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.

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

Misguided Fools Say that Masturbation is Healthy

Image
Foolish modern day materialists recommend masturbation as follows: "Masturbation is a common activity. It’s a natural and safe way to explore your body, feel pleasure, and release built-up sexual tension. It occurs among people of all backgrounds, genders, and races. Despite the myths, there are actually no physically harmful side effects of masturbation." They are wrong. To get a proper understanding on this this topic read the question and answer section below. Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What are the Ill Effects of Masturbation? Since you answered questions related to understanding the real need of sex in a human being's life, so I also request you to please enlighten us with the knowledge about semen conservation, it's importance, and the consequences of frequently releasing it thorough sex or masturbation. Since today most of the youth are indulged in mansturbation and they think it to be good in comparison to doing sex with some female for ...
Read more