Real pleasure comes through relationship
I am very grateful to be amongst all of you this evening. Special thanks to Kunjabihari, Madhupriya, Vidhi, prerna, Shiva and this wonderful family for arranging this event. Providing us the opportunity to come together to share the most precious exchanges of spiritual relationship. Bhakti means relationship, sometimes the word Bhakti is translated as devotion. But the great saints or Acharyas have given a deeper explanation they translated as devotional service, where there is service there is relationship. Relationships are what fulfill the deepest needs of the heart, things cannot fill that vacuum. You can have a house nice house, you can have nice car, you can have nice clothes and ornaments but they cannot in any way give fulfillment to the heart, only to the mind and senses. What gives fulfillment to the heart id satisfying relationships relatives, friends, and lovers according to their particular modes of nature we may be influence by? Real pleasure comes through relationship. When relationships are frustrated life is frustrated. People take shelter of non-living things; people take shelter of the pursuit of money, pursuit of objects even having all of those things without proper relationships. People take shelter of intoxication to forget that dreary void within their heart. For many people they can’t find it with people so they try to have that relationship with a cat or a dog, I know one person who found that relationship with the goat. Because we have to have access to repose our propensity to love somewhere and if that is not there it is frustrating. Because relationships in this world based on mental and physical platform are temporary and because generally people are misguided to develop relationship based on our own selfish ego, what I could get from this person, it’s frustrating.
To solve superficial relationship so called philosopher, spiritualists give the solution Nirviçeña-çünyaväd
Either, we disappoint each other or we just really get on each other’s nerves or our partner or our friend dies, or it just really disappoints us or we disappoint them. Yes, relationships are difficult because you invest yourself in a relationship. Therefore you are most vulnerable to have your heart broken. If two people really just have a very superficial relationship with each other and the other disappoints them, you just say so what! And go on with your life. But you really, if really invest your emotion, your affection, your faith in each other and that person disappoints you it’s devastating. In fact most of the songs in the last forty-fifty years are about broken hearts, in India too and in the west definitely. For every one song, popular that’s about how were happy together, there is at least twenty songs about the torment, agony of a broken heart, a lost love. Even if you are happy together disease, death could come at anytime. So yes investing your heart in a relationship puts you in an extremely vulnerable situation, vulnerable and subject to the deepest pain. In order to deal with that philosophers and spiritualists have given a door to walk through which in their mind solves the problem forever that all relationships, all personality is Maya, it is an illusion. Ultimately the truth is beyond all relationships beyond all form, beyond all personality where we simply exist forever. There is no distinction between people, there is just an oneness and we all merged into that oneness or there is just a void Nirviçeña-çünyaväd where we all just become that void. Therefore, no more being vulnerable to the pain of broken heart, no longer subjected to the agony of birth, old age disease or death. There is no more love, no more of the frailties of love there is simply pure unending being existences. That is one conception of Mukti or Nirvana. But that does not fulfill the essential need of every living heart we have the greatest need for loving relationship. Because it’s the greatest pleasure it also gives the greatest pain when it frustrated.
Real relationship is based on real spiritual principles
Bhakti teaches us that relationship on the platform of truth is the highest fulfillment and it is not subject vulnerabilities of this illusory plane. The essentially we are all eternal soul sac-cid-änanda, eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss. We are all part and parcel mamaiväàço jéva-loke of this supreme or God and God is all attractive. Krishna means the all attractive one, beyond all sectarian conceptions. Whether one is Christian or Muslim or a Jew or a Sikh or a Hindu that who would deny that God is supremely beautiful, supremely wealthy, he has all knowledge, all strength, all fame, all renunciation he is all attractive. Our relationship with is forever, it is simply been forgotten. In that forgetfulness we are trying to replace that experience with mortal things of this world. The highest truth is the relationship of the soul within our own body with the supreme soul or God. In that relationship is the pure perfect relationship between all living beings. When we developed our relationship in reference to that love that is within us for God and we share our love for God with each other and share our love for each in reference to the truth. Then those relationships are ultimately fulfilling and even in death when a devotee dies there is great sorrow, when our loved one dies there must be sorrow but that sorrow is very different than for a person who doesn’t understand our real connection to that person. There is no sorrow for the soul we understand that in our relationship with God the souls are eternally bound together. There is just a temporary separation on the physical plane. When we come together as we are tonight, we are coming to cultivate real relationship based on real spiritual principles with each other. We are not men or women; we are not American or Russian or Indian. We are not rich or poor these are all temporary designations. We are developing our relationships on the basis of which we really are, children of God, parts of God spirit souls. On that level we could tolerate, we could forgive and our relationship and the affection that we share become greater and greater and greater as time evolve.
To develop Real Relationship first we need to understand meaning of love
But what not without test, for real relationships to have meaning substances we must understand what is the meaning of love. Love is not selfish, love is self less. Love is willing to make sacrifice for the object of our love. When we share that spirit amongst each other there is no power within the world that can disturb our relationships. How to do that? Because we all have our false ego, we all have our different way, we all have our habits, and we all have our mind and conditionings. For relationship to be real and strong we have to focus by making the priority of our relationship that higher principle, not the temporary superficial reasons that we live each other. I may like the way you look and you may like the way look not too many people like the way I look at. But we may like each other in that way but our looks are going to change, one minute you like this than you are like that. The body changes and the mind changes faster than the raging wind the mind may change. Different situations bring about different condition from each other that we may have never expected. How do we tolerate and maintain that respect? Maintain that dignity between each other it’s really only possible when were we united on a higher principle. In the mood of goodness, that higher principle is morality. Two people may be married they really start getting on each other nerves. All of sudden things about just start coming out that we never expected, if I knew that you were like this I would have never married you. Possibly every married couple say this things sometimes, I don’t know but I am guessing. My dear God Brother is speaking with realization; he said yes it is true. So in the mode of Goodness we have taken our vows for the sake of the children, for the sake of morality we will dedicate our self and raise above this difference and somehow other resolve it on that higher principle.
Essence of life is to understand our Relationship with God and with each other
Now Bhakti goes beyond the mood of Goodness. Prabhupada and the scripture tell you can’t really perform Bhakti properly until you are on the mood of Goodness. The mood of Goodness is like launching pad where you can take off unto the transcendental platform. So yes we are dedicated for the higher principle of morality, but why? Because it is our service to God to work it out between each other. We are here to help each other to love Krishna; no matter what I have committed myself to help you to love Krishna and you have committed yourself to help me to love Krishna. Together is a team where trying to help others to love Krishna. That higher principle can resolve all these flickering difference. Yesterday we gave example of waves on the river always changing but when you go deep there are no waves it’s still. We have to dive deep below the surface of our motions and our mind and our sense to the essence, essence of life, our relationship with each other and our relationship with God. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu his entire pastimes are about one thing relationships in inducing love of God in each other through relationships most beautiful relationships, the most unconditional, enjoyable loving affairs. Not the romantic type but type that really comes from the heart and from the soul. We read that in spiritual world beyond the world of birth and death, beyond the Brahmajyoti where those who want to extinguish all relationships can reside, beyond that is Vaikuntha a place for wherever the most intimate loving relationships amongst all living being in that place all centered and focus around serving one another for the pleasure of Krishna the all attractive.
Receiving blessing means to serve the devotees
Today we are gathered to give blessings and prayers for the soon to be Marriage of Vidhi and Abhinava. They are getting married on February 15, yes here in Mumbai. Vidhi is like the daughter to all of us very sweet devotees, very simple and pure heart. She loves Krishna very much; she loves a lot of other things too. You know where they going for the Honeymoon, they are going Bunjee Jumping. They go in an airplane, how many feet above sea level 15,000 feet above sea level in New Jersey and they jump out of the plane and some sort of rubber rope or something they start bouncing around on. Please it’s a good opportunity to chant Hare Krishna. We could all learn how to chant sincere by Bunjee Jumping, very exciting Honeymoon. But they are soon be getting married and Abhinava is a Radio announcer, Jockey that’s what they called Radio Jockey. Wonderful, wonderful sincere good hearted gentle man and he has become our very dear friend. Madhu Priya Devi and Kunjabihari are very, very eager to have this program so that we could have kirtaan, have little Katha, so that they could serve all of the guest and devotees wonderful Prasad. Because this is actually how we receive blessings, anyone can ask give me blessing but when you serve people nicely with love and affection without asking blessing pour from that person’s art, this is science. So we are here together to bless Abhinava and Vidhi for their coming marriage. In this day and age a lot of blessing are required for a marriage to work, not only lot of blessing but a lot of willingness access those blessing. Lot of sacrifice and lot of tolerance and really coming together on a higher platform making that the focus, then there can be real love, love for Krishna and love for each other. Also Kunjabihari’s father Omprakash Arora passed away very recently. Wonderful man, wonderful friend and we request all the devotees to offer a prayer to Radha Gopinath for the mercy of the Lord upon his eternal soul. Now at this time I would like to ask my senior and beloved God Brother Yogeshwar Prabhu to speak.
Radhanath Maharaj relationship with Garry, Chandramauli Maharaj, And Yogeshwar Prabhu
As far as relationship my dear friend Garry is here, can you stand up Garry now if you look at him and you look at me you will see two very different species, yes you all agree. Once, I have said it many times once we were at Baha’i temple in Vineca Illinois and he said to me how we can be such good friends. My livelihood is convincing people that they will be happy if they have big strong bodies and your livelihood is convincing people that are you not the body. So that is not a subtle difference there, but yet we became friends when we were about eight year old and now we are both fifty eight years. That means our relationship is golden anniversary, really it’s our golden anniversary fifty years. But still there is so much love and respect because you know despite all the difference. Our in its own way is very much on a spiritual platform of dedication, forgiveness, Tolerance and really seeing, seeing the essence within each other and loving that essence and being faithful that essence. So we welcome you Garry. There is another very special celebrity Chandramauli Swami Maharaj please stand up. Now there is not so much difference in this one, we known each other for thirty seven years and our respect and our love and appreciation has only grown, how is that? Actually we lived in same little house for several years and old broken down farm house. All day just two of us he would cook and I would offer the food to the deities, we had so many things to fight about but we hardly ever fought. Because our relationship was for the higher principle of Krishna in the center, it’s something wonderful life long relationships, eternal relationships of the soul. Yogeshwar Prabhu I can say honestly from my heart he is one of the most brilliant soft hearted, he has everything, he has such softy deep emotional heart, and he has such brilliant create of intelligence, deep love for Prabhupada and Krishna. He is such a faithful and dedicated friend, so grateful that you are here. We request you to please enlighten us on this subject.
Thank you very much!
Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
