How to be blissful when you're suffering like hell..--19 Aug 2024 (C.E.538)

Thought For the Day

The Ultimate Self Realization Course

"Godhead is light. Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience."

Krishna


How to Be Blissful When You Are Suffering Like Hell

Does it seem impossible? The answer is, "Yes, it can be done." In this regard Lord Sri Krishna explains as follows in Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 2, Text 28:

yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ
kūrmo 'ṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

"One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness."

Srila Prabhupada gives the following purport to this verse:

"The test of a yogī, devotee, or self-realized soul is that he is able to control the senses according to his plan. Most people, however, are servants of the senses and are thus directed by the dictation of the senses. That is the answer to the question as to how the yogī is situated. The senses are compared to venomous serpents. They want to act very loosely and without restriction. The yogī, or the devotee, must be very strong to control the serpents—like a snake charmer. He never allows them to act independently. There are many injunctions in the revealed scriptures; some of them are do-not's, and some of them are do's. Unless one is able to follow the do's and the do-not's, restricting oneself from sense enjoyment, it is not possible to be firmly fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The best example, set herein, is the tortoise. The tortoise can at any moment wind up its senses and exhibit them again at any time for particular purposes. Similarly, the senses of the Kṛṣṇa conscious persons are used only for some particular purpose in the service of the Lord and are withdrawn otherwise. Arjuna is being taught here to use his senses for the service of the Lord, instead of for his own satisfaction. Keeping the senses always in the service of the Lord is the example set by the analogy of the tortoise, who keeps the senses within."

Suffering and enjoyment is due to the interaction between the senses and the objects of the senses. But if we withdraw our senses from interacting with external sense objects by absorbing them in Krishna consciousness we will no longer be buffeted by the

pains and pleasures of this material world. In this state even if externally we are suffering like hell, which is my current conditioned with a pinched nerve, we can relish the sweet mellows of Krishna consciousness within our hearts.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

We Can Learn a Valuable Lesson from the Tortoise

Tortoise

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Questions and Answers

My obeisance unto Gurudeva and Guru Mataji,
All glories to Prabhupada,

Hare Krishna,

While chanting, my voice is not pleasing to me but then I listen to Prabhupada chant and I chant along, chanting becomes so sublime. Is this process good?

Yours obediently,
Shivani Shah Saxena

Answer

From: ISKCON Austin, Texas USA

My Dear Shivani,
Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

When you chant, Krishna Himself is dancing on your tongue. So you can relish the sound of your own
chanting. And it is also nice to hear Srila Prabhupada’s chanting. If you want to chant your japa while also hearing Srila Prabhupada’s that is not
required because Srila Prabhupada never told us that we have to do this. But if you want to do this, that is okay.

I hope this meets you in the best of health.
Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari


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