Reflections Apr08

8/14/2019 Reflections Apr08

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A Newsletter from His Holiness Bhakti

T he devotees are actually saintlypersons, or sadhus . The rst quali cationof a sadhu , or devotee, is ahimsa , ornonviolence. Persons interested in thepath of devotional service, or in goingback home, back to Godhead, must rst

practice ahimsa , or nonviolence. A sadhu is described as titikshavah karunikah

Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.21). A devotee should be tolerantnd should be very much compassionate toward others. Forxample, if he suffers personal injury, he should tolerate it, butf someone else suffers injury, the devotee need not toleratet. The whole world is full of violence, and a devotees rstusiness is to stop this violence, including the unnecessarylaughter of animals. A devotee is the friend not only of humanociety but of all living entities, for he sees all living entitiess sons of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

He does not claim himself to be the only son of God and allowall others to be killed, thinking that they have no soul. Krishnaclaims in Bhagavad-gita to be the father of all species o

living entities; consequently the devotee of Krishna is alwaysa friend of all. This is called ahimsa . Such nonviolence cbe practiced only when we follow in the footsteps of greatacaryas . Therefore, according to our Vaishnava philosophy,we have to follow the great acaryas of the four sampradayor disciplic successions.

Trying to advance in spiritual life outside the disciplicsuccession is simply ludicrous. It is said, therefore, acaryav

purusho veda : one who follows the disciplic succession ofacaryas knows things as they are ( Chandogya Upanisha6.14.2). Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet : [1.2.12] in order to understand the transcendental science, onemust approach the bona de spiritual master. Life should bemolded in such a way that one cannot remain alone withoutthinking of Krishna. We should live in Krishna so that whileeating, sleeping, walking and working we remain only inKrishna. The sastra recommends, smartavyah satatavishnuh : Lord Vishnu should be remembered always,constantly. Vismartavyo na jatucit : Vishnu should never forgotten. This remembrance of the Lord can be continuedif we hear about Him constantly. Such concentration in

Krishna consciousness can be achieved by persons who arestrictly following the rules and regulative principles. We haverecommended in our Krishna consciousness movement thata devotee chant sixteen rounds on beads daily and follow theregulative principles. That will help the devotee be xed in hisspiritual advancement in life.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.22.2

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The First Quali cation of a Sadhuby His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

ril 2008


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Sometimes people wonder how we, asVaisnavas, can follow the Bhagavad-gita , a book compiled in the midstof a great war in what seems to be

an atmosphere of violence. Why dowe not just hear from God where Hespeaks from the spiritual world or in avery palatial environment? Why do wenot just adhere to those saintly people

who speak realizations and revelationsn a forest or while meditating in a cave? Why do we embracebook in which Arjuna, a great devotee of the Lord, seems

uty bound to engage in what we might consider violence?First of all, it shows that there is a misconception of violence.

t also shows that spiritual life is not based on the oppositetandards of the material world. It is not based on anyonesmind, intelligence, or intuition; rather, it comes from Godwho gives us the understanding of actual ethics, morality, and

iolence.From the scriptures, we see that violence involves

nything that interferes with our ultimate healthy position andhat takes away from our glorious status as pure servants of he Lord. Violence is anything that we do to ourselves or tothers that causes us to think that Gods love is not availableor us. Violence is whatever causes us to get distracted byhe mundane material energy and fail to act godly. Basically,eople are violent towards themselves and others on aaily basis because they are constantly acting in unhealthy

ways. It is suicidal to the living entity and homicidal to thenvironment.

Even as devotees and spiritualists, we need to look atur lives and see how much violence we constantly involveurselves in. If we look at this week, how many times did weay or do things in this violent frame of mind? And how manyimes did we experience violence from someone else? Violencenvolves those discussions and interactions that simply helpnother person feel comfortable in the material energy. Wect violently towards ourselves when we go about our duties

without remembering the Lord in the background. We areiolent when we go through our daily activities thinking of urselves as the controller. Violence even involves the timesn which we think of ourselves as a victim because we canlay God in this way as well. We try to be the controller byutting ourselves in the center of attention as the victim.

Some people who always position themselves as the victimwill never grow. They always think that someone else ishurting them in some way. Although it could be a reality,if they anticipate it and look for it, they will just create thataround them to an even greater extent. They will begin tochant the same mantra in their minds, Somebody didnt treame right, someone didnt look at me right, someone didntaddress me right, someone didnt take care of me properly, or

someone used me improperly. Consequently, a person whoalways sees themselves as the victim becomes the perpetualvictim because violence brings more violence. For instance, acoup detat of a government will only increase the chance of another violent overthrow in the future. There will be similarattacks to the one created by the initial perpetrators.

Our duty as spiritualists is to not engage in whatpeople normally do to counteract physical violence. Rather,our duty is to attack the violence through aggression, butaggressive righteousness, love, knowledge, devotion, andstrong sadhana . Yes, we are called to war and each day wehave to determine what we have done on the battle eld. Didwe act as cowards by hiding and allowing others to do thebattle?

One way in which we act as cowards is by letting daysand weeks pass without preaching to anyone. We didnt shareKrishna consciousness with one person in our environment.If we didnt nd one way to tactfully raise consciousness,then we didnt raise our own consciousness very much eitherbecause we didnt allow the Krishna conscious experienceto grow without our life and environment. We dont have to

be re and brimstone preachers and impose on others in acondescending mood, but we have a responsibility to try andshare.

After we have taken initiation, our lives no longerbelong to us. My minutes and hours do not belong to me. Itbelongs to my spiritual master and ultimately to God. When wetake initiation, we are no longer that person known as Betty,David, John, or Mary. That person died. We are no longerthat cowardly individual who involved him or herself in theworld, unable to access righteousness due to entanglement in

the gross violence. By taking initiation, we have been markedto return to the spiritual kingdom, but now our thinking has tochange. We give up eating, sleeping, mating, and defendingand now do these activities for the Lord. We eat as a way tohonor the Lords mercy as an act of worship. We sleep as away to prepare this body to engage in service. We mate as achance to bring in spiritual children. We now defend as a wayto protect others from violence without engaging in violenceourselves. In this way, we allow the devotion to emerge.

If we do not understand this, we will not grow in our

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Stop The Violenceby His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami


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piritual lives. We will simply be pretenders while we sing theVaisnava songs and chant the holy name of the Lord. We willee but not see. We will come before the Deities to see, but

we will not see: pasyann api na pasyati (Srimad-Bhagavatam .1.4). In our own lives we have to determine how much

we identify ourselves as servants of God rather than as ahysical entity. We are now preparing ourselves to becomeesidents of the spiritual kingdom, which means that we mustake on the psychological and mental uniform that allowshe body to become spiritual. We are engaged in a processf transformation. We are undergoing the mystic science of ow to change the physical body into a spiritual body. Were undergoing the science of how to walk out of the physicalody and right into the spiritual kingdom.

This is not just a religion, philosophy, or a socialroup. We want to re ect on the past week to see whatfforts we made to increase our real identity. Did we readenaciously and attentively, seeing the scriptures as a way toonnect with our real identity? Did we make an offering to the

Lord or engage in other services while seeing it as a way toonnect with our real identity? Or have we done the serviceut of duty simply because someone asked us to mechanicallyo it? Or have we even avoided it? In such a case, we are

maintaining our physical identity and not realizing that weave been put into a situation to become a different person.

It takes deep re ective thinking to be able to risebove the ongoing hell and illusion of the material energy.

We cannot remain part of the normal scheme of worryingbout money and maintenance. We will always have thoseoncerns, but they shouldnt take all of our energy so that

we have none left for our spiritual growth. We cannot justut our spirituality on the side, saving it for one day duringhe weekend. We cannot just interact comfortably witheople destined to take animal bodies in their next lives.

Dont think as ordinary beings. Dont interact inhe mood of someone who has a religion on the weekends.

We want to see ourselves as people marked for the spiritual

ingdom; therefore, we constantly try to see how to unfoldmore in that spirit even in the midst of all our other duties and

bligations in the material energy. Why should Krishna reachut for us if we are not reaching out to Him? Why should

Krishna be attentive to us if we are not eager to receive? Whyhould Krishna arrange for us to experience all of His love

when we put up a shield of violence by hurting ourselvesnd the environment? But when Krishna sees that we areesperately calling out and thinking of Him at each moment,

He will respond that much more.

Humility Means Realityby Mahatma dasa

It is said that humility reality. Thats because seeinwhats real about ourselves make

us humble. And what is real is thawe are tiny. Aside from being fraction the size of a hair, we arone among uncountable numbeof living entities who live on onof the uncountable numbers planets in just one of uncountabl

numbers of universes.So big shot, how does that make you feel?In addition, we cant stop natural disasters, we cant

stop time, we cant stop so many things. Lets add to theequation the fact that the power, ability and intelligence wedo have is borrowed from Krishna - and He can take it awayat any time.

So lets get real.

Turn the Lights UpIf all this doesnt make us feel a bit humble, we need

to turn the lights up. As we see more of reality, well see morethings that should humble us. So why dont we keep the lightson all the time, or why do we turn them on but keep them dim?Its because the false ego doesnt like humility. It likes glory,acknowledgement, and honor. Therefore it needs darkness tostay alive. In fact, it relishes it.

Could you imagine relishing taking a bath in donkeyurine? The acaryas describe seeking honor to be just thatYouve got to admit that it takes a lot of darkness to think abath in donkey urine is enjoyable. I guess weve been in bedwith darkness for so long that the light hurts our eyes.

You Can Choose to be Humble

The problem is that seeking honor is the main enemyof bhakti . So its not something we should take lightly. Butcan we become humble simply by understanding that pride isdestructive? This article probably wont instantly make youmore humble than a blade of grass. But it can inspire you tomake a greater effort to deal with the enemy of pride. Myhope is that you acknowledge you can choose to act humblyno matter how much your ego ares up and that you becomemotivated to make that choice.

I am praying for you.

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Pride Is UglyThe problem is that if humility is not attractive to you,

here will be little impetus to cultivate it. Thus, there will beittle desire to deal with the false ego when it allures you toeek recognition. So having a distaste for pride and a taste for

humility is fundamental. How can we cultivate this desire?t starts by examining pride more closely. If you do, you willnd it really is unattractive. Even Krishna is not attracted to

his devotees when they are proud.Pride even makes you unattractive to yourself. After

ll, dont you feel kind of yucky when you are always lookingo be recognized (at least it leaves everyone around you feelinghat way)?

ts Natural to be HumbleHumility is quite different. Its your natural position

nd therefore when you are in your natural position you feelomfortable, satis ed and happy. So, if you look upon humility

s something attractive, it will naturally increase your desireo be humble. And this will give you the impetus you need to

deal with your false ego when it ares up.And there is a big side bene t to doing this: you will

ttract Krishna. Thats because humility is so attractive toKrishna that it melts His heart. But how attractive can you beo Krishna, to yourself, or to anyone else, if you daily bathe in

donkey urine?_________________________________________________

Studies show that people who are humble generally have

high levels of self-esteem, while people who are proud tendo have lower levels of self-esteem.

How and where did you join theInternational Society for KrishnaConsciousness?

I joined ISKCON in 2003 in

Sydney, Australia. I was travellingthe world, thinking myself happyand a global star. When I arrivedin Sydney, though, I found myself

unhappy and frustrated in my attemptso become a fulltime hedonist. It just wasnt working for me!

I met a very nice devotee who was collectingdonations for Caring for Life and, within a few seconds,

we were talking about the deep things in life.I did not even know he was a devotee; I thought he was aphilosophy student or something. I was very impressedby his knowledge of karma and reincarnation, and by hunusual sharpness and clarity. I actually walked away fromhim, only to return ve minutes later to talk for anothertwo hours! Just see the power of the sankirtana devot

He took me to the temple and I was straight

away convinced that this was going to be important inmy life. A week later, I packed my bags and moved in.A bit later, I realized what brahmacari life was actuaabout and was very happy to nd such a lifestyle in whichyou can be supported in living a healthy, celibate life.

How did you meet your spiritual master?

I met my spiritual master, His Holiness KadambaKanana Swami, about six months after I joined. Both being

from Holland, we chatted about all things Dutch and had agood time like that. Later the temple president, AtmaramaPrabhu, suggested he would be a good spiritual master forme. I thought our relationship was too informal for that,but now we have a very nice and intimate relationship,serious but still also informal, I guess, as Maharaj is.

What are your current services and what servicesenthuse you the most in your spiritual life?

My services are diverse; I help manage GovindaValley, a yoga retreat center run by devotees just southof Sydney. Its a beautiful spot on the edge of a NationalPark and right near the ocean! Yoga schools come there practice their kind of yoga , but we feed them prasadand kirtana . They also often ask us to give a philosophyclass because we know better than them about it!

Yoga Expo is an initiative we started ve years agoin Sydney. Its another neutral platform where the local

yoga community gets a chance to showcase themselves.We add bhakti , prasadam , books, and kirtana . I organize the event. Then I manage the local sankirtdevotees and like to go out on sankirtana whenever I can.

In Sydney, people are really favorable towards thedevotees so we straightforwardly collect for the HareKrishna movement. In return, we give them a brochureabout our Caring for Life program and a small bookwhen we consider them ready. It works; peoplereally appreciate the devotees here for their work.I must admit that going on sankirtana still provi

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Devotee Spotlight: Padmanabha dasaby the Editors


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me with the most direct nectar and realization . Whenam really caught up in too much management,want to take my bags and go out on the street!

How do you maintain an internal connection with yourpiritual master? How have you been able to apply thenstructions of your spiritual master to your own life?

I maintain a connection with my spiritual masterby listening to his lectures and kirtanas and by thinkingbout what would make him happy. He was just heren Sydney for a week and we had such a good timeogether. I am fortunate because I am the only initiated

disciple in Sydney so I get to take him to all the programs.I also keep my internal connection with him by

keeping a picture of him on my dashboard. Wheneveram driving, I have his smile in front of me. He is

retty happy with me following the instructions of localdevotees like Prema Vikash Prabhu and AtmaramaPrabhu who set up Govinda Valley and Yoga Expo.

How do you see Krishna manifesting His mercy in your life?

Well, it might sound clich, but I see Krishnasmercy manifesting since the moment I gave God a chanceo come into my life, now around seven or eight years ago.

called out, God, I cant gure it out anymore on myown. Whatever You want to be called, God, Buddha,Jesus, just let me know, and I am willing to accept your

help. Right after that, serious changes started to happen;

I left my job and town behind, went travelling, founddifferent books to read and different movies to watch. Thepeople I walked into also werent just ordinary people;everyone just seemed to enter my life for somespecial reason! It certainly took a very long whilebefore I accepted God as a person, as it goes for manyof us, but since I did, things did only get better. GuessI am a bit of a simple guy, but hey, if I am happy with it!

What do you see as a signi cant obstacle facing theexpansion of the Hare Krishna movement? Howdo you feel that devotees can tackle this obstacle?

We should be very open-minded and learn howto appreciate peoples attempts, no matter how small,to become better beings. Sometimes devotees becomerigid in their thoughts about the karmis and look downupon them. Well, not so long ago many of us where in thesame mud as they are in. We are only two inches above! Agenuine appreciation of people and guidance on their levelwill make people recognize and appreciate the devotees.Even though we have the highest philosophy in our hands,if we dont behave accordingly, people will not believe us.

We should recognise the gift we have beengiventhe gift of real yoga , real unity, real oneness. Wshould take the responsibility of carefully carrying it toothers and let them take advantage. The world needs itand many are actually ready to take it on. Its a burden, aburden of love, but when you start carrying it, itactually relieves you from the weight on your shoulders.

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Copyright 2008 Hari-Nama Press

All rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or other wise, without priorwritten consent of the publisher.

Hari-Nama Press gratefully acknowledges the BBT for the use of verses, purports and photos from SrilaPrabhupadas books. All such material are Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.

Designed by Tamal Krsna dasaEdited by Lila Katha devi dasi

Photo of Bhakti Tirtha Swami: 2005 Lawson Knight/Laksmivan dasa ACBSP

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