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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

Falling into a blind well full of snakes

By associating with material desires one after another, I was following the general populace by falling into a blind well full of snakes.

--
Best Regards,
Dinesh


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Instant gratification & instant suffering


Instant noodles, instant coffee everything we need instantly in today's fast moving world. And finally what's the end result? Instant karmic reaction which is only multiplying the pain that we already have. People who are thoughtful can understand the defect of material sense gratification. We want to enjoy our senses right now & get pleasure. But the material nature won't allow us to do so beyond a limit. The more we try to enjoy the senses, the more we suffer. That's how this world is designed. 

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires-that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still-can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.

Bhagavad Gita#2.7


--
Best Regards,
Dinesh


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Humility and love of God

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Untitled Lecture)
pancatattva1
The quality of humility and the quality of being able to develop love of God come together. It is not possible to develop love of God if there is no humility in our hearts. A person who is proud, how can he hear!? His ears are blocked because he is overwhelmed by his own ideas that he cannot even hear what everyone else says. But if one is humble, then one can think, ‘Yes, I need mercy.’
So a humble personality is eager to hear and being eager to hear from superior personalities also brings about special dynamics. When people are eager to hear then the mature vaisnava who speaks opens up his heart. He will automatically, by the eagerness of the audience, become very enthusiastic and he will find that there are so many realizations in his heart that he did not even know he had! Because in the relationship between vaisnavas, the mood is very intimate and close and one of deep friendship; a mood of acceptance. An envious person cannot accept.
An envious person will always find some reason not to accept others, he will always find some quality that is not allowed, something wrong, ‘You can’t sit like that, you can’t look like that, you can’t speak like that…’ and so on and so on. Just on some external feature, an envious person will reject. Basically anyone who is not supporting them, adoring them, recognizing their greatness – such persons are undesirable.
So humility is the quality where one is ready to see good in others and recognizes that everyone can make a contribution which can be appreciated. So amongst vaisnavas there is an atmosphere of appreciation.

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Are you not controlled by God if you are an athiest?


What if you are an athiest & don't believe in God & His words? Are you not controlled by God if you become athiest?

The answer is 3 modes of material nature. The modes of goodness, passion and ignorance drive those who don't take shelter of the Lord. What we consider as our thoughts, likes, gut feelings, desires that are arising out of our mind are a reflection of the combination of the modes of nature we are associating with. So it's not us but the provocation of the modes within us. We don't have to react to these provocation.

Mind predominantly reflects the modes that we into. These modes are binding us and covering our real need & love. All the emotions in relationships, attachment to people places things are all from these dirty modes. So in any case we are controlled either by the Lord directly or indirectly by His material nature.

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Seeds of sinful desire arising from material association

Rising like waves from material association, these bad effects mass into a great ocean of misery.

PURPORT

The deluding potency, māyā, is the Lord's own energy and can thus overcome even a powerful sage. As Lord Kapila declares, "Among all kinds of living entities begotten by Brahmā, namely men, demigods, and animals, none but the sage Nārāyaṇa is immune to the attraction of māyā in the form of a woman" (Bhāg. 3.31.37). One should not flirt with māyā, thinking that one can transgress a little and then pull back later if it gets too rough. Until we are completely liberated we maintain seeds of destruction within us, and we should not allow them to grow by bad association.

Once Śrīla Prabhupāda learned that some of his initiated disciples had indulged in their former habits of smoking marijuana. Prabhupāda said that this was due to bad association, and he gave the example of bedbugs. During winter, bedbugs seem to disappear from your bed, but in due time they emerge and again bite you and grow fat on your blood. Similarly, a transcendentalist's kāma may seem to be entirely subdued, but it is actually present in a very reduced state. If given a fresh opportunity, his material desires will strike again. On another occasion, Śrīla Prabhupāda referred to "hippy seeds." Having noticed one of his brahmacārī disciples with long hair, he said the disciple's old hippy tendencies were now sprouting in the form of long hair.

So it is good to be afraid of even a little bad association and avoid it at all costs. But one may question whether this attitude is at odds with the compassionate mood of the preacher. If the preacher associates with materialists, won't he become like them? The answer is that a preacher must be strong in his Kṛṣṇaconsciousness to prevent becoming contaminated. If he follows the rules and regulations of bhakti-yoga — including association with devotees, chanting and hearing the Lord's glories, avoiding sense gratification, and so on — then he will be able to preach without falling down. Acting as the spiritual master of Lord CaitanyaĪśvara Purī gave him instructions that in truth are directed at us: "My dear child, continue dancing, chanting, and performing sańkīrtana in association with devotees. Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting kṛṣṇa-nāma, for by this process You will be able to deliver all fallen souls" (Cc. Ādi 7.92). Similarly, Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed his disciples to be compassionate preachers:

One who is not very expert in preaching may chant in a secluded place, avoiding bad association, but for one who is actually advanced, preaching and meeting people who are not engaged in devotional service are not disadvantages. A devotee gives the nondevotees his association but is not affected by their misbehavior. Thus by the activities of a pure devotee even those who are bereft of love of Godhead get a chance to become devotees of the Lord one day. [Cc. Ādi 7.92, purport]

Śrīla Prabhupāda sometimes told the following story to illustrate how one may mix with nondevotees and yet keep one's devotional integrity:

Once a crocodile invited a monkey in a tree to come and ride on his back. The foolish monkey jumped down from the tree and soon found himself clinging to the crocodile's back in the middle of the river.

The monkey asked the crocodile, "Where are we going?"

The crocodile replied, "I'm going to take you home, where my wife will cut out your heart and we will eat you for lunch!"

The monkey replied, "But I left my heart back on shore in the tree. Will you please let me get it?"

The crocodile thought this was a good proposal and allowed the monkey to touch shore. But the monkey jumped into his tree and refused to accept further invitations from the crocodile.

The moral of this story: You may associate with the nondevotee, but don't give him your heart.

Preachers living in ISKCON temples follow this advice daily. They rise early and gather for mańgala-ārati before the temple Deities, chant kīrtana and japa, hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class, and honor prasādam in the association of devotees. Strengthened by this morning program, they go out to preach in the most materialistic places in the world, offering people a chance to receive Kṛṣṇa's mercy in the form of literature, prasādam, or hari-nāma. In the early evening the preachers return to the temple for more chanting and hearing. While they are with the nondevotees, they do not compromise their devotional principles, and thus they keep their hearts aloof from the modes of material nature and bad association.

Of course, if a preacher finds himself being overwhelmed by the material energy, he should save himself instead of allowing māyāto swallow him up while he's trying to save others. But Nārada's advice against bad association does not mean that those who are strong enough to preach should not approach the Jagāis and Mādhāis of this world and humbly offer them the holy name and transcendental literature. If devotees don't approach them, how will the fools and rascals be saved?


- Srila Prabhupada
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