pamho, HK,
In the introductory part of Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Prabhupada has given some examples.
1. Medicine is to be taken as prescribed by the doctor/pharmacist, not whimsically.
Agree. The purpose of giving this example is he wants to say here that devotees should not neglect their health but take good care of their health, stay fit and worship Krishna.
2. One has to develop Krishna bhakti in a way like a woman who has a paramour and does her work very carefully to avoid any kind of suspicion by her husband or other people.
One devotee in the train told me that while doing your daily chores such as brooming you should think about Krishna or while making laddoos you should think that we have to offer this to Radha Krishna.
But I am not quite clear why Prabhupada has given this 2nd example. Someone might misunderstand the second example and take up Sahajiya mood. Eg. Few years back one IG D K Panda from UP claimed to be Doosri Radha.
Does devotion require a change of gender or accepting some wrong conclusions of devotional scriptures ?
Have any previous acharyas such as JDB, GKDB, BVT, BSST, Vedvyas, Brahmanya Tirtha, Vyastirtha, Narottam Das Thakur, Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur approved of this idea ?
My understanding is that one needs to develop a desire to serve Krishna favourably and reject the non-favourable. Its only the desire of the heart to stay away from Krishna that keeps us away from Him in Maya or Illusory Energy.
Replies
Hare Krishna! Dandavat Pranam!
For #2 above: The senses are married to this 'material world'. So a devotee should involve in the 'worldly' activities just like anyone, but the soul should be longing for Krishna's love. So this is sort of 'acting'.
Bg 3.25 — As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.
Sarvam Sri Krishnaarpanamastu!
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
You have missed the point. Everyone is allowed to follow their culture, as long as it is not against Krsna Consciousness. For example, when we tie rakhi, traditionally, even before coming to ISKCON, my mother used to ensure that the first rakhi would be tied to Laddu Gopal ji and then only to family members. We are fortunate that our culture has embedded Krsna Consciousness in it. Even others can follow their culture. That is the reason there is so much variety in cuisine in ISKCON - every person has brought their cuisine, within the framework of veg, no onion or garlic food. There is no need to adopt raksha bandhan. Those who believe can follow. Even now, in almost all ISKCON temples in India, common people like you and me give rakhi for the deities and it is accepted and offered. Nobody says we are not allowed.
I can see only devotees who are very very serious. You are fortunate to be in Mumbai. I can direct you - like you said, you need to work on yourself.....
Draupadi was a friend to Krsna. Do you know that Draupadi's proposal had first gone to the lord and He had rejected it. Then only the swayamwara was held. This is the only instance in our scripture of man woman friendship. People say our scriptures are backward, actually they are more forward than today.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
1. Medicine is to be taken as prescribed by the doctor/pharmacist, not whimsically.
Agree. The purpose of giving this example is he wants to say here that devotees should not neglect their health but take good care of their health, stay fit and worship Krishna.
My comments : Incorrect understanding. The purpose of this example is that we take medicine prescribed by doctor, trusting him, not on our own, any random medicine, because we consider doctor to be an authority on what medicine to take for which illness. Same way, we should take mantra from authority, not any random mantra from anywhere. We follow mahamantra because it has been given by authority, God Himself, who came in Kaliyuga to give the yuga dharma, this mahamantra. Mahamantra existed even before Mahaprabhu came, He gave to us as this yuga's dharma. That is the reason it is so effective.
2. Developing Krishna bhakti the way a woman loves her paramour - this example has been cited to bring out the intensity of desire to be with object of love. Its very normal for a human being to fall in love. In most cases, we can assume that a couple love each other. However, that love is nothing compared to the desire to be with an extra marital lover - the proverbial forbidden fruit always being more attractive. That is what is being brought out here.
I am again telling you prabhu, please get into a congregation. YOu are in Mumbai, there is a lot of congregational preaching going on there. I am sure there will be something in your locality also. If you think this is not to your taste, you could hear the lectures on each shloka of Gita in this website itself. That will also make your understanding clear.
Yes, one needs to develop desire to serve Krsna - that also is mentioned by SP, in Gita itself. But if basic understanding is not correct, then everything else will go wrong. Its like learning the alphabets of one language. One can write the language only if the alphabets have been learnt properly. Basics have to be in place for anything to develop. Chant 16 rounds attentively prabhu. The rest will flow naturally.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD