Does Gita 9.32 which says that anyone can begin bhakti apply to those who fall while practicing bhakti?
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The question is based on this article:

                 Never lose heart on the path of the heart                

I just have a faint feeling that there is intermixing of two concepts here:

1)      Qualification to start on devotional path

2)      Fall downs of someone traveling on this path

The main theme of the article is that we don’t need any prerequisites for zooming on the path of devotional service. In this way, this truly fulfills the communist slogan: from everyone according to his capacity, to everyone according to his needs. The verse quoted is on the same theme.

Then there is how we deal with fall downs. There are BG verses that deal with that: ksipram bhavati dharmatma, shashvat shantim nigacchati, verses around 6.35, etc. The basic theme being that there is no need of being disheartened on failure.

Answer Podcast

If we need to see intellectually before we can see visually, what about non-intellectual practitioners?
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From Chiranjeev

The question is based on this article:

                 We need to see intellectually before we can see visually                

what about those people, who do Spiritual practices just as a tradition they learnt from their upbringing?? They don’t try to understand everything intellectually…

Answer Podcast

 

Thursday, December 5th, 2013
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I Missed Something
Toronto, Ontario
I missed a purport in order to get my passport.  Let me explain, to secure my passport it’s a 3 KM hike to that office.  Who needs a car, right?  It’s advisable to go as early as possible and avoid lineups.  Leaving early in the day though meant I had to miss a purport.
What’s a purport you ask?   By dictionary’s definition a purport is, “the meaning or substance of something, typically a document or speech.”  In my own simpleton’s terms, it’s an explanation.  For 40 years plus I’ve been seeing with my eyes this word ‘purport’, almost as if it’s a constant walking companion.  I make it a point wherever I travel, by foot, air or other, where the location has an ashram, I will find myself sitting down amongst monks and laypersons, wrapping attention around a purport.
In the standard texts that we read such as in the morning’s Bhagavatam verse, you will find the joining purport or elaboration.  It’s not just a footnote as you might find at the base of each page in a Shakespeare play.  The Bhagavad Gita in its 700 verses also has practically each verse clarified by way of a purport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.  For many of us on the devotional path, Sanskrit verses could appear abstract, even when translated.  It’s as if they are a voice from another world and another era.  It’s the accompanying and illuminating purports that bring it all home.
On my return journey from the passport office I found myself caught up in a momentary self-lament because I missed the morning class with its purport.  Of course, I was elated to carry a spanking new document in my pocket.  So to compensate for the lack of purport, I attempted to insert a spiritual message into my head while walking.  I passed by Saint Michael’s hospital and viewed this massive sign of a mammoth angel’s head at the side of the building.  The image has a blue tint to it, so guess who this reminded me of?  Just the sight of this massive bust gave me a boost, even though there was no philosophical message behind it.  It is just gorgeous and it’s a remarkable break from the downtown atmosphere.
Purports are realizations, revelations, epiphanies.  And what I find really great about them is that after reading through one of them in Prabhupada’s books, you also hear the facilitator of that day deliver a purport to the purport.  By good fortune, I am also one of those on the schedule to elaborate or speak on the morning’s purport when called for.   Our guru, Prabhupada, also encouraged his students to write down any realizations you may have (purports).  Hence, this blog.
May the Source be with you!
13 KM

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013
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Two Wings
Toronto, Ontario
I had with me two companions on my night trek and one of them asked about polarity and how to deal with it.  More specifically, he expressed a dichotomy involving two people in his life whom he really respects over the fact that they have opposite opinions on a particular subject.
“What is the subject?” I questioned.
“It’s the topic of female gurus, one person is for and the other one is against.”  One of the two people he was referring to was myself.  I’ve made my position clear to him in the past, I’m for both male and female gurus (spiritual teachers) as long as they qualify.  My logic behind this conclusion is that there’s a great need and demand.  Teachers are small in number, the growth of people in this service description is very slow, while you have an expanding society of bhakti yogis.  So, I support the increase of gurus because there are many qualified, even senior women.
The position of the other person with the opposing view is my companion’s own guru who takes a more conservative and perhaps, traditional stance.  Mind you, in June of ’76, just two blocks away from where the three of us were walking, the founder of our movement, Srila Prabhupada, was asked this question about female gurus.  It was Professor Joseph T. O’Connell who was making the query.  At the ISKCON Centre, the answer given by Prabhupada at the time was that in our gaudiya lineage of Krishna Consciousness, the wife of luminary, Nityananda, whose name is Jahnavi, accepted many students confirming female guruship.   The dilemma my companion was going through was who was right and how can there be differing opinions?  To this, I responded that there is no dispute that the guru principal is essential in aiding the spiritual student towards spiritual progress.  We all agree with that.  For many issues such as this one, you have a right and left wing circumstance.  Without two wings a bird can’t fly.  Let the two positions be deliberated upon and something fairly satisfactory should be the outcome.  The exercise of intelligence should carry on.  After some flying in the air, the bird usually comes in for a landing.
May the Source be with you!
7 KM

VIHE Holy Name Retreat, Questions and Answers, and Taking the Retreat Home, November 25, Varsana, Vraja Mandala
Giriraj Swami

11.25.13_Vdvn——————
Sacinandana Swami, Giriraj Swami, and Bhurijana dasa addressed the assembled devotees on the final day of the retreat.

“Every day you spend about two hours on retreat. You chant your rounds, and you do some reading. So every day each one of us goes on retreat. In that time—the time of your spiritual practice—take something that you have learned here and apply it. For example, some devotees have told me that they have taken the simple point of focusing on the first ‘Hare’ of each mantra with them and it has changed their chanting. Others take a memory—this works for me, as I will take the memory of sitting under the kadamba trees and chanting. When I chant my rounds in Munich or Berlin, I will remember the desire tree under which I sat. So my suggestion to you is to remember something essential that you learned here and practice it. And when you practice, it will start to come automatically, as you will have developed a new samskara in your heart. You live out of the suitcases of your samskaras—your karmic baggage. We live and react and think out of this baggage. Now let us create a new samskara, which can be done by taking one essential point with you. It is possible to change. Please never ever join the fatalists who think we are helpless victims of our habits. Create a new habit and break out of your personal prison.” —Sacinandana Swami

Questions and Answers
Taking the Retreat Home

A glorious destination
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, September 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.20.13)

Himalaya-mountains

It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, ‘One who does good will never be overcome by evil.’ That is a very important point because it sometimes seems that one who does good gets overcome by evil.

But it actually means is that if a person has done devotional service then it cannot be lost – it is not lost! Even when devotees die, even when devotees are killed, as we have sometimes seen, then Krsna will take are of that soul. Krsna takes care of the soul and never neglects the soul. That soul always continues on a glorious journey.

We cannot see that and therefore we sit here gloomy, have a terrible funeral and feel totally depressed. Actually, that soul continues on a glorious destination. We should never lose our faith in Krsna’s goodness and never lose our dedication.

 

 

ISKCON Joins the World in Mourning the Death of Nelson Mandela
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Released by the International Society for Krishna Consiousness (ISKCON) Ministry of Communications, Anuttama Dasa, Washington, D.C., USA, Champakalata Dasi, Durban South Africa and Nanda Kishor Das, Johannesburg, South Africa. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) joins the world in mourning and paying tribute to the foremost human rights icon of current times, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. We offer our condolences to the Mandela family and to the entire South African nation. Read more ›