"Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and
get back on your feet."
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and
Srila Gurudeva.
Failures are stepping stones to success. But in reality it becomes very
difficult for us to face repeated failures. We may face one or two
failures, but when there are setbacks in every walk of life, then we
tend to become morose and our morale goes down. We start losing hope and
faith in Lord as well. What are we supposed to do when there are
repeated setbacks in life?
While describing the rainy season in Vrindavan, Sukadev Goswami says in
Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.20.15
girayo varsha dhaaraabhir / hanyamaanaa na vivyathuh abhibhuyamaanaa
vyasanair / yathaadhokshaja cetasah
"Just as devotees whose minds are absorbed in the Personality of Godhead
remain peaceful even when attacked by all sorts of dangers, the
mountains in the rainy season were not at all disturbed by the repeated
striking of the rain-bearing clouds."
The puport to above verse very nicely brings out the lesson we need to
learn from the mountains. "When splashed by torrents of rain, the
mountains are not shaken; rather, they are cleansed of dirt and become
resplendent and beautiful. Similarly, an advanced devotee of the Supreme
Lord is not shaken from his devotional program by disturbing conditions,
which instead cleanse his heart of the dust of attachment to this world.
Thus the devotee becomes beautiful and resplendent by tolerating
difficult conditions. In fact, a devotee accepts all reverses in life as
the mercy of Lord Krsna, realizing that all suffering is due to the
sufferer's own previous misdeeds."
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Recently we came across a very interesting article about giraffes. Baby
giraffes never go to a business school or office. But they learn a very
important lesson much early in life. A lesson that all of us would do
well to remember. The birth of a baby giraffe is quite an earth-shaking
event.
The baby falls from its mother's womb, some eight feet above the ground.
It shrivels up and lies still, too weak to move. The mother giraffe
lovingly lowers her neck to kiss the baby giraffe. And then something
incredible happens. She lifts her long leg and kicks the baby giraffe,
sending it flying up in the air and tumbling down on the ground. As the
baby lies curled up, the mother kicks the baby again and again Until the
baby giraffe, still trembling and tired, pushes its limbs and for the
first time learns to stand on its feet. Happy to see the baby standing
on its own feet, the mother giraffe comes over and gives it yet another
kick. The baby giraffe falls one more time, but now quickly recovers and
stands up. Mama giraffe is delighted. She knows that her baby has learnt
an important lesson: "Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to
pick yourself up and get back on your feet."
Why does the mother giraffe do this? She knows that lions and leopards
love giraffe meat. So unless the baby giraffe quickly learns to stand
and run with the pack - it will have no chance of survival. When we
fail, when we are down, when people around us kick us, we just give up.
We feel lost. But these kicks are the real impetus for us to get out of
our comfort zone and to remind us that to progress in our life, we need
to learn to get back on our feet. If we study the lives of successful
people, we will see a recurring pattern. Were they always successful in
all they did? No. Did success come to them quick and easy? No, We will
find that the common streak running through their lives is their ability
to stand up every time they fall. The ability of the baby giraffe! The
road to success is never an easy one. But success lies in being able to
get up every time we fall. That is a critical life skill.
Be it material or spiritual life, it is required that we don't get
daunted by so called road blocks or failures in our path of progress. In
the above example we find that the baby giraffe is getting kicks from
its mother. But sometimes it so happens that in our life that we will be
kicked from all sides. Our body might not co-operate with us, or our own
mind will be tossing us around in all directions, or the people around
us will kick us down. Unable to withstand these kicks, if we become
morose and fall down, then we are not doing proper justice to this
invaluable human birth.
Whenever we are getting this kicks and pushed down, we should remember
the lives of great acharyas and on the strength of prayers unto their
lotus feet, we should endeavour to stand up and continue with devotional
service.
When we study the life history of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, we
see how much he has struggled during the early days. Before he left for
US, he has single handedly written, edited the "Back to Godhead"
magazines, got the books printed from the printer, then had personally
distributed the magazines as well in Delhi, walking door to door. Also
he had to struggled a lot to start the "League of Devotees" in Jhansi.
Apparently when things were not favourable to him in Jhansi, everything
had to be closed down there, but His Divine Grace did not give up. He
realised that Krishna had some other better plans for him and continued
with his sadhana and efforts to preach the message of Lord. As the
saying goes, When God closes one door, He definitely opens another.
Seeing his determination and sadhana, Lord reciprocated to Him in the
most unimaginable manner, by empowering him to start this great society,
"International Society of Krishna Consciousness"
and spread the Holy Names in all the countries of the world and build
108 temples all over the world. To build a small home seems to be
herculean task for us. But Srila Prabhupada was able to do such wonders
simply because of his undeterred and unalloyed devotional service to his
spiritual master and Krishna, irrespective of the set-backs and
circumstances.
Few days ago we heard from our god-brother HG Devakinandan Prabhu about
how our beloved spiritual master, H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj had a
paralytic attack in 2000 and even in that paralysed condition, Maharaj
was determined to do mangala arati at 4 am and chanting Lord's names.
Not only that, completely dependent on Srila Prabhupada and Lord
Krishna, even after that incident he travelled around the world for 10
glorious years preaching Srimad Bhagavatam, building temples, schools,
inspiring and helping the suffering souls, above all remained cheerful
and never showed any discomfort of his pains to others. Had we been in
that position, we would have said a good-bye to devotional service and
would have never dared to even get up from the bed. We would have asked
others to chant for us and take care of us for the rest of our life. But
Srila Gurudev has shown how even in failing health conditions, we can
get up and serve Their Lordships, if we have the true, sincere desire to
serve.
It is definitely not possible to imitate the behaviour of such great
acharyas like Srila Gurudeva and Srila Prabhupada. But praying for their
mercy, let us atleast make a humble effort not to become morose whenever
we are kicked down, but to stand up and continue with sadhana to the
best of our ability.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Kalacakra Krsna
das and Sudarshana devi dasi.
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