To serve Krishna is a privilege

Srila Prabhupada was very fond of book distribution; he said that like Marx changed the world with his books, in the same way the devotees would do it. If Krishna gave this shakti to all Charlies, then why wouldn’t he give it to His devotees? We have to pray a lot for this privilege to serve Krishna, because it is indeed a privilege. Like Srila Sridhar Maharaj said: “We have to pray for to belong to the order of Krishna’s slaves. We have just begun, and we pray for serving Krishna, but in our hearts we feel that we still have not done anything, but just are qualifying for serving.

We may not take this as something cheap. The more we purify us, the better quality our service will have, and the better we can please Krishna, the better we can understand the Truth about His person. This is what Lord Nrsimha confirms to Prahlada. I like very much to read this, because there one can the power of bhakti. One can know the Truth about God only by satisfying the Lord, and in this way the devotees give us the secret so we can satisfy Krishna. Nrsimha Himself says that one has to become a pure devote. And this, he says, means to be equanimous and unbiased.

We see that Prahlada Maharaj fought a lot against the concept about friends and enemies; he rejected completely this concept and just wanted to be unbiased. Therefore he preached to his classmates, risking his own life, and managed to transform their hearts, but this increased the anger of his father. In this way more preaching can lead to more problems. But more problems means more protection from Krishna. Krishna sends problems in the way that He Himself has to come to help us. Therefore the devotees, who are very advanced, become very happy when the problems are serious, because this means that Krishna will appear soon.

A constant marathon

We also have to understand that our most serious problem is that we cannot love Krishna; that we are negligent or indolent. We want to awake enthusiasm in our heart, like Sri Rupa Goswami said. We want to go into this fire, and therefore we pray for the mercy of Gurudeva Paramadvaiti, since he is running with the torchlight lit to several places in the world. He has said: “The marathon must be constant, otherwise our mind and our desires will be in a constant marathon, and we will be beaten by maya’s runners.” The case is that the ghosts of the material desires have become lorded by our hearts, and therefore we have to remain in the fight through the mystic mantra.

Sri Rupa Goswami said that the goddess of bhakti will not present herself inside of us, until bhukti, mukti and siddhi have withdrawn. Therefore our prayer has to be very pure and our desires also have to be that; our despair has to be very intense. Let us not forget that we want to treasure the transcendentally good of the spirit; this good which is infallible and eternal. Once that you have it, don’t lose it again.

Die to live

The other day I read some very nice words of Yudhisthir Maharaj in Mahagharata. Srimati Draupadi and Bhima were quite disturbed by the resigned and passive attitude of Yudhisthir Maharaj. They told him that in his condition as ksatriya, he should not tolerate this extended exile, and that he immediately should take his weapons and gain the kingdom that illegally was taken from him. Srimati Draupadi also said to him: “All those sacrifices you did, what was the use of that? To be so correct and so good... so unbiased? You performed so many yajnas, but for what good? Look, this cruel Duryodhana and his brothers are successful and happy while we are suffering here in exile! What for has all this religiosity of yours been useful for you? You should get your weapons!”

Something like this, spoke Srimati Draupadi devi, but the answer given by Yudhisthir Maharaj was very nice. He said that those sacrifices were not done to give him any benefit from it. He said that they had been realised only because it was a duty to do it. He also said that he did not want revenge, because he saw that desire for vengeance only lead to the destruction of the worlds. And he did not want to respond with the same violence.

We may not take this as a simple story. When we read about this, we ought to think that this is what they ask us to do. It is like reading a book about gymnastics or hatha yoga; as soon as you see the picture of the exercise you think: Oh, so this is what I must do. In the same way one should think when reading these stories, because it is not that Yudhisthir Maharaj and the padnavas descended to the earth just to show us a play, as if it were like Russian circus. No, no, no! They came to show us what we should do. They came to teach us to become pure. They did not come to shine with their devotion, but to help and inspire us. Therefore we should read these stories with certain horror, because this is what has to become alive within ourselves. You have to be ready to die, to live.

Guides

It is like when you want to go to Himalaya; others have already been there and they come and tell you about the places you have to go to. Then you will also go to the same places. It is not just that they had to go there, but that you will go to the same place without having been there yourself. It is like this. They show the way. mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. This is they way we have gone, and this is the way you should go, but the difference is that they already have left marks on the path, like the alpinists. The best ones go forward and leave the nails wedged and the ropes fastened and the way defined, and thus everything becomes much easier.

Then Yudhisthir Maharaj said something very nice to his wife and his brother, and I liked very much when I read it. He said: “Draupadi, my dear queen and wife, Bhima, my dear brother, my heart is possessed by the inclination of forgiving and I cannot act in another way. My heart does not have the capacity to lie and is inclined for sacrifices, even if it wouldn’t give any result. Simply by the simple act of making a sacrifice, my heart is satisfied. This was with a few words what our Guru Yudhisthara Maharaj said.”

Bhakti within the heart

In this way we should welcome the virtues of Bhakti to take place within us. We open our heart for bhakti to come with its great courageous love. As the proverb says: “A gentleman never leaves the courageous”, and therefore is the practitioner of bhakti yoga the most courageous of all, because they are in their own fight and receive the hurt within themselves. We see that drunkards and abusers have their hearts possessed by the inclination to their vices and that they – despite of being at the edge of death – do not leave their inclinations. In the same way we wish that bhakti is profited by our inner, so that we in no way can leave it.

As Srila Bhaktivinoda prays: Kill me or protect me, all according to Your desire... This is the disposition of the devotee, to completely give himself in Krishna’s hands. In this way we will be possessed by the good, by bhakti. To never be able to leave bhakti. Like the sandal wood has its natural fragrance that never ceases smelling, in the same way our soul carries the natural fragrance of bhakti. This scent is very subtle and is spread all over the world, and despite being subtle, it can be perceived through the grosser, like the fragrance one can feel on the petals. Don’t get polluted by other smells.

Like this it was with Srila Gour Kishore das babaji Maharaj; he felt the smell of materialism and disliked it. He preferred the smell of human excrements before the aroma from being close to a mundane person. As when we feel that we have a bad smell, then we immediately go to have a wash. In the same way we should reject all stenches from material desire. We develop our faith in bhakti. We strengthen this faith. We only think of this and dedicate to this only. It is our confession and the purpose of our life.

The greatest treasure

In this life we want to give a chance to the science of love. Others give a chance to the mundane technology, drugs, sex, to the stupid vanities in this world. But we have already gotten fed up with this, and we want to try the pure love, the divine love, the contact with God. Have you seen how this precious desire has come to your heart? And this only because of this desire we can achieve this goal. So we should cherish this desire, care for it in the association of the devotees, who are the only who are interested in discovering this treasure. If you know about a treasure, you tell it to a good friend, and together with this friend you go to look for it. In the same way we are together with our best friends when we look for the greatest treasure. We have all the means to get to it, we just need patience and enthusiasm.

As Srila Rupa Goswami says: “Everything is already there.” No you just need enthusiasm. Don’t let anything let you down, everything is already there. It is just to fight. Krishna said to Arjuna: “Everything is already there”. But this is not for idles or rascals. Krishna said to Arjuna: “Do not give this to those who are not austere, do not give it to the rascals. Do not give it to those who are not My devotees, who do not have any feelings for Me and who does not want to endeavour for Me. To them you can give pizza and ice-cream and television and sex.... For them there are big cities like New York, commercial centres, fashion magazines, cinemas, restaurants, etc. I cheat them with My maya, they exchange me for some movie or some other stupid thing, some video game, because they are stupid, they are mudhas... But if someone wish to stop being mudha, he should read Bhagavad-Gita, and in this way worship Me with his intelligence. He will become intelligent.

I remember when i was young... I felt myself very stupid and sometimes I wondered if there was anything to do to become more intelligent. And I got the answer in Bhagavad-Gita – nothing more, nothing less. What a fortune! There I could see that intelligence is nothing cheap, but something that Krishna Himself has to give us.

Dear devotees, thank you for your attention. I offer my obeisances to all of you, and may Krishna bless us to continue to serve him one more year. Go forward in your successful preaching.