SB 01.05.23 – Everyone has to struggle through purification – let the example of the pure inspire us
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
glorify Krishna through our other activities will rest.
Thank you. Here Naraduni starts telling about his previous life when he was a son of a maidservant and how at that time he started serving some devotees who came to reside there near a Chatur master. So till now what Naraduni has spoken in theory the glory of bhakti yoga now he is going to demonstrate with an example and that example is the most appealing and most convincing because it is his personal example and he’s telling it to his disciple.
Disciple naturally wants to know more about spiritual master and is very eager to know. So Vyasadev is being told how in the past life not just that past life was not just in this millennia but is in a previous millennia. So thereafter Naraduni has got a body when the creation took place.
This body Naraduni got is there right from the beginning of this millennia and it is going on. That’s why he did not have any other life, any other body in this millennia. Naraduni is now an immortal sage.
So when these sages had come he started serving them. The Bhagavatam offers both philosophical principles and practical demonstrations of those principles. It glorifies pure devotional service and then it offers examples of pure devotees who live those principles.
We may not be able to live those principles but we can at least live for those principles. Live those principles means they become a very integral part of our being and they become the very fabric of our being. Live for them means that they are the ideals, they are the goals, they are the aspirations for which we live.
Often when we meet advanced devotees the tendency is to think that oh they are so happily relishing bhakti and I’m so unfortunate that I have my struggles, my minor senses are troubling me, I don’t have any attraction to Krishna and therefore I cannot taste the joy of bhakti and in this way we often end up feeling sorry for ourselves and we put advanced devotees on a pedestal and we sometimes imagine as if they were always there itself. But actually even they had to go through the struggle which we are going through. Of course a few devotees, extremely few and rare devotees may be nitya-siddhas who have descended from the spiritual world who may not have a struggle and raise their mind and senses but even the nitya-siddhas have to struggle against the world because the world is always materialistic and one has to battle against it and that’s why Krishna while talking about even the advanced devotees says yatan-tash-chitr-dharm-jata-sat-tam-kirtayantam in 9.14 he says that they are constantly glorifying me and they’re endeavoring with great determination.
Normally we think that we need determination when there is opposition and for us the primary opposition is for the mind and senses which don’t want to stay fixed on Krishna, which drag us towards so many other sensory pleasures. But when there is no opposition for the mind and senses then what is the need for determination? Especially even for the pure devotees, their mind and senses are not opposing them. Then why do they need determination? Because still the world always opposes.
Because the world is materialistic and the world wants to perpetuate its materialism. So when the devotees offer an alternative pathway, glorify the non-material purpose and essence of life then they face a lot of opposition from the interest materialistic paradigm and they also need determination. So similarly every advanced devotee while trying to share Krishna’s mystery in this world faces problems and it requires determination to overcome those problems.
So when we remember this point we are not alone in struggling to have the resolve for determination but that Krishna himself promises that he will give that if we just become conscious of him. So first is that we recognize that I want to offer my heart to Krishna. Krishna is my lord and once we accept that Krishna is my lord then we start trying to treat him as such remember him, serve him, glorify him.
Then we also remember that Krishna is not limited to this particular manifestation. Krishna can manifest in many other forms also. Sri Prabhupada heard the voice of Krishna when he felt that he was being told why are you writing magazines, you could have thrown magazines, write books and then he gave the purports of the book.
So Prabhupada could see the hand of Krishna, the guidance of Krishna by remaining faithful to the service of the holy name, service of Krishna and the important thing in our particular life as sadhikas is to ensure that we keep ourselves fixed in the pursuit of bhakti. Eventually the taste that we long for will come and we can become absorbed in constant loving ecstasy for Krishna. Thank you.