone was part of his family. As sons and daughters we must carry that flag, put aside our egos, our different mentalities and come together. Just adjust. Just fall at each other's feet and adjust. I asked Maharaj, "this devotee is always causing me harassment. What to do?" Maharaj said, "Harassment is not coming from him. The following verse answers the question. SB - 11.7.37."
tad vidvaan na calen maargaad /anvashiksham kshiter vratam
So that is the key. Mother earth, she gave the best lesson amongst the 24 gurus. She says these living entities are being harassed by the modes of material nature. So when a devotee comes to us and he talks nonsense, please remember this verse. It is not him. So do not blame him. Because we are not in devotional service, the modes of nature affect us. In the morning, we are in goodness, by afternoon we are passionate, by night we are totally in ignorance. In one day we are in three modes. Sometimes in one hour, we can be in three modes. Isn't it true? Sometimes we talk to a devotee. He is very nice. Next day you feel like slapping him. Third day he feels like slapping you. What has happened? Because we are not devotees. We are under the modes.
So Bhagavatam tells us, "You become dhirah. Become sober like how Pururava became sober. Understand this is because of daiva. This is because of the hand of Krishna." Then we understand - 'tad vidvaan' - use knowledge – transcendental knowledge and never be deviated from the path. 'na calen maargaat' - Do not be deviated from bhakti. Mayadevi will try to infiltrate into the congregation. She will try to create enmity. She will try to create separation. She will do it when we are weak in our saadhana. But when our saadhana becomes strong and our spiritual master is in the centre, Mayadevi will just sit outside with folded hands and become very quiet. She will not touch us. The question is whether we want to follow spiritual master or we want to follow our ego. That is the only question we have. Pururava started by following his ego and it became, "I and mine." But he ended his life by dropping the "I and mine" and surrendering to Krishna. This is the royal road to peace and happiness.
Do not be caught up in groupism. There is only Krishna and His devotees. There are no groups. That is all and nothing else. Even in the spiritual world, where there are gopis and gopas, Maharaj said, "Krishna adjusted. He tolerated and he just adjusted. He just adjusted and he tolerated, so that is how we have to live our lives." Till the day we die, we tolerate, we adjust. We adjust and tolerate. We can only adjust and tolerate if we have Bhagavatam in the centre. Otherwise there is no strength to tolerate. So Maharaj said there is no 'ism'. Maharaj said, "Did you see Dhruva Maharaj having any ISKCON life membership? Did Prahlad Maharaj say his prayers and then tell Narasimhadeva, 'You have to hear because I happen to be a life member of ISKCON and I joined in Dwaraka?' There is no mention of any life membership. There is no mention of a particular society." Prabhupada said he only built the society so that people should read Bhagavatam and be peaceful. So if we are not reading Bhagavatam and we are not peaceful, it does not matter if we are life member, does not matter if we call ourself ISKCON devotee, but for Krishna and Srila Prabhupada we are just disqualified by our behaviour or the lack of it.
Let us remember these things. We are victims of these tendencies every day. So let us please remind each other of these things and help each other.
Our heartfelt thanks to HG Devakinandan prabhuji for sharing these pearls of wisdom provided by Maharaj, which are very vital for our life.
Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi,
Abudhabi.
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