Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all.

I hope you have a wonderful spiritually surcharged year.

Krsna

Krsna - The Supreme Personality of Godhead

True Humility

“Through the practice of devotion to God, I was coming to learn that preserving loving relations in this world required much forgiveness, tolerance, patience, gratitude, and humility. An essential virtue of humility is to accept others for what they are, despite differences. I contemplated again how the tendency to judge others is often a symptom of insecurity, immaturity, or selfishness, and I yearned to rise above it.”

HH Radhanath Swami

Be strong in Krsna's service

I find that Krsna Consciousness is not for the faint hearted.

It gets to the core of who you are and yanks away the false ego - our comfort blanket for so long.

We try to become averse to the material world by becoming fanatics in the spiritual world.

But it does not work like that - Krsna Consciousness is a natural revolution of the heart - not an artificial imposition.

And like any natural relationship - it has to be worked at - slowly - respectfully.

We cannot rubber stamp ourselves as Vaisnavas just because we walk the walk and talk the talk ... oh and wear good tilak !

The core of this whole process I am finding is based around RELATIONSHIPS.

Our desire to have them, to avoid them and to control them.

We want to be selfish in deciding who we speak to, how we speak to them and when we do it. But it does not work like that... what about the other person and their free will?

In the spiritual world the objective is to serve the other person regardless of whether we get what we want... in fact our desires are fulfilled when we see the other person happy.

In the material world it is a matter of seeing who strokes my false ego the most and that is my friend -that is my well wisher.

But actually we have to work on ourselves first.

Make the change within and then our interaction, behaviour with others, speech, consciousness will all follow...

A deep subject I feel and one that requires deep friendships to get through.

Seasons Greetings to one and all !

Painful removal of anarthas

Sometimes we are so stubborn that we cannot see our own anarthas even when repeatedly pointed out by Krsna through His devotees.... this is when the purification process becomes painful - like having your wisdom tooth pulled out by a dentist and it is yanked this way and that way... so painful .... as the tooth refuse...s to come out.... just as we refuse to see our anarthas and thus hamper their removal.

Treat the holy names with love

I read today that the way in which we approach the Holy Names is
indicative of our relationship with Krsna.

I found this very interesting.

It makes sense really as we understand the holy names are non-different
from Krsna.

In this respect we can gaze at the Deity and act out our devotion to
Him, swoon in ecstasy or become stunned into silence.

We can work 24-7 for Krsna and receive plaudits that we are such hard
workers and do sooooo much service.

But what of the way we treat Nama Prabhu?

He has mercifully descended into this dark, miserable material world as
a life line to the spiritual world. He is like an umbilical cord
connected to Krsna that gives us life and sustenance.

Yet when we associate with Him through our japa or kirtan where is our
mind?

What is our mood?

Are we looking to serve Him or be served by Him?

Do we hanker for a drop of taste from the Names or do we acknowledge He
is 'Rasa raja'? The Supreme enjoyer of rasas.

Nama Prabhu is a person - He is Krsna Himself.

Treat Him well and He will treat you well.

The object of our desires is on our lips and we allow the mind to wander
to lesser, coarser pleasures.

Keep dragging it back to the centre - to the names - once we realise
that the holy names are the goal of our practices as well as the means
to get there it will be amazing!

Trust the Holy Names and keep the faith!

Today's Spiritual Counsellee Meeting

Today we had a counsellee meeting in the seminar room.

Agenda

1) Welcome to everyone and what's news?
Everyone spoke on what they have been up to since we last met, any realisations, what they are reading etc.

2) Update on who is going where tomorrow for the Counsellee Book Distribution Day and what has been collected so far.

3) Topic talk by Bhaktin Sonal and Bhaktin Julia on what they learned from Mother Urmila's seminar last Sunday on public speaking/how to give a class.

4) I gave out Mother Urmila's seminar notes and split the group into two.

Dhanishta and Gopi looked at Bg 10.9 and prepared a "class" between them on this verse.

Yogesvari, Julia, Sonal looked at Bg 10.8 and did the same.

While one group was speaking the other group marked them on philosophy, clarity of speech, body language, presentation of topic. Constructive feedback was given to both groups by each another.


5) We had a mini discussion on what the group wants to do next year. All agreed they want to incorporate DVD lectures into the meetings and start systematically studying the 4 Bhakti Sastri texts starting with NOI.

6) Group Japa

7) Prasadam

In between point 6 and 7 the meeting was "hijacked" by the counsellees and they threw a surprise birthday party for me with appreciations, LOTS of prasadam, cake, gifts and even a maha garland...!

They are a good bunch I suppose !

This Life...

Amara Jivana (This Life)

By Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

amara jivana, sada pape rata,

nahika punyera lesha

parere udvega, diyachi je kata,

diyachi jivere klesha (1)

Throughout my whole life I have been addicted to sin, never performing any pious activities. I have simply been a source of disturbance and suffering for others.

nija sukha lagi’, pape nahi dari,

daya-hina svartha-para

para sukhe duhkhi, sada mithya-bhashi,

para-duhkha sukha kara (2)

For my own pleasure I never fear to commit any sin. I am devoid of pity and full of selfishness; I’m sorry at others’ happiness and am an inveterate liar. Indeed, I take delight in others’ miseries.

ashesha kamana, hridi majhe mora,

krodhi dambha-parayana

mada-matta sada, vishaye mohita,

himsa-garva vibhushana (3)

Endless are the selfish desires in my heart. I am prone to anger and devoted to arrogance. Intoxicated by conceit and deluded by attraction to sense pleasure, I ornament myself with pride and envy.

nidralasya-hata, sukarye virata,

akarye udyogi ami

pratishtha lagiya, shathya-acarana,

lobha-hata sada kami (4)

Afflicted by laziness and sleep, adverse to pious activities, I delight to perform any harmful act to obtain name and fame. I am very adept in duplicity, always lusty and degraded by mundane greed.

e hena durjana, sajjana-varjita,

aparadhi nirantara

shubha-karya-shunya, sadanartha-mana,

nana duhkhe jara jara (5)

Being such a miscreant and rejected by saintly persons, I have become a repeated offender. I never do good deeds but am inclined only to bad habits. Thus, I am oppressed by so many miseries.

vardhakye ekhana, upaya vihina,

ta’te dina akincana

bhakativinoda, prabhura carane,

kare duhkha nivedana (6)

Now in old age I am rendered helpless, reduced to a fallen and destitute condition. Bhaktivinoda presents his sad case at the feet of the Lord.

Loneliness in spiritual life

Srila Prabhupada states in a letter to Hayagriva dasa in 1969 that he was lonely in the USA before he came to meet up with the young sincere hippies who helped him establish ISKCON.

Does loneliness exist then in spiritual life?

We know of spiritual loneliness - the desire to meet with Krsna and His devotees - and the pleasure/pain of being apart.

But what of devotees being lonely in their spiritual paths?

Does this denote a lack of spiritual attachment?

Not chanting deeply enough?

Poor sadhana?

Some elements are there but we can also feel lonely as we extricate ourselves from the material world and naturally attach ourselves to the spiritual world.

We no longer have anything in common with our peers, family, work colleagues...

We can also feel we have nothing in common with our spiritual colleagues as we feel some progression.

This can make us feel lonely.

We should not become superior as a result of this but always seek to try and understand and bring out the best in others.

One senior devotee told me that loneliness is like an intense emotion and this has to be given to Krsna. That longing, that aching, that emotion can all be Krsna - nized through the chanting of the holy names, through the reading of His books and through His services.

Where are you now?

This picture was taken 2 years ago.

Two of the ladies in this picture are living in another country now.

One is expecting a baby and one is engaged.

Time waits for no one.

We work, work, work... toil away ... for what?

People move on and we may never see them again.

Life opens up so many choices, varieties of happiness and distress.

Got to say focused on what is important here and now.

Today is my birthday

Another year old... old being the operative word here !

Time to take stock and look at what I have done for the past 12 months and what I want to achieve in the next 12 months.

I was just getting used to writing my year of age from last year and now I have to write another year on forms etc... scary!

Makes you wonder... we got to get out of this material world fast or we will be swept away into the abyss of illusion again and again.

Time waits for no one it seems.

Yet any time spent in Krsna's service is time well spent.

So excuse me as I enjoy the first of many feasts today (!) and contemplate my life as it is so far.

Strong foundation

What makes a good house?

Double glazing?

Nice paint on the outside of the house?

White pickett fence?

Rose garden out front?

Nope - none of the above.

It is a STRONG FOUNDATION

If the foundation of the house is weAk then in time the building will crumble no matter how hard we try to maintain a pristine external facade.

Similarly if we don't root ourselves in this philosophy and seriously apply ourselves to our sadhana we will also crumble spiritually until one day we just collapse.

Does not matter how nicely you wear your sari or put tilak on or sing in kirtan.

If the root is weak & rotten you are on borrowed time.

This is why it is so important to have STRONG healthy sadhana to ensure our foundation is stable.

Conflict resolution

We all look at the world through our own consciousness.

Need to stop judging and be more forgiving.

How many times do we stand before the Lord and ask for forgiveness yet when someone slips up we are like vultures circling the unfortunate jiva. Picking away at the accident caused.

Conflict occurs when you do not do what I want you to do. Or when you do not agree with me and my always right point of view.

But I find the best well wishers are those that are not afraid to tell you when you are wrong. How many friends do we have where we would dare to be totally honest in this way? Or do we shirk away from speaking the truth least we upset someone.

We are all affected by the 3 modes of material nature and our behaviour is an output of whatever mode we are influenced by. In this respect if only we could tolerate and just see the modes at work.

What a reduction in confliction we would have! As we would hate the sin but not the sinner.

Best to seek understanding of one another just as we want to be understood and accepted as we are.