Author: Purushottam Nitai Das

Surrendering to 11 Mortals

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

• Lord Krishna has a transcendental form.
• When he descends in this material world he does not accept a material body.
• Krishna’s mind, body & soul are one and the same.
• In Sri Isopanisad Krishna is described by the word akayam meaning unembodied i.e. Krishna does not have to accept a material body as a living entity.
• A living entity has to accept a material body in this material world.
• A living entity has to accept a body as per the laws of nature.
• In Brahma – samhita Lord is described as sac-cid-ananda – vigraha i.e. he is eternal, blissful & full of knowledge.
• Krishna is not bound by the laws of the material world because he is the architect of these laws.
• Srila Prabhupada in his commentary explains that Krishna is also described as formless.
• Srila Prabhupada further explains that this does not mean that he does not have a form but it implies that he has a form which we cannot conceive with our material senses.
• Lord Krishna can perform any activity with any parts of his body i.e. he can eat with his eyes, see with his hands etc. 

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

•  Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is situated in his internal potency which is called as svarupa – sakti or atma – sakti.
• Lord Krishna expands himself in multiple forms. His expansions are of 2 types: Personal expansion & separated expansion.
• Through these expansions he dwells simultaneously in the entire spiritual world & the entire material world.
• The living entities (human beings, animals, plants, trees etc.) are his separated expansions.
• These living entities are of 2 types: eternally liberated & eternally conditioned.
• Those who are eternally liberated are the personal associates of the Lord & they are always Krishna Conscious.
• These eternally liberated souls assist the Lord in his pastimes which take place in different universes.
• Eternally conditioned living entities have a desire to enjoy separately from the Lord.
• Thus these conditioned living entities are provided gross & subtle bodies & they fall down to the material world.
• These conditioned souls or living entities thus transmigrates though the cycle of repeated birth & death in different species in different universes.
• These conditioned souls continuously suffer in the material world. However the moment the conditioned souls realizes the fallacy of the material world & takes up to Krishna Consciousness he becomes eligible to go back home, Back to Godhead.

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

• Mind is like a reservoir where all the ideas for sense gratification are stored.
• Polluted mind adversely influences the intelligence & thus intelligence fails to distinguish between righteous & non – righteous activities.
• Such polluted intelligence negatively influences the spirit soul.
• Under the influence of polluted mind & intelligence the soul starts identifying himself with the matter.
• Thus the soul starts enjoying the material senses & mistakes it for true happiness.
• As the soul starts considering the temporary gross material body as permanent so he starts focusing on satisfying the bodily needs.
• Since, the soul starts identifying himself with the matter, so he starts considering the material body, the by products of the material body (i.e. his children, his family members) & this material world to be permanent.
• Soul completely forgets his real identity that he is the part & parcel of the Lord.
• Thus the soul never sincerely endeavors for self realization.
• So, Lord Krishna advises in Bhagavad – Gita to regulate the senses from very beginning.
• Senses should be controlled as per Vedic injunctions, this will ensure one understands the real purpose of life and endeavors for self realization.

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

 

• The nature of the soul is that it is always active.
•  The body is like a vehicle without a driver. As a driver is required to move the vehicle, similarly it is the soul which provides life to the dead body.
• The soul gets a human body, an animal body or a plant body based on his previous karma (past deeds).
• The moment the soul leaves the body the body becomes inactive & useless.
• Since the soul is always active, so every living entities be it human beings or animals are forced to act helplessly according to their modes of nature.
• When a soul gets a human body then there is a chance to realize the real purpose of the life.
• The human body provides rarest of the rare opportunity to purify one’s existence.
• In order to be purified it is important that the soul takes up to Krishna Consciousness.
• This will provide an opportunity to go back home, Back to Godhead.
• If one misses this golden opportunity then one again gets entangled in the never ending cycle of birth & death.
• Once the soul reaches the eternal abode i.e. the spiritual world he never comes back to this material world.

 

 

 

 

 

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

• Lord Krishna showed his universal form to his dear devotee friend Arjuna.
• No one before Arjuna had ever seen this universal form.
• It was because of Arjuna that other devotes of the Lord in the disciple succession were fortunate to see the Lord’s universal form.
• Lord Krishna manifested his universal form by his internal potency.
• Lord’s internal potency is inconceivable by human brain.
• Lord Krishna says to Arjuna that his universal form cannot be seen simply by studying Vedas or by performing pious activities or by sacrifices or by performing penances.
• To see the Lord’s universal form one has to be a pure & unalloyed devotee of the Lord.
• The supreme Personality of the Lord showed his universal form to Arjuna to clear his doubt.
• At the battlefield of Kurushetra Arjuna did not want to fight because the Kauravas were his relatives.
• But Lord showed to Arjuna that those people with whom he is going to fight are already killed because of their impious acts.  Arjuna was just a doer.
• Lord Krishna removed his dear devotee Arjuna’s fear & following the instruction of the Lord Arjuna engaged himself in the warfare.

72 Pieces of Love

I will die for you, will you die for me? I can do anything for your pleasure. I can even pluck the stars for your pleasure. These are some of the well known slogans often reiterated by people who claim to be in love with each other. To be with his or her beloved these love birds are ready to risk their career , their lives and are even ready to abandon their home, their parents, relatives, friends….

They have an imagination that once they are united with their beloved, their lives will change forever. They will experience the same joy & happiness which a residence of Vaikuntha loka experiences. So they finally get married. However within a short span of time they find that their world of fantasy remains a distant dream. The amount of so called love they had for their beloved starts showing downward trend.

Even the statics shows that most of the time the culmination of the love marriage is divorce. The same 2 people who were desperate to live together become desperate to get separated. The recent incident when a man chopped his wife’s body into 72 pieces is a telling example as how sour the modern day love turns into.

Today’s love is not actually love but it is lust or physical attraction. Once the physical demand is satisfied the utility factor of the individual decreases and the person starts searching for some more better means which will satisfy their physical needs.

Modern society has made the word ‘love’ very vague. True love means sacrifice. True love means giving everything without expecting anything. A mother’s love for her child and a soldier’s love for his motherland are examples of selfless love. A mother dedicates her life for her beloved children and a soldier gives his life for his beloved motherland.

The selfless & true love exhibited by the gopis of Vraja for their beloved Lord Krishna is unparalleled.

To glorify the love which the Gopis had for Lord Krishna, Krishna enacted a pastime. He asked Narada Muni to go to different places, and tell people that I am having headache & my headache will subside only if someone gives the dust of their feet which in turn I will apply on my head. As per the instruction Narada Muni went to different places, met different people including great sages, learned scholars, philosophers, temple priests and requested them for the dust of their feet which Lord will apply on his head which in turn will cure his headache. Everyone refused; they argued if Lord smears his head with the dust of our feet then we will go to hell. They said to Narada Muni, Don’t think that we are fools, please forgive us, we don’t want to go to hell and suffer.

Narada Muni got disheartened, finally he went to Vraja, there he met the gopis and told them about Krishna’s headache and its cure. The moment the gopis heard about this they immediately started collecting dust of their feet. They even soaked their feet in the water so that their feet can gather more dust. Seeing this Narada Muni asked the gopis, “Don’t you know that if Krishna applies the dust of your feet on his head then you all will go to hell?” Hearing this the gopis replied, “If we are able to provide even a moment of pleasure to our beloved Krishna then we will consider our lives to be worthy and for this if we have to suffer in hell for eternity then we are ready for it. For us Krishna’s happiness is the most important thing.”

Narada Muni understood that the gopis selfless love for the Lord is supreme.

11 Krishna Conscious Capsules

As per the Vedic literature the duration of this material universe is limited. The creation of the material universe and its annihilation occurs in cycles of Kalpas.

The details are provided below: 

•  What is a kalpa :- One day of Brahma is called a Kalpa.
•  Duration of Satya-yuga :- 1,728,000 years. 
• Satya – yuga is characterized by virtue, wisdom & religion
• Duration of Treta – yuga :- 1,296,000 years
• In Treta-yuga the characteristics of Satya -Yuga starts declining.
• Duration of Dvapara – yuga:- 864,000 years.
• In Dvapara-yuga there is further decline in virtue, religion & wisdom
• Duration of Kali – yuga:- 432,000 years.
• In Kali- yuga decline in the religious principles reaches its pinnacle.
• These 4 yugas rotating a thousand times makes 1 day of Brahma. Similarly these 4 yugas rotating a thousand times makes 1 night of Brahma.
• Brahma lives for 100 years. So, by our calculation Brahma’s total life is 311 trillion and 40 billion earth years.

At the end of Brahma’s life annihilation takes place.

Education – of No Use

Exasperated with the quantity & quantum of scams today people are desperate to find a solution which will put an end to it. Government changes, politicians’ changes, political parties’ agenda changes but still the end result is the same.

It is said that knowledge has the power to bring revolution, it can usher us in an era of peace, prosperity and happiness. Education changes a person’s life forever. It is said that knowledge is power and with this power one can conquer the entire world.

If education is considered to be the only instrument which dispels darkness, brings meaning to a person’s life, makes him a responsible citizen, makes him understand what is right & what is wrong, teaches him his duty towards the nation, towards the society and towards his fellow beings then why is that almost all (no exceptions) who had been & have been caught in the scams are highly educated people.

All those who are implicated are well known industrialist, media tycoons, high profile government officials and off course our very dear lovable politicians.

Education provides enlightenment. If it is so then why everyone caught in the scams are only highly educated people? I did not find even a single person who is neck deep in corruption as someone who was illiterate & had not had any basic education. If education is considered to bring enlightenment then why do these scamsters are still not enlightened? If education is considered to make them more civic and more responsible then why did it not happen? If education is considered to make people responsible then why did it not happen?

Our current education system is lacking something.

Today corruption is deep rooted in our society. Be it a traffic havaldar, a peon, a clerk, a teacher, a government official, a lawyer, a businessman, a journalist, politician, judges , men or women in fact almost everyone is involved in it. In nutshell whoever gets an opportunity they encash it.

If education has not been successful in bringing the desired result then is it not the time for us to introspect & find the root cause for its failure?

The present education system is just loading the students with plethora of information. It is not emphasizing in uplifting the conscience of the people, the hearts and the minds of the beings are not being transformed in schools and colleges. Instead they are thought that material possession is the most important thing for a person.

In pursuit of modernity we are shunning spirituality. We are spiritual beings not a bag of chemicals. Real education is that which nourishes the soul, which cleanses our conscience so that we can understand the real and the absolute truth. Once our conscience is purified we would understand the world in its true color, we would realize the meaning of real happiness, we would understand the real purpose of a human life, we would understand that all living beings are our own brothers and sisters, we would understand that real happiness is in selfless love, is in giving not in taking.

Bhagavad – gita clearly states that those in the modes of ignorance are bound to act in such a way which is harmful for the society. It says that a person should endeavour to come to the mode of goodness, once situated in the mode of goodness a person will work for the betterment of the society.

Krishna clearly articulates that person in the mode of ignorance will commit such heinous crimes. Unless there is transformation from the modes of ignorance to modes of goodness there is no chance that the person will do any good to the society.

So, if we are really serious about transforming the society then at first we need to transform the education system. Our education system should not shun spirituality but should embrace it. The purpose of education system should not be to just provide information but it should also transform pupils’ heart & cleanse their conscience. Schools & colleges should not be just a temple of education for namesake but in true sense it should bring a person closer to Lord which will ensure that the person is situated in the mode of goodness.

It can only be possible if we take the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Krishna & chant the mantra:

If it happens then we will have peace, prosperity and happiness everywhere.