Surrender is terrible in the material world. It implies humiliation. But surrender is no bad word in the spiritual realm. Spiritual Surrender is victory! Surrender must be done intelligently though. And Surrender means Loving Devotional Service. How to do it though?
No one can swim out of the middle of the ocean
Yamini, 20 December 2014
Hare Krishna devotees, Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Gurudeva and Srimati Guru Mataji.. All glories to Srila Prabhupada….
How can we completely surrender ourselves unto the lotus feet of our spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead?
Please allow me to become eternal servant and serve all of you and serve Srila Gurudeva…
your servant, Yamini
Lalit, 22 December 2014 Hare Krishna! Surrendering to Krishna doesn’t require any special effort if it is the real yearning from within.
Surrender not out of fear, desire, expectation or momentary disinterest in the world but surrender only by choice.
Surrender in absolute is becoming a non judgemental observer.
Let him steer.
Lalit
Mahabhagavat Das SDA, 23 December 2014 Dear Mother Yamini,
Hare Krishna!
If surrendering to Krishna did not require any special effort, every single person on the planet would be Krishna conscious. But it does require a conscious effort.
The thing is, most of us are conditioned souls – conditioning removes all element of choice, we simply act like robots, according to our conditioning… here comes sense gratification, and there goes the sense gratifier running after the sense gratification. Just like a dog runs after the bone… did the dog “choose” to go after the bone? No, it is a reflex due to the dog acting out of conditioned consciousness.
Similarly, practicing devotional service in spite of all material distractions means to develop, as Devamrita Swami Maharaja says “choice muscles”. Our conditioning is forcing us to go towards sense gratification, but we are still choosing to go towards Krishna.
What Bhakta Lalit said re “Let Krishna steer” is correct. How? Krishna has left clear unambiguous instructions in the Bhagavad Gita, and we are fortunate to have those instructions clearly explained in Bhagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada. For example He says to work in Krishna consciousness without any expectations of results, to surrender results to Krishna. So it is not simply an empty “sit around and observe everything without judging” as the Mayavadis sometimes say, which is often just an excuse not to do any practical service to Krishna. It is an active engagement in the practice of Krishna consciousness, as you are doing.
Simply by following the instructions of the spiritual master sincerely, without doing so as a blind follower – in other words, strive to understand the spirit behind the spiritual master’s instructions while sincerely trying to follow, is key.
Srila Gurudeva mentions that we use the 3 main “GPS triangulation points” of Guru, Sadhu, Shastra and act accordingly.
Sincerely, Mahabhagavat Das
Please subscribe to daily inspirational emails from His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari (Writings and lectures archived at www.ecstaticmedia.com), written fresh every day from his travels around our world and into the spiritual world, sharing the highest spiritual knowledge with everyone. Sign up now at www.joincourse.com
Do the Vedic texts only refer to India? Is the Vedic view that the earth is flat? What is the truth here?
Manoj Tripathi, 19 May 2016
Hare Krishna dear devotees.
Please accept my humble obeisances.
I was reading the Mahabharata translation by Krsna Dharma prabhu, wherein there are references to several places on this earth. The most interesting ones are mentioned in the portions describing the Rajasuya and Ashwamedha yagyas which Maharaja Yudhishthira performed.
All the places mentioned in these parts of the text seem to be in or around India. Also, it is never mentioned that they crossed the ocean to go to some other place like present Australia or the USA.
The questions that arise are following:
a. Were there no powerful kingdoms in other parts of the world; or were the capitals of all the kingdoms located in and around India?
b. Are many of the routes and places which were accessible to people in those times not visible to us now?
I reconcile the present and past with these two arguments. Is there anything else that should be understood while reading about the past?
Sorry if I have posted something irrelevant.
Thank you.
Manoj
Mahabhagavat Das SDA, 19 May 2016
Dear Manoj,
Hare Krishna!
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Gurudeva.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Yes, Krishna Dharma Prabhu is in disciplic succession from Srila Prabhupada and his translation is relied upon by many devotees within ISKCON.
What is missing in that edition of the Mahabharata is purports as found in Srila Prabhupada’s books to give us full context of the verses (our context is very different today)… but then the work would become really massive because with Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad Bhagavatam purports, with 18,000 verses it comes to 18 volumes of books… the Mahabharata has 100,000 verses! 🙂 How many of us have read even Srila Prabhupada’s books thoroughly?
The main point is that human civilization is a devolution from Vedic civilization, things were not more primitive 5000 years as claimed by modern historians and scientists ago but actually more advanced. This cannot be accepted by a person who is proud.
In one lecture by Srila Prabhupada, on the verse BG 1.5, Srila Prabhupada says this:
“Practically in the Battle of Kuruksetra great personalities, warriors, from all parts of the world they came and joined. Some of them joined with this party and others joined with the other party. So far we have studied… just like Saibya, he belonged to Sibya. So all these personalities, we did not get their full description, it would enhance the pages. But these big personalities, we have got their information. There is a book, The Personalities of Mahabharata. Bhagavad-gita is part of Mahabharata. Mahabharata means greater India. Maha means greater, and bharata means India. So this whole planet was Bharata-varsa. There was only one flag. The whole planet was being ruled by one king. That is the king of this Hastinapura. The fight is that, that who would be the king, Maharaja Yudhisthira or Duryodhana. But a king… It is not a democratic; it is monarchy. So Krsna is deciding, “No, Duryodhana is unfit. Maharaja Yudhisthira is fit.” This is Krsna’s desire. Therefore this fight is there. Kuruksetra. Krsna wanted to wipe out all unwanted demons from the face of the world and enthrone Maharaja Yudhisthira because he is the exact representative of Krsna.” (Srila Prabhupada Lecture, “Everything (Even Dictatorship) Can Be Utilized for Krishna” 73/07/10 London, Bhagavad-gita 1.4-5)
So, the situation was that there were kings all over the world, but there were greater kings and lesser kings. And this was a war of the advanced Kshatriya races, the tribals, low-class humans, and animal-like-humans were not involved in it. In the Ashwamedha yajna, or declaration of supremacy, it was only necessary to get allegiance from the greater kings, the subordinates were naturally bound to follow suit. And of course, less advanced humans didn’t even figure in the equation.
Even in more modern times, it was like that with the Greek or Roman empire, if someone destroyed Athens or Rome, then the entire empire was practically gone.
Also, travel was not necessarily done as it is done today – for example, in the Mahabharata it is mentioned that Arjuna travelled to the heavenly planets. Where is the transportation means today that can take someone to the heavenly planets? So yes, the means of transportation as it existed then is not known today.
The secret is mantra yoga, by proper chanting of a mantra, one can achieve any desired success, whether material or spiritual, it is not necessary to make a tunnel to go through a mountain, it is not necessary to construct a floating ship to go over water, and it is not necessary to construct a metal tube with Bernoulli’s principle to fly in the air. The mantra is very powerful.
However, in the Krishna consciousness movement, we are not interested in discovering processes of material accomplishments, we simply want to chant
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
The Hare Krishna Maha Mantra
and become pure servants of the servants of the devotees of Krishna.
So therefore, we don’t always focus so much on the exact reconciliation of modern understanding with what is mentioned in the Vedic literature, we are going for the highest success, we don’t care to fly in a celestial flying craft or manufacture gold from chanting mantras etc.
Does this make sense?
Sincerely,
Mahabhagvat das
Manoj Tripathi, 19 May 2016
Thank you Mahabhagvata Prabhu for such a lucid answer.
These kinds of questions automatically come to mind, however upon thinking a little more I realize that there is no end to such inquiries.
Thank you so much for bringing me back.
Hare Krishna!
Sincerely,
Manoj
Kaspars, 02 June 2016
Hare Krishna!
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Is the planet Earth considered circular or flat in Vedic literature? One local devotee answered to me like this. Advanced people see more dimensions, not our three… It is length, width, height. So we cannot even imagine how Earth looks in other dimensions. Still I am curious whether the Earth was considered flat by ancient people. And how then we get the circular globe.
The Vedic cosmology goes beyond our insignificant planet. The “earth” is actually a large collection of “earthly” planets (islands) that are arranged to form something that looks like a disc. So yes, the “earth” is flat, but only when you consider that “earth” means “earthly planetary system with many many planets such as ours”.
Also, this is a video especially for you, this is a simulation of the chandelier that will be inside the TOVP dome, it gives a good idea of Vedic cosmology according to Srimad Bhagavatam 5th Canto… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdX5lffC2IQ
Please subscribe to daily inspirational emails from His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari (Writings and lectures archived at www.ecstaticmedia.com ), written fresh every day from his travels around the world sharing the highest spiritual knowledge with everyone. Sign up now at www.joincourse.com
Feeling discourged? Are you struggling to build momentum in spiritual life? Are you failing to recognize the progress you have made? You have made progress! Just look back on yourself!
Spiritualists of all paths have one obstacle in common – the difficulty in building up momentum.
You know, that momentum, when you are humming along, making progress, learning and discovering more and more, having those experiences that brought us to the spiritual path in the first place!
But quite often, we see ourselves or others struggling. Struggling with the basic principles of spiritual life, struggling to keep up with the practice, struggling to maintain enthusiasm. Some obstacles are momentary, like a lapse in judgment, and some others are persistent, like the craving to satisfy those old, material itches… we may keep scratching, and scratching, and scratching, and we may lose momentum.
It’s really important to remember that “momentum” can be seen to be made of many Moments.
How do we know if we are making progress?
आयुर्हरति वै पुंसामुद्यन्नस्तं च यन्नसौ । तस्यर्ते यत्क्षणो नीत उत्तमश्लोकवार्तया ॥ १७ ॥
āyur harati vai puṁsām udyann astaṁ ca yann asau tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta uttama-śloka-vārtayā
Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.
All of us know that with every passing moment, every day, every night, as the sun and the moon move in the sky, we are getting old. But when we look at ourselves in the mirror, say, now, do we see ourselves getting old? No. We see that our bodies have gotten old when we see a picture from say 5, 10, or 20 years ago.
We don’t notice ourselves getting old in the present, even though we clearly are… but we get discouraged when we don’t see ourselves making spiritual progress in the present moment?
My dear spiritualist, look back. Look back to say 10 years or 20 years, or less, depending on how long you have been on a spiritual path. Look back and compare your life then with your life now. Are you following your principles more now than back then? Are those old materialistic places, habits, people even a part of your life today? Have you moved in the right direction? I’ll hazard to say yes, you have moved forward.
When you look back, you will see how far you have come. And when you see that you have come thus far, you can easily find the motivation to keep moving forward.
Sure, there may be some missteps, there may be some false starts – maybe you’re not where you’d like to be, comparing yourself to some great saint, for example.
Look at a little child learning to walk… the child falls many many times and is unsteady for many days, weeks, months. But the child doesn’t give up.
And so you should not give up.
Every moment is a moment we can choose to choose, to “flex our choice muscles” as one of my teachers Devamrita Swami says. We can choose to act according to our conditioned instinct, or we can choose to act differently, on a higher spiritual plane.
And when you make that choice, take a moment to reflect that you did make the right choice, and rejoice. Momentum is made of many moments, and you just made this moment count.
In spiritual life, we often struggle with gaining momentum, when a spiritual lifestyle becomes easy… but it is important to remember that many moments make momentum. Each and every choice, however small, propels us further… don’t be discouraged. Make a choice, flex that choice muscle now, and do something that will help you advance spiritually, right here, right now.
Looking at it deeper, it means that whenever one desires someone or something for one’s own pleasure, that is not Love, that is Lust.
When we reflect on everything that has been given to us, air, water, this body, the ability to reflect, consciousness, the freedom to act, sunshine, food, and relationships… everything under the sun and beyond, we see that the source of it all deserves gratitude, and Love.
Krishna is the name for that Supreme Source, and Allah, Jehovah, Buddha, Rama, Yahweh, all refer to that one Supreme Soul, the Source of Everything that exists.
It is alright if you take exception to the above statement and disagree with me there. No matter what your own nomenclature for the Single Supreme Source of All is, whether it be Allah, Christ, Jehovah, Buddha, or some other name… When you try to gratify that Supreme Being’s senses, that is Love, and everything else is merely Lust.
All those love songs, all of those poems and ballads, dramas and theatre, perfumes and fantasies, they are actually of Love only when directed to the Supreme Divine, and lust otherwise.
I had a wonderful experience of this, traveling once with a sincere, loving, generous and humble saint, His Holiness Amala Bhakta Swami, from Toronto to Los Angeles, and he was clearly in ecstasy about something he was listening to. When I looked at him inquiringly, he took out one of his ear buds connected to his phone, and gave it to me… and he pressed play, I heard this song for the very first time in my life…
Unforgettable, that’s what you are Unforgettable though near or far Like a song of love that clings to me How the thought of you does things to me Never before has someone been more
Unforgettable in every way And forever more, that’s how you’ll stay That’s why, darling, it’s incredible That someone so unforgettable Thinks that I am unforgettable too
Unforgettable in every way And forever more, that’s how you’ll stay That’s why, darling, it’s incredible That someone so unforgettable Thinks that I am unforgettable too
-Nat King Cole (also performed by Barbara Streisand and others)
Think about this. While one can be forgiven for being carried away by temporary waves of emotion for our “TSO” – “temporary significant other” (phrase courtesy His Holiness Devamrita Swami), that song only consistently and forever makes sense when in relation to God. Because God stays in our heart and keeps us alive, gives us consciousness, even if we may have chosen to forget. Even though we may forget God, God never ever forgets us. I will never forget Amala Bhakta Swami Maharaja’s gift to me, in being able to relate everything wonderful and unforgettable back to the Supreme Divine, Krishna.
In fact, life after life, God travels in our heart, in His expansion as “Super Soul” or “Paramatma”
The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. –https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/18/61/
No matter if a soul is in the body of a worm, an ant, a fish, a vulture, a hog, a dog, a camel, or an ass… or a human being, the Supreme Divine accompanies us all.
That is Love.
And to express affection back, and to render service to He who has never abandoned me, despicable me, who let my Best Friend and Well-Wisher down originally, and over and over again, but not again now, is worthy of my Love. Not “gimme this gimme that gimme gimme gimme” but “What can I do for you my dearest friend?”
Love or Lust, what will it be for you?
Love is what I seek to give, so please help me God.
Freedom through Genuine Spiritual Progress 