Thursday, April 10, 2008

While contemplating...

BG 2.62

dhyāyato visayān pumsah
sańgas tesūpajāyate
sańgāt sañjāyate kāmah
kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.


PURPORT
One who is not Krsna conscious is subjected to material desires while contemplating the objects of the senses. The senses require real engagements, and if they are not engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they will certainly seek engagement in the service of materialism. In the material world everyone, including Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā — to say nothing of other demigods in the heavenly planets — is subjected to the influence of sense objects, and the only method to get out of this puzzle of material existence is to become Krsna conscious. Lord Śiva was deep in meditation, but when Pārvatī agitated him for sense pleasure, he agreed to the proposal, and as a result Kārtikeya was born. When Haridāsa Thākura was a young devotee of the Lord, he was similarly allured by the incarnation of Māyā-devī, but Haridāsa easily passed the test because of his unalloyed devotion to Lord Krsna. As illustrated in the above-mentioned verse of Śrī Yāmunācārya, a sincere devotee of the Lord shuns all material sense enjoyment due to his higher taste for spiritual enjoyment in the association of the Lord. That is the secret of success. One who is not, therefore, in Krsna consciousness, however powerful he may be in controlling the senses by artificial repression, is sure ultimately to fail, for the slightest thought of sense pleasure will agitate him to gratify his desires.

Monday, April 7, 2008

The Supreme Occupation

sa vai pumsām paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihatā
yayātmā suprasīdati

The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.
SB 1.2.6

vāsudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogah prayojitah
janayaty āśu vairāgyam
jñānam ca yad ahaitukam

By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Krsna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.
SB 1.2.7

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Before reciting this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

nārāyanam namaskrtya
naram caiva narottamam
devīm sarasvatīm vyāsam
tato jayam udīrayet

Before reciting this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the very means of conquest, one should offer respectful obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Nārāyana, unto Nara-nārāyana Rsi, the supermost human being, unto mother Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, and unto Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the author.
SB 1.2.4

Cleanse the desire for material enjoyment


śrnvatām sva-kathāh krsnah
punya-śravana-kīrtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrāni
vidhunoti suhrt satām

Śrī Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.
SB 1.2.17

Feared by Fear Personified

āpannah samsrtim ghorām
yan-nāma vivaśo grnan
tatah sadyo vimucyeta
yad bibheti svayam bhayam

Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krsna, which is feared by fear personified.
SB 1.1.14

Saturday, April 5, 2008

A Similar Living Being...

"...In Vedic literatures, it is said that the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, is the chief amongst all living personalities. All living beings, beginning from the first created being, Brahma, down to the smallest ant, are individual living beings. And above Brahma, there are even other living beings with individual capacities, and the Personality of Godhead is also a similar living being. And He is an individual as are the other living beings. But the Supreme Lord, or the supreme living being, has the greatest intelligence, and He possesses supermost inconceivable energies of all different varieties. If a man's brain can produce a space satellite, one can very easily imagine how brains higher than man can produce similarly wonderful things which are far superior..."
SB 1.1.1 Purport