"My dear devotees, a hug from my heart.
The chat of today is somehow of special importance. The topic is how to distinguish a devotee from a non-devotee. It is a very interesting topic. It is a line of demarcation that is not easy to understand. It is the difference between being disturbed and internally agitated, and on the other hand to feel secure and safe. It is the difference between understanding that I am a spiritual soul and not knowing who I am. It is the difference between living from minute to minute that makes me happy now, instead of understanding that nothing here will make me happy, not even on material level I will be happy. And with this philosophy, to think that I will never be happy here, will always result in being happy. Always calm, always full of something important to do.
The difference is to have a mystical relationship with others. For instance, if I have met my spiritual master, it is by the will of the divine providence. Or rather, if I have met my spiritual master, or he has met me and I recognize him and he accepts me, this is an arrangement from above. It is without my merits, it is not my achievement. Rather, we don’t even know what we are doing, so to say. Everything comes as the heart sends it suddenly, and we accept things we never imagined that we would have to accept. Like for instance to become a vegetarian, to strictly follow spiritual principles, meticulously. Not only follow them, but take them to the heart; no drugs, no madness.
A spiritual science
This is very important, because otherwise it will not work for us, because this process is a spiritual science. A science has its theory, its application and its result. If it is a spiritual science it is something incredible, because it will give us a result. Sometimes some devotees have little patience. They say: “I am chanting Hare Krishna, I am initiated, in have so many years in the movement, but where is the result of pure love for Krishna?” Few notice that already their life is almost the life of a pure devotee. Just by having accepted a spiritual master and the spiritual goal and specially having the faith, already an immense transformation has happened. You can’t even imagine, but that transformation is what guides you, it is what gives you security, the enthusiasm. It is what makes you live, it makes you live with a lot of meaning.
But now comes my principal point – through the devotion, your contact with others is equally significant; there are no longer superficial relations without importance. Everything is suddenly of maximum importance. What you achieve, what you do, is in order to expand the Krishna consciousness of love. Not only what you talk, more important is the personal contact, but the songs that you compose, the paintings you print, the food that you cook – everything is saturated with your love. When you eat something cooked in a mood of greed, of lust, without love, this does not have the same ingredients and quality as the food made with love.
An inner transformation
It is just the opposite; it is an incredible thing when one is in contact with devotees for a moment, for just a fragment of a second, when one comes to like a devotee and says: “This devotee represents what I want for me”. In this moment a wonderful transformation happens inside of you. You do not perceive it, but you go from insecurity to security. From doubt to joy. From frustration to exuberance. From laziness to activism with capacity. From going without guidance to have more guidance than you can read, with all the Vedic literature and all projects.
For example, if you want to know what to do with your life, like some people say: “I don’t know what to do”. Well, my answer is: Follow Srila Prabhupada! He already knows what to do. And if they say that they don’t know what Prabhupada does… well, then read from Prabhupada, listen to his speeches. Prabhupada is our contemporary saint, so to say. Why are there so many saints in the past? Who knows? But about Prabhupada, his holiness has been documented. The holiness from other persons might have been verbally transmitted; one says that it was like this, another says it was like that, isn’t it? And in the end one interprets, I don’t know what, from the holiness of the persons from the past. But the holiness of Srila Prabhupada is the unique which has been documented with recordings, with films and with a complete chronology. In other words, if someone has doubts in Srila Prabhupada, it is simply because he has not heard, he has not read, he has not got a chance to know him.
Becoming a saint
Now see the proposal we have; it is perhaps like laughing at, but we are here to become saints. Will that be possible? Is it something tangible? Or is it simply a dream? We are here in a plan to be transformed into saints. Is it possible that such day will come? If I present an invited to a devotee, and I tell the invited: “Look at the saint”, then surely he will start laughing… He will surely say:”What?! What saint?” “We know that he sleeps too much, we know that he still makes offences, we know that there are certain impurities still”, but of course, one doesn’t know… it might be that the true saints also had their human side?
Why do we say that we want to become saints? Saint means someone who sanctifies, someone who praises and blesses, who is a sanctuary, where one can meet with Krishna and the Holy Name. The devotees are saints, because they transmit the holy messages. Therefore they are saints. It is not because snot doesn’t come from the nose or because they never get angry in their life. No, no, it is not like that. Of course, maybe the holiest of holy saints is like that, that he never gets angry, but the point is that we know that a true saint never gets angry unjustly. He should never treat anyone badly, he should never abandon or leave anyone bad.
There are many things in Krishna consciousness that we study all day and all night. Holiness is what we study; we learn what a saint is, how a saint conducts, what to expect from a saint, and what the saints do not do… Why then do we talk so much about saints if we do not want to become saints? There is just one little but important detail: A SAINT NEVER THINKS THAT HE IS A SAINT. This is important. The saint who thinks he is a saint, is anything but a true saint. He is not at all a true saint, because the true saints do not think they are saints. But if I don't tell you that you should become saints, then I am also not saying what it is."
What makes a devotee
"The importance is the heart, so in this way, if the surrendered devotees are male or female is an external aspect, because we are spirit souls. And this is what makes a devotee – he or she realizes his/her eternal identity, and therefore he/she is a devotee who feels so much liberty and happiness. It is because this person at once can realize the constitutional position of the eternal soul as a servant of the truth.
So, go ahead from here, just go forward, without stopping, with all that you have, with all your love, so that Krishna consciousness becomes tangible for others. The material life tries to devour us, and therefore I tell you that there is nothing more wonderful for a devotee than to become a sankirtaner. May we have a true sankirtan reunion, because a sankirtaner can go to any town to preach, to any country to preach; a sankirtaner is free to preach wherever it may be. You don’t have to be a graduated from the university, you don’t have to be rich, and you don’t have to be beautiful. All you need is to have the heart in the right place. Then the sankirtaner is the freest person, the richest person of all, because the only thing he wants is to bless the others.
Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami"
Translation: Manah Siksa Devi Dasi
manahsiksa@gmail.com
|
