Bhagavad Gita As It Is:It Has All the Answers About God

I had to go to walmart today to pick  up my new glasses. And on the way back while waiting for the bus a lady handed me a paper that is about God when I got back I gave it to my guru Maharaj for him to read and see what he says about it. And I read the back of that paper and it said Jehovah Witness on it. And it had five different questions on it and one was "Do you want to know the Truth?" And it's funny I was shaking my head as I already knew the answer to that question. The Truth is Krishna because He is the Absolute Supreme Truth, the Supreme Lord. And there was another question in the paper about what happens to you when you die. Simple the soul is eternal and there for it accepts another body until it becomes purified enough to return back to God(Krishna) What's sad is that I have read that reincarnation was taken out of the bible and most people now a days do not believe in reincarnation. I do however. Because since reading the Bhagavad Gita most of my questions have been answered why I my life was not a happy one when I was a child. It was due to my past life and as a result I must have had some really bad karma. We cannot remember what our past life was because Srila Prabhupada says that when we accept a new body we forget our past life. Krishna however remembers all of His pastlives because His body does not change even when He appears on this earth.
There were some other quotes in the paper too that I can't remember but I automatically thought of the Bhagavad Gita. 

People wonder why bad things happen to good people, what happens to us when we die, who is God, what does God look like, what does God want from us, and how can we approach Him?Well just read the Bhagavad Gita. It's all there. It teaches one to be more humble and not want material things. The Bhagavad Gita is more than 5,000 years old. Krishna says he spoke the Bhagavad Gita first to the sun god Vivesan who is a demigod an eternal servitor of Krishna.

In the Bhagavad Gita Ch. 2 explains about our soul what it is, who we are, and where it goes after death. Ch. 8 explains how you can return to God, Ch. 12 explains how  you can serve God with love and devotion without expecting anything in return from Him. Ch. 11 explains what God really looks like. His form is unlimited and universal. Ch. 9 pretty much explains what God wants from us and how we can come to Him.

The Srimad Bhagavatam is also another good source about God as well and answers all those questions. One has to have faith like in any religion. I have no fear in being in the Krishna Conciousness movement. Even if someone comes up to me and condemns me for being Krishna Concious I would not be fearful of them or let them try to convert me, as I know Krishna would protect me from people like that. Krishna gives protection to His devotees and His devotee never vanquishes even during hard times in their life. Srila Prabhupada said that whatever one does in this life for Krishna, he is not the loser but the gainer, he can continue on in the next life to serve Krishna with more love.

I have felt myself spiritually advance more and come to learn to love God more through Krishna Conciousness. I will be talking with my guru Maharaj before he leaves about what he wants me to do when I go to LA and how I can serve Krishna better with more love and devotion.  :)

Busy Last Few Days

I had been pretty busy these last few days with cleaning, helping in the kitchen and now Im back to caring for Tulasi full time again. I had to train Rashmin to get used to Tulasi for two weeks. So now I want to relish in serving Tulasi during the last days of my stay here in Toronto. I had one of my young Tulasis on the altar today. I will put another one of them on there tomorrow. I have three big young Tulasis that are perfect to go on the altar. She's so big now. Big, bright and so green. She's so pretty. I wish I could take her with me to LA but the border I know will not allow me to take her.

Anyways this weekend we have three big events going on. We have a Food Fair going on, a wedding, and the Sunday Feast with Prabhupada Marathon. it's going to be super busy. I hope and pray to Krishna that I will be able to handle it smoothly without being put into anxiety.

I've also been trying to keep up with my reading and do a few extra rounds too. I still have difficulty in trying to understand what Prabhupada is saying in his lectures that I listen to. Today we listened to him. He went over the Srimade Bhagavatam Canto 7 Ch 9 Text 8. I think the radio was up too loud and made it echoey in the temple room so I had difficulty in understanding Prabhupada. I can understand him a bit better when I have my headphones on, especially if he is talking slow. Other lectures sometimes Prabhupada explain things a bit too fast and then I have to go back to try and catch what he said.

Also a part of me wants to try book distribution but the other half of me doesn't. My false ego keeps getting in the way all the time. It's just annoying. I should ask Maharaj how I can get rid of my false ego. :( Im just too shy to really do anything. Devotees have told me that being shy is a good quality to have but in my case Im just too shy for my own good. So this is another thing I have to work on is getting rid of my shyness too because it is a part of my false ego. Let's see what Maharaj has to say about it. I have to talk to him anyway before I leave here December 10th. I've got a thousand questions running through my head to ask him. I want to have loads of instructions from him for when I stay in LA so that Im kept busy enough.

What is this world coming to?

I had to go to the Dollar store to pick up a few items. And as I was walking along Yonge Street, I noticed one sign that said "Your pleasure is our desire." So Im over here shaking my head. What is this world coming to? I thought. So I dovetailed that sign in my head thinking "Krishna's pleasure is our desire." We have to keep Krishna pleased right? We do service just for His pleasure and that is our desire to please Him. So that is why I totally dovetailed it into Krishna Conciousness. Sometimes I wish that people out there would be creative but I guess I just have to do that in my own mind when thinking of Krishna. I had the 24 hour kirtan playing on my ipod while walking so it was very easy to simply think of Krishna.

Then when I was in the Dollar store I saw yet another sign that had me bewildered. Now don't get me wrong I love cats but this sign went a little bit too far. The sign read "Happiness is being owned by a cat." Im like whaaaat????? Why would someone be happy being owned by a cat?????? Come on now that's a bit ridiculous if you ask me! As i've said i love cats but I wouldn't go that far with it. So I dovetailed this sign by thinking in my head "Happiness is being owned by KRISHNA!" Krishna is the all attractive and He owns us and only He can fullfill our desires completely so that is why I dovetailed it to "Happiness is Being owned by Krishna."

So now whenever I go out somewhere and see these stupid advertisements or signs I want to dovetail them just for the fun of it. I can probably come up with something Krishna Cocious no matter what sign I may see out there. Maybe I can find some even on the internet dovetail those and maybe i can show the list to Maharaj. He may even be amused by it. :D I'd love to hear what he'd say about me doign that dovetailing stupid advertisements into Krishna Conciousness instead. :)

Today's Bhagavad Gita Verse 4.11 by Srila Prabhupada Lecture

Today around 5pm since I didn't have much to do, I took time out to listen to Prabhupada again. Im getting used to hearing him and this particular verse he went over I was able to understand him clearly. Some lectures are a bit harder. I try to catch the slokas that he's saying sometimes, but it's hard for me to make out what sloka he is going over. i should try to find those slokas in my sloka book by Srila Prabhupada that I got a little while ago.

But anyways todays verse was this that I chose to listen to:

BG Ch. 4 Text 11

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante

tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

mama vartmānuvartante

manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ

All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā.

I took a full page worth of notes since he was easy to understand.

What I learned or already know is that Srila Prabhupada said that everyone is looking for Krishna without even knowing it. He says that Krishna means "the all attractive one" and that Bhagavan means "the all attractive supreme lord."

He also said why should we care for this body? Prabhupada explains that we are parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord and that this body does not belong to us.It is our soul that is inside the body that belongs to Krishna so we must take good care of it to return to Krishna. The dead material body he says has no real value but the soul does since it is eternal. Our love should go to Krishna since He is our real creator.

Prabhupada also said that the Absolute Truth or God is explained in different ways, but the object is the same. The object is Krishna.  He said that Bramha is the impersonal realization.

Many years ago Prabhupada said that Krishna first spoke the Bhagavad Gita to the Sun God Vivesan. The sun planet is a real place but we have no power to go there.

Goloka Vrndavan and Krsnaloka are also real planets but we cannot see them with our eyes because they are in the spiritual world and Krsna Himself lives there those planets are also Krsna Himself since He is in everything. These planets Krsnaloka and Goloka Vrndavan are His personal abode. Everything belongs to Krishna. We own nothing. We are all sons of Krishna Prabhupada says.  If you know what is Krishna then you know Brahma's effulgence and that effulgence is coming from Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada goes on to say that Krishna is open to everyone who wishes to come to Him.  Krishna will accept you in any way. You can approach Him in almost any way. If you are not attached to the material nature  then you become eligible to enter into the spiritual world.

Prabhupada then says if you do not surrender unto the Lotus Feet of Krishna, then again you must come back to this material world and remain attached to material desires.

Srila Prabhupada says that the ultimate goal is Krishna.

These are the notes I took from this lecture and they are words that Prabhupada has said what I wrote down for my notes. I find it helpful and then I can refer back to it. I think I will show Maharaj my notes to him tomorrow when he's got time. I want to tell him that I've been trying to listen to Prabhupada's lectures at least once a day and take notes from them. He may have me continue doing that. If this pleases my guru Maharaj I will definately continue listening to Prabhupada's lectures once a day or if I have time a few more. 

So what I will do also what ever lecture I chose to listen to and after I take notes from it I will post it here for you all to read maybe you can learn something from it.It is the only way I can actually do a little preaching here and there.

Better Late Than Never

I have been reading about Srila Prabhupada. He had been Krishna Concious all his life. I wish I could have been Krishna Concious all my life then maybe I wouldn't have so much anxiety or fears. But I guess it's better late than never to have found Krishna in this life. Some people may never even surrender to Him or understand Him to be God. I wasn't fortunate enough to be Krishna Concious all my life due to past live activities. I have no clue what I have done in my past life and Im afraid to know it. Im actually glad Krishna does not let us remember what we were in our past life because i'd be totally embarrassed and feel guilty about it.

I had also been trying to listen to Prabhupada's lectures trying to get used to his voice. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding him but I listened to one of his lectures yesterday and was able to take notes from it. He was speaking about Bhagavan. Bhagavan is the Supreme Lord and He has the six opulences namely wealth fame, beauty etc. So I understood what he was talking about in the lecture. He also said that we cannot understand Bhagavan without having Bhagavan's mercy. So this is another reason why I am posting this. I am very grateful that Bhagavan had let me come to at least try to understand Him in some way. I still do not fully understand Him and probably never will but better late than never to try to understand Him with love and devotion at least.

Im still worried about my spiritual advancement. I still run into issues with happiness and distress. This is where tolerance comes in. Will I ever learn it? It'll probably take me a life time to learn it. I may have to talk to Maharaj about it before I leave here. My emotions get the better of me a lot of the time too which annoys me and I'm not that well shall we say ecstatic like others are. I should try to be but however it's hard for me to open up. I just hope I can get a little more ecstatic soon I'd rather be late with that than never in this life. It'll just have to be a slow process for me. I was always slow with learning which was why I got held back a year in school, not because of bad grades but because I could not keep up with others.

I feel that I have so much service to be done that I don't have much time for extra chanting or reading but for the past two days I've been trying to fit it in. Yesterday I managed to chant 19 rounds and read a couple chapters from the Krishna Book and a few verses from the Bhagavad Gita in Ch. 2. Im trying to find some comfort in it especially listening to Prabhupada also helps. I think that's one of my problems. I need to chant more, and read more. I just hope when i get to the LA temple I will have time for that. I will have to talk to who is ever in charge with the services there about that. I want time for reading and chanting in between and also to take at least an hour rest in the afternoon so as not to feel to exhausted like I've been feeling lately.

A Special Birthday This Year

My birthday was on a Wednesday November 9th and I turned 28. This year was a very special birthday.Why you may ask? Because my guru Maharaj was here on my birthday and I felt that i got some purification out of it not that I really deserved it but it was also Krishna's arrangement this time that I could be here in Toronto and with my guru Maharaj on my birthday. He was the first one to say happy birthday to me this year.
The  temple was short on help with cooking and Maharaj had volunteered to cook the breakfast and this was on the morning of my birthday. His cooking was great. I had two servings of what he made. He had made kitri and oatmeal and he had cut up some fruits and he made the best chapatis! They were tomato chapatis.

Then Maharaj had given class. He had given me his flower garland because he knew it was my birthday. Talk about mercy! And not only that later in the day at lunch I was sitting with Maharaj and a couple guests who he said are George Harrison fans. I was telling Maharaj that I felt I was in the wrong decade and the one guest said I probably was there in the past in my past life. Then Maharaj said to me that I will probably be finishing up in this life and go home back to Godhead back to Krishna and not have to come back here to this Earth. I was left stunned when he told me that. Back in Janurary Maharaj had said that if I keep doing what I am doing with my seva and sadhana that I'd go back home back to Krishna as well. So this was twice he has said this to me.I don't deserve to have this kind of mercy from him or blessings. I still have ego and tolerance issues to work on but Maharaj believes that that will get worked out in due course of time.

Over all it was a very quiet birthday. I did not have a party or anything which is fine because I really don't like being the center of attention and I don't want to be glorified for anything. I just don't want to get puffed up by that. My mom had sent me a birthday package that she likes to do every year for me My dad's side of the family got me a plane ticket to California so that was my birthday present from them.

I hope maybe I can be here again for my birthday but that is up to Krishna.

This Morning's Class

This morning's class was supposed to be given by Rupa Nuga prabhu but he had asked Maharaj to give the class.Lately they have been choosing different topics to talk about and this particular topic we talked about was balance in spiritual life.

Maharaj says we should be steady and stay in the middle when it comes to spiritual life not going this way or that way as we may become confused or lost and cannot regain our balance spiritually. It's like riding a bike. A child is on training wheels so that he or she will not fall off the bike.As they get older they can learn to ride the bike straight and not wobble it and lose balance that would make them fall off.So Spirutal life is like that in Krishna Conciousness. I've had this happen to me off and on but I still pull through and stay Krishna Concious. In this age of Kali it's not easy to stay balanced as we are always in maya(illusion). Im still on "training wheels" in Krishna Conciousness. Im not that advanced and im not a first class devotee as I still have much to learn yet.

So at the end of class today. Maharaj asked some of us if we could look up Bhagavad Gita verses that relate to "balance." I found about four of them so far. Still have to check the rest of the Bhagavad Gita for the verses.I hope I found the right ones. I'll find out when I show him the verses.I like it when Maharaj gives us these little assignments. I actually want him to give me more assignments like this to read from the Gita. I like to look up certain verses in it. I find that alot of the answers to my problems are all in the Bhagavad Gita As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivendenta Swami Prabhupada.Again I grately thank Srila Prabhupada for giving us this wonderful book that Krishna Himself spoke from. A lot of my problems were cured from this book alone. I still have to work on some of my problems but other than that I've been so much better than I used to be before I became Krishna Concious and my life is more balanced and less stressed. Krishna Conciousness can make your life more purified if you just try it and give it a chance instead of judging it in your own words. You have to know what it REALLY teaches before you judge it as something mundane or fake.It's not fake. It's very real and it has REAL knowledge about the aim of life.  Being in Krishna Conciousness is awesome I think. They make it more fun and interesting to learn about God. And like the topic was about...it helps to keep your life in balance.:)

Thank you Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you!

A bit of instruction from Guru

Well today Maharaj gave me a little instruction.

I told him that it bothered me seeing him mopping the floors by himself. I cannot mop floors due to a bad back but I helped Maharaj do other things and stayed near by him so that he's not doing all this cleaning himself.

Maharaj told me today that I should read Chaitanya Caritamrta about when Lord Chaitanya Himself cleaned the Gundica Temple. Unfortunately I do not have these volumes to read but thankfully it is on the internet so I started to read it. I hope the botique gift shop has this particular volume with this chapter in it because I won't always have the internet to read it from.

As I was reading this chapter in Madhya Lila volume about Lord Chaitanya i discovered that that day when I was helping Maharaj, it was just like the past time of Lord Chaitanya and His devotees working together to clean Krishna's Temple. Of course we cannot imitate pure devotees like that in this age of Kali but we can follow in their footsteps Srila Prabhupada has said. There were other devotees around though when I was helping Maharaj but I was the only one helping him.I was a bit upset about that.  I did not want Maharaj to be doing all that by himself.  I stayed to help him until he was done cleaning. I refused to leave him do all that himself.  I wish some of the other men would have helped but there was no one and Krishna was kind enough to have had sent me to help Maharaj. My Guru Maharaj is so humble though. He told me he had enjoyed cleaning the floor but I still felt uncomfortable and upset about him doing that himself.

So since then I've been trying to keep the floor clean everyday. I told Mahavendra Puri that I needed help in mopping the floor everyday as Maharaj wants it done everyday. As I've said due to a bad back I cannot mop the whole entire floor myself as I would like to to follow Maharaj's instructions.  :( But Maharaj seemed pleased enough with me sweeping the floors at least. He understands I can't mop floors. He instructed me not to let the cleaning go of the temple so Im trying my best to keep up with it as much as I can. I will have to keep this instruction with me when I live in the Los Angeles Temple. One must obey's Guru's instructions otherwise one cannot spiritually advance and they will falldown. that's no joke it's the truth. Im glad Maharaj told me to read Chaitanya Caritamrta. I wish I could have the whole volume set now since Maharaj told me to read it. I got inspired just by him alone saying that to me.

Daily Darshan Sri Sri Radha Ksiracora Gopinatha