English
28 April 2024
Feel Krsna’s presence Everywhere
Speaker: HH Sunder Chaitanya Goswami Maharaj
I offer my obeisances at the lotus feet of Gurudev. We will talk about how to experience Krsna at home by practicing Krsna consciousness at home. Best process to live happily at home is to follow Krsna Consciousness at home. It's an easy way so just chant at home. Chant Hare Krsna Mahamantra, do Deity worship, do Krsna Katha at home and eating the remnants of Krsna prasadam.
These four activities will make one happy and also all the family members happy. All the family members can sit together and chant holy name nicely. So if we follow these four principles, then there will be no need to take Sanyasa and leave home, one can follow all the regulations at home. It's a challenge for a devotee to be Krsna conscious at home.
tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu
mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ (BG 8.7)
Translation: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.
This shloka describes how one can be engaged in Krsna Consciousness. You can read some scriptures and be in association of devotees and chant nicely. If we follow morning program then we can have good sadhana that will help us to progress in devotional life. We have our desires, one is external and the other is internal. External desires pull us out towards material enjoyment and internal desire takes us towards Krsna.
So we understand that our bhakti does not just mean that we complete our 16 rounds, but we need to make strong our internal force to make our Sadhana strong. As we do sadhana, we get linked with Lord Krsna. Because during the day, devotees come in contact with the material world. So there are chances to get disturbed. So this internal force needs to be strong, so our sadhana should be good then we can fight with material energy.
If we dont chant properly then our sadhana is disturbed, then slowly our bhakti is removed. In Srimad Bhagavatam, its explained that Bhishmadeva says, I’m offering my intelligence to you, O Lord. Intelligence is compared to a chaste girl, so Bhishmadeva says, I don’t have a son but a daughter so please accept that.
It's also explained that the Son-in-law who stays at his in-laws is called Ghar Jamai. So Lord Vishnu stays in the milk ocean which is the father’s place of Laxmi, so he is at his In-laws. Similarly Lord Shiva is also staying at Kailash which is the abode of Durga’s father, so Lord Shiva also stays at his In-laws.
In the same way, Bhishmadeva is requesting the Lord that, please accept my intelligence. So this is how the Lord resides as intelligence.
We perform Aarti. Rati means attachment. It means getting rid of in-attractiveness towards the world. Arati means to increase attachment towards the Lord.
Mind is the opulence of Krsna. So its like fire. Fire naturally goes up. If you throw water, it goes down toward the ocean. Because water belongs to the ocean and fire belongs to the sun. If you throw stone then it will come down to the earth. Similarly mind is naturally attracted to Krsna because it belongs to Krsna (mayy arpita-mano-buddhir [BG 8.7]).
Krsna is saying, always think of me and at the same time carry out your duty. And with activities dedicated to me, you will reach me. We should try to nourish the internal force. If we have devotees, we can interact with them.
We can eat with them, whenever we get time. Then our Krsna consciousness progresses. Then we realize Krsna at temple. After that we realize Krsna’s presence at home and at our work place. When our bhakti gets stronger, so that bhakti gets expressed as external source in our life. The Lord is not only in our temple but he is everywhere. Then we have alter at home and we make our family as devotees.
Not only the temple, but even our home becomes temple and then our heart also becomes a temple. Then we make Krsna our goal of life. Our goal is that Krsna stays in our heart. We can carry Krsna in our heart to our workplace. This point is not just an imagination, because Krsna is placed as the Supersoul in our heart. But we dont remember him always, that’s why we don’t remain Krsna conscious always. Then we do bhakti and read the Granthas then its possible.
We can take a break to connect us to Krsna and if we try to do bhakti then Krsna will help us to be Krsna conscious. Kumar Brahman wanted to go with Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he said this world's material desires are troubling me. The lotus feet which are worshiped by Brahma has come to my house. So the Lord gave him an instruction.
yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128)
Translation: Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.
If you follow this, then material desires will not affect you. So this is the dynamism of bhakti, so Krsna gave us advice as Bhagavad Gita to live a happy life. So this is how we can be Krsna conscious. When our external desires are not Krsna conscious, so its very important to have a very strong sadhana. That can be a strong foundation, this reduces the external force and increases the internal force then we can make our house a temple. We become very strong internally.
Then we go to the office and that also becomes a temple. So Krsna consciousness is very unique and valuable, so it needs protection. Our house needs to be protected. People keep a Gate at home to protect themselves. So Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam give us this knowledge of how to protect bhakti.
BG 6.24 represents how to protect our Krsna Consciousness with determination.Just like people may enter our house, like that desires can enter in our heart. Protection of house is more important than the protection of our mind. Media is just trying to force our consciousness. So media is telling us to see wrong material things like the intruders enter our house.
So these kind of intruders, they are very very deceptive so if we are less alert, intruders can enter our mind. So it's better to be safe than to be sorry taking our consciousness in a wrong place.
If there is a flood or earthquake, usually people get disappointed and they immediately think of their house, how to reach home but sometimes they take shelter of a wrong house. The house encourage us for material enjoyment. But it does not give us relief.
They take shelter of TV, sports drinking. Instead of giving us shelter, it gives us burden. So taking solace on remembrance of Krsna, Sri Krsna is our first shelter then we can know that we have accepted Sri Krsna.
grihe thako, vane thako, sada ‘hari’ bole’ dako,
sukhe duhkhe bhulo na’ko, vadane hari-nam koro re (Gay Gaur Madhur Sware 2)
Translation: Whether you are a householder or a sannyasi, constantly chant "Hari! Hari!" Do not forget this chanting, whether you are in a happy condition or a distressful one. Just fill your lips with the hari-nama.
Thankyou. Hare Krsna.
