WHAT IS YOUR SELLING PRICE?

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

One time a few guests came to meet Srila Prabhupada, the founder acharya of ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada pointing to his disciples told these guests very proudly, "Just see, these boys and girls are so dedicated to this Krishna consciousness movement and me that even if you give them a million dollars, they will not leave me."

The guests were highly impressed with the disciples commitment to Srila Prabhupada and the disciples in turn were floating in the air feeling very proud of their dedication. After the guests left, Srila Prabhupada turned to his disciples and told them that there is nothing for them to be proud about because till now no one has given them a million dollars. Only when they reject such a kind of alluring offer will they prove their loyalty and dedication to this movement.

Maya in various ways keeps alluring us with her irresistible attractive offers. She knows very well that everyone has a price at which he or she may sell his soul and give up his spiritual life or at least compromise it. Thus, she regularly offers us things a little more than our price of dedication. She is literally ruthless in testing one's loyalty and dedication to God. She has done her multiple PhD in corrupting our souls. The offer could come in the form of a huge sum of money, beautiful women, luxury, followers, name or fame. What form the offer will come depends on what our weakest point is, and Maya is super expert in en cashing on our weaknesses. Therefore, we need to be extremely careful, mindful and prayerful. We should try to align our desires in such a way that we only and only want Krishna and nothing else. And we should keep regularly sending this plea of ours again and again to Krishna and keep reminding ourselves of not giving in to the cheap offers of Maya. We have to work relentlessly (just like Maya works relentlessly to derail our spiritual life) to increase the value of our dedication and loyalty to God up-to the point of infinity, up-to the point where the possibility of falling to Maya's proposal becomes impossible. Then we are safe. Till then we can keep this beautiful prayer of Lord Chaitanya continuously on our tongue and etched deeply in our hearts.

na dhanaḿ na janaḿ na sundarīḿ
kavitāḿ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye
mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi

"O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or fruitive activities described in flowery language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to You."

- Achyut Gopal Das

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CHANGING THE WORLD FOR ONE PERSON

To reach our ashram at Chodan island, we need to cross the Mandovi river by the government run ferry service. As the ferry vessel was docking the other night, it scooped a tiny little fish out of the water onto the ground. The tiny fish was flapping desperately to live. I somehow managed to put the fish back into the river. The fish was happy to have got to live more and I was happy to be of some help to this small friend. I remembered a quote I had read long ago - "Helping one person might not change the world, but it could change the world for one person." How true it is. Whenever we get opportunities to be of help to someone, we should immediately grab it and try to do the best we can. Who knows, we may just save a life. Whenever, the ferryboat docks I try to be alert to look out for any fish that needs my help. Whether you travel in ferry or not, remember, there are always "fishes" out there who will need your help. Be watchful, be helpful. - Achyut Gopal Das

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