Bhakti takes two forms in this world. On the one hand the form of activities you perform with body, voice and mind, and on the other hand the form of feelings. These devotional feelings are the inclination to serve Krishna in a favorable way, in other words giving pleasure to Him. The feelings of bhakti-bhava also include eagerness, gratitude and being moved by genuine love.
Just yesterday I developed another feeling: urgency. This is what happened.
I was on parikrama around Govardhan Hill, carrying my red bag with me, stopped in a forest and sat down under a tree. I saw how a monkey took note of me. I told myself ‘Don’t mess with the monkeys. Don’t even look at them, this way you will stay out of trouble.’ So I continued to chant. However, I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder from time to time and saw that the monkey was moving closer and closer. I knew: soon he will jump onto me and attempt to plunder my bag.
To my surprise, something totally different happened. The monkey had approached me close enough to be in hearing distance. Untypically, he went to a tree of his own, leaned his little monkey head against the tree and started shaking. He was crying. This monkey was crying. He looked so pitiable, I almost got up to solace him. At one point he gave me a desperate look and his eyes seemed to say: ‘Once I was a human being, but I acted like a monkey and now I have to suffer the result. You are so fortunate to be in the human form of life that you can sit here and do your bhajan. Please, bless me that in my next life I can also do this.’
That’s when I felt the feeling of urgency: “Yes, I’m now a human being. I can take a hand, put it in a bead bag, chant or offer various services, something which animals can only wish for. And only the animals born in Vrindavan can even have this wish because in Vrindavan everyone is special, even a fallen monkey.
Quote from Srila Prabhupada:
“If you make intentional mistakes, if you have a sinful life, and you say to yourself, ‘Now that I am singing Hare Krishna, I can do whatever I want, the consequences will be cancelled.’ This kind of scoundrel will be punished very, very severely. “Oh I live in Vrindavan, oh, it’s a holy place, I can do anything, the effects will be undone. They will become Vrindavan’s cats, dogs or monkeys.”
Vrindavan, December 5, 1975
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