Standard Procedures at the Time of Death

13 June 2013--This morning after we woke up from an overnight flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Hong Kong the flight attendants were serving breakfast as usual. (We did not accept the breakfast because it was not Krishna prasadam. After landing we will take the prasadam breakfast that we brought with us.) Surprisingly when a flight attendant was serving a nearby gentleman she dropped his breakfast plate on the floor breaking it into many pieces and scattering food everywhere. She was not even slightly flustered. After assuring the gentleman not to worry she immediately began cleaning up the mess as if nothing at all went wrong. She was just acting according to the standard procedures she learned in flight attendant's school. Another flight attendant showed up on the scene to assist her, the gentleman was served his breakfast, and everything went on as normal.

I was thinking that for a devotee death is like that. When the catastrophe of death comes it is not a big deal. The devotee simply acts according to standard procedures taught to him by his spiritual master. He fixes his mind on Krishna and ecstatically enters into the wondrous topmost transcendental abode, Goloka Vrindavana, to live an eternal life full of bliss and knowledge in the intimate personal association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So for a devotee death is not at all calamitous. It's simply a matter of being transferred from one department to another department as he continues engaging in his blissful duty of offering devotional service to Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Krishna and Balarama in Goloka Vrindavana

Krishna and Balarama in Goloka Vrindavana

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: What is Vikarma, Capricious Work?

Dear Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

What exactly is vikarma or whimsical/capricious work? Please explain by giving a practical example. Why can't we offer the results of whimsical work to the Supreme?

Your humble servant,
Sushant

Answer: Sinful Activity Such As Meat Eating

Vikarma means sinful activities, such as meat eating, which are forbidden in the scriptures. Krishna will not accept an offering of meat because the animals are very dear to Him. Krishna knows the languages of the animals and birds and speaks to them in their own languages. He loves them as His beloved children. Do you know of any father who would be happy to accept it, if you killed his children, cooked them, and then offered him the flesh of his children to eat?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Sparrow Who Conquered the Ocean

Image
In his purport to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, Text 24 Srila Prabhupada wonderfully teaches us the power of determinations by telling us the story of the little sparrow who conquered the ocean: "As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked t
Read more

Heart Melting Reunion with Amarendra and Gayatri

Image
On Friday 26 June 2015 I was blessed with the greatest good fortune of meeting with two of the dearest devotees of my entire life, His Grace Amarendra Prabhu and his good wife, Srimati Gayatri devi dasi. I am eternally indebted to these great souls for how much they helped me in my spiritual life when I was a young devotee. When I was young brahmacari monk in 1973 I joined with the two of them in Gainesville, Florida. We were a three person preaching center, and they were just like a mother and father to me. I had so many wonderful Krishna conscious experiences in their association that I can hardly begin to describe them here. But at least may it suffice for me to say for now that Gayatri taught me what it means to be a soft-hearted devotee of the Lord and she gave me my first cooking lesson, teaching me how to make cauliflower pakoras, and Amarendra taught me the art of how to preach strongly, intelligently, and coolly to defeat opposing arguments. Recently Gayatri almost died. But
Read more

Who is this Krishna?

Image
Krishna is not a myth, nor is He an ordinary historical personality. He is the Supreme All-Attractive Personality of Godhead. He is the oldest of all while simultaneously maintaining the form of a 16 year old youth. He is all-attractive because he exceeds everyone in all of existence by possessing unlimitedly all the qualities that are attractive namely power, beautify, renunciation, knowledge, wealth, and fame. There is no one who equals or excels Him in the possession of these attractive qualities. This is why is accepted by all enlightened spiritualists as being God, the original source of all existence. The perfection of our existence is to re-establish our long forgotten loving relationships with Him. There Is No One More Amazing Than Krishna Video for the Day Don't Be a Hypocrite Answers According to Vedic Wisdom Question: Was Krishna a Real Person? Was Krishna a real person who lived on Earth? Ray Galindo Answer: He Was and He Still Is My Dear Ray, Pleas
Read more