From: Divyangi lalita
Subject: Message from Guru Maharaj
My dear initiated disciples, siksha disciples, sheltered and aspiring disciples and other well-wishers,
Please accept my best wishes and pranams.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The Damodar month which recently went by was a great opportunity to offer lamps before the deities. I tried to do that every day this year and hope you did that too. Damodar month is also a great opportunity to engage others in this wonderful service. By simply offering a lamp to Lord Damodar, one can receive unimaginable blessings, so every year, up to the last day, please continue to try to engage as many people as possible in this auspicious sacrifice.
During my travel, I recently visited one bhakti-vriksha group in Gurgoan, Delhi. The wife had been very active and chanting but the husband had just started coming to the programs. I was introduced to the husband. He was a scientist. So, I asked him what was the subject of his research? "Pain and pain control" or "Pain management", he replied. It sounded like an interesting topic, so I asked him to explain a little more. He answered "There are various types of pain in this world. There is physical, emotional, psychological and social pain." While he was explaining, another man added," Financial pain!" Like this, he described various kinds of pain and said "After my research, where ever I look now, I simply see pain." He sees pain as all-pervasive. Nobody is free from all kinds of pain. There is always one pain or the other. Somebody may be rich and enjoy physically, but he may have marital problems or other problems that cause him anxiety or pain. Everybody has different kinds of anxiety and different kinds of pain. Krishna describes this material world as:
mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.[BG.8.15]
I took this opportunity to discuss one of my own experiences with the scientist. Once I had high fever and at that time, I was listening to Srila Prabhupada's lectures in Vrindavan on Nectar of Devotion. I felt extremely blissful listening to these lectures and although physically I was in pain, I was feeling spiritual bliss. The scientist said that in their studies, they term this as distraction. One may have physical pain and when some distraction occurs, one does not feel the pain. I had a different opinion. I said, well, you may call it distraction, but we call it divya-ananda or parama-ananda, transcendental bliss or in some cases, ecstasy in devotional service. He laughed. So, the scientists have different ways of reducing everything to a mundane level.
I kept thinking about his research. Where ever I go, I see the devotees chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and dancing blissfully. I realised how Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda have given us such a blissful process. How they have given us a positive and spiritual experience. By chanting we are able to transcend the platform of mundane pain. Naturally, some start dancing while chanting. That is very natural. Then I began to think how some people take to some mundane alternatives to deal with pain. Some take to intoxication, or some absorb themselves in sense gratification. But, these may work for a while, but then intoxication becomes another pain. One gets a hangover or falls sick afterwards or becomes anxious when one does not get one's dose of intoxication. So, in this way this is added pain which is totally unnecessary. Absorbing oneself in sense gratification to feel distracted from pain, also has its subsequent pain. So everything in this material world that gets rid of pain, also gives you pain. By being regulated in sense gratification we can control pain. We need to absorb ourselves as much as we can in the transcendental service of Lord Krishna. Srila Prabhupada was so kind that he gave us this process. He brought this divine process of Krishna consciousness to the western world and India.
In the west, Krishna Consciousness is completely new, and in India, although it is not new, many people do not know which path to follow. So Prabhupada spoke very clearly all over the world. It is a great opportunity for us to serve him. He wanted that we achieve the highest goal of life which is eternal service to Radha and Krishna. He wanted that we transfer ourselves to the spiritual world, and leave this world behind, which is simply full of pain. While we are here, he wanted that we should try to help people to get out of this painful situation, to chant Hare Krishna and be happy.
The coming Gaura Purnima festival 2014 in Sri Mayapur is expected to be very blissful and ecstatic. We have the ILS, or ISKCON Leadership Sanga, before the festival begins where one thousand ISKCON leaders from all over the world are expected to come and participate. They would meet with the GBCs and attend various seminars meant for their spiritual inspiration. After ILS is the kirtan-mela. This is the third year of kirtan-mela and kirtan leaders from all over the world would assemble to chant and lead kirtan for five days. The temple room is usually packed with devotees during kirtan-mela and they try to absorb themselves as much as possible in kirtan-rasa. This year is also the year of the Maha-abhiseka of Sri Sri Pancha-tattva, which falls once every five years. The life-size deities of Panchatattva will be bathed. To witness that bathing is a great transcendental joy. I am already thinking of how to engage many devotees in various services. This year is also the 25th anniversary of walking Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama. We went with Srila Prabhupada on parikrama in the early years and for many years we went by bus. So this is the 25th year of the walking parikrama. That also promises to be an ecstatic program.
In this way, the Gaura Purnima Festival is filled with different festivities and all the devotees who participate usually become very blissful. So, I hope to see you then. I am informing you of all this in advance because I want to be sure you get some place to stay as early as possible. Maybe already most of the places are gone. We are planning to have a campsite area this year so that devotees who would like to bring their own tents can have facilities to camp out. We would have public toilets and bathing facilities for men and women separately. Somehow we are trying to facilitate as many devotees as possible.
Your well wisher always,
Jayapataka Swami
Source: JPS Live(Facebook)
Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go:
1. GIVE UP YOUR NEED TO ALWAYS BE RIGHT
There are so many of us who can't stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It's just not worth it. Whenever you feel the 'urgent' need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: "Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?" Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?
2. GIVE UP YOUR NEED FOR CONTROL
Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.
"By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning." Lao Tzu
3. GIVE UP ON BLAME
Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don't have, for what you feel or don't feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.
4. GIVE UP YOUR SELF-DEFEATING SELF-TALK
Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don't believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it's negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.
"The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive." Eckhart Tolle
5. GIVE UP YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS
about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!
"A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind" Elly Roselle
6. GIVE UP COMPLAINING
Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It's not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.
7. GIVE UP THE LUXURY OF CRITICISM
Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.
8. GIVE UP YOUR NEED TO IMPRESS OTHERS
Stop trying so hard to be something that you're not just to make others like you. It doesn't work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you're not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.
9. GIVE UP YOUR RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don't resist it."Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls" Joseph Campbell
10. GIVE UP LABELS
Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don't understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. "The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about." Wayne Dyer
11. GIVE UP ON YOUR FEARS
Fear is just an illusion, it doesn't exist – you created it. It's all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place."The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt
12. GIVE UP YOUR EXCUSES
Send them packing and tell them they're fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.
13. GIVE UP THE PAST
I know, I know. It's hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.
14. GIVE UP ATTACHMENT
This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it's not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn't mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another, attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can't be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.
15. GIVE UP LIVING YOUR LIFE TO OTHER PEOPLE'S EXPECTATIONS
Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people's expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves. You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don't let other people's opinions distract you from your path.
Yours
Dinesh
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