Skip to main content

THE RIGHT SIGHT

There is an elderly and a blind devotee named Bilwa Mangal Das, who stays in our temple at ISKCON Belgavi, Karnataka. It's been many years since I have seen him but the memories and impression about him are still fresh and new. Some people with their character and nature tend to make a deep impression in your heart. He is surely one of them.

I remember seeing him for one of our annual pilgrimage to Vrindavan, the holy land of Lord Krishna. He was very old but very enthusiastic like a little boy. He would literally run with excitement as we went to see one holy site after another. I was wondering what this person was so excited about. He couldn't see anything. For him everything and everyplace is the same - all dark. But still he was very excited. I was thinking for myself, "Even though I had the eyes to see and was less than half his age still I didn't have the enthusiasm and excitement that he had." I was convinced that I may have materially eyes but I definitely lack the spiritual eyes this person has. It was as if I was seeing Krishna and His abode and still not seeing it but this person, though he couldn't see the abode of the Lord but still was seeing it. The proof is that one who can see Krishna and His abode will be in ecstasy. Bilwa Mangal Prabhu was definitely in bliss. Krishna was revealing to him, His Dham and Himself.

As Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati told his disciples, "don't try to see Krishna. Just try to serve Him in such a way that He wants to see you." Bilwa Mangal Prabhu had understood this verse and lived by it. His mood in running from one temple to another was, "I want to be seen by Krishna - I want Krishna to take note of me." After all, everything we do or don't do is our message to Krishna. Krishna is keenly noting each of our messages.

Bilwa Mangal Prabhu had pleased the Lord with his message of sincerity. He had converted his "so called" lack into his asset. There is no difficulty in pleasing Krishna and serving Him. In fact, greater the difficulty, greater is the opportunity to please Him if we have the right attitude in life. Blind or not blind, sick or not sick, poor or not poor, surrounded by problems or not surrounded by any - whatever the case may be, let us keep running towards Krishna with full intensity. That should be our sole purpose and goal in life. Somehow or the other, connect ourselves and everything we have to Krishna.

I will end this article by a super excellent example of one disciple of Sripad Ramanujachara called Kuresh. To save the life of his spiritual master, Kuresh volunteered to sacrifice his eyes and became blinded by a cruel and envious King. Even though he became blind, he was very grateful to do this service for his Guru. Ramanuja repeatedly requested Kuresh to pray to the Lord to restore his eyes. Kuresh did pray to the Lord for his vision but only that vision by which he could see the form of the Lord and His Guru. He didn't want to see anything else. It is this kind of uninterrupted and unfocused devotion on the Lord that is needed. Eye for God and His service and blind to everything else.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HEART PAIN to SOUL GAIN - the panacea for broken hearts

"When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead, keep your head up high and gaze into Heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal." I am sure all of you'll have experienced a feeling of being let down by someone whom you loved and trusted, a feeling of heartbreak, a feeling of pain when people whom you loved didn't reciprocate back to leave you broken. This world is such that instances like these keep happening now and then. Sometimes they are intentional but many times unintentional. That's the nature of this world. Just like a forest fire sets off without anyone igniting it similarly, misunderstandings and heartbreaks happen even without intentionally creating them . In any case, these heart-pains leave their scar deep in our hearts. We all know and have experienced that the pain of the heart, emotional pain is more difficult to tolerate than physical pain. For physical pain, you can apply a balm or a band-aid or take painkill...
Post a Comment
Read more

WOMANHOOD - UNDERSTOOD OR MISUNDERSTOOD? (A Tribute to all the women out there)

Being born in this world is not easy and being born as a woman is definitely not easy and being a chaste woman and trying to live a principle-centered life is definitely, definitely not easy. The struggles a woman goes through being a wife, raising children and running a family is many times beyond comprehension and very often, overlooked. Running an empire is easier than running a family. But probably the biggest challenge of womanhood is in being understood. Every woman looks for some man to empathize with her struggles and see her side of the picture. But instead of being understood, she is more often than not, misunderstood and exploited by the stronger sex.  One of the reason Lord Krishna appears in this world is to protect chaste ladies and teach a lesson to all those who try to exploit the innocent womenfolk. Krishna was born to help his helpless mother, Devaki who was being tortured by wicked Kamsa. Krishna cried seeing the suffering of Kunti Devi and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

RELAX YOUR WAY THROUGH LIFE

We all have problems in life, that's given but the question is - how do we deal with them? Generally when faced with difficulties, we panic and stress out, but this doesn't solve the problem rather aggravates it. The best way to deal with our problems is by being calm . How can one remain calm amidst problems? That's a question of practice. The point is unless we are calm we will not be able to see the problem for what it is, what to speak of solving it. Just like if a pond is agitated we can't see our reflection, similarly we can't see the obvious as long as our mind remains agitated. We always think that peace is obtained by solving our problems. That may be true but we forget that to solve our problems we need to be at peace first. This is something most of us don't get. By being calm and relaxed in face of a difficulty, we are placing ourselves in the mode of goodness and only in goodness can solutions come forth because the symptoms of the mode of g...
Post a Comment
Read more