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KC Nectar - Aug 02 | |
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Drops of Nectar Excerpts from different lectures Submitted by Manoj HH Varsana Swami (In context of Srila Haridas Thakur beaten in 22 market places) - We have to discriminate between the person, the motive and the activity. We should never condemn a person. We should never condemn the activity. Everyone's activity is ordained by Krishna, it cannot go on until Krishna allows it. What we try to change is the mentality, the ignorance, that caused the sinful activities. - The sinful activities are not the problem. They are just symptomatic of the problem. There is only one problem in all the world, and that's the lack of Krishna Consciousness. So we should not oppose the activities of the people, we should oppose the ignorance of the people that leads them to perform such activities. Therefore Lord Caitanya's movement is a preaching movement and the essence and basis of the preaching is Sri Harinam Sankirtan, which goes straight to the heart. And purifies the soul and awakens the dormant love which displaces all envy, malice and the hatred in the living entity which is reflection of their envy towards Krishna. That alone will bring peace and harmony and happiness in this world. Chanting of the holy name has such potency to reclaim even the worst of the sinners. - Without a change of heart there is no point in trying to impede the activities. - Never the less, we say those things are wrong. Krishna made it clear in His pastimes that those things are wrong, and should not be done. (In context of the pastime of Srila Haridas Thakur converting the prostitute into a great vaisnavi) - In this world there are many empiric moralists who would condemn some one with the nature of a prostitute. We should understand that worldly morality has no more value to spiritual life than worldly immorality. In fact worldly morality can be a greater stumbling block. Empiric moralists have a greater tendency to be proud. Because of her complete immorality, she was not proud. Therefore she could very humbly receive the holy name. Whereas someone as Ramachandra Khan, who was the religious head, was proud. He couldn't attain any good fortune. So sadhus don't place too much value on worldly morality and worldly immorality. They both pertain to this world. And neither one acts as a stumbling block to the spiritual life, unless one is attached. The prostitue was not attached. Ramachandra khan was. And anything that binds us to this material world is an impediment to spiritual path, not to minimize morality or under-value it. It's important to maintain sanity in this world, but in and of itself, it has no spiritual value. HH Radhanath Swami - This is what Lord Kapiladev is explaining. He is describing the qualities - If you're not compassionate to others, if you're not charitable to others, if you do not perform your duties honestly, if you're not really really striving to obey the orders of your spiritual master, to serve the Vaisnavas, to be kind to all living beings, if you're not really trying to understand the content of the scriptures, then you're are not actually following the process. And Krishna will not manifest Himself as His holy name and purify our hearts. The whole purpose of life is to purify our hearts. - By always remembering Krishna, Krishna is pleased and He purifies the contamination of our hearts. In whatever we do in our lives, we have to use our God-given intelligence, directed by guru, sadhu, and sastra we have to analyse, what I speak, what I do, what I think, is it perpetuating my material conditioning or is it purifying me? Is this pleasing Krishna The only criteria of success or failure for a devotee is whether it pleases Krishna or not. - Lord Caitanya's instruction to Vasudev, the leper, when he asked how to be free of pride: Chant My holy names, be a kind friend to others and give them Krishna consciousness. If you follow this principle, pride will never enter into your heart. - If our purpose is to please, to serve, if our purpose is striving to become selfless in our service, the joy of Bhakti is experienced to the degree we are selfless in our efforts. To the degree we have false ego and selfish motivations in what we do that activity cannot bring fulfillment to the heart. Because fulfillment comes from the reciprocation of Krishna being pleased within. That is fulfillment. HH Bhakti Tirtha Swami: The sages and yogis at the gathering described in the Srimad Bhagavatam understood, by the mercy of Suta Goswami, that love was based on unmotivated service to God. They realized that genuine spirituality meant becoming servants of everyone. The same is true for us. In everyday life, our relationships with one another are practice for the divine relationships we will eventually experience. The quality of our interactions indicates how well we are preparing ourselves for association with the Supreme Lord. That is why association with others who are serious about spiritual life is so important. Through these experiences, we are learning to love and serve the Supreme. The highest level of the spiritual world is a realm of eternal spiritual romance and of selfless, loving exchanges. To enter the realm of pure love, we must begin here and now in the material world to become pure, unmotivated servants. Any egocentric motivation disqualifies us, because to experience divine love we must feel joy in denying our own appetites for the pleasure of the loved one. We do not lose our own identity in the process. On the contrary, our true identity expands as we render service, and each expression of selflessness intensifies our capacity to experience ever more vast dimensions of love. When we are motivated by genuine love to act so selflessly, even more love is available to us. HH Tamal Krishna Goswami: - Whatever you hear, that is what will come out naturally when you speak. So if you make a habit of hearing more and more about Krishna, what comes out will also be about Krishna. - Should not associate with worldly minded persons who are not in KC - So what do we do with this? We have to associate. You have family members who are not KC. If you have a job, there are so many people who are not KC. Practically almost all the people in the world. But that doesn't mean we have nothing to do with them. This depends on how advanced you are. Pure devotee can associate with anyone, and just by their influence the person becomes favorable to Krishna. I have seen my god-brother Kesava Bharathi. He calls to arrange to make his travel arrangements and through the course of the phone call, he somehow makes them so favorable and sometimes even starts preaching about Krishna. If we are very friendly with everyone, that will give a good influence to everyone. Once I was giving Prabhupada a message, and he had just woken up. He told me that he had just had a dream. He dreamt there was a big kirtan party. And so he said, gradually as the chanting was going on, the non-chanters, the non-devotees were gradually coming and joining the chanters, the devotees. I asked the Prabhupada if any of the chanters had become non-chanters. If any of the devotees go and join the non-devotees. He said, how can that be possible. Their name is already written in Krishna's book for going back home, back to god-head. The point is that you should associate with someone else who is not a devotee, if you can influence them in a nice way. And that may not even be that you can talk about Krishna. If you can just be nice, and persuade them in good qualities. But don't you become influenced by them. [BACK] |