Tag Archives: material energy and devotees

Devotee association- our shelter in lockdown

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Hare Krishna and pranams dear devotees,

The current worldwide lockdown situation is unprecedented in recent history and presents a challenge to all humanity, including devotees. At this time material energy is very strong and sharp. She is continuously testing our faith. Doubts, which are anarthas, can easily enter our hearts, further weakening us spiritually, making us lax and lethargic. And an indiscriminate decision, material or spiritual, can very quickly land us in trouble. However, if we simply remain fixed in our daily sadhana, and service, and take proper shelter then these same circumstances can also become an instrument to develop our spiritual muscles.

One of the easiest and most effective way to remain enthusiastic and fixed in our sadhana is- devotee association- association of like-minded devotees- sajātīyāśaye snigdhe. During the lockdown, we have seen a worldwide explosion of online classes and seminars, making the best out of a bad situation. Applications like zoom allow devotees a free, easy and interactive way to connect online with other like-minded devotees. In fact, the quantity of quality devotee association available today is also unprecedented. Most senior sannyasis and devotees are giving online weekly classes where we can interact with them, ask questions, make new devotee friends, etc.. We should take advantage of these online sessions.

I recently came across a very inspiring lecture by HH Sacinandana swami on this topic. I am sharing it with you.

The safe boat of devotee association

The influence of maya is very difficult to overcome. In our scriptures, the material energy is therefore compared to an ocean. When you sail the ocean you never know when the weather will become stormy and high waves will make it impossible for you to continue your journey. Material life is similar – you never know when difficulties will shake you. Krishna explains this fact to Uddhava and then says:

“Devotees are like a strong boat that comes to rescue those persons who are repeatedly rising and falling in the fearful ocean of material life. Thus, they are the ultimate shelter” . (SB 11.26.32)

Krishna gives another example SB 11.26.31–
When someone approaches a fire in a dark night, all 1) coldness, 2) fear and 3) darkness will go away.

Something similar happens when one comes into the association of devotees.

1) Your dullness goes away
2) your fear of samsara leaves you and also
3) the darkness surrounding you in the form of the uncertainty of how to reach Krishna disappears.

You will no longer worry: “How will I approach Krishna, reach Him and how will I please Him?” This is because in the association of devotees you come in contact with, talk about, glorification of Krishna and the sincere effort to please Krishna. Seeing this, Krishna feels invited and comes into the association – and everyone can feel it. Everyone can feel the effect of such kirtan in the heart; when it starts to blossom and lighten up.

Krishna also often manifests Himself through what the devotees say and share with us and we feel that “ Krishna spoke to me through this devotee! ”

Another effect of the association of devotees is the feeling “Oh, I have become so neglectful of devotional service, my consciousness has become so invaded by the material energy and I again feel the same attraction to maya as earlier in my life”. In other words, we become humble by seeing the good qualities of the devotees and by this newfound humility, which wakes us up, even startles us at times, we are at a great starting point for serious practice.

To summarize, the association of devotees gives us the following blessings: it destroys our spiritual dullness, it removes the fears of material life and dissolves our uncertainty about how to reach Krishna .

“Therefore,” Krishna says to Uddhava, “ an intelligent person should take up the association of saintly devotees, whose words cut off the excessive attachment of one’s mind.”

(SB, 11.26.26)

(HH Sacinandana swami)

The above words touched my heart and I pray and hope they touch your heart as well. I realised the importance and urgency to actively seek devotee association, more so during the current pandemic when material energy is so strong. If we combine a firm sadhana and devotee association with daily reading of Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam or Krishna book then we will find ourselves properly sheltered and nourished even the under the present lockdown conditions.

Circumstances do not make us Krishna conscious, it is what we do under particular circumstances that make us Krishna conscious.

All the best.

All glories to devotee association

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

your servant,

Giriraj dasa

Rekindle our love for Krishna

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Hare Krishna.

27th September, 2015. Gurgaon.

Sometimes when devotees share how they still feel insecure and isolated, rather than insulated, in the material world, it really saddens my heart. We should continuously remind ourselves that the material energy, though separated, works under the control of the Supreme Lord Krishna and that it does not, and can not, act independently. The missing link is the dormant state of Love for Krishna. The umbilical cord called ‘Priti’ which is lying dry in our heart needs to be nourished via devotional service. Once nourished  it starts to flourish back and a loving connection with Krishna reestablishes. One should then be able to cross this ‘Bhava Sagar’ (material ocean) in a much more confident and sure-footed manner, rather it becomes a joyful service.

Srimad Bhagavatam says in 11.2.41

khaṁ vāyum agniṁ salilaṁ mahīṁ ca
jyotīṁṣi sattvāni diśo drumādīn
sarit-samudrāṁś ca hareḥ śarīraṁ
yat kiṁ ca bhūtaṁ praṇamed ananyaḥ

A devotee should not see anything as being separate from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Ether, fire, air, water, earth, the sun and other luminaries, all living beings, the directions, trees and other plants, the rivers and oceans — whatever a devotee experiences he should consider to be an expansion of Krishna. Thus seeing everything that exists within creation as the body of the Supreme Lord, Hari, the devotee should offer his sincere respects to the entire expansion of the Lord’s body.

The BBT purport goes :

As already explained in this chapter, bhayaṁ dvitiyābhiniveśataḥ syāt: fear or illusion arises from thinking that there is something not dependent upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now, in this verse, the specific process for overcoming this fearful illusion is given. One must train one’s mind to see everything that exists as an expansion of the potency of the Supreme Lord. By offering respects to everything and meditating upon everything as part of the body of the Lord, one will become free from fear. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām: Krishna is the well-wishing friend of every living being. As soon as one understands that everything that exists is under the powerful control of one’s most beloved friend, one comes to the stage in which the whole universe becomes a blissful abode (viśvaṁ pūrṇa-sukhāyate), because he sees Krishna everywhere.

In Bhagavad-gītā (6.30) the Lord says:

yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati

“For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments,“A person in Krishna consciousness certainly sees Lord Krishna everywhere, and he sees everything in Krishna. Such a person may appear to see all separate manifestations of the material nature, but in each and every instance he is conscious of Krishna, knowing that everything is the manifestation of Krishna’s energy. Nothing can exist without Krishna, and Krishna is the Lord of everything — this is the basic principle of Krishna consciousness.”

What is the qualification to see Krishna everywhere?

The qualification for seeing Krishna everywhere is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.38):

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

“I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of Śyāmasundara, situated within the heart of the devotee.”

SB 11.2.54, BBT Purport : A pure devotee is completely free from the tendency to enjoy things separately from the Lord’s service. He does not see anything in the universe as unfavorable, because he sees everything as the expanded potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a devotee’s purpose in existing is to give pleasure somehow or other to the Supreme Lord. Thus everything that a pure devotee experiences, moment by moment, increases his ecstatic loving desire to satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord.

Why don’t we understand this simple fact?

The same purport adds: The three modes of material nature torment the conditioned soul, who absorbs his mind in the separated, material energy of the Lord. The function of this separated energy, bhinnā prakṛti, is to take the living entity away from the reality, which is that everything is within Krishna and Krishna is within everything. Being covered by gross ignorance, the bewildered conditioned soul believes that only the objects of his own limited vision actually exist.

What is our real suffering in the material world?

The same purport explains: In fact, everyone is suffering the pangs of separation from Krishna. Because the conditioned soul imagines that he has no eternal relationship with Krishna, he is unable to ascertain that all his miseries are due to this separation. This is māyā, or “that which is not.” Actually, to think that misery arises from anything other than separation from Krishna is to be in illusion. So when a pure devotee sees living entities suffering within this world, he correctly feels that just as he is suffering because of separation from Krishna, all other living beings are also suffering from separation from Krishna. The difference is that a pure devotee correctly ascertains the cause of his heartbreak whereas the conditioned soul, bewildered by māyā, is unable to understand his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa and the unlimited pain arising from neglect of that relationship.

How do we rekindle our love for Krishna ?

Hearing and chanting about Krishna is the simple and only solution!

Srila Prabhupada writes ‘Persons advanced in spiritual knowledge always hear and chant about Your transcendental pastimes because this process has the specific potency of nullifying the accumulated results of sinful life. Intelligent persons factually dip into the ocean of Your nectarean activities and very patiently hear about them. Thus they are immediately freed from the contamination of the material qualities; they do not have to undergo severe penances and austerities for advancement in spiritual life. This chanting and hearing of Your transcendental pastimes is the easiest process for self-realization…the devotee who wants to elevate himself simply by the process of devotional activities, especially by hearing and chanting, very soon comes out of the clutches of the dualities of material existence. By this simple process of penance and austerity, the Supersoul within the devotee’s heart is very much pleased and gives the devotee directions so that he may go back home, back to Godhead.’ – Krishna Book (Prayers by the Personified Vedas)

Hence we should all develop a habit to read Srimad Bhagavatam, or Krishna Book, daily.

The eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of a devotee eligible for entering the kingdom of God. (SB 1.2.16 p)

All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.