Respectful Behaviour - Part 1

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Respectful Behaviour - Part 1

Vaijayantimala devi dasi

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

In the recent offering titled, "Offer All Respect to Others" HG Sudarshana devi dasi mataji mentioned about the importance of respectful dealings with everyone and how we should never behave in a way belittling others in any way. In Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.26 Lord Rshabhadeva gives the following instruction to His sons.

sarvāṇi mad-dhiṣṇyatayā bhavadbhiś
carāṇi bhūtāni sutā dhruvāṇi
sambhāvitavyāni pade pade vo
vivikta-dṛgbhis tad u hārhaṇaṁ me

My dear sons, you should not envy any living entity—be he moving or nonmoving. Knowing that I am situated in them, you should offer respect to all of them at every moment. In this way, you offer respect to Me.

In the synonyms, we find that Srila Prabhupada writes vivikta-dṛgbhis means possessing clear vision and understanding that the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His Paramatma feature is situated everywhere. In the purport he writes, "According to the Vedic statement: īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam [Ishopanishad mantra 1]. The Supreme Lord is situated everywhere, and wherever He is situated is His temple. We even offer respects to a temple from a distant place, and all living entities should similarly be offered respect."

In the granthraj offering, mataji had referred how Saubhari muni failed to pay respects to Garuda who is a direct servitor of the Supreme Lord. Instead in the name of being compassionate to the fishes, he cursed Garuda. There is a beautiful incident in which we see the respectful dealing by Garuda. Garuda’s mother Vinata has been enslaved by Kadru, the latter having resorted to deception, to make Vinata her slave. Kadru stipulated that the only way for Vinata to be liberated is for Garuda to get the pot of nectar which Indra keeps in his kingdom. The nectar is safeguarded carefully by Indra. But Garuda deals with all the barriers easily, and also defeats every celestial who stands in his way.

Indra, observing Garuda flying with great speed, hurled his Vajra weapon towards the bird. Garuda, despite being struck with the weapon, smiled and told Indra in polite words, “O King of the Devas, I respect the rishi (Dadhici) from whose backbone this Vajra weapon was made; I respect you too. To honour this, I will shed a single feather. But know that I have not felt any pain due to this weapon”. Saying this Garuda dropped a single feather. Beholding this act and seeing the beautiful feather, all the creatures became excited, and said, “Let this bird of beautiful feather be called ‘Suparna’ (one of fair feathers)” We see that the Lord declares in Srimad Bhagavad gIta 10.28 - “āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ - Of weapons I am the thunderbolt.” This is the respect, the Lord has for the weapon, considering the ultimate sacrifice of sage Dadhici. Reminded of this, we see that Garuda offers his honor and respect for the weapon which represents the great sage.

Krishna willing we shall try to see few more examples from scriptures which reveal to us the importance of respecting everyone.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi
Chennai

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Developing strength in chanting

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Impressions on the consciousness

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HH.Kadamba Kanana Swami, 8 December 2011, Durban South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 11.22.6)

Only working for Krsna is also not easy because after a little while, we start to experience that working for Krsna can be a burden. It may also not work. So, we must hear because without hearing, life is dry.

I have a phone like most modern people and my contract was up so I could get a new phone. “Oh my God! What do I do? Now I have to have a new phone. Oh no!” Actually, I liked my old phone… it was okay… it did the job.

Then I found out that I did not have to get a new phone… it was not required. I could just go on with my old phone… it was fine as there was no rule against that. I did and then I put in a bigger memory card in the old phone and more lectures of Srila Prabhupada and now I’m so happy! I’m so happy, not because of the phone, but because of the lectures of Srila Prahbupada and that I have access to these things. So, as we live in a modern world, we are also using material objects to help us remember Krsna. Now that is needed, everyone has to make that kind of arrangement otherwise when will we hear?

śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ
brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam (SB 11.3.21)

Sābde – transcendental sound is essential; as essential as bathing. Anyone who didn’t take a bath today? Some people take a bath once a month, yes that is possible but of course, after a while, it becomes noticeable. So, in the same way, the sound śābde pare ca niṣṇātam.

Niṣṇātaṁ – referring to ṣṇā or taking baths. One should bathe in transcendental sound, śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, again and again, because the consciousness also again and again tends to absorb material contamination.

Srila Prabhupada instituted the festivals in Mayapur and Vrndavan, and he said that devotees should go once a year to that festival. That was the idea so that they would become purified from all the contamination that inadvertently crept in.

That is an interesting topic Contamination that inadvertently creeps in. What about that!? Yes, it’s absolutely going to happen to any good practitioner of bhakti. To the sadhaka, it’s going to happen. Only the liberated soul cannot be touched by the material energy, but everyone else will become touched by the material energy. So many impressions go into the consciousness – what we see and what we hear!

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Simplify Life - Part 2

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Simplify Life - Part 2

Divyarupa devi dasi

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
This is in continuation of the transcription of class given by our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Singapore on how important it is to lead a simple life. In the previous offering we heard from Maharaj as to how according to our karmas and desires, Krishna awards our next birth. Maharaj was referring to a devotee from Switzerland who had been born in aristocratic family and had later left home in search of real happiness. By Krishna's grace he met devotees and had got Prabhupada's Gita and found that it had the answer for all his questions.
(Referring to that devotee Maharaj continued) This boy has completely washed off his hands from the material activities. So there is no way that he can survive in the material world. There is no need of going there. So he can very nicely set up, settle somewhere in our biggest community. This is the main thing. At least we should start as soon as possible. And we are also thrown into this country, whether migrated or your forefathers might have migrated. Why? There are so many living entities who are getting rotten in India. Just for earning bread. Butter, they don’t know. Only bread - they have to work 12-14 hours and travelling 3 hours each way. 6 hours again. And half dead he comes in the house. And again he goes away like a dog in the morning in search of food. I mean to say to earn the food. This is the condition of the average family in India. What to speak of the poorest family? It is very difficult to survive. Kali yuga is very acute because we are losing our piety. And because we are losing our piety, Krishna is making so many things completely difficult for us to obtain.
We people are lucky that you are thrown to Singapore and here the things are completely different from that side of Bay of Bengal. This is our luck. And if you don't utilize your human time, in remembering the Supreme Absolute Truth Krishna, then how long does He take to withdraw everything from you. He has thousands of hands. He can withdraw within no time. Thinking all these things, we should come that we should not unnecessarily increase our necessities. This increasing the necessities is putting us into the vicious circle of birth, death, disease and old age. If you decrease your necessities, then you win. Then you win.
In our limited atmosphere, now we cannot do without the lights. These lights are very bad. But even then, it is a must now. We cannot have a house without light. We remember that we were renting the houses or buying the houses. And as soon as we rented the house, nothing else was to be done. We just order the coal bag, and one coal stove and some grocery and we move into the house. That's all. Now you rent the house or you buy the house, and first beds, carpet, refrigerator, TV. He is killed before he goes to the house (laughter). And then he falls down half dead there and TV is going on (laughter) and he doesn't know what is going on, because he is completely finished before he moves into his house. This is increasing the necessities. The necessities which are not required for our life, should be completely decreased.
Krishna willing we shall try to hear more nectar from Maharaj in the subsequent offering.
Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Divyarupa devi dasi

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Simplify Life - Part 1

Posted by dinesh

Simplify Life - Part 1

Divyarupa devi Dasi

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
The following is humble effort to transcribe the nectarean class given by our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Singapore on how important it is to lead a simple life.
Maharaj: (Referring to bad tendency of taking fizzy drinks or intoxicating drinks Maharaj says..) Krishna will fulfill your desire. He says, "I will give the next body in which you always drink dirty water." And he gives us the hogs body and you sleep in the gutter and whatever comes, 'popopopop..' Nice dirty water comes you know. Because that body likes the dirty water. This is the effect of our karmas. If your karmas are pious, in the sense that you are attracted to the complete perfect whole Krishna, then you will have a bit of chance to have the human body born in śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe. (BG 6.41) śucīnāṁ means saintly family. śrīmatāṁ means rich family or you stand chance to get so much wealth, so that you become completely satisfied and then you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to toil and moil for earning the wealth. You have already bread and butter is there and then fortunately you come across again Krishna somewhere and you catch Him.
(Referring to couple of devotees Maharaj said) This boy is from, these two boys from Switzerland they are travelling and he told me today that from the childhood, he always likes to stay in the forest. He was asking his mother that, 'give me some best thing, give me better than this, I don’t want this, to work like this.' So his mother said that I don’t have any better thing. You try to find out yourself. So he is moving around since then. And somehow or the other, he came to, they came to Malaysia. And he found. He had a Bhagavad gita somehow or the other. He was studying Bhagavad Gita. He thought that this is quite nice. This is living example in front of us. These boys, they were attracted to Krishna, because they had performed the devotional service in the previous life. Otherwise why should he search?. He knew that he is searching for something. but He didn’t know that he is searching for Krishna. But Krishna has His own arrangement. When He found out that this soul is inquisitive, so He gave his birth in the country in Switzerland. And I heard about Switzerland that if you don't work, even then you get 90,000 Rs per month from the government. Isn't it? Switzerland is a very rich country. You don’t work, even then you get 100,000 nearly per month. Best to go to Switzerland Harry and I will also come as a guru. (laughter) You tell that I cannot survive without my guru and we will both go and at least 2,00,000 Rs. per month. (laughter). The richest country they were born. This is the living example that if the sadhana is incomplete, then you get the human birth, in the rich family or saintly family or saintly and rich. This is how. These boys were thrown into the richest country. And because, they should not worry about the money, so they are moving about and trying to find out what they want. And somehow or the other now he is satisfied that he has got the thing. Now it depends how to organize the life and how to live.
Krishna willing we shall try to hear more nectar from Maharaj in the subsequent offering.
Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Divyarupa devi dasi

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