MY EXPERIENCE WITH SRIMAD-BHAGVATAM

Just completed a series of classes from the first canto of Srimad-Bhagvatam. We started these classes on April 15 and ended on September 28. Every day two classes of 30 minutes each, with few days gap in between. Total - 237 classes to be precise. My heart is filled with so much gratitude for being given this opportunity to speak from this great literature and complete the first canto. The experience is overwhelming. This will definitely be one my the biggest achievements, which I will cherish throughout my life. I am feeling so blessed that I feel, even if death comes to me at this point, there is no problem. My life has become perfect, that I have had the opportunity to read and speak from this great literature.

Srila Prabhupada always said, "My purports are my spiritual ecstasies". Reading and speaking everyday, from every word of his purport has made me appreciate the truth behind Srila Prabhupada's statement. If one wants to experience ecstasy, one need not go very far, one has to just open the pages of Srimad-Bhagvatam and dive into the nectar pouring out from the purports of Srila Prabhupada. It's that easy. Srila Prabhupada was such a genius, such a compassionate soul and such an empowered representative of Lord Krishna. You can genuinely feel his love and compassion in every word of his purport. My appreciation and love for Srila Prabhupada has grown a million times after completing discussing from Srimad-Bhagvatam.

As King Parikshit desires towards the end of the first canto, to keep hearing more and more of Srimad-Bhagvatam, my desire also towards the end of the first canto is to keep discussing from this great literature and thus complete the remaining 11 cantos. I will end this blog with the prayer of King Parikshit which appears in Srimad-Bhagvatam 1.19.15 -

tam mopayatam pratiyantu vipra
ganga ca devi dhrta-cittam ise
dvijopasrstah kuhakas taksako va
dasatv alam gayata visnu-gathah

"O brahmanas, just accept me as a completely surrendered soul, and let mother Ganges, the representative of the Lord, also accept me in that way, for I have already taken the lotus feet of the Lord into my heart. Let the snake-bird — or whatever magical thing the brahmana created — bite me at once. I only desire that you all continue singing the deeds of Lord Visnu."

- Achyut Gopal Das

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REQUEST TO & FROM A MOTHER

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A SMALL MEMBER IN A HUGE FAMILY

"God is unlimited, so are the number of His devotees." Every morning after the morning program in ISKCON temples and every time devotees offer their respects to the devotees of Lord Krishna, it is a custom to chant the phrase - "ananta koti vaishnava vrinda ki jai". It means - "all glories to the unlimited, countless devotees of the Lord". I got to witness a glimpse of this phrase in the recent annual Vrindavan Yatra. The Yatra itself had 7000 registered pilgrim devotees along side lakhs of other devotees who flock to Vrindavan to be in the holiest of holy months, the Karthik month. It was a crazy crowd filled with devotees crazy for Krishna, not minding inconvenience of any sort. In fact, one starts to realise that being surrounded by devotees on all sides is a bliss of a different sort. Vrindavan was filled to the brim. This is only the number of countless devotees in Vrindavan. Add to it the unlimited devotees in other holy places, Tirupati, Sri Ranga

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