indriyasyendriyasyārthe
rāga-dveṣau vyavasthitau
tayor na vaśam āgacchet
tau hy asya paripanthinau
There are principles to regulate attachment and aversion pertaining to the senses and their objects. One should not come under the control of such attachment and aversion, because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
Attachment and aversion:
This is verse 34 of 3rd Chapter of Bhagavad-Gita. Wherein Sri Krsna is explaining the great importance of regulating our lives, in this world which is a place of duality there is attachment which our mind and senses develop to those things which gives us pleasure and there is aversion to those objects of material existence which cause us distress and we spend our whole life trying to develop deeper, deeper attachments to the sources of pleasure and trying to somehow or other by any means escape the causes of distress. So in this way the spirit soul which is part and parcel of Krsna spends its valuable most precious facility within this human form of life, simply in the consciousness of attachment and aversion and Krsna here explains that both attachment and aversion to anything temporary that is not connected to Krsna is a great stumbling block on the path of self-realization.
Cheap methods of realizing God
Srila Prabhupad would very often mark the defect in many of the Swamis and Yogis, Maharishis that came to the west, they would sometimes teach a form of meditation, or teach a particular process of Pranayam, Asana and they would say that “you just do like this and after sometime you will become realized that you are God”. That you will achieve everlasting peace in that state and of course hundreds and thousands of people were lining up and paying their hard earned money to buy their mantras from these yogis. Why? Srila Prabhupada said: “If you give something cheap; many people will come but if you want to give the real thing only those who are very sincere, if you sell broken glass or if you sell glass jewelry, he said: “So many quantities of people will come to buy it but if you sell a rare diamond only those who are willing to pay the price will come”. Srila Prabhupada explained that according to Krsna’s teachings in Gita there is no question of Yoga without regulating the mind and senses without following the principles of discipline. Therefore Srila Prabhupada taught us the true message of Krsna how to keep our mind and senses always engaged in positive spiritual activities and simultaneously to refrain from indulging in any of the attachments or aversions the objects which will create those experiences in this world.
Devotee: Accepts/ rejects anything for Krsna Prema
In fact a devotee he is willing to accept the most worse conditions if it is favorable to the service of Guru and Krsna and a devotee is willing to give up for ever without a second thought even what we are most attached to; if it is an impediment in the service of our Guru and Krsna and this process is called Bhakti. That we live for the pleasure of the Lord and when we accept this principle in our life then naturally everything else falls in its proper place. When we are seeking our own pleasure everything will go wrong; because the pleasures of this world ultimately create confusion and bondage. But when we think in the terms of the pleasure of Krsna to the service under the direction of the Guru and Acharyas then whatever we do, we can have complete faith that it is purifying, liberating us from all attractions and all aversions. And there are many great examples of this. How great devotees in the service of Guru and Krsna are willing to accept or reject anything for the pleasure of the Lord.
Srila Rupa Gosvami made very simple statement that we should accept what is favorable for the discharge of devotional service and we should reject whatever is unfavorable. It is quite simple to understand but it is quite difficult to practice, because we have so many attachments and so many aversions.
Story of a humble Brahmin disciple of Sripad Ramanujacharya
Today is the appearance day of Sri RamanujAcharya and how he taught us in his own life and through the lives of his disciples how we should be willing to accept anything or reject anything for the service of Guru and Krsna.
One time a very pious and humble Brahmin approached Sri Ramanujacharya and with very deep sincerity he requested, “I want to accept you as my Gurumaharaj. I want to stay with you and I want to serve you, I want to give my life to serving you and pleasing you please instruct me”. And Ramanujacharya replied that: “Yes, I will instruct you, you do whatever I tell you to do without question”. The Brahmin said: “I give my word; I will do whatever you tell me to do without questioning”. So then Ramanujacharya became very happy, he said: “according to the shastras, the greatest purification is to take the water that is washed the feet of a humble Brahmin, so my instruction to you is everyday you wash your feet and you give me the water to drink and sprinkle on my head”. So this Brahmin, he was very simple, he understood this is my Guru’s instructions, so everyday he would wash his feet and he would personally deliver that water to Ramanujacharya and he would sprinkle it upon his head. And one day, Ramanujacharya, he went to some one of his Gruhasta disciple’s homes, they offered him nice Prasad of Bhagavan and then he began to preach and immersed in Hari Katha, the whole day disappeared and soon that was late at night and he came back to his Ashram and this Brahmin was still awake even though it was very, very into the night and Ramanujacharya said: “Why are you still awake? Have you eaten your Prasad today?” He said: “No”, He said: “you have not eaten all day”, He said: “No, and you are staying up so late at night why?” He said: “Because you haven’t drunk the water that wash my feet yet, I have been waiting for you all day to give it to you, I cannot eat or sleep without fulfilling my service to you”. So then Ramanujacharya very blissfully took the water and sprinkled it on his head and then the Brahmin, peacefully took Prasad and took rest. Ramanujacharya was so happy, just to, not only to get the water from his feet but just to see such simplicity, such humility. Obviously it was a great embarrassment to him, in fact, it is said that you can even go to hell for doing such a thing. But he wasn’t concerned with heaven or hell, he wasn’t concerned with the shame and embarrassment, he was only concerned with pleasing his Guru, “this pleases you, what concern do I have for anything else”.
Ramanujacharya reveals secret mantra to all fallen souls
Of course Ramanujacharya in his own life he made a very transcendental pastime. He went for initiation to one great Acharya, his name was Gostipurna. And his own initiating Guru Maharaj Mahapurna told him, he should receive mantra from this Gostipurna, so there is no Acharya Vaishnav like him. So he said: “Can you please give me the mantra?” and Gostipurna was thinking that “this mantra so pure that I have no inclination to give it to anyone in this world because if it touches the lips of someone impure, it is not pleasing to the Holy name of the Lord”. So he said: “May be some other day now you can return to your home”, so Ramanujacharya felt very much dejected. And some days later he walked all the way from Srirangam to this particular village and now he said: “Will you give me initiation and mantra.” And he said: “No, I will not give you initiation at this time”. Ramanujacharya went 18 times, walking long distance, very humbly falling at his feet asking with pleasing to give him this initiation and 18 times, he refused. Ramanujacharya: “Thinking himself so undeserving, so fallen, so useless in this existence”, in such humility he began to cry and one Vaishnav told Gostipurna how Ramanujacharya his heart was so broken in humility, feeling himself so undeserving, he was simply weeping. So Gostipurna, called for him, Sri Ramanujacharya approached and he was told: “that this mantra my son is so pure, it is so powerful that anyone who hears it will be liberated from the sufferings of this world and achieve eternal loving service of Lord Narayan”. He said: “therefore, I am entrusting this mantra to you, under the condition that you never, ever, ever disclose this to anyone else” and then he gave him the mantra and Ramanuja was very much blissful he offered his prostrated obeisance’s to his Guru Maharaj and he began to walk back to his home, ashram. As he was walking, he saw so many people and as he was looking at them seeing how they are trying to enjoy their material world, simply cast into this ocean of duality, simply responding to various attachments and aversions and being incriminated deeper and deeper and deeper in the laws of Karma and a great devotee feels compassion. Not only to the poor and the sick and to the old but a devotee feels compassion upon anyone who is wasting the human life without Krsna Consciousness. So upon seeing these people his heart was just swelling over with pity and sympathy for them. So he announced very loudly that everyone come to the local temple, get everyone to come because I am going to give freely a most precious jewel to each and everyone. So this spread throughout the village and soon there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people gathered at the temple and Ramanujacharya climbed to the top of the temple where everyone could see him, he was on the terrace and he said to them: “You are all more dear to me than my very life, therefore I am going to give you the most precious wealth, I am going to give you a mantra by which chanting you would be free from the clutches of material suffering and you will achieve the Lotus feet of Lord Narayan”. So all the people were calling out, “Please give us this mantra.” So Ramanujacharya, he said: “Please repeat after me and then as loud as he could sing, he called out for everyone to hear the secret mantra. Everyone repeat after me. “Om Namoh Narayanah”. Everyone was chanting very loud. Repeat again Ramanuja said: “Om namoh narayanaya”. He instructed them how to chant in the mood of service then everyone was filled in great bliss and they all with grateful hearts offered their obeisance’s to Ramanujacharya. And then Ramanujacharya happily went back to his Guru’s Ashram, meanwhile Gostipurna heard the new of this tumultuous sound of thousands and thousands and thousands of people chanting the mantra that he did not feel anyone but Ramanujacharya in the whole world was qualified to sing and when Ramanuja came in, very humble offered his Dandavats pranam and his Guru was furious, he said: Get out of here, why are you causing me such great suffering to see your face, you are a fool,, you are a rascal, you have disobeyed my order. Get out of here. He said: for offend, for committing this offence you will have to spend life times in hell. Then Ramanujacaraya in great happiness and humility and folded palms. He spoke: And said: “My Gurumaharaj, you had told me that anyone who hears this mantra will get liberation from suffering and achieve the loving service of Lord Narayan. So why not give liberation and Narayan Bhakti to everyone, why should they suffer in this world? If all these thousands and thousands of people go back to Vaikunta for there sake, I am will to suffer in hell for life times”. Paradukha Dukhi. A real Vaishnava, he is suffering to see the sufferings of others. When Gostipurna heard this, the compassion and the selfless devotion of Ramanuja he began to weep, with his own arms he embraced Ramanujacharya and he said that: “From this day, you are my Guru. You are teaching me the true qualities of a devotee – compassion and selfless devotion and Ramanujacharya fell at the feet of Gostipurna and he said: “I am your eternal servant, servant of your servants and it is only by your grace, by your mercy that all these people have been delivered. So in this way, Ramanujacharya, he was actually willing to go to hell, he was willing to suffer endlessly, commit any offences, if it would help others to achieve Krsna Consciousness. And actually Ramanujacharya knew the heart of his spiritual master. And therefore he was willing to put aside all his attractions and aversions to serve the real heart of his Guru Maharaj.
Story of Ramanuja’s disciple – Kuresh
Ramanuja had another disciple, his name was Kuresh. Kuresh was actually very, very wealthy man and he was so pious that in his house he was always all poor people, all sick people, he was always just giving them everything they wanted, from early morning to late night, his doors were opened for anyone to come and he would just give them whatever he could. He was married man, a Gruhasta, 2 children and he became a disciple of Ramanujacharya, he was such a faithful, loyal disciple, he was so empowered by the Lord due to his devotion to his Guru.
Mayawadi Prominence at that time.
At that time, the Mayawadi system was prominent in India, generally Mayawadis their misconception that ultimately God is a formless state of existence. It is covered Buddhism, Lord Buddha taught that form, personality, qualities they are all products of illusion called Maya and when we through concentration, meditation, morality, charity gradually we become purified of all the contaminations of attachments and aversions to this world. And then our consciousness actually ceases to exist, because consciousness is an illusion, everything is an illusion so we merge into the Nirvishesh, Shunyawad, Shunyawad which means void. We enter into the state of emptiness, or nothingness and that is the ultimately bliss. Because in emptiness there is no misery. No desire. So Sripad Shankaracharya took the exact teachings of Buddha and he just added the name Brahman made it sound like something positive and he defeated all the Buddhisms and drove them out of India completely but the conclusion was the same. A Brahman, A God, Who is formless without any qualities, without any personality, there is no soul, there is no differentiation on any level, spiritual or material. So ultimately, he was explaining the void. But he was giving it a Shastric name, this way he re-established the Vedas. So Ramanujacharya was the first Acharya after Sripad Shankar to very, very strongly, systematically establish the mistakes in the Mayawad philosophy and explained how the soul, the Jivatma is eternally dependent and sub-ordinate to the Paramatma or Supreme God and both Narayan or Krsna is eternal and the Jivatma, you and me our souls are eternal and we are eternally dependent on the Lord who has diversified energies and according to our free will we are either are completely controlled by his material energy called Maya, Shakti or we are completely controlled by his spiritual energy which is Bhakti, Daivi Shakti. So he was taught teaching the principle that Krsna or Narayan is the Supreme Personality of Godhead His form is eternal, His personality is eternal, His pastimes are eternal, and His names are eternal. They are not just means of going to something beyond, they are the Absolute. And the Absolute highest realization is to engage in the loving pastimes of the Lord in Vaikunta. And Ramanujacharya preached so powerfully, so purely that no Mayawadi could not stand before him. They either had to do one of two things, they either had to surrender to him and be his disciple, which many of them did or they had to run and hide from him. He debated so many.
Kuresh and Mahapurna defeated Mayawadis
So there was a King and this King he was influenced by Mayawadi Philosophy and his idea is that Shiva is the Supreme God in this world and ultimately by worshipping Shiva you merge into the impersonal Brahman and he wanted to convert the whole kingdom to worship Shiva as Supreme. So one of his ministers told him that “the only way you will be successful is we have to defeat Ramanujacharya, we should invite him here to Kanchipuram, we should challenge him to debate and we will defeat him and if he is defeated because he is the greatest of the Vaishnavas, all Vaishnavas will accept our version and if we do not defeat him we will kill him, murder him and when people see that such a great devotee of Vishnu has been murdered they have to accept that Shiva is Supreme”. Hari Bol. So the King was very happy to hear this, “Yes, we will bring him hear, we will defeat him or murder him”. So this King sent some messengers to Srirangam were Ramanujacharya was staying and asked that “the King is requesting you to come to have nice audience, he wants to have audience with you, he will have nice debate also”. So Ramanujacharya said: “Yes certainly, I will come”, so he started preparing everything to come but this one devotee Khuresh his Gruhasta disciple, he said: “Ramanujacharya, Guru Maharaj”, said: “You should not go, do not trust this King, he is very evil and very sectarian. I believe, he will kill you, if you go”. Actually the King ordered that Ramanujacharya and his Guru Mahapurna that they both go. So Khuresh said that: “Let me go, let me have the honor of giving my life for Gurumaharaj”. And meanwhile the guards where there from the King, so Khuresh, he took off his white clothes of the Gruhasta and Ramanuja his Guru, put on Gruhasta robes and he took Ramanuja’s clothes as a Sanyasi and this way Ramanuja with some of his followers eagerly, easily left the kingdom without being detected and they left the city of Sri Rangam. And Khuresh was brought before the King, everyone was thinking, he was Ramanujacharya. So at that time, he and Mahapurna were challenged by the King either you accept, actually what he said: “What is the goal of life?” And Khuresh said: “The goal of life is unmotivated, uninterrupted loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Narayan”. And the King could not tolerate hearing that, he just became so angry, he said: “This is non sense, this is bogus, you are cheating people, you are misleading people” and then he brought all of his highest Pandits, he said, he told the Pandits: “You defeat them”, so the Pandit started Pandits started presenting so many arguments and Khuresh and Mahapurna were just easily, effortlessly tearing them to pieces. The Vaishnav Philosophy is so powerful, Why? Because it is based on Truth. And there is no greater power in all the creation than truth.
Even Srila Prabhupad he told us: that “you just understand the simple instructions that I have given you and you can defeat anyone”, because it is true and it was amazing. When Srila Prabhupad first came to the West, he just gave some basic teachings, he just had few little books, devotees heard a few little lectures, he sent them out, to preach and just by hearing the basic principles of Prabhupad’s teachings, they were undefeatable, devotees who had only been hearing from him for few months. After just one or two years of being his students, he sent some of them to the Southern parts of India and they were defeating the Shankaracharya’s and their disciples, they couldn’t be defeated because Vaishnav philosophy is based on truth. Then truth is the greater power. So Kuresh annulated all the arguments as so effortlessly that he made a complete joke out of all the Pandits. So the King was infuriated, and he said: “I will kill you”. So when Ramanujacharya many years before, he was young, this king when he was a boy of only eight years old, his sister was haunted by a ghost and she was terribly being suffering like anything and so many mystics and so many Sadhus and so many astrologers and so many exorcist and so many, everyone was coming and the ghost would just laugh at them all, through this voice of this girl, he would just laugh at them all, they ran away and did not what to do? Yadava Prakash, the teacher of Ramanujacharya, he was just the boy, the ghost even laughed at him. Run away. But when Ramanujacharya when he came forward, he was so pure, such a great Vaishnav that the ghost actually through the small girl actually bowed down and touched his Lotus feet, he said: “If you put your feet on my head, then I will go away”. So Ramanuja just all he did is place his feet on the head and just to show that the ghost was gone, said: “I will leave this little girl and I will go to the top branch of the tree and break it”. And then the girl was normal. So the king was obliged how could he kill someone who had done such a nice favor for him. So he decided, he would torture him, beat him and poke out his eyes. So the king and Kuresh was so happy that he heard this sentence that he was going to be beat, he was thinking “such a nice Seva, I get to do for my Guru Maharaj” and servants of the King severely tortured them in so many ways they just caused pain to them, just the point of death without killing them. And then the culmination of their tortures was they burned out their eyes. Both Kuresh and Mahapurna and after they were beaten, whipped, tortured and their eyes were burned out, Kuresh very blissfully looked at the torturers and thanked them, he said: “I am very much indebted to you, because by your kindness, you have allowed me to perform this wonderful service to my spiritual master of giving up my eyes and enduring so much pain, so thank you very much, I am indebted to you, how can I serve you” and when the torturers heard this, their hearts melted. “Such a saint, such a devotee, so even they started feeling, what we have done?” o the torturers found someone, gave them some money because they were blind and said: “Please take these two people back to Srirangam”. So on the way Mahapurna just laid down, he was an old man. He said that, you know, what he had just gone through with his frail body, he could no longer live, so he said: “I have no more seva in this material world, please offer my obeisance’s to Ramanujacharya” and with the thought of Narayan in his heart and the name of Narayan of his lips, he went back to Vaikunta.
Meanwhile was in Srirangam and for sometime, he was living completely blind. For quite a while when Ramanujacharya had heard what he endeavored for his sake, he began to weep in ecstatic love to see such a disciple as this. Ramanujacharya later on came to Sri Rangam and he told Kuresh with great affection and love, he said: “You should go to Kanchipuram”. You know, what happened during this time because of the King’s offence, he contracted a terrible, terrible disease, he suffered horribly and he died. And then the son of the King, he became the disciple of Ramanujacharya and he taught the entire kingdom to chant the names of Krsna and become Vaishnavas. So by this time, everything was quite safe. So he told Kuresh that “you should go to the temple, it is called the temple of Bharadwaj. And you should pray to Bharadwaj to give you your sight back and I promise that if you make this prayer, he will give you back the sight of your eyes”. So on Ramanuja’s order, he went to the deity of Lord Narayan and he was such a pure person, that the Lord actually spoke to him: “What do you want?” And Kuresh said: “Only one boon I want, that the minister” actually this is an interesting situation. “The minister who actually to the king how dangerous Ramanuja’s was and the one who actually arranged for his torture and his eyes to be poked out, that minister use to be one of Ramanuja’s disciples, but he buked and turned against him. So it was because of this person that Kuresh had to suffer so liberally. So when Lord Narayan asked: “Ask for your boon?” He said: “The boon I ask is that this minister of the king that he be forgiven for all of his offences and that you give him Bhakti, you give him pure devotional service”. So Bharadwaj said: “Yes, that will be done, it is done. Now you ask for something, isn’t there something else, you want to ask me?” He said: “Yes, that the king who has already left his body due to his grievous offences the that king be forgiven for everything he has ever done to me or anyone else and he be given Krsna Bhakti”. So Bharadwaj said: “Yes, he will be forgiven, he will be given Bhakti”. “That’s all, anything else”. Kuresh said: “That’s all”, and then he left. Meanwhile Ramanuja he saw that Kuresh was still blind. He said he was overwhelmed with joy, as he understood, “what boons did you ask for, he asked not for his own sight back but only the forgiveness of the people who blinded him”. So Ramanuja understood the selfless nature of his disciple that he would never, ever, ever ask anything for himself.
Compare Kuresh to the common worshippers of demigods here in India. Give me wealth, give me health, give me wife, give me husband, give me victory, give me success, give me so many things, give me good grades in my exam. When you are a Sadhu, or at least trying be a Sadhu you really hear what everybody wants, when we go to these big public programs so many people come, “Swamiji please give me the boon that I will get good grades, please give me the boon, that my business will be successful, please give me the boon that this pain in my left arm goes away”. Right, you get these requests here. So many things. “Please give me the boon that I can digest my food better, please give the boon that I can pass stool in regulation everyday”, so many types of request we get, literally, this is what they approach God for? That’s what they are asking? What is when they go to the temple, of the Devatas, they are spending money, doing Pujas and as you are Pujas there is tears in their eyes and they are trembling, and this is what they are asking, “give me more money, make my business a success. Make India win the cricket match”. I wonder how many people of this great land of Bharatvarsha prayed to the Devatas on that day that India wins the cricket match. The demi-gods will probably be getting hundreds and millions of requests like this and then they won, and then they lost. Hari Bol!
Anyways even though Ramanuja personally asked Kuresh, ask Lord Narayan for your eyes back, he couldn’t do it. To ask for anything himself, he couldn’t do it, he was only asking for the benediction that would be beneficial for others, he asked that his enemies go back to Vaikunta. So Ramanuja said to Kuresh: “That you have surrendered your life to me, therefore, very part of your body is my property, and nothing is yours. Whatever you have, is to be utilized in my service. Those eyes are not your eyes that are my eyes, they are to be utilized in my service. They are to see things who are serving me; therefore I want you to ask Lord Narayan to give the eyes that belong to your Guru back”. So he went back to Bharadwaj and Lord Narayan said: What boons do you ask? And he said: “My dear Lord, sometime back my Guru Maharaj give some very, he entrusted to me very precious possessions of his, but I lost them, so if it is your desire, please return them so I could use them in my Guru Seva” and when he said this, by the mercy of Lord Narayan, he felt such an ecstasy of reciprocation of love. Lord Narayan told him: “that anyone who is the servant of my servant like you are”, he said: “I must reciprocate that their love in everyway” and when he said that: Kuresh fell unconscious and when he woke up, he could his eyes were perfect. And in this way, he utilized his eyes to see the beauty of Krsna and to facilitate his service to Krsna. So throughout the lives of these great devotees we can understand practically what it really means to regulate our lives beyond attachments and aversions attending to the senses and their objects. By simply understanding that every thing is the property of Krsna and utilizing everything for Krsna’s service.
bhoktaram yajna-tapasam
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhridam sarva-bhutanam
jnatva mam santim ricchati
We can achieve like these when we are convinced and live by the principles that everything is Krsna’s property, my eyes, my ears, my nose, my thumb, my heart, my brain, my whole body, my family, my home, my wealth all the elements of material nature those who are the property of Krsna. Yukta Vyragya means to utilize all these things for the pleasure of Krsna, to the service of Krsna there is nothing wrong in such knowledge, provided you use it for right purpose. Just like trees are growing, those trees has spirit souls, and they have a body made of wood, as such we have a body made of blood and flesh and mucus, stools and various that is what your body is made of, so tree has body made out of wood. But it is alive, there is a soul in that tree and if you live as devotees in Bombay, you look at the crazy, crazy magazines and books that they are publishing they are using the bodies of these trees, they are using Krsna’s property to make paper to print that are completely unfavorable for Krsna Consciousness. Srila Prabhupad said: “this is a greater, to kill innocent trees, make paper out of it and utilize that for conquered propaganda against policies of spiritual life.” He said “it is the greatest of all sins”. Srila Prabhupad he was ordering us to print millions and millions of books that in so many trees they cut down and use the paper to print Bhagavad-Gita as it is, Srimad Bhagavatam, so many cantos, Sri – Isopnisad , Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Nectar of devotion, nectar of instructions, Back to godhead magazine. So the same printing process, the same paper companies that are causing such bondage and terrible, terrible illusion in this world, when we use all of those facilities to serve Krsna and glorify Krsna. That is as greatest service. So how do we become above the principles of attractions and aversions to the senses and their objects by simply living in such a way that we develop our attraction to Krsna and aversion to Maya, same principle but differently placed and that is what Krsna Conscious regulation means that we regulate our live in such a way that at every moment we are developing attraction to Krsna and aversion to Maya.
The spiritual master of Sri Ramanujacharya, the original spiritual master Jamunacharya, Mahapurna and Gostipurna where actually his God brothers because of positions, because but Jamunacharya was the original Guru and Jamunacharya, you know how this story how he was a great King for sometime enjoying luxuries of life but by the mercy of Nathamuni, his grandfather, his association of a Vaishnava, his original Bhakti was awaken. And he wrote that famous prayer that “I used to be so much attached for the pleasures of this world and the prominent pleasure in this world is sakhya”, he said: “Now that I have tasted the sweetness of the devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead then even think of sense gratification as strict as a fact, my lips 0:52:11__________. Prabhupad is very fond of this sloka of Yamunacharya. So this is our goal in life to become so attracted to Krsna and if we examine the regulative principle, Krsna Consciousness it is all divine to increase our attraction Krsna and create an aversion to material sense enjoyment. The four regulative principles: No illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, is to make us averse to sinful life, to selfish material life. And chant the Holy names and name of Krsna is non-different from Krsna and when we chant the Holy name they awakens within our hearts our dormant natural attraction to Krsna, when we hear Srimad Bhagavatam everyday to awaken within our heart our dormant natural attractions to Krsna. When we worship the deities in the temple by either performing the Puja personally or just being in the temple, having the Darshan, praying, dancing, chanting through this process it is in a very, very sublime and powerful way awakening our natural dormant love and attraction of Krsna. When we eat Krsna’s Prasad because that saliva of the Lord is all pure, we were discussing this, this morning Srimad Bhagavatam class, it is so pure, because it is non-different from Krsna but even Prasad awakens attraction to Krsna but at that same time we will not eat things that are not are offered to Krsna, we are averse to those things because they since increase material propensities. When we engage in devotional service that whatever you might do, whether we cleansing the temple, whether we are chanting or dancing, whether we are giving some donations for proper devotional cause, whether we are making flower garlands, just that activity awakens our dormant natural love for Krsna. Krsna is all attractive, when we associate with Krsna we naturally become attracted to Krsna and when we associate with Maya, it creates a forgetfulness of that attraction that is meant to be eternally enjoyed by the soul. So the regulative principles of Krsna Consciousness must be followed be very, very carefully. Sanskrit quotation. Because by following these principles we get Krsna’s mercy and what is Krsna’s mercy that gradually he will attract our hearts beyond those. He will attract our hearts only to the association of those things which are dear to him. And then a real bliss, a real ecstasy of the soul can be explained. Well, like Kuresh, or like that pious Brahmin who gave his foot wash to his Guru everyday to sprinkle on his head, we become completely indifferent to our own physical destiny, we become so much completely absorbed and immersed in giving pleasure and satisfaction to Krsna through the service of Guru and service of devotees. And of course, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has come to teach us the simple method by which we can cleanse our hearts and bring about this pure consciousness,
ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ
bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaḿ
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaḿ
vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaḿ
prati-padaḿ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaḿ
sarvātma-snapanaḿ
paraḿ vijayate
śrī-kṛṣṇa-sańkīrtanam
In this verse teaches seven stages in which heart is gradually cleansed by which we attain the mercy of the Lord by which our original pure Krsna Consciousness is awakened and all of these gradual developments of our original consciousness are awakened simply through chanting the Holy names of the Lord.
Krsna’s name has the power to cleanse all the inebriates of material attachments. Krsna’s names will gradually reveal Krsna. And as Rupa Gosvami in Bhakti Rasamritasindhu if you want to maintain your material attachments to your body, to your disposition in society, to your family, to anything of this world then I am warning you better not go to Keshi ghats on the bank of Jamuna, because Shyam Sundar, Krsna is standing there playing on his flute and if you see him then you can never be satisfied or attracted to anything else, so does that mean that after we see Krsna our lips curl and distaste and we start spitting on our mother and spitting on our father and spititng on our teachers and spitting on everything we see like Jamunacharya, doesn’t mean like that, spitting means that we have no attachments to trying to exploit these things in replacement of a desire to exploit all our so called loved ones and those things of this world, we become the humble servant, then we are attracted to Krsna, in compassion and love, we want to give everyone Krsna, we want to give everything Krsna, that is nature of lover of God, he wants to share that love with everyone. Material love when we have it, we want to keep as much for ourselves as possible and even a charitable man, will give something but only to the limit that it doesn’t disturb our own wealth and usually in giving we are really giving to our egoistic prestige in eyes of others but the wealth of Krsna Consciousness the more you have the more you want to give it to others, the more you are even willing to risk your very life and everything to others. This is the result of being attracted to Krsna and there Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswathi Thakur said: the only problem in this world is this lack of this attraction to Krsna, the all attractive and the only solution to all the problems in this world is to develop our natural our love and attraction to Krsna. Krsna has appeared within his name especially in this age of Kali-yuga to reveal himself and awaken our natural love for him.
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
So at this time we will have Kirtan to purify our hearts, absorb our mind and senses in all attractive form of Sri Krsna that our eyes behold the beauty of Radha Gopinath and that ears be immersed in the beautiful sounds of the name and that our tongues very loudly broadcast the glories of the Lord for all the world to hear.
Nitai Gaur Premanande, Hari Bol!
