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Fearlessness in

Material Existence

Part -1


HERE ENDS YOUR

SpiritualQuest

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Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Mathajis,


Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev.


Last week HG Kalacakra prabhuji was in Abudhabi for 3 days and he made us remember our Guru Maharaj by quoting so many of Maharaj's realisations and transcendental nectar which made us strongly feel the presence of our dear Guru Maharaj. Prabhuji referred to a wonderful purport and verse regarding the qualification of a spiritual master and what is his position and how to behave with him. This is from Srimad Bhagavatam verse 4.29.51.


sa vai priyatamas caatmaa / yato na bhayam anv api
iti veda sa vai vidvaan / yo vidvaan sa gurur harih

"One who is engaged in devotional service has not the least fear in material existence. This is because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supersoul and friend of everyone. One who knows this secret is actually educated, and one thus educated can become the spiritual master of the world. One who is an actually bonafide spiritual master, representative of Krishna, is not different from Krishna."


The verse, translation and purport is wonderful to meditate. Our Gurudev is the embodiment of this verse. On studying this verse, I realised few things and I would make an humble effort to share the same with all of you. The translation has a few major points to meditate on.


1. One who is engaged in Devotional service has not the least fear of material existence.


Our Gurudev is always fearless. We have seen this both in his pastimes during his lifetime and as well as during his winding up pastime. Gurudev desired to satisfy Srila Prabhupada's desire of having an ISKCON Temple in Dwaraka. This has resulted in manifestation of Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarakadish temple in Dwaraka. There were actually death threats for Maharaj during the acquisition of land, construction and above all there was no Lakshmi to start with. But because of his unassailable faith in Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and his complete fearlessness of material existence the manifestation of Dwaraka temple was possible. How we could imagine 90 year old sannyasi without any source of income can construct a wonderful stone temple worth Rs.4 Crores? Our Gurudev always says that temples are built by bhakti and not by bricks. This is perfectly true in the case of the ISKCON Dwaraka temple.


At the end of his winding up pastime, he was jubilant and confident to tell boldly that he has purchased a ticket to Goloka and he is ready to go. Maharaj in all his lectures was famous for his statement that we should be ready to go - "muje jaanaa hai". He exhibited such an unshakeable fearlessness in material existence, especially leaving this material body which is so dear to us.


It is so true that we are yet to be engaged in devotional service because we are always fearful of material existence. We are always morose, worried and full of anxieties in the material existence. Where is the question of being engaged in devotional service? And we proclaim ourselves as devotees! We are far away from calling ourselves as devotees. This statement in translation - "One who is engaged in Devotional service has not the least fear of material existence" has decimated my egocentric brain to millions of pieces. How wonderfully Srila Prabhupada puts us to reality in our devotion? Who can make such statements? It is unfortunate that we don't take shelter of Srila Prabhupada's books and call ourselves as initiated devotees, brahminically initiated and so on. Our beloved Gurudev says that we should get initiated everyday by studying Srila Prabhupada's books.


2. This (The fearlessness) is because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supersoul and friend of everyone.


Our Gurudev has completely realised this statement in full, without an iota of doubt and so was fearless always. He treated every living entity as if his own by realizing the fact that Krishna is the Supersoul and residing in everyone's heart and is friend of everyone. Therefore he was completely fearless of material existence and was kind and loving to all living entities without any discrimination (dhira adhira jana priyau priya karau).


But for us to become fearless, the basic understanding is required that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He is the Supersoul residing in everyone's heart and is the friend of everyone. Theoretically we may accept this statement but practically we have neither realized nor accepted the Supreme authority of Lord Krishna. Trying to be engaged in devotional service and hearing for a long time, we may accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead to a little extent, but realizing that He resides as a Supersoul in everyone's heart and is friend of everyone is not so easy. This is one of the main reason for our difficulty in becoming fearless of material existence. This implies that we have to accept Krishna as the Supreme object of worship in all circumstances. (Not only in satsang and temples, but even when we are exposed to material whirlpools). This is the most difficult for us to imbibe. We should pray to Guru and Krishna to instill us this drop of mercy in this regard. On our own we don't have any capacity or qualification to develop to this level of transcendence to take shelter of Lord Krishna in all circumstances.


Krishna willing, we will see in the ensuing mail as to how to know this secret (that the Supreme Lord is the Supersoul and friend of everyone) and become educated, develop fearlessness in material existence, understanding the position of our spiritual master and how to behave with him.


Thank you very much.

Your humble servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,

Sajjanapriya Krishna Das,
Abudhabi.


Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.

 

 

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