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Dear devotees
Embraces to all assembled devotees.
Question: What is it that most affects the sadhana?
To offend other Vaishnavas. To minimize them, who we see daily or who live
close to us, is quite natural. To have the tendency to depreciate, to look at
the others like below us, becomes a big disturbance in the sadhana. Especially
the preacher should be admired, on the contrary one loses the desire to listen
to Hari Katha and everything get lost.
Mahavir Maharaj: Sadhana means service, to have the senses engaged in the
service and to modify our habits of eating, walking, dressing, etc - all in
service for Krishna. The deliverance of the character and the behaviour is the
effect of doing a good Sadhana. This is a daily problem in each project. If I
do not practise well my celibate, there is no real Sadhana. Service, habits,
character, etc, everything is Sadhana. Penitence is good, but sadhana is a
complete project. Not only some austere days and then back like before.
Question: Can we think that there can be a good service
without Sadhana or that the good service is good sadhana?
No, not if they do not get up, if they do not have concern about having a
good program it is surely difficult to have the correct comprehension. Sadhana
is total surrender to the instruction of the Spiritual Master. Sadhana and
Bhajam is finally the real submission to the correction of our life. The
master gets up, chants and preaches, if the disciple does not follow him, he
is not very serious, right? Of course, it is Krishna who knows the heart of
everyone, but actually, without a plan of changing and having a new life, we
end finally in worries about earning money and then how to gratify ourselves.
Like the television Sadhana, it is only to go to hell. Sadhana depends on the
desire of Guru and Krishna. If the Guru calls for you, but you are chanting,
and you answer that you cannot come, because you are chanting, is that
Sadhana? No. This is my principle to please myself, hidden behind the
chanting.
Seva: Which is the difference between Sadhana in the temple and Sadhana
outside of it?
This is a question of life in practice. Generally people outside the temple
are not so serious, at times too slack, not very surrendered, but there are
other cases with very serious devotees too. It is not that the place where I
live makes me surrendered. It is my disposition to really please my Guru and
Krishna, and inclination to make tapasyas like getting up early, chanting the
rounds, put the cassette of the class of the spiritual master, etc. That is
real practising. If the devotees in their houses have only three conferences
with their Guru, what is that? Poverty? No. Indolence, indifference to the
philosophy and lack of desire of being well connected. Of course, reading the
books is sufficient, but we are in the era of audio and Internet, and each
time with more opportunities to be close and listen to the conferences with
the spiritual master. The wife at home, cooking every day, what does she do?
Listening to the conferences, or what? Thus, Grihastas should have their
Sadhana well organized too and should exploit with enthusiasm to help them who
are maintaining the temples. Even better to participate in the preaching, for
instance: giving courses in the vaisnava academy, helping to make reunions for
children, etc. This way one can make miracles at home. Of course, a mother of
4 children cannot have the Sadhana of a Sannyasi.
Question: Some administrators lose Sadhana. What happens
to them?
Question: A strict Sadhana can be prathista. What does
that mean?
Do not worry about the Sadhana of others. Each one takes care of his own
Sadhana. Besides this, if one does not feel inspiration with a particular
leader, then we should at least maintaining respect, because my Guru is
accepting him, but I can keep distant from him. However, I should approach to
another leader to truly help. We should not practise the familiar quotation
"Friend of everyone, no ones servant".
Sadhana is life. We need it. Without Sadhana we are nothing. Thus it is
real that our life should be well organized. Disciple in reality exists
through discipline. For instance, Internet also has discipline. To connect to
Hotline, is not like you want - it is like it is. Obey or stay disconnected.
Thus Sadhana is one's personal thing, something between my Guru and me,
connected or not. I know it, since I feel it. There is light, current or not.
He makes me smile or not. If I am in front of my television guru, my Guru is
not going to smile, he will get sad seeing my lack of surrender, seeing me
lose my time, knowing that his son is not making progress because he has not
sufficient interest in the real Sadhana, in the devotional life, in the nectar
of the heart of Guru and Krishna. Family means to struggle for a common
purpose. To not abandon anyone. To make extraordinary efforts to deliver our
sisters and brothers. To search for new souls who want to get out of the
material mud. To help them. Like that is the real and beautiful life of
devotion. The living Sadhana. I feel I like very much to see the struggling of
so many devotees in South America.
Question: Is it correct to demand in a temple that the
devotees should get up before 4 in the morning?
Demanding is not my style, inspiring - yes, of course, but without
unpleasant compulsion. Sadhana with enthusiasm is quite possible. It is nice,
it is our life. Sadhana is the solution, since without it, what should we live
for?
Question: Real Sadhana is difficult to attain. How is it
that one can be able to maintain?
Maintaining is a matter of being real. Even the last conductor has to
accomplish his service each day. Accomplish. Everybody accomplish. We shall
not be so lazy. A woman, after having five minutes sex, can never again say "I
do not want to be a mother", otherwise nobody will have sympathy for her. Thus
a devotee is always a devotee, one supposes. To have a deity is not a jest. It
is a commitment. That way He can accept his service like something very sacred
and accomplish. If you want to glupearte, well, it would be possible if you
found anything nicer than the love of the Vaishnavas, anything better than the
beautiful philosophy, a better friend than the spiritual master, or a better
manifestation of the mercy of God, but do not be mean, inform us, where?!
Invite us! Like I, after my initiation, looking for whom who has something
better, well, if they do not have it, I invite them at once to become a part
of my nice family. I did not find anybody who had something of great
satisfaction.
I love my family, also with the problems that exist, and I love all the
Vaishnavas in the world as well, even though they are not united, much because
everyone is quite concerned also about offering something to their Guru. At
times one can see imperfections in the behaviour of one or the other, for
instance some jealousy, envy, etc. A mother se enrolló because the leader paid
more attention to the other mother, etc. But this is the nice struggle to get
out of maya. For me, you are the most beautiful family I have seen. You are my
life, my service to my spiritual masters. I am indebted to everyone for
helping me to serve the person I love the most, and I am incapable to serve
him alone, but you help me in the impossible. So, what can I say? I just keep
praying that Krishna may always let me serve you in the most elevated form as
possible. So I insist in convincing you to practice Bhajam Sadhana with such
love, that your spiritual body is waiting for you when you leave this covering
of flesh and bones. This is the gift from my master - the initiated school of
Bhakti, and love in practice, want to do something nice for Krishna in Peru,
Colombia, etc. It is not a difficult task. It is something so real as to share
the food on your plate with somebody who does not have anything to eat. It is
an art, spiritual life is an art, and even doing a chat is an art as well. One
has to be humble. To listen carefully, think slowly and well, respect the
participants, even if they can be wrong.
Imlitala, in front of the river Yamuna in Vrindavana, is the place where I
am in this moment. Imagine a bath in Yamuna and then talk to the Vrinda world.
Tomorrow we are going to Radha Kunda above all / among other things (entre
todos).
Question: What should a devotee do to remain strong in his
preaching and sweet with everyone?
To follow the example of his spiritual master. What do we do to not fail?
Follow Srila Prabhupada.
Question: How to do to make a person become a devotee?
Perhaps it depends on onesef?
It depends on Krishna, but you try all that is possible. Humble is to feel
joy in hearing something from a person, that one realized already ten years
ago, but nevertheless respect the person who recently took notice of it. The
real love does not throw the towel, but in the case of preaching, we then give
more attention to those who also reciprocate.
And so dear bhaktas
you can always dance
in the kirtan of Gauranga
and you will not get tired.
Brave is the one who with love
opens a temple without fear
Open your life
share everything
deliver to your Guru
without seeking fruits
So did Srila Prabhupada
he is our chief
beside this -
nothing
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