Muni(Sage) without beard, in the age of addiction!

Posted by dinesh

This is an age of addiction.People are Addicted to activities that are
not bringing any Good to the self or those around the self. In other
words we find that majority of the people engaging in unpleasant
activities that are self destructive(one example is smoking or
drinking) and in most cases to the masses as well(one example is bomb
blasts).The longer the act of indulging,the tougher the act of
refraining.We are prisoners of our own will.A lusty person cant b
satisfied by anything in the 3 worlds but only frustrated of not
knowing the real wants(Love for Krishna) of the real
self(soul).Because it's a repeated delusion that one undergoes when
satisfying the senses with its Momentary pleasures,the more one
engages in Sense enjoyment,the more frustration one is sure to
experience.When the senses are engaged in Sense pleasure(in contact
with Sense objects),it gets weakened and loses the power to understand
the self and God and the situation is precarious for the soul
travelling in the chariot of material body.
When a man gives up all varieties of Sense desire which arise from
mental concoction and finds satisfaction in the self(as servant of the
Lord) alone,then he's said to be in pure transcendental
consciousness-BG#2.55
Such a person(in Krishna consciousness) is a sage even if he's without
beard.Usually our mind is accustomed to think that sage means one
should have a big beard.And this one fact is also used by miscreants
with ugly beard posing themselves as Swamis or Gurus although they are
no better than Garus(cows).

--
Yours
Dinesh

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If you renounce that, you will become peaceful - [granthraj] Just Drop It - Part 5

Posted by dinesh

From: Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das)

From: Saikumar AR

dhyaayato vishayaan pumsah / sangas teshupajaayate
sangaat sanjaayate kaamah / kaamaat krodho 'bhijaayate
krodhaad bhavati sammohah /sammohaat smrti-vibhramah
smrti-bhramshaad buddhi-naasho /buddhi-naashaat pranashyati

"While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool."

This verse must be translated into positive. How does the verse start? "While contemplating the object of the senses…." Maharaj said, "While contemplating on the words of Bhagavatam, the devotee develops attachment for Bhagavatam." This is the practical application of the verse. The secret is actually in the verse. Bhagavad Gita tells that when we contemplate on the object of senses, we develop attachment for them. So Maharaj said, "If you want to develop attachment for Bhagavatam and Krishna, you please contemplate on Bhagavatam and Krishna as the object of the senses. That is the five minutes difference between the advancing devotee and struggling devotee. What is the object of our senses? Is it Urvashi or is it Krishna? Is it Pururava or is it Bhagavatam? So the same two verses, you just change them. When you develop attachment for Bhagavatam, lust will fly out of the window and true love is settled in the heart." See the difference and in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells us that when there is lust, there will be anger. This is because lust means, we cannot satisfy our desires, so we get angry. When anger comes from lust, we become frustrated. When there is frustration, there is delusion. When there is delusion, there is bewilderment of memory. We forget what we are, we forget where we are and we just counteract. When someone insults us, we counteract.

Today I was just remembering one story Maharaj told about Buddha. Buddha was walking on the road and suddenly what happened was one man came up to Buddha and he said, "Whatever you are talking is nonsense. Whatever you are preaching is nonsense. Whatever you say, you do not practice." He insulted him like anything. He then inquired, "What do you have to say?" Buddha looked at him and he asked him, "When someone buys and gives a gift for another person, and if the person rejects the gift, whose property is the gift?" The man thought about it. First he thought it is a funny question from a man whom he had just attacked. Then he thought about the answer. "If someone I am giving a gift to, does not want it, it still remains my property." So Buddha smiled and said, "You want to transfer your insult to me. That is very nice, but I do not want your insult. I do not want to counteract. So to whom does the insult belong to?" It belongs to the man who started the insult. So Buddha said, "You keep the insult and let me be peaceful." Maharaj said that this is how we escape from "I and mine". No counteraction. The moment we counteract the material energy, we will lose. The moment a devotee says something that has nothing to do with Krishna, we will lose. Our relationships will go out of the window. That is why Maharaj said, "We tolerate like anything. We have to tolerate. We have to do only two things in spiritual life. We adjust and we tolerate. We tolerate and we adjust. The whole life is about that." This is the expert way in which we stop "I and mine". "I and mine" is much deeper than just saying, 'this is not mine.' It is much deeper.

1. The story of Pururava and Urvashi is not for other people, but it is for all of us. That is why Bhagavatam speaks about it. The question comes back to what Pururava asked, "Whose property is the body?" Now Pururava has come to the end of his journey. He is a frustrated man. He is a lonely man. But now, something has come to his heart as he sat down. What is that? Renunciation. Why? Very simple. He got slapped over and over again. Face is black and blue. Nowhere to turn. Better start becoming yogi, because bhogi days are over and now he must become tyagi. Otherwise he cannot become bhakta. So this is the way maya adjusts and tolerates us. She will adjust us in such a way that the slaps will come. Maharaj says, "When the slaps come on your faces, do not transfer the slaps to others. Then you lose. Accept the slaps and sit down and contemplate seriously about your condition. Gajendra contemplated after 1000 years of fighting with the crocodile. You and I do not have 1000 years to contemplate. Today after Bhagavatam, we may just die. Better we contemplate NOW about our condition." So Pururava sat down and he said, "For so many years, I enjoyed bodily pleasures. So many years I tried to enjoy, but I was not satisfied by the enjoyment - Just like you pour more and more ghee into the fire thinking that the ghee will douse the fire, more and more I tried to enjoy with Urvashi, the more I tried, the more frustrated I became." Maharaj says, "The more you try to exploit a devotee, the more you try to put yourself above others, the more frustrated you will become. When you are frustrated in your life, it is because you are exploiting what is given to you by Krishna. If you renounce that, you will become peaceful." Such an amazing formula to be free of frustration.

2. Pururava says what is the use of all the big education, all the great austerities, all the renunciation, what is the use of studying revealed scriptures and living in solitude and silence, if after all that, the mind is stolen by the object of one's desire? What is the use? Maharaj said, "We may read Bhagavatam till the cows come home, we may write so many slokas and study them but tomorrow if we cannot walk away from the object of our desire, then what is the point of all that?" This we should ask ourselves seriously.

3. What is the value of this human body? This is the key now. What is the value? He said, "How can I blame Urvashi for my trouble?" Actually Maharaj says, "When you renounce, you stop blaming others. When you renounce, you blame yourself. It is only when you attach, you blame everyone else. It is a very important point. Those who blame others, they are not renounced. But those who look to themselves and say, 'It is my fault', it ends there, they become renounced. Buddha never counteracted. He became completely renounced. He took the insult and he said, 'This is your gift. You keep it. I do not want it.' So when we are also insulted by devotees, or by so called devotees, we should not insult back. We should not behave in a counteractive fashion. We should absorb, tolerate, adjust and we become renounced. We become free. The problem is that the ego comes in the way and we say, "He has said something. Now I must take a stand and this is my stand." What stand you have? Your only stand is you are supposed to be the servant of the servant of the servant. Servant does not have a stand. Servant bows. He does not stand." See how nicely Maharaj put the point. So Pururava then says, "Why am I to blame Uravshi? It is my fault. I was attached to my body and everything that gave enjoyment to my body, I wanted for myself. When I did not get it, I became like a madman. So I must stop this."

Prabhuji went on to explain the further realizations of Pururava and the same shall be transcribed and offered in the next mail, Krishna willing.

Thankyou very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi,
Abudhabi.

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[granthraj] Just Drop It - Part 6

Posted by dinesh

From: Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das)

From: Saikumar AR

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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[granthraj] Just Drop It - Part 8

Posted by dinesh

From: Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das)

From: Saikumar AR

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
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

naaham ninde na ca staumi / sva-bhaava-vishamam janam
eteshaam shreya aashaase / utaikaatmyam mahaatmani

"Different people are of different mentalities. Therefore it is not my business either to praise them or to blaspheme them. I only desire their welfare, hoping that they will agree to become one with the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna."

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."

bhutair aakramyamaano 'pi /dhiro daiva-vashaanugaih
tad vidvaan na calen maargaad /anvashiksham kshiter vratam

"A sober person, even when harassed by other living beings, should understand that his aggressors are acting helplessly under the control of God, and thus he should never be distracted from progress on his own path. This rule I have learned from the earth."

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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[granthraj] Freedom

Posted by dinesh

From: Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das)

From: Abirami Nagalingam

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

In this world, everyone of us like to be free. A child going to school thinks that he/she can become free once they get out of school. A student going to college, who is taxed by assignments and exams think that he will become free once he gets a job. A person after getting job thinks that he can become free, once he retires. Not just human beings, even birds or animals trapped in cages feels very happy when they are left free. So evey living entity in every stage of life yearns for freedom. But in reality we find that we are never free and infact we are bound up more and more by the clutches of material modes. So when and how can we become free? In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.6.37, Suta Goswami very nicely glorifies Narada Muni, the transcendental space man as follows.

suta uvaaca
evam sambhasya bhagavaan / naarado vaasavi sutam
aamantrya veenaam ranayan / yayau yaadrcchiko munih

Suta Goswami said: "Thus addressing Vyasadeva, Srila Narada Muni took leave of him, and vibrating on his vina instrument, he left to wander at his free will."

In the above verse the phrase, "yayau yadrcchiko munih" means Narada Muni wandered at his free will. In his wonderful purport to the above verse, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada very nicely tells us the secret of how we can become free. "Every living being is anxious for full freedom because that is his transcendental nature. And this freedom is obtained only through the transcendental service of the Lord. A conditioned soul cannot freely move from one place to another even on this earth, and what to speak of one planet to another. But a full-fledged free soul like Narada, always engaged in chanting the Lord's glory, is free to move not only on earth but also in any part of the universe, as well as in any part of the spiritual sky. We can just imagine the extent and unlimitedness of his freedom, which is as good as that of the Supreme Lord. There is no reason or obligation for his traveling, and no one can stop him from his free movement."

Narada Muni was cursed that he will not be able to stay in any place permanently. Being a great devotee of the Lord, Narada Muni accepted the curse also as a benediction from the Lord and always engaged himself in glorifying the Lord wherever he went and helped many souls in their path of spiritual progress. Pleased by his sincere devotion Lord blessed him with complete freedom to travel anywhere and everywhere in the cosmic manifestation. Utility is the principle. The Lord bestows the freedom to do something, only when He is sure that the recepient will not misuse the freedom. We must also understand that freedom does not mean doing things whimsically and without listening to any authority. But we should be vidheyaatma - one who follows the regulated freedom, ie., stick to the regulative principles as prescribed in the shastras and thereby become free from the inebrieties of life. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita verse 2.64:

raaga dvesha vimuktais tu / vishayaan indriyaaish caran
aatma vashyair vidheyaatmaa / prasaadam adhigacchati

"But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord."

When we stick to regulative principles of freedom we can get the complete mercy of the Lord and will be able to hear the directions from the spiritual master and Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada very nicely concludes the purport with the following golden statement - "To surrender unto the Lord through the transparent medium of the spiritual master is to attain complete freedom of life."

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Sudarshana devi dasi.

__.

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