Understand the principles of Vaishnava etiquette …….. Nectarean Mellows

January 30, 2008

"G u r u m u k h p a d m a v a k y a "

So some maturity and broad mindedness is required, but that maturity and broad mindedness should not make us reckless. Broad minded means to be able to accommodate so many different people with so many different perceptions of bhakti and they are all vaishnavas and to respect them accordingly; and maturity means not to do it recklessly, not anything that anyone is speaking about I am eager to hear. That type of broad mindedness has to be balanced with maturity of what actually is beneficial for me, what is approved, sanctioned and blessed by the guru, sadhu and sastra that we have taken shelter of. So love and respect should go to all vaisnavas, love and respect should go to every living entity but maturity is very important to understand how to offer that love and respect to a tiger from a distance, to a loving godbrother by embrace, to a senior vaishnava you put your head on his feet, senior vaishnava may embrace you but the etiquette is that you shouldn't be going up and embracing sannyasis; if they embrace you then you can embrace back because what else can you do!, but the etiquette is that you should bow down. So there is a way of respecting, there is a way of showing love, it is called vaisnava etiquette and if we understand the principles of vaishnava etiquette very carefully, we will never be confused; there will never be an impediment in maya on our path that will disturb our progress.

H H Radhanath Swami Maharaj

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-- ChantHare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare II Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare II --is the sublime method for reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our asociation with matter since time immemorial, our consciousness is now poluted by material atmosphere. In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in our complexities. This illusion is called Maya, or hard struggle for existence over the stringent laws of material nature. This illusory struggle against the material nature can at once be stopped by revival of our Krsna consciousness.

And Be Happy