Failure is Success in Progress

There is no reason to ever let failure bring you down on your path of spiritual awakening. Throughout history we see that the most highly successful people underwent many failures along their pathway to success. Instead of becoming discouraged by their failures they learned from their failures. This is what differentiated them from the mass of people who remain failures. This learning from their failures is how they became so highly successful.

In his book, "The Perfection of Yoga," Srila Prabhupada gives us a wonderful example of someone who conquered over failure. Here's how he describes it:

In this regard, there is the story of Viśvāmitra Muni, a great king, a kṣatriya, who renounced his kingdom and took to the yoga process in order to become more spiritually advanced. At that time the meditational yoga process was possible to execute. Viśvāmitra Muni meditated so intently that Indra, the King of heaven, noticed him and thought, ' 'This man is trying to occupy my post." The heavenly planets are also material, and there is competition—no businessman wants another businessman to exceed him. fearing that Viśvāmitra Muni would actually depose him, Indra sent one heavenly society girl, named Menakā, to allure him sexually. Menakā was naturally very beautiful, and she was intent on disrupting the muni's meditations. Indeed, he became aware of her feminine presence upon hearing the sound of her bangles, and he immediately looked up from his meditation, saw her, and became captivated by her beauty. As a result, the beautiful girl Śakuntalā was born by their conjugation. When Śakuntalā was born, Viśvāmitra lamented: "Oh, I was just trying to cultivate spiritual knowledge, and again I have been entrapped." He was about to flee when Menakā brought his beautiful daughter before him and chastised him. Despite her pleading, Viśvāmitra resolved to leave anyway.

Thus there is every chance of failure on the yogic path; even a great sage like Viśvāmitra Muni can fall down due to material allurement. Although the muni fell for the time being, he again resolved to go on with the yoga process, and this should be our resolve. Kṛṣṇa informs us that such failures should not be cause for despair. There is the famous proverb that "failure is the pillar of success." In the spiritual life especially, failure is not discouraging. Kṛṣṇa very clearly states that even if there is failure, there is no loss either in this world or in the next. One who takes o this auspicious line of spiritual culture is never completely vanquished.
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Thus we should never let failure deter us from our enthusiasm to awaken the dormant Krishna consciousness within our hearts and to make the whole world Krishna conscious as soon as possible.

Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom

Question: How to Get Pure Knowledge?

I don't know who can be my spiritual master. How can I gain pure knowledge without anything added to it?

Yuvraj Bansal

Answer: From the Bona Fide Spiritual Master

My Dear Yuvraj,

Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Your spiritual master is the one who teaches you the science of Krishna. You get pure knowledge by submissively hearing from your spiritual master. He purely teaches you what Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita without adding or subtracting anything. This is the bona fide spiritual master.

I hope this meets you in the best of health and in an ecstatic mood.

Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Bona Fide Spiritual Master Presents
Krishna's Teachings Without Addition or Subtraction

Sankarshan Das Adhikari is one of the spiritual masters of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement. He has dedicated the last 50 years of his life for bringing a spiritual revolution to planet earth by spreading the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna all over the world. He is based in Austin, Texas and when there is no pandemic regularly travels all over the world teaching his audiences how to attain Krishna consciousness, the highest stage of spiritual awakening. He is available for media interviews and to speak to groups and organizations either in person or via the internet.