Overcoming Pride By Gratitude

We, ISKCON devotees are made from head to toe only by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and the Vaishnava's. We are products of mercy. Nothing actually belongs to us. So, how can we be proud of borrowed plumes!

Think about it. When people applaud us for our classes, if we think properly none of the points we speak is ours. We are just repeating what we have heard or read. And even if we get some new insights it's by the mercy of Krishna in our hearts.

We should always remember that whatever respect, facilities and honor we get is only by the mercy of Krishna and the Vaishnavas. It's only because we have some connection with great souls, we are given respect.

All great devotees live their lives in alignment with this fact. When Lord Krishna left this world to depart to His eternal abode, Arjuna remembers all the incidents in his life where he achieved extraordinary success. But he doesn't take an iota of credit. He is fully convinced that it is only by Krishna's mercy that he could achieve anything in life.

Similarly, Srila Prabhupada even after achieving so much success in his preaching, he always gave credit to his spiritual master. In fact he said, "The only reason I am successful is that I have not deviated an inch from the instructions of my spiritual master".

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur captures this mood beautifully in his song to Gopinath

Yogyata Vichare

Kichu Nahi Mora

Tomara Karuna Sara

"O Lord, if I think of my qualifications, my conclusion is that I don't have any. Your mercy is what I am made of"

Our pride is not in our greatness but in the greatness of Lord Krishna that He is giving us a chance to serve Him even though we fall way below the mark.

Thus by always being grateful to all the great souls who have helped us in molding us to who we are now, we will be protected from pride.

In a heart which is filled with gratitude there can be no pride.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

HAPPINESS WITHOUT REASONS

Everyday there is a different reason for not being happy. Someday, it is because someone hurt us and we keep thinking about it, someday our health is not good. Someday it's simply because we are not in a mood. Someday, it's because a plan of ours didn't work out....and the list goes on and on. Very rarely are we happy. All these reasons are valid and true. But the question is 'when will there be a day when the mind will offer no reasons to be happy?' Material world is a place of continuous drama and happenings, and the mind knows how to perfectly en-cash on it. Even if all our problems went away, will we be happy? A new set of problems will come or even if there are no further problems, the mind will make one. After all it's expert at it - creating problems where none exists. Happiness, joy, peace or love are unconditional, which means that they are not dependent on any conditions. Waiting for the perfect condition to be happy or peaceful is a gre...

Thought on Thoughts

The problem with many of us is that we have given way too much importance to our thoughts. Just think about it. How many thoughts we have in a day? Hundreds or thousands. How many thoughts we have had in our life up until now? Millions or quadrillions. The irony is that the mind makes us believe that every thought is important and we foolishly subscribe to our mind. Just like in an ocean so many waves come and go, similarly we get so many thoughts. The problem is not the thought per se, but our attachment to our thoughts. Interesting thing is that thoughts are harmless - they come in awareness and pass away. Just like clouds pass through the clear sky. Our thoughts can harm us only if we give importance to them and hold on to them. That's why in the Bhagavad-Gita when Lord Krishna is explaining the flowchart of how a living entity suffers. The first step, He explains is contemplation of sense objects. Contemplation is nothing but holding on...

CHANGE OF HEART

In today's world, we are blessed to be surrounded by so much knowledge. In fact we are almost swimming in an ocean of knowledge. We have the best of spiritual books, best of the speakers who share deep wisdom still we feel there has been 'no' or 'very minimal' tangible transformation in our lives. Why? This could be one reason...We somehow inadvertently believe that just having access to knowledge will guarantee us success in spiritual life. But one may argue, Is knowledge not sufficient! True, knowledge is the first step to success. But it's not the only step. People say knowledge is power, but it is only potential power, latent power. Applied knowledge is power. Only when knowledge is applied in our lives can true transformation begin. That means we need to put some internal effort to realise the knowledge. It's not an automatic process. There's a difference between theoretical realisation and actual, true realisation. Theoretical ...

The Wisdom Park

Search This Blog