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.

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