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----- Touching Krishna's Kingdom -----

 

 

Touching Krishna's Kingdom

 

HERE ENDS YOUR

SpiritualQuest

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(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)

 

I am trying to share herewith a few of the points from the nectarean lectures given by Maharaja in June 2009 when Maharaja was here in Abudhabi on his way back to India from London. Maharaja was discussing the various qualities we have to develop so that we can enter into the Kingdom of Krishna. I am trying to post herewith a few of the points according to my limited understanding.

We should all ultimately come to the conclusion ‘krishnaat param kim api tattvam aham na jaane’- "I do not know any truth beyond krishna". In order to come to this conclusion, so many things have to be sorted out. Then we can reach His abode or dhaama. In Srimad Bhagavad gita the Lord very wonderfully states in 2.51,

karma-jam buddhi-yuktaa hi
phalam tyaktvaa manisinah
janma-bandha-vinirmuktaah
padam gacchanty anaamayam
"By thus engaging in devotional service to the Lord, great sages or devotees free themselves from the results of work in the material world. In this way they become free from the cycle of birth and death and attain the state beyond all miseries [by going back to Godhead]."

karma jam- that which is born out of karma or fruitive activities
buddhi yuktaa hi – by serious devotional attitude
phalam tyaktva - the fruits of the work have to be relinquished
maneeshinah - those who are genuinely intelligent

If we relinquish the fruits according to our circumstances, then the result is grea.

janma bandha - from the vicious circle of birth an death in which we are entangled
vinirmuktaah - it is not only muktaa but vinirmuktaa which means it is a special liberation by which we will never again get into this entanglement.

So first the fruitive activities are there (karma jam) and in between buddhi yukta - the serious devotional attitude is there. As soon as that attitude is cultivated, renunciation is there because there is no ignorance. In the beginning we are so much attracted to our wife that we are ready to sacrifice anything for her or she may be ready to sacrifice for us. But by buddhi yukta, the attachment is transferred from material silly bodies to transcendence. How this is done? Because we are maneeshinah- we have thought over it and have come to the conclusion.

We understand two things about the material world:

1. This is all temporary - So what should be our perception and approach?
2. This is full of miseries - So how to get rid of these miseries?

These two points are discussed below:

1. This is all temporary:
Srimad Bhagavatam teaches us in 11.7.7:

yad idam manasaa vaacaa
caksurbhyaam sravanaadibhih
nasvaram grhyamaanam ca
viddhi maayaa-mano-mayam
"My dear Uddhava, the material universe that you perceive through your mind, speech, eyes, ears and other senses is an illusory creation that one imagines to be real due to the influence of maayaa. In fact, you should know that all of the objects of the material senses are temporary."

The eternal principle is very nicely described in simple terms in the above verse. This one verse settles the matter. It is all ‘nashvaram’- temporary. It can never become permanent however we may try. This is Krishna’s command. He has driven the nail that this is all nashvaram and we also have the experience that everything is lost in a moment. If we always remember the temporary nature we will behave alright. We do not have any time with us. It is very nicely said in the shastras:

gate shoko na kartavyo
bhavishyam na chintayet
varthamaaneshu kaaleshu
pravartante vichakshanaah
"The past is already gone and there is no use worrying about it. The future is not in our hands and hence we cannot think about it. The intelligent persons make use of the present time that is available."

We have to make best use of the present. Time and again we have seen that without the mercy of the Lord, not even a blade of grass moves. By His will, everything is temporary. I have assumed and accepted (grhyamaanam ca), out of my foolishness that my bank balance is permanent, my wife will be eternally young, so on and so forth. Instead of becoming mature over a period of time, we again become ignorant like small kids running behind sense gratification.

With devotional attitude, we should learn to take the reverses of material world as they come. Only if we digest that this is temporary, we can come to the conclusion ‘krishnaat param kim api tattvam aham na jaane’.

If we understand this, we can touch Krishna’s dhaam. Janma bandha vinirmuktaa (getting liberated from the vicious circle of birth and death) is not the end. The end is ‘padam gacchanti anaamayam’ (reaching His abode). In one verse we are taken from the gross material life (karmajam) to the transcendence (anaamayam padam). This is Bhagavad gita and no other literature can give us this. Hence Bhagavad gita should be in our throats. Don’t ever leave Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad gita. By repetition and by understanding the verse we will get them. Don’t get fed up that 'I am not getting it'. We have to be fed up with the material world, not with Bhagavad gita! How much bondage we have here? It is a great wonder that all our blood pressure is normal, our blood is red. We have all eaten, slept, taken bath. If we have not taken bath, we cannot tolerate each other. Water is His energy and if we do not touch His energy we cannot live. Those who have not taken bath, they are sleeping because the jivan shakti's (water's another name is jivan) touch is not there. In addition to all these bondages that we must eat, sleep and bath, we have additional bondages that I want air conditioner, I want to be in Chennai etc., with all these conditions padam gacchanti anaamayam (reaching His Kingdom) is impossible.

The three fold miseries of our material existence are

1) Misery arising out of body and mind
2) Misery caused by other living entities and
3) Miseries caused by the demigods.

Srimad Bhagavatam which is non different from Krishna, is giving the way out of these miseries. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 7.15.24 Narada Muni says to Maharaja Yudhishtira:

krpayaa bhutajam duhkham
daivam jahyaat samaadhinaa
aatmajam yoga-viryena
nidraam sattva-nisevayaa
By good behaviour and freedom from envy one should counteract sufferings due to other living entities, by meditation in trance one should counteract sufferings due to providence, and by practicing hatha-yoga, pranaayaama and so forth one should counteract sufferings due to the body and mind. Similarly, by developing the mode of goodness, especially in regard to eating, one should conquer sleep.

Miseries arising out of body and mind ( aatmajam) :- We cannot get rid of the miseries arising out of our body. There is only one way to get rid of it and that is Yoga viryena. By yogic exercises. We may not be able to do all the exercises, but walking is the best exercise. If it is possible don’t take too much medicine. There is no mention of medicine in Srimad Bhagavatam. Life long chronic diseases may require some medicines. By taking too many medicines the reddishness of the body will go and the muscles become stiffened. We can see so many people neither living nor dying and they are just breathing and lacs of rupees are spent on them. The best yoga which can cure us is Bhakti yoga. The holy names should always be on our tongues. It is a Raam bhaan upaaya. The misery can be tolerated with Bhakti yoga. For miseries arising out of the mind the best weapon is to neglect. If the mind tells something other than Krishna, you neglect.

Miseries arising out of other living entities :- For those who always remember the Lord, the protection ( kavacha) of the Lord is always there. The other living entities will also change and will not cause any difficulty to us.

Miseries arising out of demigods :- These miseries are beyond our control. Suppose suddenly there is an earthquake, what can we do? Daivam jahyaat samaadhina- We have to just chant the Hare Krishna maha mantra. If we are to be saved, we will be saved or otherwise we will die remembering the Lord and go back to Him.

Our goal is one and that is to go back to Godhead and be engaged in His service. If this is the goal, we have to get rid of other things slowly. The situation of our life is very beautifully described in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.20.37

naivaavidan ksiyamaanam
jalam gaadha-jale-caraah
yathaayur anv-aham ksayyam
naraa mudhaah kutumbinah
"The fish swimming in the increasingly shallow water did not at all understand that the water was diminishing, just as foolish family men cannot see how the time they have left to live is diminishing with every passing day."

This is our life. We cannot stay here. We cannot be proud of anything. We don’t have any relationships here. Our only relationship is with Krishna. This is eternal. To recognise the eternal person we have to endeavour every day. For this - sthiratha is required ( stead fastness). Austerity is required. We should not look for the returns. We have this day in our hand. Whatever work we do for our maintenance, that has to be done very nicely. Fruitive results will come, but it has to be offered to Krishna. Then sthirathaa will come. With Krishna money becomes Lakshmi or otherwise she becomes Durga. Then money is spent on drinking and other sinful activities. Our shastras are very practical and how can we not get attracted to it? Why are we running after the fruits? Krishna is acintya – inconceivable. Srimad Ramayan declares – acintyaah khalu ye bhavaah. If we cannot think of Him, how can we touch Him? There is so much deception going on about the anaamayam padam – Supreme Destination.
Srimad Bhagavatam warns us through this verse – 7.5.31

na te viduh svaartha-gatim hi visnum
duraasayaa ye bahir-artha-maaninah
andhaa yathaandhair upaniyamaanaas
te 'pisa-tantryaam uru-daamni baddhaah
Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru, a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Vishnu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.

Please come to Srimad Bhagavatam and the address of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is there. We require the authority of the shastras. We do not know our father, and our authority is our mother. In the same way the shastras are our authority.

indra uvaaca
visuddha-sattvam tava dhaama saantam
tapo-mayam dhvasta-rajas-tamaskam
maayaa-mayo 'yam guna-sampravaaho
na vidyate te grahanaanubandhah

The following is the translation for the above verse taken from Krishna book written by Srila Prabhupada.

My dear Lord,Your transcendental position is vishuddha-sattva, which is above the platform of the material mode of goodness, and Your transcendental abode is beyond the disturbance of the material qualities. Your name, fame, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes are all beyond this material nature, and they are never disturbed by the three material modes. Your abode is accessible only for one who undergoes severe austerities and penances and becomes completely freed from the onslaught of material qualities like passion and ignorance. If someone thinks that when You come within this material world You accept the modes of material nature, he is mistaken. The waves of the material qualities are never able to touch You, and You certainly do not accept them when You are present within this world. Your Lordship is never conditioned by the laws of material nature.

The above is the prayer offered by Lord Indra after the amazing pastime of lifting the Govardhana hill by Lord Krishna. Indra lost his game and his pride was shattered. We are also losing our game everyday. We have to do our prescribed duties nicely. Continuous flow of Lakshmi is required to sit here and peacefully listen to these things. A steady and peaceful atmosphere is first required. For peace, prescribed duties have to be done nicely. Then whatever time is available, should be utilized in the study of Srila Prabhupada’s literature. We are all very fortunate to be near the time of Srila Prabhupada.

In the above prayer, the transcendental position of the Lord is described as ‘vishuddha sattvam’. Krishna is inconceivable and He has to be experienced. To experience Him, first thing is that goodness is required everywhere. Always keep smiling. Prasannatha leads to vishuddha sattvam. But we are all worried about the temporary things of the world. It is like seeing a tiger in the dream and getting frightened. In Srimad Bhagavad gita we find that when Arjuna saw the opposing party, six things happened to him and they happen to any person who is frightened.

In Srimad Bhagavad gita verses 1.28 and 1.29 Arjuna says

drstvemam sva-janam krsna
yuyutsum samupasthitam
sidanti mama gaatraani
mukham ca parisusyati
vepathus ca sarire me
roma-harsas ca jaayate
gaandivam sramsate hastaat
tvak caiva paridahyate
Arjuna said: My dear Krishna, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up. My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gaandiva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning.

The outward manifestation of the burning of the heart is the burning of the skin. When we get up from our sleep, we become peaceful because we know that everything was a dream. In the material world, like waves, one after another, miseries are coming. We have to please recognize that this is all dream. If we learn this, it is easy to be in vishuddha sattvam. It is in our hands to do it. The mind is controlled by placing it at the lotus feet of the Lord. Sa vai manah krishna padaaravindayoh. The mind has to be controlled with steady intelligence. How the intelligence will be steady? Desires must be controlled. The first step is prajahaati yadaa kaamaan. Flow of desires will be there but the objective must be changed. At the moment our desires are wild, running after sense gratification. This we have to avoid. The objective will be satisfaction of Krishna. According to Bhagavad gita, our life has to be molded so that Krishna will be satisfied.

As soon as we do this, we are in tava dhaama shaantam (Your Kingdom which is ever peaceful ). We are already there. We are now in His dhaam. We are not far away. As soon as you are steady, prasannata is there. Daily we have to touch His dhaam. In order to touch His dhaam, you have to come to vishuddha sattvam. For this chant nicely, read Srila Prabhupada books. Then we can experience Him. It will reveal in our life style. You will be steady, always happy, come what may. At the moment, our happiness is conditioned depending upon so many things. We want eternal happiness. This material life is a dream. Tiger will come. When we are in dream, it looks like real. Leave the dream and come to vishuddha sattvam.

Why Krishna’s abode is peaceful because the modes are completely absent. In whose life, modes are less or completely absent, they are in the dhaama. Don’t get attached to the modes. The whirls and whirlpools of material nature have to be completely got rid of. We have to do it and have the experience. There is no injection which can give you this state.

Humility and austerity will give us entry into His domain which is completely impossible for anybody to get into. I am trying to share a few points from Maharaj’s lecture on these two aspects.

1. Humility:
Only humility can take us to Him. We are full of disqualifications. With all the mucus, bile, stool and urine we are carrying day in and day out, what can we expect? We have to be humble and beg to Him. This is the way to enter His abode. As soon as we lie low on the ground before Him, then we are in vishuddha sattvam (Purified goodness). vishuddha is visesha shuddha – extra purified. Vishuddha sattvam goes hand in hand with humility. Showy humility does not help. Really we have to be humble. As soon as we come to vishuddha sattvam, then we can touch His kingdom.

Krishna’s kingdom is completely peaceful. Uncontaminated life is peaceful life. Contamination is disturbance. Lust, anger, greed, envy are all contaminations. Why for a short life we are doing all this? This is madness, pramattam. We have to stop this. In order to stop this we have to be really humble. Our nature must be humble. We have to cultivate it. Otherwise we have to forget about His dhaam. Never touch anger or envy.

2. Austerity:
The clue to be without anger and envy is to get rid of excessive sense gratification. All our monks, saints and sages were very austere. That is why Krishna’s kingdom is ‘tapomayam’. Unless you are ‘tapomayam’ (full of austerity) don’t dream to approach the anaamayam padam (The place without miseries). Austere life is the best life. Because austerity is decreased, our body is full of diseases. We don’t get up early. To get up early in the morning is a great austerity.

The great austerity in this age particularly, is to just have the theistic attitude. That is to just believe in God. To that extent we are contaminated. We deny the existence of God and that is the last snare of illusory energy. In this age, Srila Prabhupada introduced the chanting of 16 rounds and so many other regulations. Times are fast changing. It is very difficult to find theistic attitude. We should believe that there is some controller and India being a pious land, theism is our monopoly.

Do some manual seva for Krishna. At least once during the day we must perspire and to that extent we should exert ourselves. It can be a piece of land or house. Clean it for Krishna.

With humility and austerity, we do not have to run after vishuddha sattvam. Vishuddha sattvam will run after us. We are all very special and we are chosen by Krishna. So many living entities are there. Out of all of them human beings are very few. Out of human beings also, savage, untrained, ignorant human beings are there. Only a very few are a bit conscious. Out of that lot also, very few are interested to know what is beyond material life. Out of that also, this Krishna conscious crowd is very rare. Out of this also, those who try very sincerely are very very rare. And they are chosen by Him. They don’t have anything but they don’t lack anything. Only one thing we should do. Our japa mala must move very sincerely, Bhagavad gita must be studied; Srimad Bhagavatam must be scrutinizingly studied. Read and write something. Every word should be meditated. We don’t have a single moment to spare. Sincerity is required. To have the sincerity, always remember the last day in the death bed. Everything will be there but we cannot move. This body is going to drop. We have only this time at our disposal. In this also, there are so many false engagements. Maintenance services have to be done. Family is there. Body is there and eating and sleeping are required. Try to reduce them. Out of all this, steal the time and utilize it in spiritual matters. Otherwise vishuddha sattvam is impossible. As soon as we do anything regarding Krishna we are in vishuddha sattvam. Do something for Krishna. Always names must be there. Constant hammering of Krishna consciousness must be there. Please try to squeeze spiritual matters in your own day to day busy schedule. The day may come when we may not be able to smile even. The muscles will become stiff. Don’t wait to that extent. So urgency is there. Don’t waste time.

Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.

 

 

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