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

Comments

SEEING THE WORLD FEELINGLY

In a play written by Shakesphere, King Lear asks Gloucester: "How do you see the world?". Gloucester, who was blind answers: "I see the world feelingly." Shouldn't we also see the world and others with feeling of love and compassion. The problem is as soon as we become selfish and identify ourselves with our mind and senses, we disconnect ourselves from our own feelings and thereby we disconnect ourselves from the feeling of others too. This is when, we reduce people to mere commodity whose only purpose is to satisfy our selfish desires . Selfishness makes one insensitive to the needs and feelings of others. History is filled with stories of people like Ravan and Kamsa who didn't mind inflicting pain and suffering on people because of their own selfishness. In the Ramayana, there is the character of Queen Kaikeyi. When she became selfish and started to think of her own interests and enjoyment, she became so ruthless and hard-hearted that she coul...

THE UNSUNG HERO

A few days ago, I was traveling from Mumbai to Govardhan Eco Village (GEV), our farm at the outskirts of Mumbai. While on the way I somehow remembered about a unique spiritual personality, Punchari ka Lota Baba. I don't know how I remembered about him, but sometimes Krishna gives sudden remembrances. This was of course a pleasant one. Just by remembering him, I felt elated. There is a fascinating story of this great soul from Govardhan Hill at Vrindavan. I had gone to his temple at least 14 years back. Something more interesting was that as I was walking in GEV, I came near the replica of Govardhan Hill which the devotees have made at GEV, and to my amazement, I was right in front of the replica shrine of Lota Baba. How Krishna fulfills spiritual desires is just amazing. This was nothing short of a miracle for me. I just thought of him a day back and now I am in front of his shrine having his darshan. I was in ecstasy seeing Lota Baba and remembering his life and example. I woul...

THE POWER OF OBEISANCES

Offering obeisances to the Supreme Lord in His deity form may superficially look like a very small and a simple activity. But, it is one one of the very important and significant aspect of Bhakti. Therefore Lord Krishna stresses the importance of offering obeisances to Him in one of the most important verse of the Bhagvat-gita in chapter 9, verse 34. "man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ mat-parāyaṇaḥ" "Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me." - Bhagvat-gita 9.34 This verse comes exactly in the middle of Bhagvat-gita making it all the more important. Not only that, this is the only verse that appears almost as it is, again towards the end of the eighteenth chapter of Bhagvat-gita as follows - "man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te pratijāne priyo ...

The Wisdom Park

Search This Blog