"One who has faith in the inconceivable potencies of the Lord has no doubt that God can do anything." - Radhanath Swami, Author and Spiritual leader
The night after the subjugation of the great serpent Kaliya, Lord Krishna and His cowherd friends decided to rest on the banks of the Yamuna river. In the middle of the night, a huge forest fire enveloped them. It appeared that the fire would soon devour all the inhabitants of Vrndavana. As soon as they felt the warmth of the fire, they immediately took shelter of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They began to pray, "Our dear Krsna! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! Our dear Balarama, the reservoir of all strength! Please try to save us from this all devouring and devastating fire. We have no other shelter than You. This devastating fire will swallow us all!" These simple friends of Krishna are showing us the mood of a genuine devotee. As soon as a devotee is in trouble, he at once takes shelter of Krishna because he is convinced that, He and only He can give shelter to him. Society, family and friendship gives us an artificial sense of safety and security. But the reality is that other than lotus feet of Krishna, there is no other shelter.
The night after the subjugation of the great serpent Kaliya, Lord Krishna and His cowherd friends decided to rest on the banks of the Yamuna river. In the middle of the night, a huge forest fire enveloped them. It appeared that the fire would soon devour all the inhabitants of Vrndavana. As soon as they felt the warmth of the fire, they immediately took shelter of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They began to pray, "Our dear Krsna! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! Our dear Balarama, the reservoir of all strength! Please try to save us from this all devouring and devastating fire. We have no other shelter than You. This devastating fire will swallow us all!" These simple friends of Krishna are showing us the mood of a genuine devotee. As soon as a devotee is in trouble, he at once takes shelter of Krishna because he is convinced that, He and only He can give shelter to him. Society, family and friendship gives us an artificial sense of safety and security. But the reality is that other than lotus feet of Krishna, there is no other shelter.
THE MAGIC OF FAITH
Krishna did reciprocate with their prayer but not without testing their faith in Him. Krishna told His friends something shocking. He told them to lay down peacefully, close their eyes and to imagine as if cool breeze was blowing. He assured them that as soon as they did what He told them, He would take care of the forest fire. Put yourself in the situation of those boys. You are surrounded by a massive forest fire, with fiery woods falling from everywhere and Krishna is telling you to close your eyes and sleep. This is the craziest thing to do, no fool will ever do this. The two most important things that anyone would naturally do in this situation is to keep his eyes open and to run. Who would be that crazy guy who would dare to close his eyes and lie down? Well, there are always those rare and crazy souls who really dare anything to please God. This is precisely the difference between these great devotee friends of Krishna and us. They had absolute, implicit and simple faith in Krishna and His words. They knew beyond doubts that Krishna would definitely protect them. They didn't rely of their logic and intellect, they relied on a power that was much higher and profound than logic - they relied on the power of faith. In life, logic and intelligence will only take us a little distance. But, if we want to go much further, we need to tap into the power of faith. We will all come across situations in life where logic will stop working, only faith can lead us through them. Logic works only when there is clarity but in situations of confusions and darkness, only faith works.
Anyway as the story goes on, the boys without hesitation, with absolute faith close their eyes and with great innocence imagine as if they are experiencing cool breeze. Krishna, at once drank all the fire into his mouth as if it was some liquid drink. When the boys opened their eyes, they saw that the whole blazing forest fire was completely put off as if by magic. With God of magic as their friend, what was not possible. By now, seeing magic was their daily affair. Their life had become magical because of the magic of their faith in the magical Krishna - the unimaginable, craziest things kept happening in their life because of their craziness for Krishna.
THE ONLY WAY
The scriptures explain that like these boys, we are also surrounded by the blazing forest fire of material miseries. This great fire of material desires and sufferings is buring not outside but within each of our hearts. Burning in this heat, we run hither and tither seeking a solution to this forest fire. But wherever we go and whatever we do, there seems to be no escape from the flames of this fire. No fire extinguisher of any kind seems to help us deal with a fire of this size. The scriptures advice us to turn to Krishna, the Supreme Lord to find the solution. And when we finally turn to Him for advice, what is His advice? Exactly, what He told the boys. He tells us to "stop running", stop frantically trying, close our eyes and relax in His grace. The Bhagavad-Gita which is song of Krishna culminates in His final and most important advice to all of us caught in this blazing fire of material existence.
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaḿ śaraṇaḿ vraja
ahaḿ tvāḿ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." (BG 18.66)
Isn't this exactly what He told the boys! "Do not fear. I will take care of the fire burning in your heart. Stop doing and trying everything under the sun and just surrender into Me." Now, it's up to us, to have faith in His words or not. Krishna definitely loves and protects the residents of Vrindavan but He is so merciful and kind that He is ready to offer that same love and protection to each of us. That's the only reason He speaks the Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna consciousness or spiritual life is nothing but a journey of faith - moving from faith in ourselves and our limited intelligence to faith in God and His unlimited intelligence. This is the most beautiful of beautiful journeys anyone can ever take. This is our internal journey - our journey home.
The realized spiritual masters, explain that when Krishna tells in this verse to surrender to Him only - "mām ekaḿ", what He actually meant to say was, "naām ekaḿ" - "Only My name". That means, Krishna wanted to tell all of us that the best way to surrender unto Him is to surrender unto His Holynames because the Holynames of God are non-different from Him (naam-namino abhinatvam). And how do we surrender to His names? By sitting in one place, stop our "running business", close our eyes and completely relax into His names with faith, love and gratitude in advance for the miracles He is about to unfold in our lives. When in trouble and difficulty, the most logical thing is to run around to do something to fix the problem. Only those with faith in the Lord can sit peacefully and meditate on His Holynames in the midst of chaos and confusion. That's the way of the workings of faith and God - completely counter intuitive to the normal thinking.
Therefore, Lord Chaitanya who is Father of the chanting of the Holynames thought us that one of primary benefits of chanting is - the extinguishing of the blazing fire of material life (bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam). But we the unfortunate people of Kali yuga, will try everything complex but not take to the simple process of chanting. Summary, to experience freedom from the flames, one has to have faith in Krishna. Faith in Krishna means to have faith in His names. And faith in His names means to chant the Holynames sitting peacefully, eyes closed, mind relaxed, with love, gratitude and absolute faith that only the Holynames of Krishna can save us from the blazing fire in our hearts. This is the essence of this article, the essence of scriptures and the essence of life. But to experience this essence we have to have faith.
- Achyut Gopal Das
Krishna did reciprocate with their prayer but not without testing their faith in Him. Krishna told His friends something shocking. He told them to lay down peacefully, close their eyes and to imagine as if cool breeze was blowing. He assured them that as soon as they did what He told them, He would take care of the forest fire. Put yourself in the situation of those boys. You are surrounded by a massive forest fire, with fiery woods falling from everywhere and Krishna is telling you to close your eyes and sleep. This is the craziest thing to do, no fool will ever do this. The two most important things that anyone would naturally do in this situation is to keep his eyes open and to run. Who would be that crazy guy who would dare to close his eyes and lie down? Well, there are always those rare and crazy souls who really dare anything to please God. This is precisely the difference between these great devotee friends of Krishna and us. They had absolute, implicit and simple faith in Krishna and His words. They knew beyond doubts that Krishna would definitely protect them. They didn't rely of their logic and intellect, they relied on a power that was much higher and profound than logic - they relied on the power of faith. In life, logic and intelligence will only take us a little distance. But, if we want to go much further, we need to tap into the power of faith. We will all come across situations in life where logic will stop working, only faith can lead us through them. Logic works only when there is clarity but in situations of confusions and darkness, only faith works.
Anyway as the story goes on, the boys without hesitation, with absolute faith close their eyes and with great innocence imagine as if they are experiencing cool breeze. Krishna, at once drank all the fire into his mouth as if it was some liquid drink. When the boys opened their eyes, they saw that the whole blazing forest fire was completely put off as if by magic. With God of magic as their friend, what was not possible. By now, seeing magic was their daily affair. Their life had become magical because of the magic of their faith in the magical Krishna - the unimaginable, craziest things kept happening in their life because of their craziness for Krishna.
THE ONLY WAY
The scriptures explain that like these boys, we are also surrounded by the blazing forest fire of material miseries. This great fire of material desires and sufferings is buring not outside but within each of our hearts. Burning in this heat, we run hither and tither seeking a solution to this forest fire. But wherever we go and whatever we do, there seems to be no escape from the flames of this fire. No fire extinguisher of any kind seems to help us deal with a fire of this size. The scriptures advice us to turn to Krishna, the Supreme Lord to find the solution. And when we finally turn to Him for advice, what is His advice? Exactly, what He told the boys. He tells us to "stop running", stop frantically trying, close our eyes and relax in His grace. The Bhagavad-Gita which is song of Krishna culminates in His final and most important advice to all of us caught in this blazing fire of material existence.
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaḿ śaraṇaḿ vraja
ahaḿ tvāḿ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." (BG 18.66)
Isn't this exactly what He told the boys! "Do not fear. I will take care of the fire burning in your heart. Stop doing and trying everything under the sun and just surrender into Me." Now, it's up to us, to have faith in His words or not. Krishna definitely loves and protects the residents of Vrindavan but He is so merciful and kind that He is ready to offer that same love and protection to each of us. That's the only reason He speaks the Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna consciousness or spiritual life is nothing but a journey of faith - moving from faith in ourselves and our limited intelligence to faith in God and His unlimited intelligence. This is the most beautiful of beautiful journeys anyone can ever take. This is our internal journey - our journey home.
The realized spiritual masters, explain that when Krishna tells in this verse to surrender to Him only - "mām ekaḿ", what He actually meant to say was, "naām ekaḿ" - "Only My name". That means, Krishna wanted to tell all of us that the best way to surrender unto Him is to surrender unto His Holynames because the Holynames of God are non-different from Him (naam-namino abhinatvam). And how do we surrender to His names? By sitting in one place, stop our "running business", close our eyes and completely relax into His names with faith, love and gratitude in advance for the miracles He is about to unfold in our lives. When in trouble and difficulty, the most logical thing is to run around to do something to fix the problem. Only those with faith in the Lord can sit peacefully and meditate on His Holynames in the midst of chaos and confusion. That's the way of the workings of faith and God - completely counter intuitive to the normal thinking.
Therefore, Lord Chaitanya who is Father of the chanting of the Holynames thought us that one of primary benefits of chanting is - the extinguishing of the blazing fire of material life (bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam). But we the unfortunate people of Kali yuga, will try everything complex but not take to the simple process of chanting. Summary, to experience freedom from the flames, one has to have faith in Krishna. Faith in Krishna means to have faith in His names. And faith in His names means to chant the Holynames sitting peacefully, eyes closed, mind relaxed, with love, gratitude and absolute faith that only the Holynames of Krishna can save us from the blazing fire in our hearts. This is the essence of this article, the essence of scriptures and the essence of life. But to experience this essence we have to have faith.
- Achyut Gopal Das
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