English
21st April 2019
participants is lowest. In Christianity there is understanding that, God was very busy creating this world, six days he was busy & on Sunday he took rest. That is why people also have idea of resting on Sundays, as Lord took rest on that day. So, idea of taking rest, is their concept. But we don't have that concept. So why we should take rest on Sundays? Especially when matter of Chanting comes, there is no rest. Most of us are not from West. We don't follow Christian understanding. So why should we plan to rest on Sundays? Specially why should we give rest to the Chanting?
Christians also go to church on Sundays. That's only one day. Muslims go to mosque on Friday. We the followers of Sanatan dharma, we are supposed to be going to the temple every day or as & when possible. Or we can make temple at home. We don't take break from going to the temple, from remembering & serving the Lord, there is no break. No break. Constantly we have to do it.
We could chant 'Hare Krishna’ at home also & wherever we are, we are supposed to be Chanting the holy name of the Lord. We may or may not go to temple, but Chanting goes on. We may not go to temple, but we may turn our homes into temple. We take darshan of home deities or we Chant 'Hare Krishna’ at home. That way we worship the Lord, every single day. Sunday is no exception. I just said all this, because our numbers drop on Sundays.
As number of participants have gone down, so I realized, it must be Sunday. Likewise, cuckoo's sing…. Kuhu ssss Kuhu ssss! So this morning Cuckoo's they became alarm & woke me up & then I also realized, oh! the cuckoo's are singing, so this must be Spring season. (Months of Chaitra & Vaishakh they are the spring season.) They continued their singing till Japa began. When I heard cuckoo's singing, I was wondering, is this the spring season? Then as I thought, I did little counting & then I realized,Yes! Yes!! This must be the spring season. This is a month of Chaitra. That lead to another thought. This is spring season & Lord's statement in Bhagavad Gita is - rutunam kusumakaraha.
Lord said in Bhagavad Gita tenth chapter, out of all the seasons, I am the Spring season. Then Lord said,
bṛhat-sāma tathā sāmnāṁ
gāyatrī chandasām aham
māsānāṁ mārga-śīrṣo 'ham
ṛtūnāṁ kusumākaraḥ
(BG 10.35)
There is big quantity of something that is called as ‘Aakar’. This season is season of flowers. Spring season, all flowers bearing bushes & trees, they bear flowers. Kusumakaraha. That reminded me, I offered aarti this morning to my Lord, Radha Rasbihari, my life began with Radha Rasbihari & I was head poojari of Radha Rasbihari, all the way back in 1973. Radha Rasbihari gave me life & accepted me in Their service. All sorts of services I had been doing for their pleasure under the guidance & instructions of Srila Prabhupada. I was appointed as head poojari for Them in 1973. They made me eligible for Their service.
When I was worshipping today morning, I saw so many flowers. Altar was full of flowers. I also offered flowers. That was the part of offering Aarti. All sorts of flowers, Mogara & Champa all sorts of flowers were offered to Radha Rasbihari. That is the perfection of spring season. What good is the spring season, if the flowers of Spring season are not offered to Radha Rasbihari. Devotees they are consensus. They were offering Lord's flowers unto the Lord. So while Chanting
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
I was thinking of some of these thoughts. All those thoughts are Krishna related, Radha Rasbihari related. They cannot be called as mundane thoughts.
prāpañcikatayā buddhyā
hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ
mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgo
vairāgyaṁ phalgu kathyate (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.256))
Things which have connection with the Lord, relationship with the Lord, to abandon those, discard those or consider those as mundane , this is a phalgu vairagya. This is false renunciation.
Prapanchik Taya budhya Harisambandhi vastunaha. Pra-panch is five great elements. This world is made of five elements, that is Prapanch & from that it comes as prapanchik & then prapanchik buddhi. So these thoughts are seemingly mundane, to think of singing of the bird & then remembering this must be Spring season. Then thinking of flowers everywhere & those flowers are offered to Radha Rasbihari & then you think that yes! this is a right thing to do.
So yes this is also right, this is not wrong. While thinking of Hare Krishna, we may be also thinking of these thoughts & they should not be considered mundane or prapanchik & they should not be abandoned. Cuckoo is singing again. This is remembrance. I was reminded of spring season. That spring season is Lord Himself, that's what He said, so how that can be mundane?
There were lots of thoughts, I just shared few with you all. I could just quickly say one more thought, before we stop. I will make it short. When I was head poojari of Radha Rasbihari, I used to dress the deity & then curtains would open. Govindam adipurusham….. used to start. I used to stand in front of Radha Rasbihari with mirror & I used to show mirror to Radha Rasbihari. While showing mirror to the deity, I used to think & I am sure that's the fact, that Radha Rasbihari used to see themselves into the mirror. Then I used to watch very closely, face of the Lord. I used to watch them , whether they are happy with Shringar or Dressing we have done for Them. Sometime we used to find Them happy & sometimes not. Those moments were like the essence of that service. You dress the deities & watch.
Face is index of your mind. So face is also index of Lord's mind & heart. That is why we used watch Lord's face. I was also thinking about those dealings & reciprocation with Radha Rasbihari.
[Gurumaharaj's Godbrother H.G.Yashomatinandan Prabhuji staying in next room comes in & shared few memories of past days & Gurumaharaj shared that on conference.]
That happened in Vrindavan. Sridhar maharaj was recommended for sanyas. When I heard that, I went to Prabhupada saying ‘me too! me too!’
Then Prabhupada said ‘okay, you too!’ It was approved by Srila Prabhupada. We were all few years in ISKCON by then. Those were all good old days. Yashomati Nandan Prabhuji says , we were nobody. We were almost like animals. Prabhupada transformed us & made us eligible to serve Radha Rasbihari in different capacities & different ashrams. Okay. I am giving Bhagvatam class in Hindi today. We will stop here.
Hare Krishna!
Thank you