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Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna

Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna
Gopis performing Devotional Service to the Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna

Protection From Falldown (part4)

Protection From Falldown (part4)


HH KKS: Therefore entanglement in the material energy must be avoided as much as possible, as much as reasonable. Vaishnavas may choose an ashram… they may choose any of the four ashrams and particularly a brahmacari is in a position of choice. A sanyassi, once the choice is made, has no choice…..there is no question of any change, even a vanaprastha can not go back, the vanaprastha has a choice to stay a vanaprastha or to become a sanyassi , but there is no choice of going back to the grhasta ashrama. A grhasta has a choice also, for vanaprastha and sanyassa, but can not go back to the brahmacari ashrama, it is not possible. So brahmacari..all choices are open and become a grhasta after that and then vanaprastha. But that choice is certainly not a matter of taste …not that what is my inclination, is my inclination to be in the grhasta ashrama, that a brahmacari should do some soul searching and find out what is my nature, what is my tendency and that he should apply some psychology to judge whether he sould be a brahmacari or a grhasta ..no……the first premise is that better stay a brahmacari……right…better stay free from entanglement, that is the preferred choice …because after all the goal of life, the goal of life is to return back to Godhead. So a brahmacari is organising his life to cent percent engage in activities to go back to Godhead , that is his duty …a brahmacari has no other business than to engage in activities which are directly related to going back to Godhead.…………….A grhasta may have to sometimes make so many material arrangements which are not directly part of devotional service…..just like Srila Rupa Goswami explains in the Nectar of Devotion in the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu that the …dasya… refers to all the activities which are engaged in devotional service for the pleasure of Krishna including service to the deity, including chanting of the holy name including meditation of the Lord and all different services to the Deity and for the Vaishnavas, all these activities constitute devotional service in dasya…but not that activities such as bathing, the fundamental basics…..taking care of the body, these are not directly constituting the purificatory activities …they are secondary duties that are also to be performed ..but they themselves are not transcendental activities ………………………However when the person is transcendentally situated then such activities also become transcendental. So a grhasta has to do many more of such activities: Grhatsa has to maintain a house, has to do so many activities to maintain the house …..so all these things are part of the realm of material entanglement………….. now when that grhasta dedicates his life to the service of Krishna then even maintaining that big house for the service of Krishna and resting in that house for the service of Krishna and so on is also transcendental and can also be purifying …even then such a house is not detrimental to devotional service ….but the risk is there ….the risk is there that one is not using it merely for the service of the Lord but also for sense enjoyment …because such a house offers a large variety of sense enjoyment and therefore one can easily utilise that facility to take a little break from direct devotional service and engage in some sense enjoyment in the name of "I'm just keeping body and soul together."
When it come to material existence that is actually the duty of a Vaishnava to maintain body and soul together… and that is as far as material duties ought to reach. Sometimes this is observed as being fanatic …when we are minimising material existence to merely keeping the body and soul together …but that is actually not a fact. From the pure spiritual point of view this is not at all the case. To do anything more for: 'the body or for our temporary existence and to keep body and soul together' is actually risking to return, risking bondage in the material world …therefore it is not recommended. A Vaishnava therefore would prefer a renounced postion, as Bharata Maharaja chose, right, but renunctiation in itself , then again is not at all glorified in the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu …….. Rupa Goswami is pointing out that renunctiation is only slightly helpful in the beginning of devotional service , only slightly helpful in the beginning of devotional serice …so you wonder is it even worth it? …Rather ….devotional service is in itself the means to become free from material entanglement and that by becoming totally absorbed in devotional service . whether one is in a renounced position or whether one is in a ..another position ….it is actually not very essential at all…rather one should fill all his time with devotional service ….and that is the essence ….and so from that perspective looking again at the question whether Bharata Maharaja should have pulled the deer out or not….we can see that it doesn't really matter..! (More in part 5)



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A conclusion on marriage

A conclusion on marriage

Kadamba Kanana Swami

(Srimad Bhagavatam 7.14.1, 20 December 2011, Cape Town, South Africa)

Question:

In the purport (SB 7.14.1), Prabhupada first explained the bramachari, vanaprasta and sannyasa ashrams and then at last he said, grhasta ashram for those who are so attached to sex life. So it sounds like the only reason to go to grhasta ashram is lust. Is that what it is?

Answer:

Well, generally speaking it is. But sometimes, even self-realised souls came to the grhasta ahram to fulfil a purpose of the Lord, that also happens. Srinivasa Archarya, for example, had two wives but he was fully self-realised; he was seeing the spiritual world. That was an arrangement of the Supreme Lord. But for most of us, well you know…

The thing is this, you are perfectly happy all by yourself and then suddenly some sex desire begins to arise and then one comes to desire to have a relationship with someone. But some people may say that's not all there is to it, there is also companionship. Alright, I agree with that – companionship is important. We cannot just be alone in this world, we need to have other people but I think marriage, and I say that after 24 years of having tried it, that marriage is an unnatural arrangement!

I'll explain why. I think that to give someone else so much right to just infringe on your privacy is too much. See, if you are not married to someone, you can nicely and politely say: Thank you very much. I need a little time for myself.

But you can't say that to your wife… I mean, you can say it but my God, see what's coming next!

You never spend any time with me… you have no interest in me whatsoever… you completely cold and uninterested… always pre-occupied with other things!

And you are thinking: I just want to finish my rounds.

So it doesn't allow you this privacy that you naturally need. It's very intense. So it's an unnatural arrangement, this infringement on privacy. As far as companionship is concerned, I think there is a need for that but I wouldn't recommend marriage as the solution for that.




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Marriage is not eternal!


Marriage is not eternal!

(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, April 2012) Lecture: CC Madhya-lila 200-250

Marriage is not eternal. I'm sorry to break the romance but it is not eternal. Marriage is like a support situation, it's like a secondary vow. We are taking our initiation vows as the primary vows and those are essential for our going back to Godhead. Then if we have some material entanglement (in terms of desires) then all right, we get married to create a support situation. But just getting married will not take us back to Godhead. So, in that way marriage is only a secondary vow, since it is the initiation vow that is the essence.

Source : http://www.kksblog.com/2012/05/marriage-is-not-eternal/#lightbox/0/

--
Yours
Dinesh

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Hare Krishna Kirtan By Krsna Kishore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfARGrHm4Q8
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Man made machines. Modern man made himself a machine&put in the hands of evil

Man made machines. Modern man made himself a machine&put in the hands of evil
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