by Janmastami dasa
Lord
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita:
“To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me
with love, I give understanding by which they can some to Me.
(BG 10.10)”
In his
purport to this verse, Srila Prabhupada states, “A person may have a bona fide
spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but still, if
he is not intelligent enough to make progress, then
I take
this purport as an example of my life. I
was fortunate enough to first encounter devotees in the late 60’s. I was even blessed to have met Srila
Prabhupada and hear him speak on or than one occasion. However, due to my foolishness and stubborn
independent streak, I never stuck around Srila Prabhupada’s movement or the
devotees or long. I always left, looking
for an adventure.
Eventually
once, I settled down. I was serving Lord Krishna to the best of my
abilities. I established programs,
preached, etc. I was blessed with
initiation from my Guru-Maharaja. But
once again, my foolishness and stubbornness took me away from Srila
Prabhupada’s movement. In leaving, I
offended many devotees and disappointed them.
They had a lot of faith in me, and I disappointed that faith in
departing from Srila Prabhupada’s movement without a word.
Eventually,
I landed myself in trouble and was sent to prison. Over the last seven years I tried many
different spiritual paths but none of them brought me happiness or
fulfillment. I lamented my leaving the
only thing that had ever brought me happiness, fulfillment and acceptance: Lord Krishna and the shelter of Srila
Prabhupada and my Guru-Maharaja.
I
swallowed my pride and went crawling back to the devotees by writing our
beloved Chandrasekhara dasa Prabhu. I
learned the real meaning of “vaisnavebhyo namo namah.” The devotee is full of compassion for the
fallen souls.
This
movement is a movement of compassion for the fallen souls, such as me. But when
Lord Krishna desires your service He will place you in a situation where, if
you are smart, you have no choice but to serve Him. Lord Krishna has knocked me off my pedestal,
where I was totally covered by material illusion, and erroneously thought that
“I am this material body and this material world is mine, meant for my
enjoyment and pleasure. It’s mine to
possess, control and enjoy without limits.”
Lord
Krishna has shown me that this just isn’t the truth, no matter how much my
independent self may ant it to be. We
are not these material bodies. This
material world is not ours, it is God’s.
And He alone has the ability to control it and the unquestionable right
to enjoy it. I have learned, the hard
way, that when we try to usurp Lord Krishna’s position of proprietor,
controller and enjoyer, we simply end up trapped in the perplexities of the
material world, and oh, how I can tell you that this is most certainly true.
Once this
happens, we can not escape by our own strength.
A man bound hand and foot can not free himself. He must call on someone whose hands are fee
and ask for help.
I have
leaned the hard way that the only way we can call for help is by surrendering
to Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada, taking shelter of the devotees, chanting
the Maha- mantra and reading and studying Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Following
this process, our illusion will drop off and our true, happy eternal spiritual
consciousness will revive. We will find
ourselves returning to our original natural position as servants of the Lord
and ultimately the Lord reveals Himself to us when we enthusiastically practice
our devotional activities and sincerely chant the Maha-mantra – Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare
Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
So chant,
practice and never leave the shelter of Lord Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and the
devotees. This is true rehabilitation,
true redemption. In this way, your life
will become happy and sublime. Resist
the urge to be independent and foolish.
Be wise, practice and chant. Hare
Krishna!