Kindly Give Me A Pinch Of Ashes

suchandra · April 17, 2008

Obviously a saying of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja, pointing out what people generaly pray for.

Srila Prabhupada: People generally pray for material benefits: “O God, give us our daily bread. Give me nice position. Give me nice wife, nice following or this or victory,” so on, so on, so on, simply for material enjoyment. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that if we pray to God for all these nonsense things, it is just like a man goes to a king and the king says, “Whatever you want you can ask from me,” and if the man says, “Kindly give me a pinch of ashes.” It is like that. If we ask from God for some material benefit, it means that I am asking from a king a pinch of ashes. When king says that “You ask whatever you want,” he can say, “So give me half the kingdom.” That should be the prayer. And why a pinch of ash? Similarly, it is our foolishness. When we ask for bread, “O God, give us our daily bread,” that means I am asking. The bread is already there. Why for you? For everyone, for all living entities, the bread is already there given by God. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The elephant is not going to the church for praying, “Give me food.” He is supplied in the jungle food. A tiger is supplied food. Even ant is supplied food within the hole. Who is going to supply food there? How they are eating? How they are living? How they are begetting children? The same thing is there. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya- maithuna—everything is there in the ant, in the elephant. Who is supplying their necessities? So this is not the problem, these rascals. They are simply perplexed with this problem, how to eat, how to sleep, how to defend. This is already fixed up according to your karma. You simply try—save your time—how to advance in Krishna consciousness. That is your own business. Otherwise you are spoiled. And so far these things are concerned, that how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex life, and how to defend, this is already arranged. You cannot make betterment in this way. That is already fixed up. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ [Bg. 3.27]. According to your lot, according to your karma, you have been fixed up that “You shall eat like this, you shall sleep like this, you’ll have sex life like this, and you will be able to defend like this, not more than that.” That is not possible. That is called destiny. So by destiny this is already fixed up. Don’t spoil your life for these things.

full lecture:http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/730820BG.LON.htm?i=1973

Bhagavad-gītā 2.14

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

London, August 20, 1973

Pankaja_Dasa · April 17, 2008

So what shall I ask for?

mahak · April 17, 2008

rememberance

AncientMariner · April 19, 2008

That's all fine and dandy but in praying for bread so to speak at least the Christians acknowledge that they are dependent on God for their food. Seems like there is some submission in that prayer and that would be pleasing to Krsna it seems.

Pankaja_Dasa · April 19, 2008

Maharaja is not critisizing, although seems like that. Just pointing out that God give food, but it bhakti what God want. I meam it would be hypocritcle for hare krishna to offer food otherwise. GOD is providing food to Christians, Maharaja sees them as Vaishnava (Christians).

suchandra · April 19, 2008

So what shall I ask for?

"There is a story, that one old woman in the forest…I think it is in Aesop’s Fable or somewhere. So she was carrying a big bundle of dry wood, and somehow or other, the bundle fell down. It was very heavy. So the old woman became very much disturbed, “Who will help me to get this bundle on my head?” So she began to call God, “God, help me.” And God came, “What you want?” “Kindly help me to get this bundle on my head.” Just see. God came to give him benediction, and she wanted to “Give this bundle again on my head.”So we are doing the same thing. When we go to God we ask Him, “Kindly give me the bundle on my head. My family become may happy. I may have a large amount of money to enjoy material things.” We ask that. That is our foolishness. Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches us, therefore, that actually, if you want something from God, that should be only begging for His service. This Hare Krishna mahā- mantra means addressing God, “Krishna,” “Hari,” and His energy Harā, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī or Lakṣmījī, Hare: “O this internal potency of Krishna…” Hara is Krishna’s internal potency. The external potency is Durgā, and the internal potency is Rādhārāṇī. Jaya Rādhe. So this is daivī-prakṛti. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ [Bg. 9.13] The devotees, they take shelter of the daivī-prakṛti, Rādhārāṇī, Lakṣmījī. They worship, therefore, Vaiṣṇava, Rādhā- Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, Sītā-Rāma, the first of all, the energy. The energy. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is first addressing the energy, the internal energy, potency, of Kṛṣṇa. Hare. From Harā to Hare. That is the sambodhana. So Hare Krishna: “O Rādhārāṇī, or Lakṣmī, or Sītā, and Krishna, or Rāma, or Nārāyaṇa”—the same thing. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, addressing Them, “O my Lord, O my Lord’s energy.” So when you address somebody, you want to ask something. So if they reply, “Yes, why you are calling?” then we’re calling, “Please engage me in Your service.” This is the prayer, not that “Give me money” or “Give me beautiful wife” or many followers. This is material hankering.

http://www.gatelessgate.com/i1.html

Everyone wants some prestigious position, lābha pūjā pratiṣṭhā, some material profit, lābha, and prestigious position so that people will give him salaam, minister, president, and to become very famous, historically very famous. These are material hankerings. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, “No.” Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye. We don’t want. This is animittā bhakti. Nimittā, for some certain reason, if you become a bhakta, then you are not a śuddha-bhakta. You are a viddha(?)-bhakta, a polluted bhakta. Pure bhakti is anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [bRS 1.1.11], zero. Material hankerings, anything material, hankering, should be void. The void philosophy, nirvāṇa, that indicates that you should completely finish these material desires. That is Lord Buddha’s philosophy, nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa means material desires, to make it void, no more. Lord Buddha said up to that. Because the people who were following him, they were not so expert, advanced; therefore he did not say what is after giving up every desires. Because desireless it cannot be. Desires… People say that “You become desireless. Give up your all desires.” That give up all desires means you give up your material desires, because you cannot be desireless. Then you are dead body. But we are eternal living entity. Nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg. 2.20]. We are getting different types of body on account of different desires. So I become desireless of this habit; then I desire another habit. So that is going on."