Sankarshan Das Giving Srimad Bhagavatam Class
Srila Prabhupada always instructed us to do the needful. In other words whatever is required to be done for the service of Krishna must be unhesitatingly done. We had a practical experience of this on our travel from London to Vilnius, Lithuania on 22 July 2014.
I knew that we had a very tight connection between flights in Helsinki. The flight from London was scheduled to arrive at 3:15pm and our ongoing flight to Vilnius was departing at 4:20pm. Under normal circumstance there would be no problem making the connection. However in Helsinki we would have to clear immigration, which is normally a five minute experience but can drag on for longer. And as we approached Helsinki on our Finnair flight from London I noticed that we were about ten minutes late. I was thinking it was still okay because we would have a half hour before boarding the next flight. But then when we landed we did not get a jet bridge, the tube that connects the airplane directly with the terminal. Instead we got a bus. This meant another delay. We had to wait for everyone to empty off from the airplane before we could go to the terminal. When the bus finally arrived at the terminal, another delay. There was a narrow door through which everyone had to pass. It took time for a whole plane full of people to pass through that narrow door to get into the terminal. Now it was getting dangerously close to boarding time but at least we were now approaching immigration. However when we finally arrived at immigration we were hit by a shock. There was as huge queue of people waiting to clear immigration. This would take us at least a half hour to clear. It was like something out of a dream, a nightmare come true. Our flight on the other side of the airport was due to start boarding in several minutes, and there was no way that we would make it.
So what to do in such a situation in Krishna's service? If we join the queue, we will miss out flight, the last flight of the day to Vilnius. And you can't bypass the queue and go straight to the front. So what to do? With my heart pounding, depending on Krishna we cut straight to the front of the queue much to the consternation of the long line of people who had been patiently waiting their turn. One lady stepped forward and strongly objected to what we had just done. But what to do? We had no choice. Luckily no airport official manifested to send us to the back of the line, and we cleared immigration within five minutes only to find ourselves in an overcrowded cram-packed airport with our gate way down at the other end of the terminal. We walked briskly and determinedly weaving our way through the dense crowd to find ourselves by Lord Sri Krishna's grace at the gate just in the nick of time for boarding our flight to Vilnius.
So we made it on time and arrived in Vilnius safe and sound except for one thing. No luggage. Now that's another story altogether.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Describing Spiritual and Material Worlds at Baltic Festival
Martina B.
Sometimes it is said that God has no name. This is a fact because God has no one particular name. Because God is unlimited, therefore He must have unlimited names. To call Him the universe is too restrictive because our universe is only one out of unlimited millions and billions of universes. Out of all of His unlimited names there is one name which best describes Him. Every one of God's unlimited names describes another one of His features: His unlimited qualities, relationships, or activities. There is one name which includes all of these unlimited attractive features, and that name is Krishna, which literally means, "the All-Attractive One." Therefore when one addresses God by the name Krishna, He is automatically including all of the unlimited names of God within that one two-syllabled utterance. This means that the name Krishna is the most perfect and complete of all the unlimited names of God. Therefore we call God Krishna, and we can also Him by any one of His unlimited millions of names, such as Govinda, Rama, Syamasundar, Gopal, etc.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
I knew that we had a very tight connection between flights in Helsinki. The flight from London was scheduled to arrive at 3:15pm and our ongoing flight to Vilnius was departing at 4:20pm. Under normal circumstance there would be no problem making the connection. However in Helsinki we would have to clear immigration, which is normally a five minute experience but can drag on for longer. And as we approached Helsinki on our Finnair flight from London I noticed that we were about ten minutes late. I was thinking it was still okay because we would have a half hour before boarding the next flight. But then when we landed we did not get a jet bridge, the tube that connects the airplane directly with the terminal. Instead we got a bus. This meant another delay. We had to wait for everyone to empty off from the airplane before we could go to the terminal. When the bus finally arrived at the terminal, another delay. There was a narrow door through which everyone had to pass. It took time for a whole plane full of people to pass through that narrow door to get into the terminal. Now it was getting dangerously close to boarding time but at least we were now approaching immigration. However when we finally arrived at immigration we were hit by a shock. There was as huge queue of people waiting to clear immigration. This would take us at least a half hour to clear. It was like something out of a dream, a nightmare come true. Our flight on the other side of the airport was due to start boarding in several minutes, and there was no way that we would make it.
So what to do in such a situation in Krishna's service? If we join the queue, we will miss out flight, the last flight of the day to Vilnius. And you can't bypass the queue and go straight to the front. So what to do? With my heart pounding, depending on Krishna we cut straight to the front of the queue much to the consternation of the long line of people who had been patiently waiting their turn. One lady stepped forward and strongly objected to what we had just done. But what to do? We had no choice. Luckily no airport official manifested to send us to the back of the line, and we cleared immigration within five minutes only to find ourselves in an overcrowded cram-packed airport with our gate way down at the other end of the terminal. We walked briskly and determinedly weaving our way through the dense crowd to find ourselves by Lord Sri Krishna's grace at the gate just in the nick of time for boarding our flight to Vilnius.
So we made it on time and arrived in Vilnius safe and sound except for one thing. No luggage. Now that's another story altogether.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Describing Spiritual and Material Worlds at Baltic Festival
Harmony Park, Lithuania--23 July 2014
Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:
Question: Why Give God Any Names?
Why give God any names? His name is Universe. So why do you confuse yourself with any other name?Martina B.
Answer: We Cannot Put Any Restriction on God
Since God is unlimitedly powerful there is no question of our putting any restrictions on Him. If He wants to be called by a particular name, that is His prerogative. So then one may wonder, "What is that name that would be preferred by God?" What is the answer to this question?Sometimes it is said that God has no name. This is a fact because God has no one particular name. Because God is unlimited, therefore He must have unlimited names. To call Him the universe is too restrictive because our universe is only one out of unlimited millions and billions of universes. Out of all of His unlimited names there is one name which best describes Him. Every one of God's unlimited names describes another one of His features: His unlimited qualities, relationships, or activities. There is one name which includes all of these unlimited attractive features, and that name is Krishna, which literally means, "the All-Attractive One." Therefore when one addresses God by the name Krishna, He is automatically including all of the unlimited names of God within that one two-syllabled utterance. This means that the name Krishna is the most perfect and complete of all the unlimited names of God. Therefore we call God Krishna, and we can also Him by any one of His unlimited millions of names, such as Govinda, Rama, Syamasundar, Gopal, etc.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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