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Fire of Bhakti - 5

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Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the transcription of Maharaj's nectarean class in London on the topic "Fire of Bhakti". In the previous offering we heard from Maharaj:

1. With Krishna we are heroes; without Krishna we are zeroes.
2. Fortune and bliss follows when we are with Krishna.
3. Taking care of children is devotional service and never neglect it.
4. Spiritualise your work.
5. Stick to Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam.
6. Potency of Mahamantra.
7. Be fiery in bhakti.
8. Eternal devotional service is real liberation.

Now let us continue to hear more nectar from Maharaj.

9.Parents are Krishna's gifts:

bhaarat khand bhutal ma janmi / jene govindna gun gaaya re,
dhanya dhanya re tena mat peeta ne / safal kari ene kaya re,

"All glories (gratitude) to the parents of one who has taken the birth in India and sung the glories of Lord Govinda thus he has made the correct use of this human form of existence."

Those who have taken birth in this Bharat Bhumi and who has glorified the Lord their life is successful. Mata-pita, parents - we must give relief to our parents. Our behaviour and our acts should be such that they feel comfortable. Younger generation must keep in mind that parents are not our selection. I have not selected my parents. You cannot select your parents. You cannot say Krishna, "I don't want this father or mother." Mother and father is not our selection. They are selected by Krishna for us. So you want to do Krishna bhakti, isn't it? So will you not honour His selection? Why to trouble them? Whatever they have done or not done, doesn't matter. It is our duty to respectfully bow before them daily. This is the main thing to be understood. If you don't neglect your parents, they will give you blessings from their heart and that blessing will carry out throughout your life. Otherwise, they are going to go away before you go. They are advanced in age and not going to be with you all the time. And once they will go (leave this body) then you will realize their value. And you will realize what you had and that you have lost. Please..This is Bhagavatam.

10. One verse in Bhagavatam is as good as whole Bhagavatam: (One devotee asked Maharaj how to start studying Bhagavatam verses. There are so many volumes and verses. So it looks like a difficult task and am not getting taste.)

First you study the second chapter of 1st Canto. There are 34 shlokas in that chapter titled "Divinity and Divine services." By-heart those 34 shlokas. Study the translation and purport. Then you will get the taste and intelligence. Then there are 4 seed verses in Bhagavatam. They are called chaturshloki Bhagavatam and are from Second Canto, 9th Chapter, verses 33 through 36. By-heart those 4 shlokas and this is how you will develop the taste gradually. Do it bit by bit. If you keep thinking that it is voluminous, too big etc, then you will never start. If you are not able to study in the beginning, then you can study Srila Prabhupada's Krishna book first. Somehow or the other start studying. Don't worry that, "Ten volumes are there. How can I study?" Just start studying one volume. Take one volume at a time and just concentrate on that and then you will have full knowledge. In Bhagavatam there are 18000 shlokas, but each verse is full Bhagavatam. You take any verse. It is as good as full Bhagavatam. Because Bhagavatam is Krishna and Krishna is always complete whole. There is a nice shloka in Isopanishad

om purnam adah purnam idam / purnaat purnam udacyate
purnasya purnam aadaaya / purnam evaavashishyate

"The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance."

Even if you touch one verse in Bhagavatam, sincerely attempt to study and understand one verse in Bhagavatam, it will give you the bliss of understanding the whole Bhagavatam.

11. Krishna is Viraja - Transcendental: (One devotee asked Gurudev, “What is the guarantee that we will get Mukti (liberation) if we do devotional service, read Bhagavat Gita, etc. and what we will get in return if we do devotional service?”. Maharaj gave the below instructive reply for the same).

This is very nice question. Please understand. "If I work for an hour I will get 20 pounds. After an hour we will get the money. But if we read Bhagavat Gita what we will get in return?" Bhagavad Gita is Krishna's words and we don't understand Krishna. He is viraja-arka-aabham. Viraja means there is no material contamination. He doesn't have material body like us. When we understand Krishna properly then we will not have such questions. But we don't understand Him. So we compare Him with material things and say, "If I work, at the end of the day I will get 100 pounds. But if I read Bhagavad Gita I will not get 100 pounds." We don’t know that this (money) is material energy of the Lord and we can have it here for our material enjoyment. But spiritual energy will accompany us even after we will leave this body. We don't have this understanding. That is why we do comparison on material platform. Krishna is Viraja – no material contamination is there. He is complete (sampurna aatma). His main characteristic is that He is Vaasudev. In the word Vaasudev, there is vas. vas is Sanskrit verb and it means "to stay". So the one who ‘stays’ everywhere is Vaasudev. He is everywhere means there is no difference between Him and His words. There is no difference between Him and His kirtan, Him and to preach His glories, Him and to think about Him. We think that I am reading Bhagavad Gita but where is Krishna? Here we are lacking. We don't know Krishna and we compare Him with our (material) standards.

Once in America in North Carolina, in Hindu temple, there was a program. They have constructed a huge temple of around 1 million dollars. I saw in the altar that Krishna's deities were in the center and all other demigods and babas are placed in the side. It was a huge altar and I was surprised how Krishna's deity in the center. Somebody must have read our ISKCON's Bhagavad Gita. Without Prabhupada it is not possible to have Krishna in the center. So I asked, "This altar is very nice but how do you have Krishna in the center?" So they told they did voting among the devotees and Krishna won. (laughter) "What do you mean by Krishna winning votes?" They told when Krishna and all other deities brought from India there was a big discussion which deity should be in centre. One told Ram and other told Shiva and there was a big fight and disagreement. So they did voting and this is our folly. Then Radha Krishna got maximum votes and so they are in the center. But still I felt that there must be Prabhupada's hand (influence) in this. Otherwise its not possible to have Krishna in center. Because Prabhupada is the only one in this world who established Krishna (krishna prashthaaya bhutale). Then I tried to investigate. I met one devotee Mr.Topiwala there. He was from Surat. He had Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita and he read that Krishna must be in the center and he preached to others. So somehow Prabhupada preached and put Krishna in center. But we are dumb. We elect Krishna with voting. Thus we don’t understand. To understand this please remember 3 words. Viraja – without material contamination. arka means sun. aabham means effulgence. So the less material contamination you have, more effulgent you are. For this body also, we must ignore material things. There is no need to concentrate on material things. Material things will brings innumerable worries. It will kill you. Your hair will fall and will be less and less and one day you will become bald.

12. Attitude for Service: This all we must understand and as we go deep in this we can understand that Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are non-different from Krishna. You will get the quality of the person with whom you associate. Krishna has lots of qualities. There are three nice combination in His vigraha. sat-cit–ananda. eternal–knowledgeable– blissful. If you run after Bhagavat Gita then bliss is the greatest return. May be you don’t have anything. Hanumanji doesn't have any thing. But he says, "I am very lucky because I am His (Rama’s) friend." When Krishna accepts somebody as friend then that person will not lack in anything, as Krishna will always be with him. When Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya, Hanumanji was late by 3-4 days. So others who were jealous of Hanumanji, they distributed all the services of Lord among themselves. And when Hanumanji came and asked for service they said all the service are allotted and nothing is left. So they asked Hanumanji to just go back to the forest. Hanumanji thought, "This is not possible. I want to do some service." Seeing his intense sincere desire to serve, Lord inspired him to find out a nice service. Whenever Lord Rama yawns, Hanumanji would snap his fingers in front of Lord's mouth. To do this service he always walked besides Lord Rama and stayed with Him 24 hours. So we must also develop such sincere eagerness to serve the Lord always.

Our heartfelt thanks to Maharaj for simple, sublime, practical and powerful instructions on bhakti. Our sincere thanks to H G Govindanga Prabhuji and H G Tungabhadra Mataji for translating Maharaj's Gujarati statements in English.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,

Sudarshana devi dasi.

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