Detachment Should be Our Nature

(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)

bhadrasravasa ucuh
om namo bhagavate dharmaayaatma-visodhanaaya nama iti
"The ruler Bhadrashravaa and his intimate associates utter the following prayer: We offer our respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the reservoir of all religious principles, who cleanses the heart of the conditioned soul in this material world. Again and again we offer our respectful obeisances unto Him."

dharmaaya – Source of all religious principles.
atma visodhanaaya - Who purifies us of material contamination.

Maharaja was explaining the process of clearing our material contamination from the source of all religious principles with down-to-earth practical realizations for us to imbibe and put into practice.

1. Detachment will lead to a Pleasing attitude.
2. Pleasing attitude will lead to understanding of Religious Principles.
3. Religious principles makes you very active because it is essential for our bodies.
4. Such Active Religious principles will automatically purify our body of all contamination.

Detachment
A detached person never cares. As it is “DETACHMENT SHOULD BE OUR NATURE”. This is as plain as daylight. Manage whatever is there and be detached. The main reason for not having pleasing attitude is on account of anger, especially suppressed anger is very dangerous. It can break the nerves of the brain (which are as thin as our hair) and may lead to tension which in turn will lead to brain hemorrhage. Detachment is a must because we are going to go away and all our relatives are not going to help us at the time when we are in the death bed. They are more interested in our wealth and nothing else. Therefore detachment will lead to pleasing attitude.

Pleasing Attitude
Once we are pleased then our mind becomes clear and brightness will glow. This will enable us to understand the religious principles. Religious principles are meant for human beings or otherwise we are considered as animals. Therefore our body requires religious principles. In order to use our body to perform religious principles we need to be active. Therefore religious principles means being active always.

Religious Principles Impel Us to be Active
Religious life will propel the cleaning process. Religious principles make us active and that will impel the circulation of blood nicely in the body which will enable us to be at ease always. The movement should increase rapidly and we should be very active in Krishna consciousness and other necessary material engagements. Unless the body is alright we may not be able to perform religious principles. In order to be always active we have to do penance. Penance only purifies our existence (tapo divyam putrakaa ena sattvam shuddhayed yasmaat brahma saukhyam tu anantam). It is very important that we should wake up for mangalara arati at 4.00 am and retire to sleep at 9.00 pm. This is a must for a devotee. Penance include sitting on the ground and sleeping on the mat and not on a bed. There is no mention in the scripture for double cot bed. This leads to laziness and relaxation which stops the circulation of blood in our body. The moment the movement stops the disease starts creeping in. In the names of Yukta vairagya don’t get allured by good life and increase your artificial necessities. It is very imperative that we should have an active life full of penance. As a devotee we should have unflinching faith in the religious process. The moment there is a small disturbance in our body we immediately go to the doctor. Instead of natural medicines like ginger, cinnamon, turmeric etc, we take artificial medicines which stimulate our blood circulation artificially and may cause various damages to the body. There is a book written in America which talks about how to save ourselves from the trap of these modern day medicines which are killing thousands of human beings. Maharaja was saying that the moment you see a doctor please take a bath.

Purification of Material Contamination
Once we imbibe and put into practice the above religious principles it works as a perfect purificatory medicine for even one who is in deathbed. Anything regarding Lord Krishna is fully perfect and pure and therefore it is incumbent on our part to sincerely strive for concrete progress on this process of purification of existence and not perform showy fervor.


Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.