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Dinesh
Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna
Gopis performing Devotional Service to the Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna
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Dinesh
So Intimidating!!! About the hidden desires which remain for eons in the heart.
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if a devotee has a particular motive, the Lord directly or indirectly knows it, and therefore He does not leave the devotee's material desires unfulfilled
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERHis Grace Jananivas prabhu joined Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur from the beginning of the project (1972) and has been the personal servant of their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Madhava ever since. He enlivens the world by the ever increasingly high standard of the deity worship performed in Mayapur under his guidance. The world can now also benefit from his association via these classes. Prabhu never fails to bring the consciousness of the listener to a higher level, always deeper realizations. He knows the art of opening the heart to be ready to welcome devotional service. My obeisances onto him.
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.9.29
maitreya uvāca
mātuḥ sapatnyā vāg-bāṇair
hṛdi viddhas tu tān smaran
naicchan mukti-pater muktiḿ
tasmāt tāpam upeyivān
SYNONYMS
maitreyaḥ uvāca — the great sage Maitreya replied; mātuḥ — of his mother; sa-patnyāḥ — of the co-wife; vāk-bāṇaiḥ — by the arrows of harsh words; hṛdi — in the heart; viddhaḥ — pierced; tu — then; tān — all of them; smaran — remembering; na — not; aicchat — desired; mukti-pateḥ — from the Lord, whose lotus feet give liberation; muktim — salvation; tasmāt — therefore; tāpam — grief; upeyivān — he suffered.
TRANSLATION
Maitreya answered: Dhruva Mahārāja's heart, which was pierced by the arrows of the harsh words of his stepmother, was greatly aggrieved, and thus when he fixed upon his goal of life he did not forget her misbehavior. He did not demand actual liberation from this material world, but at the end of his devotional service, when the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared before him, he was simply ashamed of the material demands he had in his mind.
PURPORT
This important verse has been discussed by many stalwart commentators. Why was Dhruva Mahārāja not very pleased, even after achieving the goal of life he desired? A pure devotee is always free from any kind of material desires. In the material world, one's material desires are all most demonic; one thinks of others as one's enemies, one thinks of revenge against one's enemies, one aspires to become the topmost leader or topmost person in this material world, and thus one competes with all others. This has been described in the Bhagavad-gītā, Sixteenth Chapter, as asuric. A pure devotee has no demand from the Lord. His only concern is to serve the Lord sincerely and seriously, and he is not at all concerned about what will happen in the future. In the Mukunda-mālā-stotra, King Kulaśekhara, author of the book, states in his prayer: "My dear Lord, I don't want any position of sense gratification within this material world. I simply want to engage in Your service perpetually." Similarly, Lord Caitanya, in His Śikṣāṣṭaka, also prayed, "My Lord, I do not want any amount of material wealth, I do not want any number of materialistic followers, nor do I want any attractive wife to enjoy. The only thing I want is that I may engage life after life in Your service." Lord Caitanya did not pray even for mukti, or liberation.
In this verse Maitreya replied to Vidura that Dhruva Mahārāja, influenced by a revengeful attitude towards his insulting stepmother, did not think of mukti, nor did he know what mukti was. Therefore he failed to aim for mukti as his goal in life. But a pure devotee also does not want liberation. He is a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord, and he does not demand anything from the Lord. This position was realized by Dhruva Mahārāja when he saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead present personally before him because he was elevated to the vasudeva platform. The vasudeva platform refers to the stage at which material contamination is conspicuous by absence only, or in other words where there is no question of the material modes of nature — goodness, passion and ignorance — and one can therefore see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because on the vasudeva platform one can see God face to face, the Lord is also called Vāsudeva.
Dhruva Mahārāja's demand was for a position so exalted that it was never enjoyed even by Lord Brahmā, his great-grandfather. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is so affectionate and kind towards His devotee, especially to a devotee like Dhruva Mahārāja, who went to render devotional service in the forest alone at the age of only five years, that although the motive might be impure, the Lord does not consider the motive; He is concerned with the service. But if a devotee has a particular motive, the Lord directly or indirectly knows it, and therefore He does not leave the devotee's material desires unfulfilled. These are some of the special favors by the Lord to a devotee.
Dhruva Mahārāja was offered Dhruvaloka, a planet that was never resided upon by any conditioned soul. Even Brahmā, although the topmost living creature within this universe, was not allowed to enter the Dhruvaloka. Whenever there is a crisis within this universe, the demigods go to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and they stand on the beach of the Milk Ocean. So the fulfillment of Dhruva Mahārāja's demand — a position more exalted than that of even his great-grandfather, Brahmā — was offered to him.
Here in this verse the Lord is described as mukti-pati, which means "one under whose lotus feet there are all kinds of mukti." There are five kinds of mukti — sāyujya, sārūpya, sālokya, sāmīpya and sārṣṭi. Out of these five muktis, which can be achieved by any person engaged in devotional service to the Lord, the one which is known as sāyujya is generally demanded by Māyāvādī philosophers; they demand to become one with the impersonal Brahman effulgence of the Lord. In the opinion of many scholars, this sāyujya-mukti, although counted among the five kinds of mukti, is not actually mukti because from sāyujya-mukti one may again fall down to this material world. This information we have from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32), wherein it is said, patanty adhaḥ, which means "they again fall down." The monist philosopher, after executing severe austerity, merges into the impersonal effulgence of the Lord, but the living entity always wants reciprocation in loving affairs. Therefore, although the monist philosopher is elevated to the status of being one with the effulgence of the Lord, because there is no facility for associating with the Lord and rendering service unto Him, he again falls into this material world, and his service propensity is satisfied by materialistic welfare activities like humanitarianism, altruism and philanthropy. There are many instances of such falldowns, even for great sannyāsīs in the Māyāvāda school.
Therefore Vaiṣṇava philosophers do not accept sāyujya-mukti to be within the category of mukti. According to them, mukti means transferal to the loving service of the Lord from one's position of serving māyā. Lord Caitanya also says in this connection that the constitutional position of a living entity is to render service to the Lord. That is real mukti. When one is situated in his original position, giving up artificial positions, he is called mukta, or liberated. In the Bhagavad-gītā this is confirmed: anyone who engages in rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord is considered to be mukta, or brahma-bhūta. It is said in Bhagavad-gītā that a devotee is considered to be on the brahma-bhūta platform when he has no material contamination. In the Padma Purāṇa this is also confirmed: mukti means engagement in the service of the Lord.
The great sage Maitreya explained that Dhruva Mahārāja did not desire in the beginning to engage in the service of the Lord, but he wanted an exalted position better than his great-grandfather's. This is more or less not service to the Lord but service to the senses. Even if one gets the position of Brahmā, the most exalted position in this material world, he is a conditioned soul. Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī says that if one is elevated to real, pure devotional service, he considers even great demigods like Brahmā and Indra to be on an equal level with an insignificant insect. The reason is that an insignificant insect has a desire for sense gratification and even a great personality like Lord Brahmā also wants to dominate this material nature.
Sense gratification means domination over material nature. The whole competition between conditioned souls is based upon domination of this material nature. Modern scientists are proud of their knowledge because they are discovering new methods to dominate the laws of material nature. They think that this is the advancement of human civilization — the more they can dominate the material laws, the more advanced they think they are. Dhruva Mahārāja's propensity in the beginning was like that. He wanted to dominate this material world in a greater position than Lord Brahmā. Therefore elsewhere it is described that after the appearance of the Lord, when Dhruva Mahārāja thought and compared his determination to his final reward, he realized that he had wanted a few particles of broken glass but instead had received many diamonds. As soon as he saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, he immediately became conscious of the unimportance of his demand from the Lord to have an exalted position better than Lord Brahmā's.
When Dhruva Mahārāja became situated on the vasudeva platform due to seeing the Lord face to face, all his material contamination was cleared. Thus he became ashamed of what his demands were and what he had achieved. He was very much ashamed to think that although he had gone to Madhuvana, giving up the kingdom of his father, and he had gotten a spiritual master like Nārada Muni, he was still thinking of revenge against his stepmother and wanted to occupy an exalted post within this material world. These were the causes for his moroseness even alter he received all the desired benedictions from the Lord.
When Dhruva Mahārāja factually saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there was no question of a revengeful attitude towards his stepmother nor any aspiration to lord it over the material world, but the Supreme Personality is so kind that He knew that Dhruva Mahārāja wanted these. Speaking before Dhruva Mahārāja, He used the word vedāham because when Dhruva Mahārāja demanded material benefits, the Lord was present within his heart and so knew everything. The Lord always knows everything a man is thinking. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā also: vedāhaḿ samatītāni.
The Lord fulfilled all Dhruva Mahārāja's desires. His revengeful attitude towards his stepmother and stepbrother was satisfied, his desire for a more exalted position than that of his great-grandfather was also fulfilled, and at the same time, his eternal position in Dhruvaloka was fixed. Although Dhruva Mahārāja's achievement of an eternal planet was not conceived of by him, Kṛṣṇa thought, "What will Dhruva do with an exalted position within this material world?" Therefore He gave Dhruva the opportunity to rule this material world for thirty-six thousand years with unchangeable senses and the chance to perform many great sacrifices and thus become the most reputed king within this material world. And, after finishing with all this material enjoyment, Dhruva would be promoted to the spiritual world, which includes the Dhruvaloka.
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H.G. Jananivas prabhu speaks on S.B. 4.9.29
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Wen sombody is dead,y do v say d person has gone? It means d person is
different from d body.D body was dead even when he
was alive.It's just matter(some blood,bone,flesh thats all)&was active
with consciousness becoz of soul in it.A car moves when there's
driver.It's foolish2think car-body as driver-soul
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Yours
Dinesh
Sleeping means Sunyavadi-to make oneself zero or forget 1's
identity.When asleep,v forget v r son/husband/wife of such&such
person&in dream v create a new body or have a diff experience&is
forgotten upon a wake up.It is with this mind v(soul) travel across
bodies.Our present body is 1such,created by Mind!
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Yours
Dinesh
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010) Ashrama that's a matter of choice. There is no ashrama which is free from austerity- every ashrama brings it's austerities one has to simply adjust to it. Every ashram requires lots of adjustment but that is required for us to be successful to rise above the karma. We don't know what karma is still there, the aprarabda karma is stored within the heart - it is stored in the heart, so many sinful reactions from so many lifetimes, we don't know what is there. We don't know what reactions are still to come.
It is mentioned that Ajamila at the time of being a student, he was a brahamin. It is said that he was the best student among all the others, he was exemplary and there was no one like him. So, his teachers were very impressed by him and they were just wondering what kind of karma does this Ajamila have and so therefore one day they thought let's consult an astrologer.
So, the astrologer calculated the birth chart of Ajamila and he saw to his astonishment that soon Ajamila would go into a very dark phase and then he would fall down in his brahaminical standards and would get involved in illicit activities with a prostitute. He could see it in the chart and the teachers were shocked! ...
They knew it that, ' Yes the astrologer is qualified'
and therefore they immediately made arrangements for Ajamila to get married.
They said 'You get married' and they said:
'You just stay here in the ashrama, no need to go looking for a job.'
They made maximum arrangements for his protection, but it was not successful because the sinful reactions stored within the heart from the previous life finaly caught up with him and over took him even though the stars seemed to be good. Therefore the nature of aprarabda karma cannot be over seen and obviously in the age of kali it is already going for 5000 years, we can appreciate that we have had many births before in this age of kali and most likely during those births engaged in so many sinful activities and if some of them were human then we are responsible.
The human birth is the one birth where one is held responsible - that we have to understand. We cannot accept that things will be smooth and that we will not be attacked by possiblly strong material desires.
We were studying in Mayapur the pastimes of Dhruva Maharaja in the Bhakti Vaibhava course and I was teaching, so I was really studying and reading commentaries and this and that and then I came across in the Vishnu Purana that it is stated that Dhruva Maharaja in his previous life was a brahamana. As a brahamana he was very qualified and in due course of time he became friends with the king and in his friendship with the king, Dhruva Maharaja started to develop desires to have similar opulence as the king - and then we see in his next life he becomes Dhruva. He is denied to sit on the thrown and is denied to sit on the laps of his father and becomes very angry and what does he want? ….a kingdom greater than his father and grandfather and where did it come from?
We can see it was a desire which was already there from his previous life and he carried it with him, just see. So, we cannot expect that we will not be attacked by some very powerful material desires since the aparabda Karma is not so good in the age of Kali. The un-manifested karma stored in the heart is not so good. Therefore it will happen to us, - we will be attacked with strong desires and we will develop the inclination to act against our better knowledge.
Then we should remember that now I am a victim of external forces - this is not me. I am simply a play ball on the waves of karma. I am simply being controlled by external forces, this is not me. One has to understand that karma works in this way and we become controlled simply by previous impressions. This way one must be detached of even what may come in the future.
One already has to have a detached attitude when desires come that:
'I will not take it serious'
In this way we have to prepare a mentality that if material desire knocks on my door.
"No, sorry, no thank you, not interested - even if it is cheap I am not buying. No!"
Like that one has to fix himself. That is only possible for one who fixes himself while chanting the Holy Name. Try sincerley to conquer the mind while chanting the Holy Name and to fix our mind on hearing the chanting and if we simply do that then we can get the strength to be fixed also in ordinary dealings.
Just like inattentive chanting leads to inattentive service. I was just talking to the mridanga player of how mridanga playing is the most difficult thing.
Why is mridanga playing so difficult? It is difficult because it is not about different beats or of different bols or of different mantras, it is not about intricate rhythms, that is the secondary part - the primary part is all about hearing.
A good mridanga player is one who listens, who is totally attentive to the kirtan and is following very carefully to what he is hearing. That's extremely difficult and that is only possible if one chants attentively. If one is an inattentive chanter one will be an inattentive mridanga player for sure. One will do everything inattentive, one goes through life as if in a cloud and just walking like that in the cloud one would inadvertedly do so many things that one later wonders why did I do that and later on forgets.
The sage, who when he was a child grabbed a little stick and pierced an insect and later was visited when he was an adult suddenly in the middle of the night by these strangers that came asking for shelter. He then gave them shelter and an hour later the soldiers arrived and they were arrested - they were all thieves and they were going to kill these thieves and the sentence was that they were going to be pierced by lance. The sage was almost pierced by a lance and somehow or other it was found out and the sage was released.
The sage got so upset, How is this possible? How is this that I was almost been pierced by a lance? I am going to find out and check this out with Yamaraja. So he went to Yamaraja to find out what it was and it turned out that it was his karma as a child piercing an insect with a stick.
Alright so, we are simply attentive in spiritual life, attentive to take shelter, attentive in our chanting, attentive to take shelter, attentive to act properly, attentive to act accordingly to the desire of Krishna.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010) Srila Prabhupada says surrender is to follow all rules and regulations - because surrender means to take shelter, surrender means that one sees the need to take shelter, surrender is not a fight with one's mind and desires.
One might think that surrender is a fight with my mind and desires:
"My desires are different, I know I should surrender but I don't feel like it. I have lots of desires."
No, that's not the issue, the issues is that we have not understood how much at risk we are, how much in danger we are, we have not understand how much we need to take shelter - if we thoroughly understand that how much we need shelter, then we say :
"These desires, these are dangerous, I might get burnt, No No, not going to do it. I am going to take shelter." ...
Therefore this is the spirit that we understand that life after life we have already been in this material world. How many times have we been in touch with the devotees? We don't know, But assuming that we did, we still did not attain success but this life has to be different because this lifetime we have come in touch with Srila Prabhupada's movement - the siddhanta is crystal clear….
Somehow or other we have become connected to a glories samprdaya which has been brought to us by various acharyas who have made everything crystal clear and its Srila Prabhupada took all that and make it intelligible to us.
One time one disciple of Prabhupada was reading a book of Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja. Prabhupada was in Mayapur and Prabhupada saidto him:
"What are you reading?"
"Oh! It's a book of your Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupda"
and Prabhupada said:
"Nobody can understand the writings of my Guru Maharaja - he wrote those books for me."
So, Srila Prabhupada made it all intelligible to us, he brought it all home to us and what we all have to do is to take shelter and that's the one thing we need to do and if we don't then we are not at all safe.
Our bad kali yuga aprarabda karma, and may be some karma from the Dwarpar yuga, who knows, some karma left over from the Treta yuga and possibily some karma from the Satya yuga is still haunting us today. Therefore, we need shelter at every step, therefore we are very carefully taking shelter at the Lotus Feet of Srila Prabhupada and all the followers of Srila Prabhupdada.
In the association of the followers of Srila Prabhupada we become more fixed at his feet and all the loose screws become tighten. Everyboday has a few loose screws in this age of kali, if you know what I mean! But in the association of the followers of Srila Prabhupada gradually little by little the loose screws become tightened. So, in this way I pray that I may always serve the Lotus Feet of Srila Prabhupada in the association of his followers and servants and that I may serve their Lotus Feet. Any questions?...
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Delhi, 2010)This process of bhakti is not a process of tapsya, ..a little tapsaya in the beginning but there is so much bliss as one is advancing in Krishna consciousness. So much taste and therefore it is the process which is joyfully performed. That is the reason why bhakti is far superior than the teachings of mayavada…..
Therefore our mission is to drive out the influence of nirvesesa and sunyavada in this world and to establish the supremacy of Krishna bhakti everywhere. This must be done very forceful, very strongly, we can not be soft in this matter.
Yesterday I was reading on the plane, it was a long flight so I did a lot of reading:
There was a description where Prabhupada was asked:
"What about RamaKrishna?"
Prabhupada said: 'He is a rascal" ...
Prabhupada was not at all careful about it, he was adamant.
Prabhupada spoke very strong, he said that:
"He engaged in so much sexual activity, that he became impotent"
Prabhupada had no good words for him at all. And for Vivekenanda Prabhupada also said: "a woman monger"
He said it so strongly.
One might say how can he speak so strong but it is a fact that this is the situation in this age of kali.
Those who won't take to the process of bhakti, they can not maintain – they can not maintain because there is no satisfaction in any other path, no lasting satisfaction - Therefore there is the greatest risk that one will fall prey to the material energy, but if one fully absorbed in serving Krishna, then one will only want more and more service to Krishna and this is the perfection of life.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Delhi, 2010)
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We learn to see the material energy in connection with Krishna. We see that Krishna is behind everything and yet …Krishna never sets a foot out of Vrndavana – because the Lord is involved in His pleasure pastimes.Srila Prabhupada describes how he had a German God brother who was a sanyassi called Sadanandan Swami and he said that this swami previously was a very evolved scholar. He came to India and he took darshans in various temples – and he saw Durga Devi with ten arms, weapons in different arms, many forms of the Lord, Shiva with a trident – he saw all these various forms of the Lord and then he saw Krishna. He saw how Krishna was not holding any weapons – he saw that Krishna was holding only a flute and he thought
'Ah this is the Supreme Lord, this is the Supreme because he doesn't have a job"
The Supreme Lord does not have any work to perform and yet by his energies everything is manifest.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Delhi, 2010)
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Excuse me again, original sender for the loop back to your mailbox. Thought it is good to share with other devotees too.
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Duryodhana was bereft of his fortune and duration of life because of the intricacy of ill advice given by Karṇa, Duḥśāsana and Saubala. When he lay on the ground with his followers, his thighs broken although he was powerful, the Lord was not happy to see the scene.
PURPORT
The fall of Duryodhana, the leading son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, was not pleasing to the Lord, although He was on the side of Arjuna and it was He who advised Bhīma how to break the thighs of Duryodhana while the fight was going on. The Lord is constrained to award punishment upon the wrongdoer, but He is not happy to award such punishments because the living entities are originally His parts and parcels. He is harder than the thunderbolt for the wrongdoer and softer than the rose for the faithful. The wrongdoer is misled by bad associates and by ill advice, which is against the established principles of the Lord's order, and thus he becomes subject to punishment. The surest path to happiness is to live by the principles laid down by the Lord and not disobey His established laws, which are enacted in the Vedas and the Purāṇas for the forgetful living entities.
[ SB 3.3.13 ]
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There r living Entities which live4 10mins/10yrs/100yrs/billions of
yrs.But d point is it's temporary.Those who r seers of d truth have
concluded d nature of2things sat-permanent&asat-temporary.Eg-Clouds
that cover d sky4sometime=asat,sky=sat.
Learn2Bcome immortal(ArtOfDying Not=ArtOfLiving) by reading BG
--
Yours
Dinesh
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One who is bored must be a boring person.Have you ever seen an interesting person being bored?
I haven't.
Being bored also means: why the world is not dedicated to entertaining me.
Hmm ... are you a little god?
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One who is bored must be a boring person.Have you ever seen an interesting person being bored?
I haven't.
Being bored also means: why the world is not dedicated to entertaining me.
Hmm ... are you a little god?
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Must Read!
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The Royal Road to KrsnaFrom the Srimad-Bhagavatam, translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. (Adapted by Drutakarma dasa.)
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Yet even a king -- the richest man -- can enter into God's kingdom if he knows the science...
For himself, King Rantideva was always satisfied and depended completely on the Lord's providence. At the same time, when guests came to his palace the generous king would personally look after their every comfort, as if it all depended not on providence but on him.
Once King Rantideva fasted for forty-eight days, but he never complained or made any attempt to get food. On the morning of the forty-ninth day, he received a sizeable quantity of well-prepared food. But just as he was about to take his meal, a learned brahmana priest arrived as a guest.
King Rantideva was very advanced in spiritual knowledge, so he could see that the Supreme Lord Krsna dwells in the heart of every living being. As a result, he received his guest with faith and respect and gave him a share of the food. The brahmana ate to his satisfaction and went away.
Now King Rantideva again prepared to break his long fast, but just as he was about to take his first bite, a low-class laborer entered the palace. King Rantideva could also see Krsna dwelling in the heart of this sudra, so he gave him a portion of the food as well.
After the sudra had gone away, a bearded and bedraggled man surrounded by a pack of dogs arrived before King Rantideva. "O King," he said, "my company of dogs and I are very hungry. Please give us something to eat." With great respect King Rantideva gave what was left of his food to the dogs and their master.
Now only some drinking water remained, and there was only enough for one person. When the king was just about to drink it, a candala (a dog-eater, the lowest of men) appeared before him and said, "O King, although I am lowborn, kindly give me some drinking water."
Touched by these pitiable words, the good-hearted King Rantideva said, "By offering water to maintain the life of this poor candala, I shall not be the loser -- by this act of charity I shall free myself from all hunger, thirst, fatigue, and illusion.
"I do not pray to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna for the powers of mystic yoga, nor for salvation from repeated birth and death in the material world. I want only to stay on this earth among all the living creatures and suffer all their pains for them. In that way they may be freed from all distress."
The ravages of hunger and thirst had brought King Rantideva to the verge of death, and yet he gladly gave even his last drop of water to the wretched candala. Just then Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, and other great demigods appeared before the king and revealed that it was they who had presented themselves as the brahmana, the sudra, the candala, and the man with the dogs.
The demigods were very pleased with King Rantideva and wanted to bestow great wealth and opulence upon him. But the king had no desire to enjoy such things. He simply wanted to keep his mind focused on the lotus feet of Lord Krsna and render devotional service unto Him.
Rantideva knew that Krsna is the eternal master of all the demigods and that the demigods' gifts are temporary -- they pass away with the passing of time. A pure devotee, King Rantideva cared only about his eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Lord.
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via Waves of Devotion by Dhanurdhara Swami on 12/1/10
November 22, 2010
Sri Vrindavana
I escort a small group of visiting western pilgrims on my favorite Vrindavana hike. Just a mile from the temple, a secluded forest path paralleling the Yamuna escorts us past the multitude of Vrindavana flower garden farms. Just as pleasing as the beautiful farms are the scattering of locals who occasionally cross our path greeting us warmly with a Vrindavana hello, "Jaya Radhe!"
Unfortunately, the worst floods in nearly forty years have wiped out this season's crop and even destroyed many of the flower bearing trees. Still, the beauty of Vrindavana is evident.
We continue our walk. An extraordinarily blissful farmer is walking our way. His beaming smile and glistening eyes reflect a happy heart. His joy is radiant. I feel impelled to stop and meet this beautiful soul. I am surprised to learn of his deep troubles:
"My farm was wiped out by the floods. I lost two lacs rupees. It took many years to develop the farm and it will take at least a year to sufficiently rebuild it."
"Do you have family," I ask.
"I have four daughters and a son."
I listen with sadness, but I am puzzled. How can such unbounded joy still shine in his smile? I ask him. We are stunned by the depth and beauty of his simple expression of bhakti.
"Happiness is a heart full of devotion!"
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Actual sender, pls excuse me, for it reaches your mail back in loop
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via Jyoti Pahuja's Facebook Notes by Jyoti Pahuja on 12/3/10
Sanatana Gosvami asked Caitanya Mahaprabhu that "How I can accept somebody as incarnation?" So Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that "That is not difficult. Everything is stated in the sastras, and from the evidence of sastra, you can accept who is incarnation."
So always consult the sastras whether his name, his father's name, his mother's name, his features of the body, his activities, are corroborating with the sastra. Then accept. Otherwise don't.
- Srila Prabhupada
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via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (Hina) on 12/12/10
The modes of ignorance is actually affecting our behaviour and it is very difficult in the association of the vaisnavas to learn how to behave properly. But this is exactly what we have to learn. We have to truly become favourably disposed to it's everyone. So that is when we see great personalities – that is their nature. They are favourably disposed to it's everyone, and you see someone like Prabhupada – even he could chastise someone, but they still felt that actually he is very very merciful and kind, because underneath it he was totally favourably disposed. So this is a great point in spiritual life. As the years go by – this becomes more and more prominent – vaisnava relationships. Day by day it becomes more important. Everyday in our spiritual life, the importance of vaisnava relationships is just slowly dawning upon us - little by little. As we are coming to the end of our life and realise that; " Actually my main fault is that I didn't do very well in the relationships of the vaisnavas. I have offended many".
And it says that a saintly person at the end of his life is inclined to ask forgiveness. Srila Prabhupada also did. He asked several of his god brothers for forgiveness.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, October 2010)
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via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (aatish) on 12/12/10
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
The life of a devotee who is living in this highly contaminated age, when all around us so many things are going on and we see so much contamination, we must be careful. Therefore accepting service is risking in general, of course as a teacher you may sometimes accept service, Brahmanas accept service from those who are their students, like they bring some rice, Vaishnava's also accept service when they act in the role of a teacher. But one must be very powerful to absorb sinful karma - it is not a light thing.
Srila Prabhupada was sometimes very liberal. In one case, there was a family which was not completely vegetarian but the lady in the house, she was herself vegetarian but her husband was forcing her to cook meat, so she once cooked a preparation for Prabhupada and it was offered to Prabhupada and then the devotees explained the situation.
Prabhupada said: "What can we do? If I don't accept, How will she make spiritual advancement?"
So Prabhupada accepted, but one must be very pure to be able to do such a thing otherwise one certainly becomes overwhelmed by all these sinful reactions. Therefore we are strict - better safe than sorry because so many lifetimeS, since time immemorial in the material world.,,
Some devotees go to bhrigu readers to find out who they were in the past. Usually they were some prince somewhere, or some sanyassi or a vaishnava who was not quite successful in his past life, that's a little suspicious to me because never there is someone who was a dog outside the temple who was fed Prasadam. So, it sounds that the bhrigu readers are reading something in between the scrolls - we might consider that if we were vaishnava's in our past life than that simply indicates we failed and that we were not successful. Because a vaishnava is meant to return back to Godhead. A vaishnava has no other aim, no other objective in life and the "additional bring in a hand luggage in and what you want to bring some rings and get married that's fine but all within the confines of the scriptures , and beyond one cannot do anything that risks returning back to Godhead this very life time - that is our aim.
Some devotees may be fanatic, some devotees may be relaxed, some devotees may be strict, some may be loose. Whatever we are, ultimately the criterion is to go back to Godhead. If one becomes fanatic then there is a risk in the cause of service that one becomes insensitive to other vaishnavas and then one might inadvertedley commit vaishnava aparada - because fanaticism is insensitive. Fanaticism is not good and being too loose is also not good - too liberal is also not good. One must be careful, therefore when I am speaking I am not speaking in a fanatic mood or an overly strict mood when I am saying that the purpose of our life is going back to Godhead.
What else are we here for and if that hasn't become our priority yet then it simply means that we are covered by ignorance.
Then we are still sink in the forgetfulness of the goal of life, then we are bound up in the material energy and then we may fail this lifetime. It is a very high goal to attain perfection in devotional service not easily to attain at all, it takes a very serious endeavour and that we cannot ignore and one cannot say:
"May be I will take a few life times, maybe it's too difficult to do it in one, I guess I choose for a few" - What is the guarantee it's going to be few. It may very easily at the end get covered over and we may stay in the material for such a long time. So, we cannot take the risk, we have to go back to Godhead this life time.... (cont'd in part 3)
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
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via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (Yadurani dd) on 12/11/10
Read entire transcript
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via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (aatish) on 12/11/10
Kadamba Kanana Swami and I left Mayapur and arrived at Chowpatty temple at 7pm last night. This morning Maharaja led the Kirtan and then lots of enthused devotees came to the temple for the Srimad Bhagavatam class and question and answer session. Stay Tuned for more transcripts of the class!
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
In the human form of life one is responsible for one's actions therefore the king was responsible for acting in this way although somehow or other he was cursed by a great sage.
It is a fact we see that in the description of Ajamila, the Yamaduttas are about to take Ajamila and the Vishnuduttas stopped the Yamuduttas from doing so because Ajamila had chanted the Holy Name.
Therefore the Vishnuduttas ascertained that Ajamila was sinless and subsequently the actions of the Yamuduttas was highly inappropriate - in due course of time Yamaraja personally came and begged pardon for the actions of his servants - because one is responsible for the actions of his servants and even if one's servants are not acting appropriately then one has to take reactions.
Saudasa had servants. When you have servants then there is the risk that you become involved in all kinds of possible reactions even although you, yourself have no intentions to act in such a way, you get the actions of the degraded actions of your servants.
In this case a somewhat extreme case, a servant starts to feed human flesh to a sage like Vaisista and that's not something that happens probably every-day! But the risk is there that the servant will misbehave - Therefore one who wants to have comforts in life has to also be prepared to take risk of having the reactions. So many people have servants - it's common also here in Mumbai we don't have to go quite far to find servants who have some function - some are in the kitchen, they are cooking. But even if they don't add human flesh to whatever they cook still if it is not offered to Krishna, then it is simply only sin...
It is only that which is offered to the Lord, that's what is required, that can free us from sinful reactions. Therefore a devotee is very careful in who is cooking and will not just take anything from anywhere, knowing very well that one becomes contaminated by eating food stuffs by a person who is impure…
We can see also in the Mahabharata, the situation where Bhishma was in the assembly of the Kurus and it was that time when Draupadi was mistreated and Dushasana tried to disrobe Draupadi and - Bhishmadeva, the upholder of Dharma, the best, the topmost of the Kshatriyas, one who was completely the defender of Dharma didn't do anything to protect Draupadi.
How was it possible? The explanation is offered that, Bhishmadeva was also been given some contaminated food stuff and his consciousness became effected. So it's very interesting that we may eat here and there, eat this and that, what can be done. Hungry, hungry!!!. When the need arises then we go for it, but such things have an effect on our consciousness. One may read the labels and it says the ingredients are all vegetarian -but it is not the best.
One of our life members had a chips factory and he had insisted once on taking me to the factory. There was the production line, there was a truck coming in with the potatoes and that was going into some big bins and there it was sprayed and cleaned and then the potatoes went on to the conveyor belts they were going over roles, they were pealed and next moment they were dried and sliced, then the slices went under hot air and next moment into a hot dip and spices were blown by hot air and then fresh spicy chips and then ………..there were the workers crunch… crunch.. crunch eating those chips!
Next we are going to offer them to Krishna!
What if someone walks in the kitchen and sticks his gruby fingers in the preparations that we are trying to prepare for the Lord, and just puts it in his mouth, what will he do with it. We can't offer it to Krishna, it's un-offerable, we throw it to the dogs, isn't it - but chips we offer it every-time. So in this way we must be very conscious of our activities not only in the field of eating but in general we must be very careful and diligent to secure that we are safe on the spiritual platform.... (contd in part 2)
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 11th Dec 2010)
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via KKS Blog by noreply@blogger.com (Hina) on 12/12/10
A story about a wolf who went to the stream to drink the water, and this little lamb also came to the stream to drink some water. So the wolf said;" Hey you dirty little lamb! What are you doing?! How dare you stick your filthy snout in my drinking water!" (laughter).
"No…..no Mr Wolf! I'm drinking from down stream from you so the water that I'm drinking is not at all contaminating your water."
"Now listen. First of all you stick your filthy snout in my water and the next thing you give me lip as well…and you did the same thing last year!"
" No Mr wolf. I wasn't born last year"
"Now that's enough - for this nonsense I will eat you!"
So, we see how envy includes the fact that we don't let someone exist. You can be here in the temple – but you cannot exist: You cannot be your self: You have to be an exact copy of me… but in a more humble version (laughter). And in this way you have to behave exactly according to my world, because I am senior and I won't let you exist. So a lot of people in relationships do not let others exist. They impose so much upon them with their ideas. As a result they oppress others, but in the vedic culture there is the concept of prajās – that one which has taken birth has the right to exist!
Just like we have a field with grains – and the birds they come to eat. And of course some farmers stand there with their guns……..mimicking " You birds you come close to my grains. You better watch out right!"
So the birds they fly away at a distance …….and make fun of the farmer, and they will get their grains anyway. But the birds have a right to grains. The birds can take grains. It maybe that the farmer can make some arrangements to chase them away a little bit. He can put one of those scarecrows. You know with the scarecrows it's already clear that the crows already sits on one of those (laughter). So it's not very impressive. But it's a comfortable sort of landing from where you can survey the grains (laughter) "Which one shall I have first?"So we don't have a right to kill the birds or chase away the birds. The birds have the right to exist. Devotees also have the right to exist, that's even more difficult than birds right? Other devotees in the temple they have the right to exist.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, October 2010)
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No1likes2always keep Changing d apartment1lives.Likewise,v dont
want2die but v r forced2change d body.In d same life,v have different
bodies@different ages,wat is d difficulty2understand that v get a
different body after death? "Just as air carries
aroma,Mind/Consciousness,takes d soul from1body2other"-BG. Only by
being in Krishna Consciousness,v can become immortal/stop changing d
body.
--
Yours
Dinesh
All d paths lead2d same destination(u can do whatever u like) is not
found in d BhagavadGita.A so-called "intellectual&blissful Swami" says
Playing football is better than reading BhagavadGita.Result Of Reading
BhagavadGita=Playing Football? Wat kind of spiritualist he is?
Good2follow God than these Dogs!
--
Yours
Dinesh
1who's driving mercedes car thinks he's that car&sees d rickshaw
driver as rickshaw.Actually both r human beings but this man in nice
car identifies himself with this car.Likewise v have white/black
bodies&v identify ourself with this body.But v r spirit souls&only our
consciousness is spread over d body.
--
Yours
Dinesh
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