When Severe Pain Becomes the Sweetest Ecstasy

When Severe Pain Becomes the Sweetest Ecstasy
In the Nectar of Devotion Srila Prabhupada wonderfully describes as follows how Arjuna protected Krishna from the arrows of Aśvatthāmā by acting as a human shield:

"There is a nice example of the friendship between Krishna and Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. When the fighting was going on, Asvatthama, the son of Dronacarya, unceremoniously attacked Krishna, although according to the prevailing rules of chivalry one's chariot driver should never be attacked by the enemy. Asvatthama behaved heinously in so many ways that he did not hesitate to attack Krishna's body, although Krishna was acting only as charioteer for Arjuna. When Arjuna saw that Asvatthama was releasing various kinds of arrows to hurt Krishna, he immediately stood in front of Krishna to intercept all of them. At that time, although Arjuna was being harmed by those arrows, he felt an ecstatic love for Krishna, and the arrows appeared to him like showers of flowers."

In a similar way, if we are fully absorbed in the Lord's service, we will experience even the most painful situations as the sweetest nectar. The difficulty is not the trials and tribulations we face. The difficulty is our lack of Krishna consciousness.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom

Question: Should I Stop Chanting?

Should I stop chanting the Hare Krishna mantra? I can’t stop committing offenses and do not want to go to hell.

Anonymous

Answer: Never Stop Chanting

Forget this wrong idea you have of going to hell because of offensive chanting. Even though as neophytes our chanting is offensive, we should never stop chanting Hare Krishna because it is better to chant with offenses than to not chant at all. In other words, the worst offense against the Hare Krishna mantra is to not chant it at all. The power of the Hare Krishna mantra is so great that if we keep chanting even with offenses, by the power of the Hare Krishna mantra in due course all of our offenses will be destroyed and we will become qualified to see God Himself, Lord Sri Krishna, face to face, eye to eye at every minute. Therefore conclusion is: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—-etc., etc., etc.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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 he 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.

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