Krsna- the saviour of his devotees
It is the nature of supreme personality of godhead to greatly appreciate any service that a devotee may offer. Krsna tell us in Bhagavad Gita,
nehäbhikrama-näço ‘sti
pratyaväyo na vidyate
sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya
träyate mahato bhayät
That even the slightest endeavour on this path of Bhakti is never forgotten by the lord. Srimad Bhagvatam explains, one who has engaged in devotional service, even if they fall down again due to their previous conditioning they can never really enjoy material life by the mercy of Krsna & in due course of time Krsna will certainly bring them back. Often times I speak on a very important subject in the form of an example that Srila Prabhupada gave us; one dear god brother rendered sincere service to Srila Prabhupada but then due to past habits seriously fell down from the principles of Krsna consciousness. He was criticized even condemned by so many devotees, but Srila Prabhupada wrote in a letter, he said, because you have once chanted the holy name Krsna sincerely in the land of Vrindavan Krsna will rescue & bring you back to godhead that is for certain. And Prabhupada always asked for that devotee, Prabhupada never forgot his service, & at the end of his life this person completely surrendered in the spirit of pure unalloyed devotion to Srila Prabhupada & to Sri Radha Vrindavanchandra & certainly he is wherever Srila Prabhupada is performing his Lila.
Krsna is pleased when his devotees are praised
The spiritual master is representative of Sri Radha Mädhava because Radha & Krsna never forgets the service we render, that is our greatest hopes, so as vaishnavas we should understand this spirit & always be very eager to appreciate the service offered by others; Krsna take note of it, we should also take note of it. Anything a devotee does in any way to help us at any time we should never forget that, we should glorify with grateful heart that service. The people who are organising this yatra have literally been working for months; coming back & forth to Jaipur, to Vrindavan & they are not just visiting temples having darshan, they are going & renting rooms & renting buses & organising Prasad. And during yatra they are always in the anxiety that everything is working right & we are simply enjoying. For us to actually make real spiritual advancement, we should learn how to appreciate what they are doing for us; appreciating the vaishnavas will make us dear to lord Krsna.
Appearance of the deities of Ladalilal
The deities in the temple that we have just visited are named Ladalilal, some time it is called Ladalilal temple but mostly here in Vraja Bhumi it is known as Shreeji Mandir, it is the beautiful pleasure potency of lord Krsna. These deities are over five thousands old, they were personally installed by the great grandson of lord Krsna, Vajranäbha & they were worshiped here on the hill of Barsana. As Brahma has four heads, there are four peaks here where we have just been is that is 0.06.41, Vanghar means the place of Vrishabhänu’s palace; the wonderful narration that we just recited from the änanda Vrindavan Champu of Kavi 0.06.53.8 that all took place right in the palace of maharaj Vrishabhänu. This hill is called 0.7.05 it is the place where Krsna taxes gopis for charity in the form of butter, yoghurt & ghee & just across the way you will see beautiful white temple on top of the hill; that is one of the heads of Brahma, that is called 0.7.29 & behind where we are going this evening is Manghar? 0.7.34. so on the main hill of Vrishabhänu’s palace Vajranäbha installed those deities, but over the millenniums the deities were lost. At the same time the six Goswämés there was a great devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu whose name was Narayan Bhatt Goswami & he personally lived at ungsha gam 0.8.11 which is the village of birth place of Lalita Sakhi. Barsana is compared to a lotus flower, whorl of the lotus flower is the birth place of Shrimati Radharani & there are eight petals which are the birth places of the eight Sakhis; they are all in a circle around Barsana. So Narayan Bhatt Goswami was here performing very very deep & pure devotional service & his mission being the associate of six Goswämés was to establish the holy places of Krsna lilas especially here in the area of Barsana. So in this garden that we just walk though, it was revealed to him in a dream by Shrimati Radharani that she was present there with her beloved consort; so he went & found in the bushes, a little under the ground the beautiful deities of Ladalilal & he installed them there. They were worshiped & few hundred years ago the worship was quite simple.
Be result oriented
There was one great king from Rajasthan who was very devoted to Barsana Dhaam; he would come here with his royal family regularly to worship in the place of Shrimati Radharani’s eternal home. So he decided to build a magnificent temple for Ladalilal, so he chose to build it on this hill & now we are sitting in the temple that he built; one of the most extravagantly opulent temple in all of Vraja Dhaam. Very beautiful intricately hand carved sand stones inside & out, & he built it in such a way to actually show the world that, Krsna should be the centre of activities whoever we may be. He was a king but he didn’t put his throne in the centre, he wanted to put beautiful deities of Ladalilal in the centre & he built all these small rooms around where he & his family members & his ministers would live. The idea is that, everyone would be fully conscious that, whoever we are; we are all just humble servant of the servant of the servant of Sri Radha & Krsna. When Krsna is in the centre there is unity & there is happiness, as soon as we put our own motivations in the centre there will be competition, there will be conflicts & there will be miseries. But he made a very very strong statement & he spent years & fabulous amounts of wealth to build this beautiful palace for Radha Vrindavanchandra. When it was complete, the day was assigned fort installation of bringing the deities from their small little temple on 0.13.46 & bring it to this place. But the day before the installation Shrimati Radharani appeared to him in a dream & told him that, that is my home not here; otherwise I will be displeased with you. So he built another temple there & that is the wonderful temple where we just had wonderful kirtan. The deities in this Mandir were installed by him, another set of the name Radha Kushalbihari. By their merciful glance they bless all fortunate pilgrims who come here to Sri Barsana Dhaam, so let us pray that we too can learn how to practically put the service in the pleasure of Sri Radha & Krsna as the centre of our lives.
The sole purpose of service is Krsna’s pleasure
The king wasn’t angry or frustrated, he spent mass amount of money to build this for so many years & Radharani said, build me another one here, this is the wrong place. So he just did it which is detachment. Sometime we see sanyaasis, Babajis, brahmacharis they do something, small things & you tell them not like this & they will reply, I worked so hard for this. Real detachment is whatever pleases Krsna; he had that detachment, he was a pure soul in the role of a king. So whether we are king or whatever our occupation, whatever our Varna, whatever our ashram,
ataù pumbhir dvija-çreñöhä
varëäçrama-vibhägaçaù
svanuñöhitasya dharmasya
saàsiddhir hari-toñaëam
Whatever one’s particular occupational duty whatever one’s ashram may be; the real perfection & goal is that, we perform our work in a way that Krsna is pleased. saàsiddhir hari-toñaëam, if Krsna is pleased, it is like watering the root of the tree; all our desire will be fulfilled & there will be harmony. Krsna is pleased when there is harmony, love & trust amongst the devotees & he is very displeased when there are egoistic conflicts, disunity amongst the vaishnavas. Prabhupada told us, Vaikuntha consciousness means everyone is better than me, I am the servant, it is that consciousness that puts Krsna in the centre.
Thank you very much, Hare Krsna.
