BEING BORED

One who is bored must be a boring person.

Have you ever seen an interesting person being bored?

I haven't.

Being bored also means: why the world is not dedicated to entertaining me.

Hmm ... are you a little god?

 

 

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The Generosity of King Rantideva

The Royal Road to Krsna

From the Srimad-Bhagavatam, translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. (Adapted by Drutakarma dasa.)

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Yet even a king -- the richest man -- can enter into God's kingdom if he knows the science...

For himself, King Rantideva was always satisfied and depended completely on the Lord's providence. At the same time, when guests came to his palace the generous king would personally look after their every comfort, as if it all depended not on providence but on him.

Once King Rantideva fasted for forty-eight days, but he never complained or made any attempt to get food. On the morning of the forty-ninth day, he received a sizeable quantity of well-prepared food. But just as he was about to take his meal, a learned brahmana priest arrived as a guest.

King Rantideva was very advanced in spiritual knowledge, so he could see that the Supreme Lord Krsna dwells in the heart of every living being. As a result, he received his guest with faith and respect and gave him a share of the food. The brahmana ate to his satisfaction and went away.

Now King Rantideva again prepared to break his long fast, but just as he was about to take his first bite, a low-class laborer entered the palace. King Rantideva could also see Krsna dwelling in the heart of this sudra, so he gave him a portion of the food as well.

After the sudra had gone away, a bearded and bedraggled man surrounded by a pack of dogs arrived before King Rantideva. "O King," he said, "my company of dogs and I are very hungry. Please give us something to eat." With great respect King Rantideva gave what was left of his food to the dogs and their master.

Now only some drinking water remained, and there was only enough for one person. When the king was just about to drink it, a candala (a dog-eater, the lowest of men) appeared before him and said, "O King, although I am lowborn, kindly give me some drinking water."

Touched by these pitiable words, the good-hearted King Rantideva said, "By offering water to maintain the life of this poor candala, I shall not be the loser -- by this act of charity I shall free myself from all hunger, thirst, fatigue, and illusion.
"I do not pray to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna for the powers of mystic yoga, nor for salvation from repeated birth and death in the material world. I want only to stay on this earth among all the living creatures and suffer all their pains for them. In that way they may be freed from all distress."

The ravages of hunger and thirst had brought King Rantideva to the verge of death, and yet he gladly gave even his last drop of water to the wretched candala. Just then Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, and other great demigods appeared before the king and revealed that it was they who had presented themselves as the brahmana, the sudra, the candala, and the man with the dogs.

The demigods were very pleased with King Rantideva and wanted to bestow great wealth and opulence upon him. But the king had no desire to enjoy such things. He simply wanted to keep his mind focused on the lotus feet of Lord Krsna and render devotional service unto Him.

Rantideva knew that Krsna is the eternal master of all the demigods and that the demigods' gifts are temporary -- they pass away with the passing of time. A pure devotee, King Rantideva cared only about his eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Lord.

 

 

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Happiness is a Heart Full of Devotion

November 22, 2010
Sri Vrindavana

I escort a small group of visiting western pilgrims on my favorite Vrindavana hike. Just a mile from the temple, a secluded forest path paralleling the Yamuna escorts us past the multitude of Vrindavana flower garden farms. Just as pleasing as the beautiful farms are the scattering of locals who occasionally cross our path greeting us warmly with a Vrindavana hello, "Jaya Radhe!"

Unfortunately, the worst floods in nearly forty years have wiped out this season's crop and even destroyed many of the flower bearing trees. Still, the beauty of Vrindavana is evident.

We continue our walk. An extraordinarily blissful farmer is walking our way. His beaming smile and glistening eyes reflect a happy heart. His joy is radiant. I feel impelled to stop and meet this beautiful soul. I am surprised to learn of his deep troubles:

"My farm was wiped out by the floods. I lost two lacs rupees. It took many years to develop the farm and it will take at least a year to sufficiently rebuild it."

"Do you have family," I ask.

"I have four daughters and a son."

I listen with sadness, but I am puzzled. How can such unbounded joy still shine in his smile? I ask him. We are stunned by the depth and beauty of his simple expression of bhakti.

"Happiness is a heart full of devotion!"

 

 

 

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Recognizing an incarnation

 

 

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Vaisnava Relationships

The modes of ignorance is actually affecting our behaviour and it is very difficult in the association of the vaisnavas to learn how to behave properly. But this is exactly what we have to learn. We have to truly become favourably disposed to it's everyone. So that is when we see great personalities – that is their nature. They are favourably disposed to it's everyone, and you see someone like Prabhupada – even he could chastise someone, but they still felt that actually he is very very merciful and kind, because underneath it he was totally favourably disposed. So this is a great point in spiritual life.

As the years go by – this becomes more and more prominent – vaisnava relationships. Day by day it becomes more important. Everyday in our spiritual life, the importance of vaisnava relationships is just slowly dawning upon us - little by little. As we are coming to the end of our life and realise that; " Actually my main fault is that I didn't do very well in the relationships of the vaisnavas. I have offended many".

And it says that a saintly person at the end of his life is inclined to ask forgiveness. Srila Prabhupada also did. He asked several of his god brothers for forgiveness.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, October 2010)

 

 

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Better Safe Than Sorry (part 2)

This morning Kadamba Kanana Swami gave a talk on transcending bodily conceptions and then there was a very interesting question and answer session with the Chowpatty devotees. Radhanattha Maharaja came in the afternoon and the both Maharajas enthused everyone at the Sunday Feast programme. As the pic shows, it was fully packed!!!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)

The life of a devotee who is living in this highly contaminated age, when all around us so many things are going on and we see so much contamination, we must be careful. Therefore accepting service is risking in general, of course as a teacher you may sometimes accept service, Brahmanas accept service from those who are their students, like they bring some rice, Vaishnava's also accept service when they act in the role of a teacher. But one must be very powerful to absorb sinful karma - it is not a light thing.
Srila Prabhupada was sometimes very liberal. In one case, there was a family which was not completely vegetarian but the lady in the house, she was herself vegetarian but her husband was forcing her to cook meat, so she once cooked a preparation for Prabhupada and it was offered to Prabhupada and then the devotees explained the situation.
Prabhupada said: "What can we do? If I don't accept, How will she make spiritual advancement?"
So Prabhupada accepted, but one must be very pure to be able to do such a thing otherwise one certainly becomes overwhelmed by all these sinful reactions. Therefore we are strict - better safe than sorry because so many lifetimeS, since time immemorial in the material world.,,


Some devotees go to bhrigu readers to find out who they were in the past. Usually they were some prince somewhere, or some sanyassi or a vaishnava who was not quite successful in his past life, that's a little suspicious to me because never there is someone who was a dog outside the temple who was fed Prasadam. So, it sounds that the bhrigu readers are reading something in between the scrolls - we might consider that if we were vaishnava's in our past life than that simply indicates we failed and that we were not successful. Because a vaishnava is meant to return back to Godhead. A vaishnava has no other aim, no other objective in life and the "additional bring in a hand luggage in and what you want to bring some rings and get married that's fine but all within the confines of the scriptures , and beyond one cannot do anything that risks returning back to Godhead this very life time - that is our aim.
Some devotees may be fanatic, some devotees may be relaxed, some devotees may be strict, some may be loose. Whatever we are, ultimately the criterion is to go back to Godhead. If one becomes fanatic then there is a risk in the cause of service that one becomes insensitive to other vaishnavas and then one might inadvertedley commit vaishnava aparada - because fanaticism is insensitive. Fanaticism is not good and being too loose is also not good - too liberal is also not good. One must be careful, therefore when I am speaking I am not speaking in a fanatic mood or an overly strict mood when I am saying that the purpose of our life is going back to Godhead.
What else are we here for and if that hasn't become our priority yet then it simply means that we are covered by ignorance.
Then we are still sink in the forgetfulness of the goal of life, then we are bound up in the material energy and then we may fail this lifetime. It is a very high goal to attain perfection in devotional service not easily to attain at all, it takes a very serious endeavour and that we cannot ignore and one cannot say:
"May be I will take a few life times, maybe it's too difficult to do it in one, I guess I choose for a few" - What is the guarantee it's going to be few. It may very easily at the end get covered over and we may stay in the material for such a long time. So, we cannot take the risk, we have to go back to Godhead this life time.... (cont'd in part 3)

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)

 

 

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The spiritual world within the material world

This land of Lord Krsna is His great and causeless mercy upon us because if we contemplate for a moment then what an amazing gift this is! The living beings have since time immemorial, anadir bahir mukhe, have turned away from Krsna for such a long time. Although Krsna is known as atmarama, He is known as one who is satisfied within and He is not dependent on anything else for satisfaction but we are always dependent; never can we be satisfied independently. But Krsna, He can be satisfied independently and yet still Krsna is feeling something lacking when some of the living beings have turned away from Him and have not joined His eternal pleasure pastimes. So Krsna thought to Himself, "let Me give them some mercy," as anyone one would do. What would we do if our son who's grown up would leave home and become totally degraded, somewhere in Mumbai or some place like that? Totally degraded and what can we do? He will not listen to anyone is such a state but we are always remaining his well wisher and we want to do something to give him some mercy. Krsna, in the same way, was thinking, "let me give some mercy, something…" Then He thought, "why something? I will not give them something, I will give them everything!" and then He manifested the entire spiritual world, within the material word. This is where we are! This Vrndavana is the spiritual world!

Read entire transcript

 

 

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Better Be Safe Than Sorry (part 1)

Kadamba Kanana Swami and I left Mayapur and arrived at Chowpatty temple at 7pm last night. This morning Maharaja led the Kirtan and then lots of enthused devotees came to the temple for the Srimad Bhagavatam class and question and answer session.
Stay Tuned for more transcripts of the class!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
In the human form of life one is responsible for one's actions therefore the king was responsible for acting in this way although somehow or other he was cursed by a great sage.
It is a fact we see that in the description of Ajamila, the Yamaduttas are about to take Ajamila and the Vishnuduttas stopped the Yamuduttas from doing so because Ajamila had chanted the Holy Name.
Therefore the Vishnuduttas ascertained that Ajamila was sinless and subsequently the actions of the Yamuduttas was highly inappropriate - in due course of time Yamaraja personally came and begged pardon for the actions of his servants - because one is responsible for the actions of his servants and even if one's servants are not acting appropriately then one has to take reactions.
Saudasa had servants. When you have servants then there is the risk that you become involved in all kinds of possible reactions even although you, yourself have no intentions to act in such a way, you get the actions of the degraded actions of your servants.
In this case a somewhat extreme case, a servant starts to feed human flesh to a sage like Vaisista and that's not something that happens probably every-day! But the risk is there that the servant will misbehave - Therefore one who wants to have comforts in life has to also be prepared to take risk of having the reactions. So many people have servants - it's common also here in Mumbai we don't have to go quite far to find servants who have some function - some are in the kitchen, they are cooking. But even if they don't add human flesh to whatever they cook still if it is not offered to Krishna, then it is simply only sin...


It is only that which is offered to the Lord, that's what is required, that can free us from sinful reactions. Therefore a devotee is very careful in who is cooking and will not just take anything from anywhere, knowing very well that one becomes contaminated by eating food stuffs by a person who is impure…
We can see also in the Mahabharata, the situation where Bhishma was in the assembly of the Kurus and it was that time when Draupadi was mistreated and Dushasana tried to disrobe Draupadi and - Bhishmadeva, the upholder of Dharma, the best, the topmost of the Kshatriyas, one who was completely the defender of Dharma didn't do anything to protect Draupadi.
How was it possible? The explanation is offered that, Bhishmadeva was also been given some contaminated food stuff and his consciousness became effected. So it's very interesting that we may eat here and there, eat this and that, what can be done. Hungry, hungry!!!. When the need arises then we go for it, but such things have an effect on our consciousness. One may read the labels and it says the ingredients are all vegetarian -but it is not the best.
One of our life members had a chips factory and he had insisted once on taking me to the factory. There was the production line, there was a truck coming in with the potatoes and that was going into some big bins and there it was sprayed and cleaned and then the potatoes went on to the conveyor belts they were going over roles, they were pealed and next moment they were dried and sliced, then the slices went under hot air and next moment into a hot dip and spices were blown by hot air and then fresh spicy chips and then ………..there were the workers crunch… crunch.. crunch eating those chips!
Next we are going to offer them to Krishna!
What if someone walks in the kitchen and sticks his gruby fingers in the preparations that we are trying to prepare for the Lord, and just puts it in his mouth, what will he do with it. We can't offer it to Krishna, it's un-offerable, we throw it to the dogs, isn't it - but chips we offer it every-time. So in this way we must be very conscious of our activities not only in the field of eating but in general we must be very careful and diligent to secure that we are safe on the spiritual platform.... (contd in part 2)


(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)

 

 

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Devotees Also Have The Right To Exist

A story about a wolf who went to the stream to drink the water, and this little lamb also came to the stream to drink some water. So the wolf said;

" Hey you dirty little lamb! What are you doing?! How dare you stick your filthy snout in my drinking water!" (laughter).

"No…..no Mr Wolf! I'm drinking from down stream from you so the water that I'm drinking is not at all contaminating your water."

"Now listen. First of all you stick your filthy snout in my water and the next thing you give me lip as well…and you did the same thing last year!"


" No Mr wolf. I wasn't born last year"

"Now that's enough - for this nonsense I will eat you!"

So, we see how envy includes the fact that we don't let someone exist. You can be here in the temple – but you cannot exist: You cannot be your self: You have to be an exact copy of me… but in a more humble version (laughter). And in this way you have to behave exactly according to my world, because I am senior and I won't let you exist. So a lot of people in relationships do not let others exist. They impose so much upon them with their ideas. As a result they oppress others, but in the vedic culture there is the concept of prajās – that one which has taken birth has the right to exist!

Just like we have a field with grains – and the birds they come to eat. And of course some farmers stand there with their guns……..mimicking " You birds you come close to my grains. You better watch out right!"

So the birds they fly away at a distance …….and make fun of the farmer, and they will get their grains anyway. But the birds have a right to grains. The birds can take grains. It maybe that the farmer can make some arrangements to chase them away a little bit. He can put one of those scarecrows. You know with the scarecrows it's already clear that the crows already sits on one of those (laughter). So it's not very impressive. But it's a comfortable sort of landing from where you can survey the grains (laughter) "Which one shall I have first?"

So we don't have a right to kill the birds or chase away the birds. The birds have the right to exist. Devotees also have the right to exist, that's even more difficult than birds right? Other devotees in the temple they have the right to exist.


(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, October 2010)

 

 

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Compassion?

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2010, Melbourne)


What is compassion? How can one be compassionate? Is it a sentiment? Hm?
Compassion only really begins if we appreciate that we have something better. If we have something better then we can be compassionate. Otherwise you can go out on book distribution and you can see all your old friends sitting on a terrace somewhere, like drinking outside in the sun, and you can feel compassion for who? Yourself! You have to stand out there with those books in the street, and everyone else is having a good time. Yeah, That's how it is!.
But if we are convinced that we have something better, then we can develop compassion for others...


Then we can experience real compassion.
The more we are relishing Krishna consciousness, the more compassionate we can be; the more we can preach very easily - because we are relishing!
We are relishing our Krishna consciousness; it's so wonderful!
"Please, take some mercy!"
"No no, I don't want to.."
"That's okay!"
Nobody wants it, but they take anyway. Right?
"Take!"

Somehow or other, just give it to them. Right?
When we are full of relishing this Krishna consciousness, then naturally we will want to give it to everyone and then naturally people start appreciating also.
"They have something nice."
It's like,I bought a yellow jacket and someone said:
"Why do you have a yellow jacket?"
I said, "Because it reminds me of the sun, Some bright, positive effulgence in a world where everyone dresses in black and darkness. Krishna is like the sun."
He brings light in the darkness of this world. That is a fact. That is Krishna consciousness! It brings light in the darkness of this world. Krishna surya-sama maya haya andhakara.
Maya is just bringing us so much darkness in all directions:. suffering, burdens, difficulties, stress, anxiety, - Krishna consciousness is just lightening it all up! So if we get absorbed here in the temple -herewhere we are free to worship Krishna, and if we drink it, then compassion will follow.

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2010, Melbourne)

 

 

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Distributing Books in the Hospital

One thing the devotees did in the Netherlands - I was new, brand new and they took me to these hospitals, in the visiting hour. There were two devotees and we would just boldly walk in with a box of books and then one would stand on a chair and would give a whole speech about the greatness of the work we were doing and helping so many people in the world and for that we were distributing these wonderful books here today and everyone was getting a promotion copy! Yes everone, and in the visiting hours in a ward there can be a hundred people - right? So everyone -a book, then we would ask for a donation and then we would look at somebody who gave a big one and we would go:
"There, take it," hold up the money and say "This gentleman gave--!"
Then everyone else started to give more money also, it was really good - A lot of books and a lot of Laksmi!

It was great -- until the moment that the nurse would walk in and with an icy voice say:
"What is going on here!?"
and then we would have to bluff our way out:
"Um, well.. We're doing the charity action!"
"Charity action? What's that?"
"No, haven't you read the letter!?"
"Letter..? Letter?"
"Yeah! You haven't read? -Yes, yes.."
"No, no"
"It's there, yes! Go check it out!"
So we send her away, and then try to escape!
If we manage to escape, then we would go one floor down and do the same thing again! I almost became a patient in the hospital, just from high blood pressure, anxiety and heart trouble!
But, somehow or other, these kind of activities save us. They save us from the material energy. They save us from the modes of material nature.
I was in total anxiety in that hospital, to tell you the truth, death scared of that icy voice of the nurse that could come any moment, and the police that would follow, and so on..
Still, looking at it now in hindsight, I must say it was very good!
It saved us from the three modes of material nature.
It saved me from dwelling on sense gratification.
It saved me from the iron grip of lust, which is otherwise so difficult to overcome.

In this way, by developing this mood of "let's give this mercy to others" we can become very strong.

Transcribed by Bhakta Frederick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2010, Melbourne)

 

 

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Wrong Way Prabhu!

Devotee: How can we check if we're going in the wrong way?

Maharaja: By not being independent, but by being in the association of the devotees- Because the devotees, they will protect us.
Therefore we stay in the association of devotees, closely.
The devotees, they will tell us if we're going in the wrong way, oh yes they will. Don't you worry! They will do that. They are very merciful. Devotees are always ready to tell us:
"You're going in the wrong way, Prabhu!" - especially the senior Vaisnavas, their instructions carry more weight, so we take shelter of them as much as possible.

Transcribed by Bhakta Fredrick
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2010, Melbourne)

 

 

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The Vaisnava Must Be Generous

At one point I became the temple president in Vrindavan, which is quite a responsibility – big ashrams and so many things. I did that for a few years. At that time I was a grhasta, and then one day early in the morning someone knocked on my door. It was Radha Govinda Swami, and he would knock on my door and then as soon as I opened it – he would offer obesciences. So I too offered obesciences. Then he would just walk away. The next day the same thing happened. For one week he came to my door and offered obesciences, and at each time I said;

" Maharaja please, Maharaja no…no..no… Maharaja what are you doing ? I'm just a grhasta and you are a Sannyasi – what are you doing?"

So after one week he said;

"No it is my duty. I must offer my obesciences. After all you are our father".

I had never thought of that - that I was the father of all the devotees. I thought that I was the temple president and in charge here and responsible of the place. But then I was the father and it had never occurred in my brain – especially Radha Govinda Mahraja's father. I had never thought of that! (laughter)....


He taught me something – since I must say that I started to think about it. That I have to be more like a father: Taking care, and being more kind: More loving and at the same time I must take charge and lead people in the right direction. So it gave me a sense of leadership – a sense of caring and not just being a good administrator.

So something changed. Instead of pulling out a manager's pocket handbook - 37 tips for efficient management. Suddenly I had to be a father. So we are not accustomed to being merciful. We are not accustomed to be a vaisnavas – we don't know what it means. We tend to become serious about our spiritual life because we want to get out of the material world, but we forget that a vaisnava is just an ocean of mercy and we maintain a certain amount of harshness. You know with our dealings, we are insensitive – we are still too self centered. Too self centered in our own experience: Our own need furthering our foreground and we just steam roll other people in human relationships.

This is the symptom of the mode of ignorance actually. This harshness – this insensitivity is due to the mode of ignorance of a vaisnava, because a vaisnava is accepting the wellbeing of others as much as his own! Therefore, a vaisnava is gentle - that means a vaisnava must be generous, and must not only think, " What about myself, but what about the other person?" That we saw in the advanced devotees who really cared for others!




(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, October 2010)

 

 

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