From: Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das)
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble pranams! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
The following is in continuation 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 King Pururava sat down to contemplate on his condition and he had a lot of wonderful realizations. Here we continue the same.
Pururava then said, "What is the value of this polluted body anyway? It is only made up of bile, pus, stool, urine and blood. Actually it has no value." Krishna tells Uddhava that thinking this way, Pururava attained renunciation in his heart and by sitting down and meditating, he became remorseful. Once he became remorseful, he became repentant and then he sat down to meditate on Krishna and not on Urvashi. Finally because of renunciation, he became a peaceful man. Maharaj said of all the 24 gurus that the Avanti Brahmana sings, the one guru we should remember in relation to this story is the hawk.
The hawk flew into the sky after getting a piece of meat and he thought he can eat very peacefully. The piece of meat was the object of his senses and he wanted to satisfy the senses. The moment he got the meat, 10 other hawks came and attacked him in the sky and they wanted the piece of meat. That became the object of everyone's desire. So they all attacked the object and the hawk kept thinking how am I going to get away from this? There is no peace. How to eat? Then he decided there is only one solution. He dropped the meat like a ton of weight. The moment he dropped it, all the hawks ran after the meat and this hawk became free and in that freedom, he became peaceful. In the renunciation, he became elevated. You know what Prabhupada says about renunciation in Bhagavatam. He says, "We renounce not because we are losing. We renounce because we are winning". Think about it. A devotee renounces something to get something better. We have renounced material life because spiritual life is much sweeter, but the whole world thinks we are renouncing because we are losers. That is why we are renouncing. So a true devotee renounces for something higher. So the hawk could fly higher without the meat and he found another piece of meat. Whilst the other hawks were fighting, he sat down peacefully and he ate and he became free.
So whenever the object of our desire becomes the object of our frustration, Maharaj says, JUST DROP IT and leave. I remember at this point Vaishnava seva prabhu and myself, 5-10 years ago, Maharaj told us to go to Jamnagar and start preaching and we went there, looked around, found a nice man and he had a nice land. So we started cultivating him and his land was there and we were thinking if this land comes to us, we can build a beautiful temple for Krishna. So that way we went on and on and we kept telling Maharaj, "Please come and meet this man so that we can get the land." Maharaj kept telling us "Time is not there. It is okay. I'll wait. You continue". So like that we were building up and building up and one day, Maharaj came to Jamnagar and we went to the land and did nice kirtan and everything. We were ready and we were saying that definitely this nice gentle man will give Maharaj the land. Now at the point that the gentle man showed us all the positive views that the land is going to be ours, finally when Maharaj sat down with him, Maharaj asked him a straight forward question. "Are you interested in giving the land for us?" He said, "Actually I have to consult my mother. I am not sure whether my mother will say 'Yes or No.'" Before he could finish his sentence, Maharaj got up and said, "Keep the land. We are going." He got into the auto and Vaishnava prabhu and myself ran after Maharaj and said, "Maharaj, you convince him. What are we doing?" Maharaj said, "This land is not the object of our desire. This land should be used for Krishna. Krishna does not want because this man is hesitating. We should walk away." We said, we worked so hard to get the land. Maharaj said, "It's all about you. It's not about the land. That is why you are frustrated. In the guise of bhakti you wanted fame. You wanted credit. You thought this land will be big achievement and it was exactly the opposite." Maharaj just walked away from the land and Maharaj said, "When Krishna does not want to give something, you must renounce it. When there is even slightest hesitation over something, please drop it like a ton of weight. When something is going to cause you agitation, please walk away from it." Maharaj perfectly showed it in his life. He just walked away from the land and he told us, "You just wait and see. Krishna does not want the land. So we do not want the land. Krishna wants something bigger than that land. So we want what Krishna wants. Now go back and read Bhagavatam and become peaceful."
The day Dwaraka project finished, myself and Vaishnava seva prabhu thought we will have two days holidays. So we went up to see Maharaj upstairs in Dwaraka and we said, "Maharaj, program is finished. All the guests have gone. Everything is done. Myself and Vaishnava prabhu are thinking that we will just stay in Dwaraka for 2 or 3 days and do some nice chanting." Maharaj said, "Rascals, you stop this nonsense. Now it is 11 am in the morning. You take the 2 pm train to Rajkot". We thought we had just finished our program. But Maharaj said, "Go immediately to Rajkot, sit on the land and start kirtan. Now we have to start building a temple in Rajkot". We said, "Maharaj don't you want to spend a few days here in Dwaraka?" Maharaj said, "I am leaving in the afternoon. My work is done. Why should I sit around with this now? We have done something, offered it to Prabhupada. Now we walk away from it. It is not ours". That is when we realized what Maharaj meant. If we think a program is ours, if we think a land is ours, if we think that devotional service is ours then it becomes material. But if we believe that a program is actually Krishna's, that it belongs to our spiritual master, then we will never be attached to the program but we will be attached to the service we must render when we go to the program and more importantly we will never be attached to the result of the service that is done. Materially it will look like it is successful, or it is a failure, but that result is not in our hands. Maharaj taught us that it is in Krishna's hands.
Before Maharaj left this world, he gave us direction that, "You build a beautiful temple." He said, "I can finish the temple actually before I leave". But you need to have some engagement. So you build the temple and after you build the temple, Devaki, you just offer it to Prabhupada because I wanted to offer it to Prabhupada. All of you offer it to Prabhupada on my behalf and I will be very happy. Now once you finish that, you just pack up and you walk away, you find a tree, sit under the tree and you read Bhagavatam and you be peaceful. It is done. If the authorities allow you to continue in the temple, please continue. If the authorities say Bhagavatam should be read in this temple, continue. If authorities say, 'we are not interested in Bhagavatam, we want to collect money for temple', you please pack up your bags and say 'Haribol', take your Bhagavatam, go under a next tree and you start reading there and that tree will become a temple." So Maharaj taught us a very powerful point and this is Aila Gita. Whose property is your body? It is the property of your spiritual master. That is the answer to this question. It is the property of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Prabhuji went on to explain what should be our behavior once we know that this body is the property of the spiritual master and the same shall be transcribed and offered in the next mail, Krishna willing.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi
Abudhabi.
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