Clear Everything In Due Course
→ Japa Group

"Also inform Jayananda that I have received his letter and the difficulties of life may come as seasonal changes but we should not be disturbed by all those difficulties. Our process is to chant and that process will gradually clear everything in due course."


Letter to Mukunda
6th June, 1967

Brahmā’s “Straight Talk”
→ The Enquirer

SB 3.9.3:

There is nothing superior to your supreme beauty, which is the intrinsic form of uninterrupted, undivided bliss itself. I see you as the singular individual who creates everything, and yet is not a part of anything created. I am intoxicated by identifying with my own body and senses, but I take shelter of you.

“uninterrupted, undivided bliss itself” = brahman, spiritual reality. It is an indivisible, uninterruptible substance of joy.

This brahman is “intrinsically” expressed as the beautiful form of Bhagavān. Joy is beauty and sweetness, so joy cannot be without form and attribute. Therefore the idea of Brahman which does not include the idea of Bhagavān is flawed, incomplete. The most complete understanding of Brahman is Bhagavān.

Nothing is superior to the form of Bhagavān, the Brahman is simply the elemental constituent of that form.

4-5:

You reveal this beauty in the meditations of those who come close to you with love. All your forms, including the one I see now, grant auspiciousness to even the most auspicious things in the world. Therefore what am I in comparison to the All-Attractive? Let me carry out your orders and serve you! Those who do not do so become drawn to unreality and populate the hells, but those who adoringly embrace your feet above all else are never separated from your joyous beauty. The scent of your lotus-like feet, carried on the breeze of your name’s sound, enters their ears and resides eternally as the husband of the lotus of their hearts.

Those who are not inclined to adore Bhagavān are drawn to unreality, which generates suffering. But those who are inclined to adore Bhagavān are never separated from him.

This is an ideal contemplation for kīrtan and japa: The sound of his name (or also of his glories, any sound related to him) is like a breeze, carrying his fragrance that we smell with our ears. Bringing that fragrance into our ears, it enters our hearts and embraces us.

6:

Until the world lovingly embraces your fearless feet, they will instead think only of themselves. Flocking to illusion to enhance their self-concept, they nourish the very root of suffering. Out of constant fear for their property, their body, and their loved ones, they become greedy for anything that might better protect these assets, and thus drown in worry and envy.

Nothing needs to be added or subtracted from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. No new thing needs to be discovered or invented. No new “preaching strategy” or “technique” needs to be mastered. Simply learn Śrīmad Bhāgavatam deeply and really, and teach it to others. All the power to make the universe Krishna consciousness is already present in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.

If we do not have love for others, we are left only with our love for ourselves. As long as our love does not center on the root of reality, we must substitute ourselves into that place as the root. This substitution is the illusion that we flock to embrace, and it is the very root of all sorrow.

Since it is an illusion it takes great effort to maintain the existence of. Therefore we constantly worry that the components of our illusion — our property, body, loved ones, etc. — will be ruined by reality, so we become greedy to invent and obtain technological devices that protect us and ours. Thus our lives become a mess of technological stress, and stress about how to obtain the money to buy better health insurance and better food, clothes, and shelter, or if these basic needs are met, to buy better property, bodily parts, and “loved ones” to enhance our illusory concept of “I.”

And this is what we hang on to, in preference of forgetting about all our soup for just a few minutes a day to meditate on Krishna’s names? Why not just forget everything, everything, for at least the amount of time it takes to chant the Hare Krishna nāma-mantra at least for 1 māla, or at least for 1 mantra, or at least for 1 name!?

At the same time as we are such fools, we have the gall to claim that we are Vaishnavas and warrant some attention and respect?


Don’t be a hard-head!
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 March 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 10.39.39)

JAS_KKSSpiritual life is like that – there is always a higher standard and there is always another level of realization. That is why we always remain a fool before the spiritual master. Tamal Krsna Maharaj said in front of Srila Prabhupada, “Yes, I am just a fool.” Prabhupada said, “It is very good as long as you think like that because then I can instruct you. But as soon as you think that you are intelligent then I can’t instruct you.”

The relationship with the spiritual master is the most difficult one because here is a person who has a level of authority in our life that even our parents never had! I mean, when you are a small child your parents have all authority, up to a point. You can cry and protest but then when you can speak, you can say, “NO!” You can go into your ‘no-face’ which is a well-known face that each child goes through and many of us never get out of that. What to do, that’s very strong…

Then suddenly, you get involved with the Hare Krsna Movement and there is a spiritual master and now you have to stop saying, “NO!” There are more sophisticated ways of saying, “NO!” One is, “I don’t agree!” Or better still, “His arguments don’t make sense!”

But Bhaktisiddhanta was speaking about this; he says that mundane logic does not apply. When the spiritual master speaks, in the beginning we think that it doesn’t make sense what he is saying. But if ones hears submissively; then with time it begins to make more sense and ultimately, it begins to make full sense!

 

A visit to ISKCON Temple in Melbourne
→ Dandavats.com

Clad in a green sari, bespectacled and petite, Keerthi pushes aside the papers she is holding and warmly welcomes me by folding her hands in a Namaste. Her beatific smile is striking. She instantly recognizes me as Arti, the lady with whom she had been conversing via e-mail for the past few days, someone whom she had been eagerly looking forward to host. Read more ›

Harinama Sri Narasimhadeva Appearance Day In Union Square Park (Album 21 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

When we proudly and happily go out together on Hari Nama we are empowering one another and have a high level of mutual respect and admiration for one another. When we come back to the temple we have energy for getting the temple ready for all the people we had invited back. There is not any energy for quarreling or bickering. There is a surplus of love. We can always gain it simply by going out on Hari Nama. Hari Nama is Srila Prabhupada's number one priority. Right after it come keeping the temple clean and attractive and chanting sixteen rounds. Read more ›