English
5th February 2020
The True Lifetime Achievement Award
Today 550 devotees are chanting with us. Greetings to all of you as you are receiving the mercy of the holy name.
One who is humble is eligible to receive mercy. We have utensils in the kitchen to keep something. In the same way we have to humble ourselves in order to be qualifiedto receive and retain what we have received. Many of you have congratulated me for the life time achievement award. You have noted down what I spoke about yesterday. This award is not my glorification, but they have glorified the Lord, Srila Prabhupada and ancient India. Whatever a devotee becomes, is all because of the mercy of our previous acaryas, Guru and Gauranga.
jogyata-vicare, kichu nahi pai,
tomara karuna—sara
karuna na hoile, kandiya kandiya,
prana na rakhibo ara
Translation
If you examine me, you will find no qualities. Your mercy is all that I am made of. If You are not mercifulunto me, I can only weep, and I will not be able to maintain my life.
We still have to receive the mercy. We haven’t yet achieved the complete mercy. I was thinking that still there is so much to do.
nayanam galad-ashru-dharaya
vadanam gadgada-ruddhaya gira
pulakair nichitam vapuh kada
tava nama-grahane bhavishyati
Translation
O my Lord, when will my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing constantly when I chant Your holy name? When will my voice choke up, and when will the hairs of my body stand on end at the recitation of Your name?[Siksastakam 6]
Some part has been heard and some not. When will I become qualified to have such a day that when I hear the holy names, tears will glide from my eyes? When will my soul hear Hare Krishna and realise that Hare Krishna is the Lord Himself? When will my soul need Their Lordships?Then there will be tears and choking of the throat. Lord Caitanya prayed in this way. When will be we able to chant in this way? When will I get the result of such a prayer? Something is yet to come.
Today is Bhaumi Ekadashi as well as Varaha Dwadasi. We are fasting today for both. Upavaas- Upa means near and Vaas means association. We are close, closer and closest. We try to be closer to the Lord. We should try to do strong sadhana today. It’s not just fasting from grains or eating little. Yes, one should eat less. Excessive eating always keeps going on.
atyaharah prayasas ca
prajalpo niyamagrahah
jana-sangas ca laulyam ca
sadbhir bhaktir vinasyati
Translation
One's devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities: (1) eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required; (2) overendeavoring for mundane things that are very difficult to obtain; (3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters; (4) Practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically; (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Krsna conscionsness; and (6) being greedy for mundane achievements.[NOI 2]
When we hear Atyahara we just think of eating, but Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that Atyahara is there for all senses. All senses like the eyes - see, nose-smell, ears-hear. In this way sense objects are food for the senses. Touch is food for the skin. The skin tries to eat soft skin or limbs. Men feel the touch of women. The skin wants to gobble up that touch. They want to embrace. You can understand. There are five sense objects. This is also calledfood for thought. Thinking, feeling, willing, accepting and rejecting keeps on going within the mind. The mind likes something, dislikes something. Acceptance and rejection keeps going on within the mind, 24 hours a day even while sleeping also. There is Jagriti, Susupti and for sometime Turya (transcendental). The mind keeps on devouring many thoughts. Some things we like and some things we don’t like.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has said that not only the tongue, but we have to fast all other senses also. We keep on consuming various sense objects with our senses. This is not favourable for devotional service. On this day we don’t eat grains, but we eat fruit prasada. Apart from this also there are many senses and they should also undergo fasting.
There will be a Bhagavtam class at ISKCON Nagpur. I have to get ready. Many people do not understand the meaning of Upavaas. Real meaning is to spend time in close association with the Lord by controlling the senses and the mind. Instead of engaging the senses in gratifying sense objects we have to make the Lord the object of our senses. Take darsana of the Lord, Study more, hear more with your ears, smell what has been offered to the Lord. Keep your senses engaged. Feed them nicely. Make Krsna the object of your senses. In this way make your life successful and achieve the real glory of our life.
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajatyante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ
Translation:
Whatever one remembers upon giving up the body at the time of death, O son of Kunti, one attains that state, being always absorbed in such contemplation. [BG 8.6]
etāvān sāṅkhya-yogābhyāṁ
svadharma-pariniṣṭhayā
janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ puṁsām
ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ
Translation:
The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by acquirement of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of one's occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life. [SB 2.1.6]
sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor
vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane
karau harer mandira-mārjanādiṣu
śrutiṁ cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye
mukunda-liṅgālaya-darśane dṛśau
tad-bhṛtya-gātra-sparśe ’ṅga-saṅgamam
ghrāṇaṁ ca tat-pāda-saroja-saurabhe
śrīmat-tulasyā rasanāṁ tad-arpite
pādau hareḥ kṣetra-padānusarpaṇe
śiro hṛṣīkeśa-padābhivandane
kāmaṁ ca dāsye na tu kāma-kāmyayā
yathottamaśloka-janāśrayā ratiḥ
Translation:
Mahārāja Ambarīṣa always engaged his mind in meditating upon the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, his words in describing the glories of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the Lord’s temple, and his ears in hearing the words spoken by Kṛṣṇa or about Kṛṣṇa. He engaged his eyes in seeing the Deity of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s temples and Kṛṣṇa’s places like Mathurā and Vṛndāvana, he engaged his sense of touch in touching the bodies of the Lord’s devotees, he engaged his sense of smell in smelling the fragrance of tulasī offered to the Lord, and he engaged his tongue in tasting the Lord’s prasāda. He engaged his legs in walking to the holy places and temples of the Lord, his head in bowing down before the Lord, and all his desires in serving the Lord, twenty-four hours a day. Indeed, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa never desired anything for his own sense gratification. He engaged all his senses in devotional service, in various engagements related to the Lord. This is the way to increase attachment for the Lord and be completely free from all material desires. [SB 9.4.18-20]
sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
Translation:
‘Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord. [CC Madhya Lila 19.170]
If we are able to remember the Lord at the end of our life then that is the true life time achievement. Achieve that true lifetime achievement.
Hare Krishna
