From HH Radhanath SWami's SB class at Radha Gopinath Mandir 2/21/2015
As long as we depend upon mateial condns we do not take shelter of Krishna.
Airplane, about to crash, 30k feet above sea level.Cannot do anything.
Totally helpless- such a state what do you do- first thing- why are you doing this to me- natural. but then you realize that if Krishna is doing this to me then krishna must be there for me and then with all your body, mind and words you give yourself to Krishna and then in that state you actually take shelter - Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare .......
if the plane crashes you go back to Krishna;s abode- journey home in the fast lane - if plane lands safely u will never forget it. You will definetly think- for the rest of your life- the most spiritual I have ever been on an airplane never felt so close to God. Yudhishthira took shelter - He is askign the question to be like us but he is also responding to show us what to do ?
Even Jesus cried " Why have you forsaken me" but this was in ecstascy of separation and not out of bewilderment. YM also asked why these troubles but what we see is how he took this and took shelter. Arjuna was bewilderd- I am not going to fight- becmae overcome by the circumstance then creid dropped gandiva and said please instruct me- Arjuna is playing our role and in certain cases Duryodhana is playing our role- dark parts of envy etc in our hearts we can picture those in Duryodhana - we read about Duryidhana we are disgusted with him and we see the end result.
When we see the Yudhishthira in our hearts, we take shelter of him and not of Duryidhana like qualities?
Phase of complain is very long?
What is important is we know what we want to do- we want to take shelter- if it is taking more time then it means we need that much more purificxation and we are aware of that- it humbles us. Children do not like medicine- take the medicine- satsang, sadhana, seva it doesnt matter how long but take the medicine. IF we have faith that comes by hearing in the association of people who have faith we will continue to take shelter however long it takes. That is our sincereity Krishna knows just what we need.
Hare Krishna.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Symptoms of an acarya
- Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to invent a way to capture the Mayavadis and others who did not take interest in the Krsna consciousness movement. This is the symptom of an acarya. An acarya who comes for the service of the Lord cannot be expected to conform to a stereotype, for he must find the ways and means by which Krsna consciousness may be spread.
- Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was an ideal acarya. An acarya is an ideal teacher who knows the purport of the revealed scriptures, behaves exactly according to their injunctions and teaches his students to adopt these principles also.
- As an ideal acarya, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu devised ways to capture all kinds of atheists and materialists. Every acarya has a specific means of propagating his spiritual movement with the aim of bringing men to Krsna consciousness. Therefore, the method of one acarya may be different from that of another, but the ultimate goal is never neglected.
- Srila Rupa Gosvami recommends:
- tasmat kenapy upayena manah krsne nivesayet
sarve vidhi-nisedhah syur etayor eva kinkarah - An acarya should devise a means by which people may somehow or other come to Krsna consciousness.
- First they should become Krsna conscious, and all the prescribed rules and regulations may later gradually be introduced. In our Krsna consciousness movement we follow this policy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
- For example, since boys and girls in the Western countries freely intermingle, special concessions regarding their customs and habits are necessary to bring them to Krsna consciousness.
- The acarya must devise a means to bring them to devotional service.
- Therefore, although I am a sannyasi I sometimes take part in getting boys and girls married, although in the history of sannyasa no sannyasi has personally taken part in marrying his disciples.
CC Adi 7.37 and
CC Adi 7.31-32
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Pañca-tattva mantra
CC Ad 7.4
- One should know that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is always accompanied by these other tattvas. Therefore our obeisances to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu are complete when we say śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda.
- As preachers of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we first offer our obeisances to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu by chanting this Pañca-tattva mantra; then we say Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
- There are ten offenses in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, but these are not considered in the chanting of the Pañca-tattva mantra, namely, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is known as mahā-vadānyāvatāra, the most magnanimous incarnation, for He does not consider the offenses of the fallen souls.
- Thus to derive the full benefit of the chanting of the mahā-mantra (Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare), we must first take shelter of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, learn the Pañca-tattva mahā-mantra, and then chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. That will be very effective.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Second Quadruple Description
CC Ādi 5.41
In his Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (Pūrva 5.165-193),
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has refuted the charges directed against the
devotees by Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya regarding their explanation of the
quadruple forms Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Rūpa
Gosvāmī says that these four expansions of Nārāyaṇa are present in the
spiritual sky, where They are famous as Mahāvastha.
- Among Them, Vāsudeva is worshiped within the heart by meditation because He is the predominating Deity of the heart, as explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (4.3.23).
- Saṅkarṣaṇa, the second expansion, is Vāsudeva’s personal expansion for pastimes, and since He is the reservoir of all living entities, He is sometimes called jīva. The beauty of Saṅkarṣaṇa is greater than that of innumerable full moons radiating light beams. He is worshipable as the principle of ego. He has invested Anantadeva with all the potencies of sustenance. For the dissolution of the creation, He also exhibits Himself as the Supersoul in Rudra, in Adharma (the personality of irreligion), in sarpa (snakes), in Antaka (Yamarāja, the lord of death) and in the demons.
- Pradyumna, the third manifestation, appears from Saṅkarṣaṇa. Those who are especially intelligent worship this Pradyumna expansion of Saṅkarṣaṇa as the principle of the intelligence. The goddess of fortune always chants the glories of Pradyumna in the place known as Ilāvṛta-varṣa, and she always serves Him with great devotion. His complexion appears sometimes golden and sometimes bluish like new monsoon clouds in the sky. He is the origin of the creation of the material world, and He has invested His creative principle in Cupid. It is by His direction only that all men and demigods and other living entities function with energy for regeneration.
- Aniruddha, the fourth of the quadruple expansions, is worshiped by great sages and psychologists as the principle of the mind. His complexion is similar to the bluish hue of a blue cloud. He engages in the maintenance of the cosmic manifestation and is the Supersoul of Dharma (the deity of religiosity), the Manus (the progenitors of mankind) and the devatās (demigods). The Mokṣa-dharma Vedic scripture indicates that Pradyumna is the Deity of the total mind, whereas Aniruddha is the Deity of the total ego, but previous statements regarding the quadruple forms are confirmed in the Pañcarātra tantras in all respects.
Perfection of Residents of Brahma loka
From CC Adi 5.40
In Brahmaloka there is an unlimited number of airplanes that are controlled not by yantra (machine) but by mantra (psychic action). Because of the existence of the mind and intelligence on Brahmaloka, its residents have feelings of happiness and distress, but there is no cause of lamentation from old age, death, fear or distress. They feel sympathy, however, for the suffering living beings who are consumed in the fire of annihilation. The residents of Brahmaloka do not have gross material bodies to change at death, but they transform their subtle bodies into spiritual bodies and thus enter the spiritual sky. The residents of Brahmaloka can attain perfection in three different ways.
In Brahmaloka there is an unlimited number of airplanes that are controlled not by yantra (machine) but by mantra (psychic action). Because of the existence of the mind and intelligence on Brahmaloka, its residents have feelings of happiness and distress, but there is no cause of lamentation from old age, death, fear or distress. They feel sympathy, however, for the suffering living beings who are consumed in the fire of annihilation. The residents of Brahmaloka do not have gross material bodies to change at death, but they transform their subtle bodies into spiritual bodies and thus enter the spiritual sky. The residents of Brahmaloka can attain perfection in three different ways.
- Virtuous persons who reach Brahmaloka by dint of their pious work become masters of various planets after the resurrection of Brahmā,
- those who have worshiped Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu are liberated with Brahmā,
- and those who are pure devotees of the Personality of Godhead at once push through the covering of the universe and enter the spiritual sky.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Velocity of the Soul and Space Travel by Yogis
Velocity of the Soul
The aṣṭāṅga-yogasystem is a materialistic art of controlling air by transferring it from the stomach to the navel, from the navel to the heart, from the heart to the collarbone, from there to the eyeballs, from there to the cerebellum and from there to any desired planet. The velocities of air and light are taken into consideration by the material scientist, but he has no information of the velocity of the mind and intelligence. We have some limited experience of the velocity of the mind because in a moment we can transfer our minds to places hundreds of thousands of miles away. Intelligence is even finer. Finer than intelligence is the soul, which is not matter like mind and intelligence but is spirit, or antimatter. The soul is hundreds of thousands of times finer and more powerful than intelligence. We can thus only imagine the velocity of the soul in its traveling from one planet to another. Needless to say, the soul travels by its own strength and not with the help of any kind of material vehicle.
Space Travel by the Yogis
As already described, a yogī can go anywhere he desires without mechanical help, for a yogī
can place his mind and intelligence within the air circulating inside
his body, and by practicing the art of breath control he can mix that
air with the air that blows all over the universe outside his body. With
the help of this universal air, a yogī can travel to any planet
and get a body suitable for its atmosphere. We can understand this
process by comparing it to the electronic transmission of radio
messages. With radio transmitters, sound waves produced at a certain
station can travel all over the earth in seconds. But sound is produced
from the ethereal sky, and as already explained, subtler than the
ethereal sky is the mind, and finer than the mind is the intelligence.
Spirit is still finer than the intelligence, and by nature it is
completely different from matter. Thus we can just imagine how quickly
the spirit soul can travel through the universal atmosphere.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
When the pleasure of love interferes with the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the devotee becomes angry toward such ecstasy
CC Ādi 4.197 —
There is another natural symptom of the gopīs’ love that shows it to be without a trace of lust.
CC Ādi 4.198 —
The
love of the gopīs nourishes the sweetness of Lord Kṛṣṇa. That sweetness
in turn increases their love, for they are greatly satisfied.
CC Ādi 4.199 —
The
happiness of the abode of love is in the happiness of the object of
that love. This is not a relationship of desire for personal
gratification.
CC Ādi 4.200-201 —
Whenever
there is unselfish love, that is its style. The reservoir of love
derives pleasure when the lovable object is pleased. When the pleasure
of love interferes with the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the devotee becomes
angry toward such ecstasy.
CC Ādi 4.202 —
“Śrī
Dāruka did not relish his ecstatic feelings of love, for they caused
his limbs to become stunned and thus obstructed his service of fanning
Lord Kṛṣṇa.”
CC Ādi 4.203 —
“The
lotus-eyed Rādhārāṇī powerfully condemned the ecstatic love that caused
a flow of tears that hindered Her sight of Govinda.”
When due to devotional service we get some material comforts do I relish in them or do I put them aside seeing them to be a distraction in my service?
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