Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I am an eternal spirit soul, a servant of Krishna. There is no
protector or maintainer for me other than Krishna. I am the most
fallen and poor. If I spend my life enjoying the fruits of my previous
karma but at the same time hear and chant the holy names of Krishna, I
will certainly attain the Lord’s mercy. If I remain with this
conviction, then I can attain love of Krishna.
- Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur
In his purport to Brhat-Bhagavatamrta,
as cited in page No.101 of the book ‘Bhaktivinoda Vani Vaibhava’
Why Plant Killing?
It's a fact that plants and animals both have life. So whether I can
kill and eat a plant or an animal I am a murderer. So what is the
difference then between being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian? There
is actually is no difference.
In this material world certain acts are being performed naturally and
many living beings are killed about which we can not even think of.
We have so many organisms in our intestines and they get killed up
naturally. Even by breathing we are killing so many microbes. So many
microbes are killed while cooking. And eating vegetables is also
killing. In this world there is the law that one living being is food
for another living being.
jivo jivasya jivanam
"One living being is food for another."
We simply have to take what is allotted to us by the Lord as our quota
and offer it to Him first before eating. This will free us from the
sin of killing.
yajna-sishtasinah santo / mucyante sarva-kilbishaih
bhunjate te tv agham papa / ye pacanty atma-karana
The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because
they eat food, which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who
prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.
In other words all kinds of eating is sinful unless the food is first
offered to Krishna before eating. So if we want to be pure in our
eating, we must first offer our food to the Lord before we consume it.
So what kind of foods should we offer Him? If we truly love Him, we
should obviously offer Him what He asks for. He requests that we
offer Him foods from the category of fruits, vegetables, dairy
products, and grains.
If He had wanted meat, fish, and eggs, He would have asked for them.
But He did not. We cannot take meat, fish, and eggs because these
have not been allotted to us as our quota. Therefore we can understand
how to please Him by offering Him what He has requested. And since we
only eat what He eats first, devotees of the Lord are naturally
vegetarians, or more accurately stated...devotees of the Lord are
naturally Krishnatarians.
Our Lord Understands:
Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada
and Srila Gurudev!
Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj never
complained about the material situations and thus taught a very
valuable instruction for us. But unfortunately because of so many
inebrieties within us, we fail in following this instruction. We
complain and always put the blame on people and the situations in life
for all our difficulties.
It is now the order of the day that there is no job satisfaction
anywhere. A person employed in office always feels that he deserves a
better position, better remuneration, better employer relationship,
more satisfactory job, so on and so forth. That is why change of jobs
is so rampant and we can hardly find anybody working in the same place
for a long time. A house wife has her own complaints and she feels
that she deserves a better deal and there is no satisfaction within
her. Every one of us feel that we are in situations and we are with
people who hardly understand us. And we all mentally concoct that we
are devotees and we feel that if the situation had been better, we
will be pure devotees and there are so many constraints in the present
situation. All my ideas were completely shattered when I went through
Srimad Bhagavatam Sixth Canto, Chapter 3. In this chapter regarding
the episode of the deliverance of Ajamila, the Yamadutas, after having
been baffled and disappointed in their attempt to take away a man they
considered sinful, went back to their master Yamaraja and explained
their encounter with the Vishnudutas and said that as soon as the
sinful Ajamila uttered the name Narayana, these four beautiful men
immediately arrived and asked him not to fear and they said that they
wished to know about them. In Srimad Bhagavatham 6.3.11
sri baadaraayanir uvaaca
iti devah sa aaprshtah / prajaa-samyamano yamah
preetah sva-dutaan pratyaaha / smaran paadaambujam hareh
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said, "Thus having been questioned, Lord
Yamaraja, the supreme controller of the living entities, was very
pleased with his order carriers because of hearing from them the holy
name of Narayana. He remembered the lotus feet of the Lord and began
to reply."
Srila Prabhuada writes in his brilliant purport, "Srila Yamaraja, the
supreme controller of the living entities in terms of their pious and
impious activities, was very pleased with his servants because they
had chanted the holy name of Narayana in his dominion. Yamaraja has to
deal with men who are all sinful and who can hardly understand
Narayana. Consequently when his order carriers uttered the name of
Narayana, he was extremely pleased, for he also is a Vaishnava."
Here we see the job description of the greatest Vaishnava Yamaraja and
we never see him complaining about his job. And we see that his
internal consciousness inspite of his external service of always
dealing with vicious living entities is so pure and so sincere.
Srila Prabhupada glorifies him in his purport to SB 1.13.15, "Being a
Mahajana, it is the duty of Yamaraja to preach the cult of devotion to
the people of the world, as Narada, Brahma, and other Mahajanas do.
But Yamaraja is always busy in his plutonic kingdom punishing the
doers of sinful acts. Yamaraja is deputed by the Lord to a particular
planet, some hundreds of thousands of miles away from the planet of
earth, to take away the corrupt souls after death and convict them in
accordance with their respective sinful activities. Thus Yamaraja has
very little time to take leave from his responsible office of
punishing the wrongdoers. There are more wrongdoers than righteous
men. Therefore Yamaraja has to do more work than other demigods who
are also authorized agents of the Supreme Lord. But he wanted to
preach the glories of the Lord, and therefore by the will of the Lord
he was cursed by Manduka Muni to come into the world in the
incarnation of Vidura and work very hard as a great devotee."
Here we see that his purity and sincerity was rewarded amply by having
been given the opportunity of being born as Vidura and no wonder that
he had the greatest good fortune of being the only person to be
remembered by Lord Krishna when Lord Krishna was quitting this world
because whether anyone understands us or not, the Lord understands.
What an amazing Vaishnava and what an amazing reciprocation by our
Lord !!!
Hence I pray at the lotus feet of the Lord to give me the mercy to
develop the attitude to accept the people and the situations wherein I
am placed by His mercy and be grateful to the Lord for all He has
given.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayanti mala devi dasi,
Abudhabi.
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