Cell phone vs. Gita

CELL PHONE vs. GITA I wonder what would happen if we treated our Gita like we
treat our cellphone? What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day? What if we turned back to go
get it if we forgot it? What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it? What if we gave it to
Kids as gifts? What if we used it when we traveled? What if we used it in case
of emergency? This is something to make you go….hmm…where is my Gita? Oh,
and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don’t have to worry about our
Gita being disconnected because Krishna already paid the bill. Makes you stop
and think ‘where are my priorities? And no dropped calls! ((((KRSNA is COOL))))
by Sanjeev Jaiswal

The Believer

The true Believer is a Searcher

Helping a stranger

This evening on the way home from work, I was chanting Japa, (Hare Krishna!). I was nearly home when I noticed some flashing lights up ahead and as I got closer I realized something had very recently just happened and as I got closer I saw a body in the road. One man had ran over but looked like he had no idea what he should do so I quickly pulled over and ran to the man in the road. He had just been hit by a car and he was unconscious. I still had my bead bag wrapped around my hand. I checked his pulse while other people started running over and flipping him on his back and touching him, which they really shouldn’t have done, but I had no control over the situation. One woman declared she was a nurse and that he wasn’t breathing and started doing this and that to him as I sat there feeling his pulse, I knew that he was alive but this “nurse” thought for sure he wasn’t. An ambulence happened to be driving by with their sirens on to another accident when they came across everyone in the road trying to help a stranger. I could smell alcohol on the victim’s breath. Why on earth he had been running accross that section of the street I am really not sure. He was my age, late 20’s I think. Anyhow, some people came out and asked if this man had just been hit and they were his friends. It was a little strange if you ask me as they didn’t seem overly concerned. I got the gut feeling that they may have all been intoxicated. I looked down at my bead bag and just chanted for a moment until the ambulence attendees decided they would stay for this accident and got out to start helping the young man. The people that had hit them were two Mexicans and they sat in their car the entire time. They never got out. Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe they were scared because they weren’t legal or their car wasn’t completely legal but I thought it really odd that someone would just sit in their car and not try to offer any help. I think that the boy/man will live. Maybe this experience will help him gain some insight into the meaning and purpose of life. I thought that once about my brother too. He was in an awful car accident and he really shouldn’t be alive but somehow he managed to get by with barely any injuries. He felt really blessed for a very very short period of time, but quickly Maya erased the reality check that had been so preciously offered to him.

On a totally more positive note, Dena gave me a awesome CD with tons of kirtans on MP3! I listened to some at work today and she really picked a great mix of things. Thank you Dena!!

4th of July weekend with Srila Prabhupada

fireworks

I had a very ignorant and most stupid Wednesday July 2nd which seemed to hover over me for the rest of this holiday weekend. I do not wish to speak of my actions on Wednesday, only to try and promise again to myself that I will discontinue this horrible behavior that seems to wash over me uncontrollably.

The thing about Forgiveness is that you have to actually stop doing the very things that you need forgiveness from before you can even begin to think about recovering and eventually by Krsna’s grace maybe even forgiving yourself.

Thursday, July 3rd was must unproductive and uneventful. The entire day was a waste, trying to recover from Wednesday night. I didn’t go to work.

Friday, July 4th was the holiday. I had wanted to spend time with the devotees, some of which were having a get together barbeque with kirtan but I felt too guilty, self loathing, and too foggy from my actions and behavior still from Wednesday. My mother called and invited herself and he friend over (2nd time so far this summer) to light off fireworks together. Previously in the week, I had phoned my Aunty Louis and invited her over to watch the works. She is now living in deceased Grandma Brown’s home alone. She has spent the passed I can’t remember 4th of July’s with GB and I felt horrible thinking of her all by herself just after GB’s passing. So this is how the evening matured, with Lois, my mother, Louise, and Jared all on their way to gather at our residence.

Everyone showed up. Mom and Louise both with some form of alcohol. Louise, whom is deathly obese with her cigarettes. And then Dan, my partner whom is always here with alcohol and cigarettes. The very things that are killing my spirit and soul I just can’t seem to get away from. All the intoxication, all the ignorance, and I still fall into the trap myself so what a hypocrite am I?

Everyone had a good time. The kids, Jada and Jared screamed running around like mad children, the adults smiling and talking. All in all it was okay. Nothing spiritual though, which is the type of association I am really craving.

I was sad that Grandma Brown is gone and can no longer enjoy another day here, but I know that this is only a material place and that everything in the material universe has a beginning and an end. In the material world, there is no permanency. Everything you can think of such as life in the form of humans, animals, insects, plants… or even thoughts, relationships, businesses, places, any thing you can think of eventually no matter what has a beginning and an end. The only thing that is eternal here is spirit soul, and this we all have but we don’t understand the whole big picture as a universal society on earth. We don’t understand spiritual life vs.. material life. Some people understand this, but they are the lucky few. We need to serve Krsna and even this we cannot understand. This is why we must serve a spiritual teacher so that we can be taught through our own perseverance and strength and through guru’s will and mercy to have a little piece of Krsna’s spiritual knowledge.

Me, I am still much too ignorant and filthy muck is covering my soul to ever even sit before a spiritual teacher. I pray to the His Lotus Feet that I can someday chant away the filth from my heart and soul and be able to approach a bonafide spiritual master that can help save me from this ocean of ignorance.

The whole weekend was not a complete wash though. I have been reading through Srila Prabhupada’s Lilamrta and I can honestly say that this book is saving my life and giving me so much inspiration to continue forward and not give up on things. I cannot put this book down and have spent days reading doing very little else besides some sleeping and eating and chanting. Here, Srila Prabhpada came to the West, to America and so patiently saved these western kids from wandering around lost on LSD and other hard drugs. He couldn’t save them all of course but he truely and genuinly cared for and loved the ones that tried their hardest to become good devotees and just try in all honesty to love Krsna on the path of bhakti yoga. This book is an amazing account of how one man, single handedly brought Krishna Consciousness to the west. It is purely amazing and almost inhuman how one little old man could produce so much in such a short time. I find myself, laughing and crying through the story. Srila Prabhpada was so simple and humble. I find myself crying when the devotees have to see him off to leave for his preaching duties because they feel such seperation from him. Please read this book if you are at all interested in Krishna Consciousness. Another thing that struck me as very important for myself was that Srila Prabhupada started these young western kids off very slow into KC. He didn’t expect them right off the bat to know and do everything. It took time and training and Srila Prabhupada was so smart about how much he could expect them to take in – only so much at a time and at what times it was appropriate to add in more.

Srila Prabhupada

I wish that I had been alive to meet Srila Prahbupada in person but I am so lucky to be alive in an age where I can easily access his teachings through his books. We are all so lucky and we should use every moment possible to try and be good devotees and give up this material position we are in. It is a very dificult situation for us to be in, but to Srila Prabhupada it was very simple. Simply chant Hare Krishna and purify the heart, that is the best thing to do in this age of quarel, kali yuga. Other things may/will come, but most importantly just chant. This will slowly purify the heart and other things will come. No need to rush, just chant, that is the first step.

I look around sometimes and think that chanting japa is the last thing some people are willing to do these days. It takes time and we become so distracted with the very things we need to be striving to stay away from, maya. I know that when I first started re attending temple, I went straight into trying to offer service to people, which is great, but we need to chant! It is not difficult. I think that perhaps we should put more emphasis on this aspect of our culture because until reading this book, I hadn’t been able to understand it’s importance in the same way that Srila Prabhpada could describe it.

Alas one more great event of the weekend. The Sunday progam at the temple which I will attend shortly this evening.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!!!! I am but a lowly, rotten wishing to be servant of the devotees of Srila Prabhupada. Please accept my humble obeisances.

Hare Krishna

Forgiveness

Forgiveness Mandala

Monday through Friday on the way to work I drive by a Seventh Day Adventist Church that has the best phrases on their reader board.

Last months:

Forgiveness is giving up the idea of having a better past.

16 Rounds

Chant the Holy Name!

Today will be my first day having ever chanted 16 rounds of japa. I want to make a commitment to Lord Sri Krishna that I will chant 16 rounds of japa per day, and with his love and strength, I will keep this vow and not break it.

All glories to the devotees whom inspire me so much, probably without even knowing it, to take on with enthusiasm this vow. I look up to the members of our society and I am so thankful to be in their shelter.

I don’t know why exactly that taking on this vow is all of a sudden important to me, but I know through Srila Prabhupada’s teachings that it is definitely good for my soul and will help to purify me. I think that this change of events in my life has something to do with my Grandmothers leaving her body and some lessons I have been learning from it. I’m still trying to process the loss. I find solace in my chanting japa.

Next on my list is to exclude entirely the use of onion, garlic, and egg products from my diet. I go back and forth with this one. I find it easy to replace hing for garlic and onion when cooking foodstuffs from home. This is easy. It’s the pre processed store bought items and going out to eat for lunch and some dinners that is the real culprit. These activities need to stop. I just am not organized enough at the moment to make a full commitment to stopping these activities. I work full time, go to school part time, am practically a single mother to my 10 year old daughter and keeping all of these things together sometime isn’t always very easy for me. Sometimes I feel that everything my life will bust at the seams because it’s all so difficult and complicated. This fast paced life of business, eating, sleeping, etc has got my mind in a fuzzy blur and things go by so quickly that it actually scares me sometimes. I am afraid I will be 70 years old and still in the same position, having never taken action on the goals and dreams of my life.

I really did do things so backwards and really wrong in this life so far, and sometimes I go into a daze, thinking in my mind, speculating about my past and in utter disbelieve on the things I have done and the roads I have taken. I honestly don’t feel fit to be a devotee or person that God could love sometimes. Other times I am off on an adventure trying to forget the past, but it never really goes away. I wonder if God can forgive me? I’m not sure I can forgive myself. If I can’t forgive myself, then how will God?

I hope that by keeping this vow of chanting 16 rounds per day that my soul can become a little purified and that I can find some peace and forgiveness in Krsna’s name. I understand that only by his mercy can this really happen and I am hoping against hope that he will accept my chanting His name’s. I give everything up to Krsna. My life is guided by Him. I am at His mercy, in His love. I want back my relationship with Him that was lost unknown times and ages ago. Please accept me Krsna and my vow of chanting your name. PLEASE, I beg of you. Let me serve you through the chanting of your name. Please lovingly guide me and show me the right path.

I am your must lowest servant.