Permanent Departure from the access to email and internet

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Permanent Departure from the access to email and internet

 

Dear Vaisnavas,

Please accept my dandavat pranams. __o______.

All Glories to Shrila Prabhupada, Sarasvati Thakura & Thakura Bhaktivinoda!

All Glories to Sri Nitai-Gauranga,Their Eternal Associates& Navadvipa-dhama!

All Glories to the Hare Krishna maha-mantra & Shri Radha-Madana-mohana!

All glories to all the bhakti-smrti-sastras and the brhat-mrdanga!

 

After accepting the sannyasa order of life on 18 Sept 2001 at 30 years of

age, I was very eager to very strictly follow the instructions of the Srila

Prabhupada, the acaryas and Lord Caitanya for the dealings of a sannyasi.

 

I accepted sannyasa for three purposes: chanting, writing and preaching.

Chanting is the principle activity for a renunciant. vairagira krtya sada

nama-sankirtana. The only duty of a person in the renounced order of life is

to chant constantly. The other foremost duty is to write books according to

Srila Prabhupada. And to travel and give discourses. For the first few years

as a sannyasi I want to engage in intense chanting and writing (translation

the books on the pastimes of Lord Caitanya and the holy name into Indian

languages).

 

I have preaching through email for the past few years now by regularly

sending Krsna-katha messages and answering the philosophical questions of

the devotees. But I have been finding that email preaching is kind of

impersonal and like an intoxication. You gradually develop a desire to check

your email inbox every few hours etc. Sometimes hours and hours go by in a

day without notice while answering emails and my main activities of chanting

and writing are effected. And nothing much comes out of it, in the sense

that the reciprocation from the Vaisnavas remains quite impersonal. Over all

these years I am not quite satisfied in the core of my heart after spending

so many hours for email.

 

Also as we know that the internet is greatly hazardous to spiritual life if

misused. I have always been thinking about this point. There is an

injunction not to sit with your daughter, mother or sister in a solitary

place. But when we sit to connect ourselves to the internet we are most of

time alone. Sometimes without any invitation we are presented with some

lust-inciting picture or text ad over the internet even while trying to

check the eamil. For a sannyasi to see such things is worse than drinking

poison. If the mind slips even a little bit at such times (or at weak times)

then one can ruin his years of spiritual advancement in one second.

 

I would go to the extent of saying that access to internet is like having an

obscene magazine on my bookshelf. Even though I may not want to see it

because it is there someday or at some point when the mind is weak, it may

induce one to pick it up and then one is spiritually finished.

 

After serving in Krishna consciousness for the past many years and building

up my spiritual life by gradually increasing my chanting, I don't want to

risk it even a little bit with this potential danger, especially since I

have accepted the sannyasa order. sannyasira alpa chidra sarva loka gaya.

When a sannyasi has a private access to the internet, I think (personal

opinion) it is a valid reason on the part of the people to criticize him on

that point or become suspicious because internet is potential

sense-gratification at it's best. Prabhupada said that a sannyasi should be

very very careful because he has great responsibility.

 

Someone may say that even going out on the street is danger because we see

so much lusty propoganda. But I would say that at that time we are not alone

and there are people all around us so the mind cannot trick you so easily at

that time. If a brahmacari & sannyasi has to go out and do a gross sinful

act he has to plan a lot and with a lot of effort hide himself and do it.

Ofcourse if someone is duplicitous, then he will use the computer itself for

sense-gratification like secretly seeing films movies or playing video games

etc etc. I am not talking about those who are determined to sin secretly in

some way or other. There are those who are sincere but may get carried away

sometimes due to the weakness of their mind suddenly and accidentally due to

this access with the internet. This is because they kept a loop-hole

somewhere and did not completely give up the contact with the sense-objects.

I feel that this is always a potential danger for such sincere spiritual

aspirants.

 

In such a case I feel that internet is a great trap masterminded by Maya

especially for a aspiring spiritualist. First Maya makes internet and email

indispensible for day to day work and then She uses the same to attract our

minds and make us falldown. She presents to us so many strong arguements why

giving up internet and email is absolutely impratical etc. etc. Also there

is no limit to the nonsense material available on the internet and thus Maya

fulfills all the desires for sense-gratification through this medium. What

Maya does is that She may capture us (make us falldown) repeatedly &

secretly through this internet and gradually as sins are never kept hidden

it manifests in an external gross falldown. This is how Maya intelligently

gets Her stronghold even on a devotee who does not want to fall prey to Her.

 

I have personally seen many devotees having big problems with the internet

and loosing their taste. Srila Sarasvati Thakura said that brahmacaries and

sannyasis in the Math are not advancing because they may be secretly engaged

in sinful activities. I have thus concluded for my own benefit that this

personal access to the internet especially for a renunciant as a very great

potential danger for his falldown.

 

Also at present I am trying to start some preaching center alone. So I have

to be even more careful to remain very strict and preach by maintaining a

high level of purity. Otherwise no one will listen to me. Also atpresent I

don't have any one to do the emailing on my behalf or act as my secretary.

 

Like HH Jayadvaita Maharaj has pointed out some time ago, email can surely

and gradually become a big disturbance to spiritual life if one is not very

careful. Again I am not willing to risk my consciousness by playing with

fire (emaila nd internet). Because even if one is very careful there are

always the weak times because of our anarthas. And that is when Maya does

the most damage.

 

All the above points are my personal thoughts and I don't want to impose

them on others. I put them in writing so that some sara-grahi Vaisnava may

learn something from these points.

 

Thus I have decided to permanently (till the end of my life) withdraw from

personal contact with email and internet. In the future if I get someone to

help me then I reply or send some important email messages but even this I

am not so keen about.

 

I thank all the devotees who have tolerated me for all this time and engaged

me in their service by accepting the emails I have been sending about Krsna

consciousness. I beg you all to keep on praying for me so that I can do

something useful in this life to glorify Sri Nitai-Gauranga and Srila

Prabhupada.

 

Daso'smi, Tridandi Bhikshu Bhatiratna Sadhu.

brsadhu (AT) rediffmail (DOT) com

 

P.S. I will login for a few times more so if you have some comments,

suggestions or advice please instruct me asap.