Real goal of life

Caitanya Mahäprabhu went on to teach that for each and every moment he is engaged in some fruitive activity, the conditioned soul forgets his real identity. Sometimes when he is fatigued, when he is tired of material activities, he wants liberation and hankers to become one with the Supreme Lord, but at other times he thinks that by working hard to gratify his senses he will be happy. In either case, he is covered by material energy. For the enlightenment of such bewildered conditioned souls, the Supreme Lord has presented voluminous Vedic literatures such as the Vedas, the puräëas and the Vedänta-sütra. These are all intended to guide the human being back to Godhead. Caitanya Mahäprabhu has given further instructions by explaining that when a conditioned soul is accepted by the mercy of the spiritual master and is guided by the Supersoul and the various Vedic scriptures, he becomes enlightened and makes progress in spiritual realization. It is because Lord Kåñëa is always merciful upon His devotees that He has presented all these Vedic literatures by which one can understand his relationship with Him and can act on the basis of that relationship. In this way one is gifted with the ultimate goal of life.
Actually every living entity is destined to reach the Supreme Lord. Indeed, it is possible for everyone to understand his relationship with the Supreme. The execution of duties to attain perfection is known as devotional service, and in maturity such devotional service becomes love of God, the factual goal of life for every living being. Actually the living entity is not intended to achieve success in religious rituals, economic development or sense enjoyment. The living entity should not even desire success in liberation, what to speak of success in religion, economics and sense enjoyment. One's real desire should only be to achieve the stage of loving transcendental service to the Lord. The all-attractive features of Lord Krishna help one in attaining this transcendental service, and it is by such service in Krishna consciousness that one can realize the relationship between Kåñëa and himself.

The real tragedy of life

Two friends were walking past and I called out to them and asked if they had heard about yoga. They looked at me in surprise and said yes they were just talking about it. I said well things happen the way they do for a reason and started to ask about their yoga journey. One of them told me he had an accident few months ago and got a herniated disc that kept him bed ridden for 6 months and only now he had started to walk. I asked him this would have given him a lot of time to think about life and he explained how he was trying to work on himself. At this time I pointed that he doesn’t really know who the self is – and if he had lost a leg would he still exist or not? He said yes and so I pointed that he was not the body and showed the picture on reincarnation. His friend too I was showing the path of perfection to and the perfection of yoga. They both asked questions and the one with the accident history took the book. Meanwhile in this conversation a really badly dressed almost drunk man came up and said do you still have the place and I said yes. And he kept saying I need you guys and I need you etc and left smiling complimenting the book. Then I turned my attention back to these two and he decided to take the Bhagavad gita and read it. Then I started to speak with the other guy and he was asking me so many questions about which chapter did the perfection of yoga relate to and doing a comparative analysis between different books. So I asked him if he was a student and he said yes – from UofT and a psychology major and he was wondering how I knew. He took his book and now his girlfriend turned into the scene and I started to show her Srila Prabhupada’s books. By now those two had gone and we got into a serious conversation. She took a small book and started to explain how she too had a psychology degree from University and wanted to touch the lives of people. So I told her how was she going to do that when by feeding people you cant solve the problem of birth and death. She could really understand that and said she would come with her best friend someday. I don’t know if they will come back but all three friends ended up taking a book from Prabhupada.

May I please be honest with you

The age of Kali brings with it many surprises and we are so conditioned to these degradations that most times they go un-noticed. Today on Sankirtan some individuals asked me something really interesting. While I was showing them a book and they were holding it they said ‘Can I be really honest with you?’ She said it as a matter of fact and great pride that she was being honest – she was deciding to be different from others. And I said yes sure. Initially I said yes but when this happened a few times I realised – wow so now a day’s people need permission to be honest. In what other day and age would this be the norm and go completely un-noticed? Even when I am in the middle of a Yagya – Sankirtana Yagya, I did not realise that someone was asking me permission to be honest. It made me remember how Srimad Bhagvatam describes the meeting between Maharaj Pariksit and Kali personified.

‘In the age of Satya, religion was complete, still possessing its four legs of truth, mercy, austerity and charity. With the coming of each succeeding age, starting with Treta, these religious qualities each diminish by one quarter. In Kali-yuga the legs of religion retain only one fourth of their power, and even that will be lost with the progress of the age.’ Srimad Bhagvatam 12.3. Summary

Quotations in other places explain that the only remaining leg is this age is truthfulness and that too will disappear with the progress of the age.

Of the four principles of religion – austerity, cleanliness, mercifulness, and truthfulness – only truthfulness remains in Kali-yuga. When Maharaja Pariksit found the bull of religion after it had been attacked by the personified Kali, only one of the bull’s legs, that representing truthfulness, remained. (Gita Nagri Press, Satsvarup Das goswami)

It struck me how quickly the age of Kali is progressing with its wild effects and how important the Sankirtan Yagya is in such times. We should also not think we are immune to its effects and take deeper shelter of the Maha-mantra and the Sankirtan Yagya. At least through this yagya one can begin to see the degradation.

Mood of a preacher

The author of Bhakti-rasämrita-sindhu, Srila Rüpa Gosvämi, very humbly submits that he is just trying to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for this work. That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Krishna consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvämi. We should never think of ourselves as great preachers, but should always consider that we are simply instrumental to the previous Acäryas, and simply by following in their footsteps we may be able to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity.

Introduction to the nectar of devotion

Years later we meet

This afternoon as I was trying to reach out and talk to people this very old lady was walking by me. I almost let her go and then thought I can't discriminate I should stop everyone. In this congregation of insanity I sure can't let someone go just because they are old - so I stopped her. And as soon as she saw Srila Prabhupada picture she said - he is my guru while taking the book close to heart. I was amazed and asked her where she met him. She told me years ago in her home country Venezuela she had seen a big deity of Srila Prabhupada in a temple and someone had gifted her book, ever since she was keeping Srila Prabhupada in her heart as her Guru. She said she had come to Toronto few years ago and was looking for Prabhupada since and not been able to find him but she was excited to have this book. She took nectar of instruction and asked me how much donation should she give - I told her to give what she had. First she gave me a small donation and went on. I was thinking in my heart how will this work - people are taking book but not giving donations and that's when I noticed her coming back from a distance - she told me she left but was feeling bad so she came back to give some more laxmi. it is true that Krishna is in the heart of every living entity.

Suhrdam sarva bhutanam

Spontaneous Sankirtan

There was a huge parade in downtown Toronto this weekend and I got my first experience seeing people in full party mood. In the insanity that engulfed everyone you could still see that people for some reason people held close a sense of sophistication - an arrogance of yes we can enjoy material nature. Yet through the curtain of loud music and costumes one could see the run down bodies and minds consumed by alcohol. School kids to old people alike, everyone was clearly under the influence and somehow I was trying to approach them to take a book. I met a group of high school kids and they somehow got all excited about yoga. First three girls were interested and they dug out few cents from their bags. Then one of their friends, another high school kid in a really strange outfit said he wanted yoga and asked for a book - I showed him a picture of Prabhupada and he wanted it but had no money. I asked him to ask his friends and they didn't have anything, so then one of his friends who have just bought a book said she would ask people for some money. So very spontaneously she started to stop people and ask them for some money and show them the perfection of yoga. No one told her but her sankirtan spirit was spontaneously awakened by coming in contact with the books and I gave them this book. I put a condition and asked them to chant Gauranga - I sang it out and told them to repeat it which they joyfully did dancing to the beats. So glorious is the mercy of lord Caitanya that even in such mad times it rains and sweeps the heart of a living entity.

The Hare Krishnas

Śrīmatī Draupadī was so devoted to Kṛṣṇa that she herself was called Kṛṣṇā, which is the feminine form of the name, and Arjuna was also called Kṛṣṇa because of his devotion to the Lord. Similarly, the devotees of the modern Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement are often called "the Kṛṣṇas." So it appears that the custom of addressing Kṛṣṇa's devotees by His name has a long history.

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.58.5