he knew how important ma‰gala-€rati was for us

[Guest guest]

"Although the Vrndavana nights are cold in the winter," Prabhupada said,

"the woman never once failed to come with the water. For this activity she

will return back to Godhead. One who cannot rise early in the morning is not

very serious about spiritual life. One must rise before the brahma-muhurta

hour -- that is very auspicious. And one will take the trouble to do so if

he is serious about spiritual life."

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SPL 33: A Lot of Ground to Be Covered

 

 

 

Giriraja: The program was very rigorous, because it was bitterly cold at

night and we were expected to get up at four o'clock in the morning and

bathe and attend mangala-arati. So a few staunch devotees like Tamala Krsna

and Hamsaduta got up early -- by three or three-thirty -- and walked all the

way from our camp to the Ganges to take an early-morning bath. But those of

us staying in the brahmacari tent were not so staunch, and generally when it

was time to get up at four o'clock it was so cold out that we preferred to

remain in our sleeping bags.

Srila Prabhupada also started to notice that some of us were coming late to

mangala-arati and that some of us were not coming at all. Prabhupada became

very upset about this, because he knew how important mangala-arati was for

us. So one morning, although he was a little frail in health, he got up at

four o 'clock and came out in his gamcha, sat down under the pump, and took

that ice-cold bath early in the morning -- just to encourage us to get up,

bathe, and come to mangala-arati. That had a very profound effect on all of

us, and we felt so ashamed that we just couldn't sleep late any more.

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SPL 33: A Lot of Ground to Be Covered