A DEVOTEE OF SUBSTANCE

By changing our externals our internals is not going to change. By wearing dhoti - kurta, our desires are not going to change. By wearing a Vaishnava tilak, our desires are not going to change. Yes, the external appearance of a devotee is an important aspect of Bhakti and it does have some effect on our consciousness but it is not the all in all of being a devotee. The real challenge is to bring changes from within.

Donning the dress of a devotee externally is difficult but not that difficult - the real difficultly is in donning the attire of a devotee internally because who we are is not a product of our externals but our internals. God doesn't see our externals, He is more interested in our internals. The world may be impressed with the externals but God is impressed only by the internals. A devotee is not a person of form but a person of substance. Our internals change not by changing our externals but by working on changing our internals.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

MAKE IT A POINT TO MAKE THE POINT

A few days ago, as I was traveling on the ferry that takes us to our ISKCON Center at Chodan island, a relatively young man approached me and started to talk to me. My Vaishnava (devotee) attire probably attracted him to me. He was asking me if I was a preist in a temple. To which I said "Yes". I asked him where he stays and what he does. He told me that he stays in Panjim and runs a chicken shop in Porvorim. I asked him his name and as I guessed, he happened to be a Muslim. I could see marks of dried up blood stains in different places in his shirt. I at once told him to try to switch his profession to one which involves less violence. I suggested to him to start a vegetable or a grocery shop. He seemed to be taken a little aback by what might have appeared to him to be a stange suggestion by a stranger. I told him that killing innocent animals is not right. They too have life and feelings like us. He was hearing me out. He then asked me, if one can eat chicken ...

FORTUNE BEYOND IMAGINATION & QUALIFICATION

As devotees, we don't realise the great fortune of being able to wear the attire of a Vaishnava, apply Tilak on our forehead, wear Tulsi beads on our neck, chant the Holynames of Krishna, associate with His wonderful devotees, engage in His service, honour His prasadam, visit His holy dhamas, circumbulate Tulsi, see His holy deities, hear His Katha, participate in His festivals, read His words in the scriptures. These are by no way ordinary activities. These are blessings of an immeasurable kind. What we are given access to and the kind of devotional life we are given a chance to preform is very rare. Only very very fortunate souls get the fortune to get connected to the Lord through anyone of these activities. Indeed, great demigods long to experience this kind of life. And the best part is that we have been offered all this fortune without any qualification of ours. One time, one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, "What was our qualification that we got to meet you and t...

POWER OF BELEIFS

One time Prabhupada asked the devotees "How can we say Krishna is God?". One devotee said, "Because you say so, Prabhupada". Prabhupada replied "I am an old man, how can you believe me". Someone said "Because it is mentioned in Scriptures". Prabhupada countered "But people will say that is simply blind faith". Prabhupada finally answered "Krishna is God because you can experience Him". Prabhupada was not minimising the importance of hearing from Guru and Scriptures, but the point he was making here was that we should be eager to experience God and genuine spiritual emotions in our lives. As devotees we know that Krishna is God, that we are spirit souls and that we can experience great bliss in the process of Krishna consciousness. The question is, shouldn't our lives be examples of someone who has genuine experience and realisations of all these aspects of spiritual life. And if the answer is 'Yes', then the ...

The Wisdom Park

Search This Blog