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Instant gratification & instant suffering

Humility and love of God

05 Nov 2015 by KKSBlog Leave a Comment

Filed Under: All News, Quotes & TranscriptsTagged With: humility, love of god

Are you not controlled by God if you are an athiest?

Rising like waves from material association, these bad effects mass into a great ocean of misery.

PURPORT

The deluding potency, māyā, is the Lord's own energy and can thus overcome even a powerful sage. As Lord Kapila declares, "Among all kinds of living entities begotten by Brahmā, namely men, demigods, and animals, none but the sage Nārāyaṇa is immune to the attraction of māyā in the form of a woman" (Bhāg. 3.31.37). One should not flirt with māyā, thinking that one can transgress a little and then pull back later if it gets too rough. Until we are completely liberated we maintain seeds of destruction within us, and we should not allow them to grow by bad association.

Once Śrīla Prabhupāda learned that some of his initiated disciples had indulged in their former habits of smoking marijuana. Prabhupāda said that this was due to bad association, and he gave the example of bedbugs. During winter, bedbugs seem to disappear from your bed, but in due time they emerge and again bite you and grow fat on your blood. Similarly, a transcendentalist's kāma may seem to be entirely subdued, but it is actually present in a very reduced state. If given a fresh opportunity, his material desires will strike again. On another occasion, Śrīla Prabhupāda referred to "hippy seeds." Having noticed one of his brahmacārī disciples with long hair, he said the disciple's old hippy tendencies were now sprouting in the form of long hair.

So it is good to be afraid of even a little bad association and avoid it at all costs. But one may question whether this attitude is at odds with the compassionate mood of the preacher. If the preacher associates with materialists, won't he become like them? The answer is that a preacher must be strong in his Kṛṣṇaconsciousness to prevent becoming contaminated. If he follows the rules and regulations of bhakti-yoga — including association with devotees, chanting and hearing the Lord's glories, avoiding sense gratification, and so on — then he will be able to preach without falling down. Acting as the spiritual master of Lord Caitanya, Īśvara Purī gave him instructions that in truth are directed at us: "My dear child, continue dancing, chanting, and performing sańkīrtana in association with devotees. Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting kṛṣṇa-nāma, for by this process You will be able to deliver all fallen souls" (Cc. Ādi 7.92). Similarly, Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed his disciples to be compassionate preachers:

One who is not very expert in preaching may chant in a secluded place, avoiding bad association, but for one who is actually advanced, preaching and meeting people who are not engaged in devotional service are not disadvantages. A devotee gives the nondevotees his association but is not affected by their misbehavior. Thus by the activities of a pure devotee even those who are bereft of love of Godhead get a chance to become devotees of the Lord one day. [Cc. Ādi 7.92, purport]

Śrīla Prabhupāda sometimes told the following story to illustrate how one may mix with nondevotees and yet keep one's devotional integrity:

Once a crocodile invited a monkey in a tree to come and ride on his back. The foolish monkey jumped down from the tree and soon found himself clinging to the crocodile's back in the middle of the river.

The monkey asked the crocodile, "Where are we going?"

The crocodile replied, "I'm going to take you home, where my wife will cut out your heart and we will eat you for lunch!"

The monkey replied, "But I left my heart back on shore in the tree. Will you please let me get it?"

The crocodile thought this was a good proposal and allowed the monkey to touch shore. But the monkey jumped into his tree and refused to accept further invitations from the crocodile.

The moral of this story: You may associate with the nondevotee, but don't give him your heart.

Preachers living in ISKCON temples follow this advice daily. They rise early and gather for mańgala-ārati before the temple Deities, chant kīrtana and japa, hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class, and honor prasādam in the association of devotees. Strengthened by this morning program, they go out to preach in the most materialistic places in the world, offering people a chance to receive Kṛṣṇa's mercy in the form of literature, prasādam, or hari-nāma. In the early evening the preachers return to the temple for more chanting and hearing. While they are with the nondevotees, they do not compromise their devotional principles, and thus they keep their hearts aloof from the modes of material nature and bad association.

Of course, if a preacher finds himself being overwhelmed by the material energy, he should save himself instead of allowing māyāto swallow him up while he's trying to save others. But Nārada's advice against bad association does not mean that those who are strong enough to preach should not approach the Jagāis and Mādhāis of this world and humbly offer them the holy name and transcendental literature. If devotees don't approach them, how will the fools and rascals be saved?

- Srila Prabhupada

Seeds of sinful desire arising from material association

NBS:6
One who understands perfectly the process of devotional service in love of Godhead becomes intoxicated in its discharge. Sometimes he becomes stunned in ecstasy and thus enjoys his whole self, being engaged in the service of the Supreme Self.

Purport :
How one becomes intoxicated in devotional service is very nicely described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.2.40):
evaḿ-vrataḥ sva-priya-nāma-kīrtyā
jātānurāgo druta-citta uccaiḥ
hasaty atho roditi rauti gāyaty
unmāda-van nṛtyati loka-bāhyaḥ
"A person engaged in the devotional service of the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness automatically becomes carried away by ecstasy when he chants and hears the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. His heart becomes slackened while chanting the holy name, he becomes almost like a madman, and he does not care for any outward social conventions. Thus sometimes he laughs, sometimes he weeps, sometimes he cries out very loudly, sometimes he sings, and sometimes he dances and forgets himself." These are the signs of becoming intoxicated in devotional service. This stage, called the ātmārāma stage, is possible when the Lord bestows His mercy upon a devotee for his advanced devotional activity. It is the highest perfectional stage because one cannot reach it unless one has attained pure love of God.
Neither formal religious rituals, economic development, sense gratification, nor liberation can compare with this sweet stage of perfection of love of Kṛṣṇa, love of the Supreme Lord. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi-līlā 7.97) describes this stage of ecstasy and intoxication as being far above the ecstasy of realizing oneself as Brahman, or the supreme spirit. Lord Caitanya says that the ecstasy of bhakti (love of Godhead) is so vast that it is like an ocean compared to the drop of pleasure derived from understanding oneself as one with Brahman. In all Vedic literature, the highest perfectional stage is said to be the state of intoxication of devotional service. It is not achieved by ordinary persons, the nondevotees.

Sometimes he laughs, sometimes he weeps, sometimes he cries out very loudly, sometimes he sings, and sometimes he dances

MM 47: What person, even if most sinful, has ever said aloud the blessed name Narayana and failed to fulfill his desires? But we, alas, never used our power of speech in that way, and so we had to suffer such miseries as living in a womb.

We had to suffer such miseries as living in a womb

MM 30: He is the jewel riding on the back of Garuda, who carries away the Lord's devotees on his wings. He is the magic jewel protecting the three worlds, the jewellike cloud attracting the cataka-bird eyes of the gopis, and the jewel among all who gesture gracefully. He is the only jeweled ornament on the ample breasts of Queen Rukmini, who is herself the jewel of beloved consorts. May that crown jewel of all gods, the best of the cowherds, grant us the supreme benediction.

The magic jewel

There's a number of quotes from acharyas, you can find which is supporting your own view. If you are feminist, you can see quotes that are supportive to your views and if you are anti-feminist you can see the quotes that fits your perspective. If you put a red glass everything you see appears red. It's easy to manipulate the quotes of Acharyas in one angle and conclude biased opinions.

Woman reporter: What about women who do not have children?

Prabhupada: Well, that is also another unnatural thing. Sometimes they use contraceptives. They kill children, abortion. That is also not very good. These are all sinful activities. These are sinful activities, to kill child in the womb.

Prabhupada: Yes, that is a fact. In the history there is no woman who is a big philosopher, a big mathematician, big scientist, big educationist. We don’t find. They were all men.

Disciple: Women’s liberation has become successful because man is now the servant of woman.

Prabhupada: It is not successful. That I was pointing out. It has caused the disaster because the whole women become dependent on the welfare gift of the government, and the government has to raise tax heavily for this purpose. The tax is given by the general public, but it is going for one individual person, and I have heard that government is embarrassed.

Prabhupada: By nature’s way, if the husband takes care of the wife and children, this problem is solved immediately. But the man takes advantage. He goes away after making the woman pregnant. And the woman is embarrassed and the government is embarrassed.

Disciple: And the child grows up to be a criminal.

Prabhupada: Yes.

(Television interview with Srila Prabhupada, July 9, 1975, Chicago)

Reporter: Are men regarded as superior to women?
Prabhupada: Yes, naturally. Naturally, woman requires protection by the man. In the childhood she is protected by the father, and youth time she is protected by the husband, and old age she is protected by elderly sons. That is natural.
Female Reporter: That goes against the thinking of a lot of people in America now. Do you know that?
Prabhupada: No… America, maybe, but this is the natural position. Women require protection.
Female Reporter: Who decides who’s natural? And what’s natural?
Prabhupada: Natural means just like in psychology it is said that woman, the highest brain substance of woman is thirty-six ounce, whereas the highest brain substance of man is sixty-four ounce. So there is difference by nature, of the brain.

(News Interview with Srila Prabhupada, March 5, 1975, New York)

Are men regarded as superior to women?