239. Australia day morning lecture

Australia Day today. An important historical date for the Australians. Also, happens to be an important day for the Indians. The day outside is already warm and the weather bureau is expecting a very hot day. Sitting at the temple hall listening to a wonderful lecture by HH Devamrita Swami, covering the verse SB 1.6.20:

The followers of Lord Chaitanya is at the pinnacle of experiencing love of Godhead. Transcendental ecstasy is experienced more during separation from Lord than meeting Him. This pain, which materialists see as agony, is the most ecstatic feeling that one can experience.

Mundane historians acknowledge the presence of Lord Chaitanya as a well known teacher and social reformer. They could not understand his mood that he exhibited for 12 years at Jagannath Puri. They thought he had lost his mind.

The residents of Vrindhavan felt extreme pain from the separation of Lord Krishna. They had no idea how to live without Him. Their love could not face any sorts of competition from others.

Devotees use the temporary to achieve the eternal. For devotees, the world is vacant without Krishna. But for the materialists the world is full of possibilities for the satisfaction of their desires. These demoniac qualities of passion and ignorance are considered of high value these days. They call it drive, motivation and team building.

You are able to approach Lord Krishna because of Lord Chaitanya. Everyone of us have had some little experience of our dealing with spiritual reality. This could be through our chanting, deities, reading or prasadam. These little experiences must not be disregarded.

It’s natural that we want more happy experiences from Krishna since we are Krishna’s children. But we must not force Krishna to do things the way we want Him to do. We must let Him do what He wants with us. This is true humility.

There is a probationary period in devotional life. In this stage, where we are regaining out lost connection with Krishna, sometimes the Lord lets you see or experience Him for a short while. So that this serves as an ongoing motivation to get love of Krishna. In the higher stages of love, this situation can again happen but it is to take your Prema to higher and higher levels. This is what happened to Narada Muni. Devotees eagerness and Krishna’s mercy is required. The ignition is provided by the spiritual master.

You must have great determination to serve the spiritual master and Lord Krishna. This is the way one achieves the Lord and becomes great. We must make sure that in all our spiritual duties, we create a channel for materialists to secure association with devotees. We must teach people that glorifying Krishna is fun, getting knocked out after prasad is fun, dancing wild in this transcendental night club is fun ! This is it. Give all this to them.

238. Follow & Lead

Saturday Melbourne morning. Glad to have reached this weekend after long struggling days at work. Listening to Bhagavatam class from Bhakta Prabhu 1.6.5 :

1. When a person is impregnated with spiritual knowledge, there is a change in that person. We are living a life of animals but with spiritual knowledge, we begin our lives as humans.

2. What is a guru? Guru is someone who is following the shastras, regulative principles and 100% engaged in serving God. Association with such people brings about a change. Infact, association with devotees is of utmost importance. We get the desire to be like them. We wish to develop their mannerism, their knowledge etc.

3. In one essence, all of us are teachers. We must lead an ideal life and emulate the actions of our great teachers. The king, teachers and parents are natural leaders of our society and such people must know spiritual goals, rules and regulations.

4. Initiation means being saved. And no matter what difficulties and disturbances we may go through, we must continue our dedication to Prabhupad and Lord Krishna. We must learn to be resilient, determined and sincere.

5. We must continue our reading. This is very important. This knowledge is what will save us. We must read at least for 1 hour. We must not ignore this activity. Prabhupad wrote this for us. The stories in these books are not fantasies. These are real people and incidents. Their pastimes infuse us with strong spiritual energy.

6. We must show outsiders the thrill of being devotees. We must invite them to our festivals and events. We must give them a chance to see the Lord somehow or another. We need to help them give up their animalistic life.

In conclusion, our minds cannot be diverted away from Krsna. We must take great pleasure in our services, preaching and our attempts to gain pure love of God. Anyone who comes in contact with Prabhupad books have come in contact with a pure devotee of Krishna. Impregnating people with spiritual experiences is what we are about. We have work to do, we have to do them now and it’s done by each and everyone of us. We have no time to waste.

237. Joy of giving and receiving

Just returned from a beautiful January Christmas party hosted at the house of the much loved HG Bhakta Prabhu and his wife Bhakti Mataji. This was the first time we were going and we arrived fashionably late. As we walked into the front courtyard, we could hear the laughters amongst the guests. People were clearly having fun. On entrance into the house, we received the wonderful hugs from Prabhu and Mataji, which immediately puts you at ease and makes you feel like kids again. Very therapeutic indeed.

As we all sat under the Krishna Tree and staring at the beautiful altar of Their Lordships – Sri Radha Karuna Sindhu and ready to receive our surprise gifts from Bhakta Santa, prabhuji explained the importance of love when dealing with one and all.

He said that irrespective of gender, religion, ethnicity, relations etc, we must express our friendship to one and all. As devotees of the Supreme friend, we have so much to give to people. And that was what Christmas was all about. He said that it didn’t matter what the historians & conspiracy theorists have to say about the dates, but what’s important is the spirit with which people, family & friends come together to express their love for one another, exchange gifts and remember the ever-loving God.

Yes, I like the Christmas spirit.

236. Attention

Back to the shelter of the Melbourne temple this morning. So satisfied to see the bhagavatam class by HG Viraj Krishna Prabhu, whom I had a chance to see last evening. He was covering SB 1.5.39.
The main points he covered :

1. When we have no peace within ourselves, how can we carry out our devotional service? We should learn to connect everything we do and have to Krishna. Sri Narada is an expert in this.

2. Our occupational duties have to be done in the mode of detachment. We are attached to the duty only for the sake of doing it but we are attached to Krishna.

3. We should be enthusiastic, determined and patient in our desire to achieve the highest of perfection. We cannot demand our perfection from Krishna.

4. It’s amazing that through sound we can see God. This is our path. Seeing through the channel of ears, the form of the lord is then manifested. Simply by the process of hearing, we increase our desire to see Krishna. Rukmini Devi was like this. Sukadev Goswami was also like this.

5. Krishna is always smiling. When we come in front of the lord, we should approach Him with a big smile and not a frown. We should be happy.

6. Of all the offences that we try to remember not to commit, one that is most dangerous that we do commit is inattentive chanting. We must pay attention. There has to be endeavour from our end.

7. The Lord does not have to endeavour. It is His nature to be all powerful and full of incredible energies. He can do what He wants. But we have to work and for a devotee, Krishna expands his time. We must realise that Krishna is doing everything. He tells Arjuna that He has already killed all the soldiers even before the onslaught of war. Yet He allowed Arjuna to do his duty of shooting arrows. This is Krishna’s transcendental sarcasm.

8. Srila Prabhupad was completely attentive to Krishna. And that’s how he did such wonderful activities. He slept so little and gave us these incredible purports. Materially, one gets so tired at work when we have less sleep. But a devotee is beyond the material bodily needs. He is on a different level. Such devotees are glorified. Our temples operate in 12 time zones and hence “Jai Prabhupad”, is said across the world all the time.

The conclusion is that one must take great steps to be attentive in our devotional service. Only then, shall we start making progress. In this one precious lifetime, there are so many things that we pay careful attention too for our personal fulfilment of our desires but at least for 2 hours, we must give our ears to hearing the name of Krishna. We must respect the labour of Prabhupad. Studying his books, the verses speak to our heart.

And then our attention to chanting happens. This is when we get that peace we are seeking…because by chanting of the Holy Name, we get truth, auspiciousness and piety – Satyam, Mangalam and Punyam. In this peace when we chant, there is perpetual and constant festivals in our minds.

235. Study always

It’s 9pm and just finished listening to a very powerful lecture by HG Viraj Krishna Prabhu, a disciple of HH Maha Vishnu Swami Gosvami Maharaj. Through one verse from the bhagavatam, he was able to beautifully describe the importance of Prabhupad books, the importance of discipline, the dangers of the material world and the shelter of Krishna’s lotus feet.

He quoted a Chanakya Pandit’s verse which stuck to me :
“Austerity in one, Study in two, Music in three, Agriculture in four and War by many”. He explained the importance of daily study of Sastras and learning it with one another devotee. This type of study ensures commitment, sincerity and opportunity for discussions. I like it. And what a top class program. Memorable.