Lord in heart and His Holy Name

"It is a common and practical experience that if we call out the name of some particular person in his or her presence, this person reacts and immediately a connection is being established bewteen us and this person. The same applies to the calling of Lord's Holy Names. The Lord is omnipresent and He is present in our heart as the Supersoul. So if want to connect with Him, we have to approach our own heart, the place where He is present, and then simply call out His Holy Name with sincerity and faith." - matus

Service and envy - two separate matters

Chaitanya Bhagavata, Adi-lila, Chapter 16, Verse 81 (words of Shrila Haridasa Thakura spoken to the Muslim king at the time of His arrest and accusation of abondoning the Islam religion):

ye ishvara, se punah sabara bhava laya
himsa karilei se tahana himsa haya

TRANSLATION

"The Supreme Lord accepts the devotion of everyone, but if anyone is envious of His children, then He retaliates."

COMMENTARY BY HIS DIVINE GRACE SHRILA BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASWATI THAKURA PRABHUPADA:

Lord Janardana, who is bhava-grahi, or appreciative of one’s sentiments, is served by everyone according to their respective moods. If a person rejects or envies the mood of another, then such feelings are actually targeted towards the Supreme Lord. Therefore a living entity should never envy other living entities. If one tries to uproot and convert the internal mood of another person into that of his own narrow-mindedness, then the result will be not only criticism of another’s religion but enviousness of the Supreme Lord, who is the goal of all religion. Service and envy directed to the Supreme Lord are two separate matters. If one misidentifies envy as service to the Supreme Lord, then he will be opposed to the service of the Supreme Lord and ultimately become envious of the devotees. When a living entity becomes devoid of loving service to the Lord, he becomes sometimes a sense enjoyer, sometimes a fruitive worker, sometimes an impersonalist, sometimes a hatha-yogi, and sometimes a raja-yogi. To engage such persons in the service of Lord Mukunda for their eternal benefit is not an act or form of envy. Rather, inducing such persons to engage in activities of sense gratification instead of the service of the Lord is to give indulgence to envious activities and therefore must be given up.

Another sort of tapasya

Post by Bhakta Matus:

Since longer time i am struggeling with getting up early in the morning. Although i am concious about its great benefit in regard to the spiritual as well as material aspects of life, since longer time of trying i was not able to apply it in my life. Some time ago i proposed to myself: "From tomorrow i am getting up at 4 o'clock!" i failed, became humble. After some time i again tried with little more respect: "From tomorrow i am getting up at 5 o'clock!" i failed, became more humble. Then after some time i again tried: "From tomorrow i am getting up at least at 6 o'clock!" i did not manage to do that even. i became desperate. i thought to myself: "Am i so much in ignorance, fallen and undetermined?" i pondered again and again: "The only tapasya (penance) i have to take on myself in this Age of Kali is to wake up early in the morning, before sunrise, and chant the Holy Name of the Lord. This relatively small thing i am not able to do, then how can i hope to achieve success in my sadhana (spiritual practice). For how long will i have to struggle to somehow accomplish my fixed rounds of the mantra meditation during the day and in consequence of that to struggle also with accomplishment of my regural material duties?" i was praying to the Lord: "Oh my Lord, please somehow give me the inteligence and strength to be able to do it." So, yesterday, just like a miracle, a very promising idea appeared in my mind: "What about trying to 'pull the rope on its other end'? What about a more comfortable tapasya, which could grant me success? Yes! From tomorrow i am going at 9 o'clock to bed!" Today is the second day, and i managed to rise up to chant a great part of my rounds before sunrise, thus passing peacefully and blissfully the rest of the day. i am thinking to myself, how foolish i was not able to realize this most important tactics in order to be successful. i am also aware, that it is neither easy. It is actually indeed a sort of tapasya. Due to generally a bad habit of the whole association (who is going to sleep everyday at 9 o'clock?), one is alone in this effort. Thus i am hoping and praying to the Lord and all the Vaishnavas, that They may bless this fallen soul with enough strength, enthusiasm and determination to stick to its proposal and thus become successful. Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

mentus

Prayer to the saintly devotee of the Lord

Oh Vaishnava Thakura, saintly devotee of the Lord

How wonderful and precious is every second of Your association.
The immense importance and value of associating with You cannot be captured in my tiny words.
Only by repeatedly getting in touch with You is it possible for me to keep up the necessary faith and enthusiasm for chanting the Holy Name of the Lord.
General association with devotees is very nice and helpful but even more than that is the precious and substantial association of advanced and pure devotees like Yourself.
Actually only to that type of association Lord's causeless mercy can be fully attributed and acts like an magnet, which attracts and drags the soul out of the boundless pool of material desires.

Oh Vaishnava Thakura, please never abandon this lost and confused soul, for except You there is no one this soul can take shelter of again and again.

mentus

Guidance

It is a practical experience, that in every field of life, if one wants to learn something one needs guidance and help of a more experienced and advanced person. If it weren't so, one wouldn't have opened so many schools, institutions and educational institutes, which offer one the possibility of accepting the role of a student and thus learning and making progress in a particular field of knowledge. But the learning process is found not only in an organized way as mentioned above, but it is a kind of spontaneous and natural exchange of 2 individuals, namely one in a role of teacher and another in the role of a student, which can be easily experienced on a day-to-day basis everywhere. Just remember for example Your father teaching You how to drive a bicycle or Your friend how to drive on skateboard. You weren't even concious about it, yet You naturally and with joy accepted a teacher, and happily listened his instructions, thinking them to be for Your own benefit.

Spiritual education isn't any exception in this regard. A living entity, after its long journey in this material world, suddenly feels the need of knowing the higher truths of one's own existence and the universal principle behind it. Understanding one's inability of knowing these things alone, he start looking for a suitable teacher. On his path, he finds different teachers, who gradually help and teach him according to his qualifications and specific desires of how to approach the Absolute Truth.

For one, who wants to know and near the Original Personal Aspect of the Absolute Truth, Lord Gauranga-Krishna, the same Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests in the body of a spiritual master, who is completely ready to guide the soul back to His Kingdom. The same Supreme Lord takes a form of different persons, in order to take charge of so many different aspirants, at so many different stages of their evolution and under so many different circumstences. But ultimately it is the Supreme Lord Himself, who is the actual and only quide. Therefore it is natural and absolutely not controversial if one feels inspiration and accepts guidance from more than one spiritual teacher, understanding it to be a wise, perfect and munificient arrangement of His beloved Lord. Nevertheless, out of them, one bears the authority of higher importance, in order to clarify and set the direction in case of apparent disagreements and controversies.

Suffering purifies

Sorry for not posting for such a long time.

After some time i got an inspiration again. I have just been to cinema after quite a long time and i saw a very authentic and inspirational movie. It was about a young man (23) who got cancer and who did a movie himself about his last time before he departed. He kept records about his feelings, realizations, hopes, fears, etc. It left quite deep impact on me and let me further realize the nature of this perishable material world and the value of every second in this precious human birth.

i would like to summarize some most important realizations which invoked this movie in me:

- Suffering purifies as it makes us forcibly detach from the misidentification with this material body. Becoming pure means, to gradually disidentify with material body and become concious about one's real and eternal constitutional position as the loving servant of the Lord.

- Our real friends are the Lord and His devotees, for they never cheat a living entity from the eternal prospect of returning home to the Kingdom of God, where there is no suffering. We can't expect real and substantial help from any of our so-called friends, who themselves haven't solved their own problems of suffering and death. So how can they actually help us and solve our problems?

- There is no suffering for one, who awakened to his lost relationship with the Lord. Unbounded and ever-increasing joy experienced through this ecstatic connection with the Lord can't but completely cover the suffering, experienced due to the misidentification and forgetfulness of the existence of the soul and its duty.

- Don't waste time! Any time you can get completely disabled and disencouraged. And it will come for sure sooner or later. The result of such a heavy test will depend solely on the strength You will derive out of Your experience and training You practiced throughout Your life. Don't expect miracles without a reason. As one saying goes: "God helps those, who help themselves."

- Conciousness takes higher position over this body. Your suffering depends on the state of Your consiousness. Train Your conciousness! Chant the Holy Names of the Lord as much as You can and as good as You can! Give Your best and then You will have a good and promising chance of meeting the upcoming suffering with smile at Your face and peace at Your heart.

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Always chant these most auspicious Holy Names of the Lord.