Arjuna inquires, whether he should cease work altogether or work with full knowledge.

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Krishna.com eBook Club | Bhagavad-gita As It Is | Part [BG.CH5.01]

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Chapter 5

Karma-yoga-Action in Krishna Consciousness

TEXT 1:
arjuna uvaca
sannyasam karmanam Krishna
punar yogam ca samsasi
yac chreya etayor ekam
tan me bruhi su-niscitam

TRANSLATION:
Arjuna said: O Krishna, first of all You ask me to renounce work, and then again You recommend work with devotion. Now will You kindly tell me definitely which of the two is more beneficial?

PURPORT:
In this Fifth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that work in devotional service is better than dry mental speculation. Devotional service is easier than the latter because, being transcendental in nature, it frees one from reaction. In the Second Chapter, preliminary knowledge of the soul and its entanglement in the material body were explained. How to get out of this material encagement by buddhi-yoga, or devotional service, was also explained therein. In the Third Chapter, it was explained that a person who is situated on the platform of knowledge no longer has any duties to perform. And in the Fourth Chapter the Lord told Arjuna that all kinds of sacrificial work culminate in knowledge. However, at the end of the Fourth Chapter, the Lord advised Arjuna to wake up and fight, being situated in perfect knowledge. Therefore, by simultaneously stressing the importance of both work in devotion and inaction in knowledge, Krishna has perplexed Arjuna and confused his determination. Arjuna understands that renunciation in knowledge involves cessation of all kinds of work performed as sense activities. But if one performs work in devotional service, then how is work stopped? In other words, he thinks that sannyasa, or renunciation in knowledge, should be altogether free from all kinds of activity, because work and renunciation appear to him to be incompatible. He appears not to have understood that work in full knowledge is nonreactive and is therefore the same as inaction. He inquires, therefore, whether he should cease work altogether or work with full knowledge.

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Translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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Tastes Like Nectar

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Tastes Like Nectar

via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (Hina) on 10/12/10

It is said that everyday, Srimati Radharani would be requested by Mother Yasoda, to come and cook. Because she had once pleased the sage Dhurvasa Muni, and she had received the benediction, that whatever she cooked, would taste like nectar, and that whoever ate it, would never be plagued by any disease or any other discomfort.

So therefore, Mother Yasoda wanted that Srimati Radharani would come, and she sends a golden palanquin, and Radharani was carried like that while maidservants were fanning her on the way. In this way the opulence of Vrindavan was not just ordinary.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami 2nd September 2010)

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More Than Just Eating Cake

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More Than Just Eating Cake

via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (aatish) on 10/12/10

We must take shelter of our spiritual master. That is important. We must take shelter again and again otherwise we have no strength. Without taking shelter we will not be able to succeed in spiritual life, we will struggle. We will not be able to maintain our vows, or we will not be able to take vows without taking shelter. It is like that; it is crucial, it is the cutting edge.
If one wants to be on the cutting edge, that's the only way that it will work - otherwise Krsna consciousness cannot take us very far and then we become a social club:

'and it's Sunday again and it's so nice to be here! And we had such a nice birthday party last week and guess what…we're going to do it today! Yeahhhh! There were three birthdays this week and therefore we are so happy... may you never take birth again!' ...

Okay and you can have your cake and eat it too, but, 'may you never take birth again', it's nice to sing the song but how to do it? It's not so easy never to take birth again. And a slip in between the cup and the lip and before you know, another birth again! Hmmm…
So to never take birth again is more than just eating cake! It is really a matter of making a commitment of being brave, being very brave and to go before someone and to say:

'I am…yours!' It's a scary thing to do. Very scary to become someone's property- completely whatever such person says one must do! That is the nature of this guru-disciple relationship.

Transcribed by Savitri Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, S Africa Durban, September 2010)

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Some light on being Self-Restraint!

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Bhartrihari says: "For food, I have what begging brings and that too tasteless and once a day; for bed, the earth; and for attendant, the body itself; for dress, I have worn out blanket made up of hundred patches; still alas! lust does not leave me."

There is no hope for you to have Self-realisation or knowledge of the Self if you are not well established in Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is the master-key to open the realms of eternal bliss. Brahmacharya is the very foundation of Yoga. Just as a house that is built on a rotten foundation will surely fall down, so also you will fall down from your meditation if you have laid no proper foundation, viz., the attainment of perfect Brahmacharya. You may meditate for a period of twelve years and yet you will have no success in Samadhi if you have not destroyed the subtle lust or the craving-seed that lingers in the innermost recess of your heart. You will have to search out carefully this dire enemy - lust, that lies hidden in the various corners of your heart. Just as the fox hides itself in the bush, so also this lust hides itself in the substratum and corners of the mind. You can detect its presence only if you are vigilant. Intense self-examination is very necessary. Just as powerful enemies can be conquered only if you attack them from all sides, so also you can keep the powerful senses under control if you attack them from all sides, from within and without, from above and from beneath.

By Sri Swami Sivananda

Source : http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Brahmacharya/id/23506