Hard work or hardly working?
Rammohan G
http://krishnayoga.info/2011/06/hard-work-or-hardly-working/
Hard work or hardly working?
Categories:
Some spiritual practitioners complain that
despite many years of practising the Hare Krishna yoga, the chant seems to be a
drag. They wonder why there is no taste in the process. Radhanath Swami reveals
the cause of this phenomenon to be lack of hard work. He cites the Bhagavad
Gita where Lord Krishna tells his student Arjuna that He reciprocates with
different people the way they approach Him. If someone approaches Him sincerely,
endeavouring to attract the Lord’s grace, the Lord abundantly showers the
taste. On the other hand if one utters the mantra in a parrot like fashion and
is more keen to get the job of chanting done so that he could get into
something else, then the Holy Names reciprocate by helping the chanter just get
his or her job done. If we see our chanting session as an opportunity to
associate with God personally and offer our heart to Him, we will access the
reservoir of pleasure in God’s Names. On the contrary if we
ritualistically execute the process, we’d be as far away from the
Lord’s grace as a person would be from honey if he only licks the bottle
of honey from outside. The opening of the lid of honey can is compared with the
shedding of lethargy; to the extent we invest our consciousness, we are right
there with Krishna, accessing His divine
mercy.
In his talks on Holy Names, Radhanath Swami
often quotes the story of cleaning of the Gundica temple. This temple is in
Jagannath Puri, Orissa, India, and five hundred years ago,
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of God for the present age,
preformed the pastime of cleaning this temple. During the annual festival of
chariots, Lord Krishna’s deity form is carried in a chariot from His
temple in Puri and bought few kilometres away to Gundica. Lord Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu and his associates would very meticulously clean the Gundica temple
a day before the cart procession as an offering of loving invitation to the
Lord. While elaborately describing the narration, Radhanath Swami draws
parallels and urges us to be sincere in cleaning our heart which is the temple of God. Just as Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
cleansed all the dirt from the temple, we too need to work hard on our
spiritual path. During the cleaning service, all associates of Lord Chaitanya
piled up the dust they had collected during the cleaning. However Lord
Chaitanya’s pile of dirt that He had cleansed was more than double of all
the other devotees’ pile put together. Radhanath Swami draws our
attention to this hard work and enthusiasm of the Lord Himself in inviting God
into our hearts. There is no substitute for sincerity in our devotional path.
“Sincerity means really putting our heart and soul into what we are doing
for Krishna”, says Radhanath Swami,
“and doing the best means putting all our eagerness and enthusiasm in
every aspect of our devotional service.”
Radhanath Swami sums it up beautifully,
“To the degree we perform our devotional service with the spirit of
enthusiasm and determination, to that degree we will capture Krishna.
Krishna is conquered by our sincerity.”
Radhanath Swami loves to also quote his guru, Srila Prabhupada, who often said,
“Just be sincere”, and this is the mantra next only in importance
to the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.
"Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality..." (Bhagavad Gita- 18.78)
**************** CAUTION - Disclaimer ***************** This e-mail contains PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by e-mail and delete the original message. Further, you are not to copy, disclose, or distribute this e-mail or its contents to any other person and any such actions are unlawful. This e-mail may contain viruses. Infosys has taken every reasonable precaution to minimize this risk, but is not liable for any damage you may sustain as a result of any virus in this e-mail. You should carry out your own virus checks before opening the e-mail or attachment. Infosys reserves the right to monitor and review the content of all messages sent to or from this e-mail address. Messages sent to or from this e-mail address may be stored on the Infosys e-mail system. ***INFOSYS******** End of Disclaimer ********INFOSYS*** |