Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Mathajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.
It is very important in spiritual life that we should not be misdirected especially stray away from spiritual master's instructions. The basic tendency of the conditioned soul is to enjoy and have sense gratification which we have already experienced for so many lives. As our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says, Although we have gone atleast once through the 84 lacs speices of life, still the irony is that neither we understand them nor we realize them. We still falsely believe that this is the only life for us.
Srila Prabhupada in his wonderful purport explains the secret of success of spiritual life in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.8 - "The secret of success in spiritual life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings."
It is essential, therefore, that a disciple be very much obedient and submissive to the bona fide spiritual master. The reason for our not following the instructions of the spiritual master is nicely described in 3.1.6 of Srimad Bhagavatam.
shri-suka uvaaca
yadaa tu raajaa sva-sutaan asaadhun
pushnan na dharmena vinashta-drshtih
bhraatur yavishthasya sutaan vibandhun
praveshya laakshaa-bhavane dadaaha
Sri Sukadeva Goswami said: "King Dhrtarashtra became blind under the influence of impious desires to nourish his dishonest sons, and thus he set fire to the lacquer house to burn his fatherless nephews, the Pandavas."
The pure devotee Vidura as a wonderful spiritual master was instructing Dhrtarastra again and again not to fall in the trap of nourishing his dishonest sons, but Dhratarastra was spiritually blind to those instructions and the result is complete havoc of his entire dynasty. This is the warning to all of us who are aspiring to be disciples of our Gurudev. The reason given is that Drhtarastra became blind spiritually under the influence of impious desires. Any desire other than the desire to serve Gurudev and Krishna is a impious desire and therefore we should be careful enough to understand the subtle point and be careful in executing our devotional service.
The phrase, "impious desires to nourish his dishonest sons", is worth meditating. In our case our impious desires arise from our mind. Our material mind is always dishonest as it always shows us material things. It is a rascal and it always demands nourishment of impious desires. Unfortunately, we allow our mind to control us all the time. False ego is next door and therefore mind in association with false ego are the dishonest sons of the spirit soul within us and it influences our intelligence to completely get polluted and blinded. The result is havoc of our spiritual life. We do not care for the instructions of our Spiritual master and we do whatever we like. Therefore it is incumbent on us to be very careful that we don't get blinded by these desires and start acting under the influence of our most dishonest sons like mind and false ego.
1. How to get rid of first and foremost dishonest son - Mind ?We should sincerely endeavour not pamper the mind. This can be done by remembering the verse 5.11.17 from Srimad Bhagavatam. "This uncontrolled mind is the greatest enemy of the living entity. If one neglects it or gives it a chance, it will grow more and more powerful and will become victorious. Although it is not factual, it is very strong. It covers the constitutional position of the soul. O King, please try to conquer this mind by the weapon of service to the lotus feet of the spiritual master and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Do this with great care." The acaryas instructions are never frozen by time.
2. How to get rid of second dishonest son - False ego?
Devotional life is a like a razor edge and any inattentiveness will create havoc in our spiritual life. I am reminded of the below wonderful conversation between our Gurudev and HG Madan mohan prabhuji which he had kindly shared with all of us in the offering titled - "Answers from a Mahabhagavata - How to avoid personal glory ? "
Prabhuji had honestly inquired as to how we can avoid feelings of pride, while doing service and how to remember Krishna always. Appreciating his honesty Maharaj had replied with great compassion that this attitude of seeking name and fame in devotional service is unchaste behaviour and that it is abominable. Gurudev further said that - "You know our standard. The body that you have got is only made up of stool and worms. You want others to be impressed with that? Can you imagine the madness? When you perform devotional service, what is the goal. In all festivals we have to run around and work hard. But it is not really about the externals. We have to internalize. We have to intensely remember Krishna. It takes practice. The show has to go on for the masses. But real festival is when the mind remembers Krishna. That is the real festival. Daily we can do. We don't have to make it known to others, but we can be intense in our remembrance."
I therefore pray to my beloved spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Sri Krishna that I should not be influenced by my impious desires and blindfolded by my dishonest sons mind and false ego by remembering this beautiful verse spoken by Sankaracharya in Guruvashtakam.
shareeram suroopam tatha vaa kalatram
yashascaaru citram dhanam meru tulyam
manas ce na lagnam guror anghri padme
tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim
"Body is handsome, wife is attractive, fame spread far and wide, wealth enormous and stable like Mount Meru; but of what consequence are all these, if the mind is not riveted in devotion to the lotus feet of Guru? Really of what use is all this? Of what use? Of what use?"
Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Sajjanapriya Krishna das,
Abu Dhabi.
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