Hare Krsna my dear devotees, I hope your week of chanting has been blessed with nice realisations and also that you were able to focus on the sound vibration of the names.
Today was the cooking service day, so I woke up early chanted some rounds and started preparing everything for the offering of the day, the boys helped me bathing the Deities and doing the arati, we still have this mercy of growing our own spicies and flowers for Krsna. We offered a beautiful jasmine flower and cooked with rosemary, basil, coriander and mint from our garden.
I made sure that the boys chanted their rounds before starting the service so they could be more prepared to worship the Lordships with their hearts opened and dedicated to the service. All the cooking was peaceful and nice - we prepared everything on time and all looked very tasty. The Deities had some aromatic rice, lentills dhal, cake with lemon cream on the top and a zuchinni lasagna. I could understand how important is to serve Krsna in association of devotees.
By the association of devotees we can become more focused on chanting and understand some things about our spiritual path. We are all in different levels of service and only Krsna really knows our hearts, we can't judge other persons service or advancement....that's why we need to offer service and respect to everyone so we can be free from offenses that will impede our chanting to develop.
I still have this bad habit of observing and judging - even if it's without noticing I do....maybe because of my teacher's side, I like correcting and changing things in others into my own style and this is not right. We do have a lot to learn from others, specially devotees and when we need them....they will always be there for us. When we chant with attention we perceive this in ourselves. We tend to offer more respect to others because we know devotees are important to our spiritual life and that we can develop our love for Krsna through service towards the vaisnavas. In order to improve this mood of service I got a verse from Sri Nityanandastakam that describe the glories of Lord Nitai and how we should approach devotees.
"I perpetually worship Sri Nityananda, the root of the tree of krishna-bhakti, who is very dear to the son of Saci devi and who is worshiped by the entire universe. He is the embodiment of happiness and out of infinite mercy he is chanting the holy names of Lord Hari, thus delivering the souls drowning in the age of Kali and eradicating the swelling false pride of the ocean of repeated birth and death."
Sri Nityanandastakam 3
May Lord Nityananda bestow His shining rays of mercy towards us so we can develop our love for Krsna and chant the holy names with deep affection and proper respect. All glories to Harinam Sankirtan and All glories to the assembled devotees of the Lord that devotee their lives to this preaching.
your servant,
Aruna devi
Steer Your Thinking To The Sound
What if you think of the day’s devotional service when chanting your rounds? It is not so easy to stop the flow of our thoughts. So better you are thinking of devotional service than maya. But as far as possible try to steer your thinking back to the sound vibration of the holy name. Then after such absorption in chanting you can go forth to your day’s activities in the best condition.
From Japa Reform Notebook by SDG
Your Servant In Service Of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Sachin Kumar Gupta
Chant:Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.& be Happy
sachin.kguptaa@gmail.com
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