The Life of Lord Krishna's Devotee .

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Hare Krishna, Today I am forced to rise beyond a body that is feeling ill. It is my duty to always be engaged in the topmost welfare activity of distributing Krishna consciousness all over the world. Srila Prabhupada describes this duty as follows in his purport

to the Srimad Bhagavatam (16.26), "The life of a sincere devotee of the Lord is thus explained in a nutshell by Narada Muni by his personal example. Such a devotee, after his initiation by the Lord or His bona fide representative, takes very seriously chanting of the glories of the Lord and traveling all over the world so that others may also hear the glories of the Lord. Such devotees have no desire for material gain. They are conducted by one single desire: to go back to Godhead. This awaits them in due course on quitting the material body. Because they have the highest aim of life, going back to Godhead, they are

never envious of anyone, nor are they proud of being eligible to go back to Godhead. Their only business is to chant and remember the holy name, fame and pastimes of the Lord and, according to personal capacity, to distribute the message for others' welfare without motive of material gain." Whenever I get sick I take it as special blessing from Lord Krishna to remind me that this material world is full of miseries which can be resolved only with His grace. This awareness is key for our success . So I am trying to fully capitalize on Krishna’s special mercy. This morning I had been thinking it would be nice to drink a dob. (A dob is a green tender coconut which is full of coconut water. The dob merchant chops off the top of the coconut and provides

the customer with a straw to drink the coconut water.) Without my saying a word the devotees asked me if I would like a dob. I immediately accepted the offer. Rajashyama Prabhu pulled the van over and stopped in front of a roadside dob merchant's stand. Within two minutes he presented me a huge dob full of the most wonderful naturally produced and packaged-by-Krishna coconut water. After mentally offering the dob to

Krishna and remembering that Krishna is the taste of all liquid things, I relished that dob with great delight. Krishna’s mercy towards you is so natural and definite l that you can benefit from His grace simply by remembering that Krishna’s infinite power is within us at al times and He is constantly doing all the work using us as mere instruments. Every temple of Lord Krishna is a paradise. Why? Because Krishna is the center there. There is no one person in the temple who makes himself the center. Everyone bows down unto Krishna's lotus feet. The temple is indescribably beautiful like something out of a previous age. Everything is sacred : the floors, the walls, the pillars. The devotees sing sweetly in congregation the most serene prayers and the ever-increasingly blissful ever-present maha-mantra : Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare This is the truly powerful mystical experience. And from there is just keeps getting better and better until finally its time to take rest for the night with sweet transcendental dreams and then another day of simply wonderful nectar. You can experience this same exact sweetness of Krishna-prema (Love of Sri Krishna) in your home. All you have to do is make Lord Sri Krishna center of your home. Transform it into Krishna’s abode and you will be living in paradise also. Sankarshan das Adhikari QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Question-1 (What is "Good Work"?) After reading Srila Prabhupada’s books I can see that work done in Krishna consciousness carries with it no karmic reaction, but instead burns off collected karma. Since Srila Prabhupada is saying that “both good and evil work have their reactions” what is he referring to when he mentions “good work”? Thank you for your help in understanding. Ron Answer – (Beyond Good Work ) Good work means pious activities within this world such as opening charity hospitals. Good works oblige us to take birth again to be

rewarded. For example if I open a hospital and give free medical care to thousands of people my reward will be that in a future lifetime I will receive free medical care. But to qualify for free medical care I will have to become sick. So even good karma carries bad along with it. If you engage in Krishna’s service however, there is no karmic reaction of any variety, either good or bad. Sinful activities are called vikarma. Pious activities are called karma. And transcendental activities are called akarma. Akarma is the desired activity because it completely liberates us from our entanglement and past sins . That akarma is to fully surrender unto Lord Sri Krishna and follow His instructions given in Bhagavad Gita . Sankarshan Das Adhikari Question-2 ( I Want to Know about the secret of spiritual success. ) I am interested to learn about the path that can be followed easily to attain spiritual success . Thanks, S.R.Ananthanarayan Aiyar Answer - ( Bhakti First, Then Knowledge . ) First focus on developing pure bhakti towards Lord Sri Krishna . Then all knowledge will be yours. yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakasante mahatmanah ( "Only unto those great souls who have unflinching faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23 ) This is the secret of spiritual success. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Question-3 (Society of the Cheaters and the Cheated?). You have stated as follows: "Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur used to say that this material world is a society of the

cheaters and the cheated...". I think that is taking a very pessimistic view of the world. There are so many good and noble people in this world including yourself. Taking a more positive view of society would certainly benefit the individual in particular and mankind in general. Thank you S. Ravishankar Answer - (The Actual Positive Position ). The doctor who tells every patient there is nothing wrong with him is useless. A competent doctor correctly diagnoses the disease of his patient and gives him the appropriate medicine. The root cause of all suffering in this world is our misidentification with a material body which is forcing us to experience birth, death, old and disease. The fact is that practically the entire human society is being fed the poison of this false bodily conception of existence. Because of this mis-education 99.99% of the population think that they are their bodies and they propagate this philosophy also. Thus the cheating and cheated society is going on. The situation is so deplorable that when a great Guru points out this defect, the ignorant persons criticize him. If an intelligent person does not understand something he inquires submissively for clarification rather than criticizing. The actual positive position is to see the world's problems as they are and then to act with knowledge for rectifying the situation, not to ignore the world's problems hoping against hope that they will go away. Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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