Thursday, August 29, 2013

Selfless servitude



As the name “Krsna Consciousness” implies, the goal of our practice is to become conscious of the Supreme Lord in our every thought, word and action…  to redirect ourselves from a self-centric lifestyle to a God-centric one.  With this end in mind, we gradually adjust and dovetail our everyday actions to bring them in line with Sri Krsna’s desires based on the knowledge given to us by guru, sadhu and sastra (the spiritual master, the elevated saintly people and the bona fide scriptures).

Since we are all at various points on our spiritual journey, we possess varying degrees of selflessness in our character.  Sometimes this can lead to frustration and/or segregation and often times it can unfortunately lead to offenses toward our fellow spiritual practitioners and stunt our growth.  But make no mistake...  each and every Vaisnava is gradually working to achieve said selflessness, so we should be very careful to refrain from judgement.

There is one thing, however, that we can all agree on because it is abundantly clear.  When a person has a fully selfless service attitude, their example is extremely powerful and their actions seem to accomplish the utterly impossible.  And while overcoming that which would be considered by most to be overwhelming adversity, they seem to effortlessly carry on as if untouched by the powerful grip of material nature.

Today we celebrate the appearance day of such a selfless servant of Sri Krsna.  It can be easily observed through his accomplishments that his divine grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, the founder-acarya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, was indeed motivated strictly by the desire to serve his guru and Krsna.

Although he was a spiritualist from birth, we tend to focus on the last twelve years of Srila Prabhupada’s life since they directly pertain to the powerful society that he created which enhanced the lives of countless people.

Just before his 69th birthday, Srila Prabhupada set out on a journey from Calcutta, India to the United States of America aboard a steam ship (the ticket for which was begged for) with the equivalent of seven dollars and a case of his books.  During this austere journey, our acarya had two heart attacks among other health ailments, but because he was driven by the instructions of his spiritual master to preach Krsna Consciousness in the west, he kept a faithful mood and took complete shelter under his Lord, Sri Krsna.

With no followers to greet him in America, Srila Prabhupada bravely faced this strange new world with very few material assets but within twelve short years, against all odds, he managed to start a worldwide movement with over a hundred temples spanning six continents all the while translating numerous volumes of books and publications.

Because he was a selfless servant of Krsna, he was never affected by his newfound fame, his huge number of followers, or any amount of donations…  his only concern was that everything and everyone be engaged in the service of Krsna.  In this way he was able to remain transcendental to material energy, which tends to effortlessly tear a normal man apart.

Our process is designed to redirect our consciousness from self-centric to God-centric and as we progress on this path, material energy naturally has less of a grip on us (including the kind that compels us to consider fellow Vaisnavas as ordinary people).  It is our goal to become selfless…  not because we want to become free from material nature, but because we want to give our love to its rightful recipient.  When we give all of our love, faith and trust to God we finally become a part of a true and everlasting relationship.

Since Sri Krsna always has unconditional love for everyone, it is entirely up to us to cultivate our love for Him.  We have to actively adjust our priorities from self-glorifying to God-glorifying.  And when we do so, we can finally return to an eternal life of bliss and knowledge.

And we have to work on this at every moment.  It’s not like Srila Prabhupada waited until he was in his late sixties to pursue his spiritual life… he was doing so since he was a child.  And because of all of his training he was able to remain strong when the odds were stacked against him.

There will come a time (several, actually) when the odds will be stacked against us…  and it is in our best interest to prepare for those inevitable circumstances so that we can be strong enough to hold on to the Supreme Lord’s grace and break through any obstacle that is thrown at us by the inferior material nature.

Srila Prabhupada very generously gave us priceless transcendental wisdom in the form of his books and instructions.  We must take full advantage of these gems at every moment.

Thank you, Srila Prabhupada, for showing us the way.  Please continue to give us your guidance and protection.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Culture or consequence






The following is an homage that i wrote to my spiritual master Srila Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu for this years Vyasa-puja.  Since i celebrated both my guru’s and Lord Balarama’s appearance days this week, and since it very much fits the theme and tone of the blog, i thought it fitting to make it this weeks entry.

Dearest Gurudeva,

Respectful obeisances to you on this auspicious day.  i don’t always write one of these things because i often find myself just asking you for stuff, and i don’t want this occasion to go the way of christmas where everyone forgets about their spiritual master’s birth and instead throws fits about getting the incorrect toy or the wrong color iphone.

But i realize that by not writing an offering, i am missing out on an opportunity for expressing gratitude for all you have given me, so i will try to become more regular with it so as to attempt to rejuvenate our culture as well as to become a more worthy disciple.

Recently, i was reading the pastime of  Lord Balarama going on pilgrimage and His encounter with Romaharsana.   Lord Balarama’s reaction to the so-called spiritualist’s lack of proper etiquette was to first say these words:

“Although he is a disciple of the divine sage Vyäsa and has thoroughly learned many scriptures from him, including the lawbooks of religious duties and the epic histories and Puräëas, all this study has not produced good qualities in him. Rather, his study of the scriptures is like an actor's studying his part, for he is not self-controlled or humble and vainly presumes himself a scholarly authority, though he has failed to conquer his own mind.”

After speaking these words, the Lord fatally stabbed Romaharsana with a blade of kusa grass.

When i read this passage, i couldn’t help but think what Lord Balarama would say about me.  i imagine that i too would get quite the kusa grass lashing. 

It has been two decades since i first heard you speak, and that moment was not one to be taken lightly, for it changed the course of my life in a major way.  There is no doubt that i am a much better man than i would have become without your guidance and instructions, but i would be a complete idiot to say that have done my best.

With the amount of knowledge and mercy that you have bestowed upon me, i should be a much better representative than i am today.

But Lord Balarama hasn’t killed me yet, so i suppose i still have time to try to get it right.

For the majority of the years that i have heard your annual vyasa puja address, you simply request that your disciples get along with each other and cooperate in their Krsna consciousness.  But i think we owe you more than that.  For what you have given us, we owe you nothing less than the absolute best that we could possible muster up.

So i apologize for taking so long to realize my duty, and i hope i can always remember it and apply it in my every action, thought, and word.  Thank you for all that you have given us. There is truly no way for us to repay your kindness.

yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,

carucandra dasa

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Is time on our side?






We’ve heard countless maxims about time…  it heals all wounds, it flies when you are having fun, if you put a stitch in it, it will save nine (whatever that means)…  sometimes it is equated with money while other times it is considered far more valuable than any currency.  It keeps on slipping into the future, it reveals everything and (according to David Bowie) although time may change us, we can’t trace it.  The one thing that is certain about time is that it is an unstoppable juggernaut and there is nothing we can do to get it back once it is gone.  It’s one of those things that we think we have plenty of until we are faced with the harsh reality that every second gone is another second that we are closer to death.

In theory we all understand that time is valuable but in practice we tend to waste it on things that “seemed like a good idea at the time”.  Time, in my experience, is the thing we are least honest with ourselves about.  After all, no one wants to admit that they are wasting their lives away.  We come up with so many excuses about how we need or deserve a good ole fashioned time wasting session (as if we have been depriving ourselves of that sort of thing).  Since we tend to be overgenerous when meting out self-credit, the best way to evaluate how we spend our time is not to look at a day or even a week for that matter but a much larger sample.  If we really want a fair and accurate assessment of our time usage, we should examine a decade or two.

In a blog i wrote a few weeks ago i mentioned that i have come a long way spiritually in the last twenty years, and although that is true i honestly could have come much further.  For example, if i compare the amount of times i am reminded of stories that i have read or heard about Krsna to the amount of times i am reminded of a mundane song or movie, i can see that my inclinations toward meaningless drivel is more prominent than my inclinations toward spirituality.

Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly potential value in some of today’s music and movies…  sometimes a song that was not necessarily written about transcendence can remind us in a very powerful way about Krsna or His pastimes.  We find this to be true with most well written love songs (before they started to get vulgar).  There is no doubt that everything can be dovetailed in the service of the Lord but it is my experience that we tend to overindulge in the mundane and pay little attention to attempting to make a solid connection to our ultimate goal.

It becomes clear where our priorities lie when we can successfully relate everything we see to an Adam Sandler movie, or an episode of the Simpsons or Seinfeld.

So what can we do about this?  How can we change our focus?  Especially considering that we were already under the impression that our focus was already properly situated.  In one sense our lifestyles show that we are serious about spirituality... from the pictures on our walls, to our special diets, to the way we dress, to the events we attend, etc.  But these are all external, and just like it is true that “actions speak louder than words”, it is also true that consciousness speaks louder than actions.  What really defines who we truly are is our motivation…  our intention.  What do we value the most?  What drives us?

When i was taking the preachers training course in Vrndavan in 1995, Brajabihari Prabhu told the class about a demonstration that he saw during a time-management seminar that he attended.  Since then, i have heard a similar story a few times but (like with all good things) sadly the message had been changed and/or lost.  So today i will revive said message and hope that it stays alive in the hearts of the sincere.  (if you have heard it before, please read it anyway as the moral may be slightly different)

At the seminar, the facilitator had a big empty jar and a bucket of big rocks.  He added rocks to the jar until he could not fit anymore and asked the attendees, “Is the jar full?”  After the consensus came back that the jar was in fact full the man then pulled out from behind his lectern a container of gravel.  The man put several scoops of gravel into the jar and periodically shook it so that the gravel filled in the spaces between the big rocks until no more gravel would fit into the jar.  “Now is the jar full?” he asked.  After hearing mixed reviews concerning the “fullness” of the jar the man then presented a bag of sand, which he poured into the jar, filling all of the spaces between the gravel until he could fit no more sand.  “How about now?” he asked, generating even more uncertain responses.  Finally the man revealed a pitcher of water and poured it into the jar until the water level reached the very top and exclaimed, “Now it is full…  so what is the point that i am making?”

Most of the attendees of this time-management workshop thought that the point was that no matter how busy you think you are, there is always time to do more.  This, however, was not the case.  “The point is” he revealed, “is that you have to put the big rocks in first.”

“Big rocks” refers to the top priority items.  When scheduling our days we have to make sure to first write in our top priority items and then schedule the lesser priorities around them.  This is a very powerful tool in the business world but it is an even more powerful tool in our personal lives.

In the world of business the bigness of the rock is determined by what, in the long run, will generate the most profit.  In the world of spiritual practice it is determined by what will generate the most love of God.

Yesterday i was speaking with a good friend of mine who had a very strong spiritual upbringing and holds family values in the highest regard.  As a businessman, he tries to provide a comfortable and full life for his wife and children by earning money to be able to create a favorable situation for them.  Lately he has been stressed out due to of the current financial climate.  When I told my friend the story about the rocks in the jar, i explained that while money is valuable and necessary, if we make it our main priority - our focus - our big rocks, we will not live a very happy life.  But if his big rocks were the continuation of his spiritual upbringing from the previous generation to his next generation, then his children will understand that peacefulness and understanding are more valuable and important than money.  That way when times are tough financially, instead of becoming depressed and hopeless they will be at peace knowing fully well that “this too shall pass”.

What we consider our “big rocks” becomes evident especially in times of struggle…  What motivates us to get out of bed?  What do we turn to?  What do we pray for?  Even if we are turning to God but asking for money, it is clear that our priorities are still out of balance.

It is never too late though.  When i look back on the last twenty years of my life i am saddened that i have committed to memory so many mundane songs and movie quotes but have not done the same with the countless spiritual stories that i have had access to for the same amount of time.  i am also bummed that with all of the jobs i have had i have only been late a hand full of times while i have missed mangala arotic more times than i care to remember while living at the temple.

But instead of getting down or giving up, i hope to be able to use this exercise to help reassess my true priorities and make even more spiritual progress over the next few decades.  Time has taken away the opportunity for me to change my past decisions but my future decisions are still up in the air.



What we choose at each moment affects our future.  So if we want time to be on our side, we have to consciously make proper use of it at every moment.  Our character is defined by the motivation behind the choices we make.  As time goes by we can evaluate our true motivations by examining our default reactions to everyday situations.  We will all get crushed by the teeth of time...  Of this there is no doubt. The question is will we be prepared for that moment?

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Don't get too comfortable... we're not staying long.






i don’t know how common this expression is, but when i was a kid i heard it several times.  Whenever my parents had us kids with them and they needed to go somewhere that they really didn’t want to be, they would say, “Just don’t get too comfortable, we won’t be staying long.”

When we find ourselves in a sketchy place or situation, we try to keep our group as close as possible so as to make a smooth and swift escape.  Otherwise we can find ourselves trying to leave and having to round up a bunch of kids who are scattered around playing with dangerous objects, seeing and hearing things beyond their maturity level, and putting questionable items in their mouths.  It’s just bad news all around.

It is quite reasonable that we wouldn’t want our loved ones to “make themselves comfortable” in certain situations.  To this, some would say, “It is a diverse world, you cannot protect them from everything”, and my response would be, “i don’t see you vacationing in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, or walking across Camden, New Jersey.”  There are clearly situations that are understandable to avoid and it is also understandable, and necessary even, that different individuals draw their lines in different places.

i have no problem with where people draw their lines…  it is their own business and arguing over it is pointless and a waste of everyone’s time.  What i do wish to do is persuade people to evaluate why they draw their lines where they do.  It’s certainly not too much to ask, i mean it’s a pretty important thing…  so it is good to know why we chose where we place our limits.

Some set limits based on tradition (passed down through generations of family or clan), some based on popularity (what is currently accepted by the general populous), others based on personal experience, some based on religious theology, and so on.  Of course with all of these, time, place and circumstance has a tendency to bend and stretch these limits to accommodate “special situations”.

But i find that with this fluctuation of limits we often forget about the underlying principles that the original limits were based on, thus essentially rendering our current limits meaningless and arbitrary.

So from time to time i think it is healthy and necessary to evaluate our comfort zone and examine the reasons we marked it out where we did.  In this way we may modify said parameters based on sound logic and reason.  This not only promotes favorable situations and growth, but also keeps us accountable for our actions.  Otherwise, if something unfavorable happens while we are in our comfort zone we will tend to direct the blame outward instead of owning it and responsibly re-evaluating our limits.

Three and a half months ago i was visiting Cintamani Dhama, which is not far from Bhagavat Commune’s previous property in Kentucky. There was an area that the devotees were trying to convert from pasture to garden and Bhakta Tyler was having some difficulty with the pull behind cultivator that he was using due to the ground being too hard.  After i suggested adding weight to the equipment so that the tines would more easily penetrate and turn the compacted soil we located a couple of small boulders and carried them over.  Upon placing one of these heavy rocks onto the cultivator rack, i crushed one of my fingers causing bleeding under one of my fingernails.  Also, while i was there conversing with the devotees, Candra (one of their dogs) was playfully tugging at the bottom of my t-shirt creating a few punctures and tears.  Today the dried bloodstain left under my fingernail from fourteen weeks ago is just finally reaching the tip of my nail and will be completely gone within a week, but my t-shirt (which I am coincidentally wearing) will have no such luck.

Perhaps it is this type of phenomenon that allows us to falsely think that we will live forever.  When we get sick, we get better…  when we get injured, we heal.  It is only when we are faced with those who do not get better and do not heal that we truly realize the temporary nature of this world.

The term for this concept in Sanskrit is śmaśāna-vairāgya, which translates to renunciation at the cemetery.  When we see undeniable evidence that our bodies, although miraculous in some ways, are extremely frail and guaranteed to perish, we tend to turn to spirituality.  Unfortunately, for most people, spiritual practice is a last resort, which means that, for them, there is a lot of wasted time.

This material world is one of those places we “shouldn’t get too comfortable” in.  There is not even an option to stay long in these bodies, even if we wanted to.  In a world where everything is destined to end, an eternal being can find no peace… no satisfaction… no substance.  So if our priorities are to make a comfortable situation here we are completely missing the point.  There is no true comfort here.  Our only shot at comfort is to transcend this temporary realm and reconnect with the eternal.  And the only way to do that is though Bhakti or the cultivation of loving service to the Supreme Lord.

Which brings us back to the discussion at hand.  It is important for us to periodically evaluate our comfort zone and adjust it to keep ourselves on the progressive path.  i have observed that people tend to take a back seat when it comes to spirituality and blame their lack of advancement on “more senior” practitioners.  They say, “Well, if he is having troubles, what hope do i have of attaining perfection?”  In this way people consider spiritual practice to be impractical and thus they saunter on with their material agendas.

But the truth of the matter is that spirituality is the only thing that is practical in this world.  Of all the countless number of people who have tried to make a comfortable situation in this material world, exactly zero percent have succeeded.  And that figure will never change.  Not only is material comfort impractical, it is impossible.  Everything here comes to an end.  Spirituality, on the other hand, is quite possible, and although spiritual perfection is rare (as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita), it is certainly possible.  So any endeavor not aimed toward transcendence is ultimately futile.

We alone are culpable for our lack of spiritual growth.  If we fail to try, how should we expect to succeed?  It is our duty to honestly evaluate our own habits and tendencies and to gradually direct them from self-conscious to Krsna-conscious.  If we are not giving it our all, we have no ground to stand on and call the process impractical.  So take a look inward, start cleaning up, and for God’s sake, don’t get too comfortable here…  it’s no place for a gentleman.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Monkeys and kittens and bhaktas, oh my!






Lately i have been writing a lot about the importance of consciously putting forth effort in our devotional practice.  As the main title of this new blog implies, i am very much for a progressive and dynamic approach to spiritual life.  Sometimes this type of focus can seem extreme or unbalanced, so i thought that i would take this opportunity to clarify my position and intentions so as to not give the wrong impression.

There has been a debate going on since before anyone can remember regarding our personal position in the process of transcendence.  Some spiritual practitioners claim that it is by the Lord’s mercy only that we can make spiritual advancement, and that putting forth effort in that regard is futile and borderline blasphemous because we are imperfect beings.  Others on the devotional path claim that our endeavor is the impetus for advancement, and to sit back and wait for some divine mercy to make up for our lack of effort is lazy and borderline blasphemous because we are sentient beings.

The first type mentioned, whose followers rely exclusively on mercy, is known as the philosophy of the kitten.  Like the cute fuzzy critters they are named for, practitioners of this philosophy wander around aimlessly, just doing their own thing without a care in the world.  When danger is imminent, the mother of these kittens will snatch their babies up by the back of the neck and swiftly carry them to safety.  The kitten does not have to do anything to become liberated from danger, for it strictly relies on the mercy of its mother.

The second type mentioned, whose followers rely on endeavor, is known as the philosophy of the monkey.  Some of us have had the opportunity to observe that baby monkeys are much more cautious and aware of their surroundings, and when they sense trouble they have to run to their mothers and latch themselves onto her chest or back, holding on for dear life, as she fervently bounds away to safety.

Srila Prabhupada describes these two philosophies when he talks about Damodara-lila.  When Mother Yasoda attempted to tie little Krsna to a grinding mortar as punishment for His misbehavior, she kept joining ropes together, but the total length was always short by the measurement of two fingers.  Our acarya explains that these two fingers represent mercy and endeavor.  One cannot attain the Supreme Lord without having both of these things.  Each of the two philosophies mentioned above are incomplete on their own because although it is irrevocably necessary to have God’s mercy in order to attain Him, it is also necessary for us to actively take said mercy.

Some might be under the impression that i lean more toward the philosophy of the monkey since i seem to talk more about our duty to continually and actively strive for devotional progress (and also maybe because i enjoy climbing things).  But i do not place more emphasis on endeavor because i consider mercy to be less important.  The reason i focus on active devotional practices is that out of the two factors being discussed, it is the only one that we have any control over.  The Lord’s mercy is there regardless of whether we take advantage of it or not …  He has unconditional love for us and there is nothing we could do to take that away.  What we can do is train ourselves to consciously accept that mercy as much as possible.



Although i am heavy with the “endeavor talk”, i am also very careful to point out that while we are trying to improve our thoughts, words and actions, our consciousness must be properly situated.  If we are doing these things to make a more comfortable material situation, the endeavor is ultimately all for nil.  But if our consciousness is being directed toward pleasing Krsna, we are actively grabbing a hold of His causeless mercy and as such, positive reciprocation will take effect.