Qualities of Pure Devotion

[Guest guest]

Qualities of Pure Devotion

 

Dear Devotees and Friends:

 

Please accept our humble dandavats.

Hare Krsna.

 

–Satsanga MP3– Satanga: May 18, 2008 is now uploaded.

 

 

On the day of Narasingha Chaturdasi, the glories and divine pastimes of Lord

Narasingha deva, were chanted in the Satsanga. According to Vedic understanding

Narasingha Chaturdasi is the most auspicious day because on this very auspicious

day Lord Krsna incarnated as Lord Narasingha deva to protect His dear most

devotee Sripad Prahlad Maharaja. Srila Prabhupada has explained from Srimad

Bhagavatam that Sripad Prahlada Maharaja is the best among exalted devotees.

 

After Prahlad Maharaja pacified Lord Narasingha deva with prayers, Lord

Narasingha deva said, “My dear Prahlada, most gentle one, best of the family of

the asuras, all good fortune unto you. I am very much pleased with you. It is My

pastime to fulfill the desires of all living beings, and therefore you may ask

from Me any benediction that you desire to be fulfilled.” Narada Muni explains

that although Prahlada Maharaja was only a boy, when he heard the benedictions

offered by Lord Nròsimìhadeva he considered them impediments on the path of

devotional service. Thus he smiled very mildly and spoke as follows: My dear

Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because I was born in an atheistic

family I am naturally attached to material enjoyment. Therefore, kindly do not

tempt me with these illusions. I am very much afraid of material conditions, and

I desire to be liberated from materialistic life. It is for this reason that I

have taken shelter of Your lotus feet. O my worshipable Lord, because the seed

of lusty desires, which is the root cause of material existence, is within the

core of everyone's heart, You have sent me to this material world to exhibit the

symptoms of a pure devotee. Otherwise, O my Lord, O supreme instructor of the

entire world, You are so kind to Your devotee that You could not induce him to

do something unbeneficial for him.

 

Prahlad Maharaja continued, “On the other hand, one who desires some material

benefit in exchange for devotional service cannot be Your pure devotee. Indeed,

he is no better than a merchant who wants profit in exchange for service. A

servant who desires material profits from his master is certainly not a

qualified servant or pure devotee. Similarly, a master who bestows benedictions

upon his servant because of a desire to maintain a prestigious position as

master is also not a pure master. O my Lord, I am Your unmotivated servant, and

You are my eternal master. There is no need of our being anything other than

master and servant. You are naturally my master, and I am naturally Your

servant. We have no other relationship.”

 

In the Satsanga, HH BhaktiMadhav Puri Swami did invocation prayers to Prahlad

Maharaja and Narasingha deva. Then Maharaja engaged devotees in reciting the

glories of Sripad Prahlad Maharaja and Sri Narasingha Deva. Details are provided

below:

1) The summary of Srimad Bhagavatam chapter, (Canto 7, chapter 8) Lord

Nrsimhadev slays the King of the Demons -- http://vedabase.net/sb/7/8/summary/en

2) Summary of the pastime of Prahlad Maharaja and Nrsingha dev

--http://blogs.epicindia.com/bhagavatam/2005/10/son-of-hiranyakashipu.html

3) For auspiciousness HH Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaj chanted the 108

Holy Names of Lord Narasingha Deva.

 

Srila Prabhuapada has given the teachings of Srimad Bhagavatam that, “This

materialistic life means full of anxiety always. And spiritual life means

without this anxiety. Just the opposite. Brahma-bhutah prasannatma. And what is

the symptom of being joyful? That is also stated: na socati na kanksati.

There is no lamentation or loss, and there is no hankering for gain.

Everyone in this material world is hankering after some gain…The material waves

are such that whatever we possess, we shall lose it. We have got this nice body,

one day we have to lose it. Everything! You possess and lose, possess and lose.

Therefore the…, punah punas car…, the same thing repeatedly: gaining and

losing, and lamenting and hankering, lamenting and hankering. This is the

position of material life.”

Prahlad Maharaja Prayed to Lord Narasingha Deva, “O my Lord, best of the

givers of benediction, if You at all want to bestow a desirable benediction upon

me, then I pray from Your Lordship that within the core of my heart there be no

material desires. O my Lord, because of lusty desires from the very beginning of

one's birth, the functions of one's senses, mind, life, body, religion,

patience, intelligence, shyness, opulence, strength, memory and truthfulness are

vanquished. O my Lord, when a human being is able to give up all the material

desires in his mind, he becomes eligible to possess wealth and opulence like

Yours. O my Lord, full of six opulences, O Supreme Person! O Supreme Soul,

killer of all miseries! O Supreme Person in the form of a wonderful lion and

man, let me offer my respectful obeisances unto You.

 

Lord Narasingha Deva then benedicted Prahlada Maharaja with the following

words, “My dear Prahlada, a devotee like you never desires any kind of material

opulences, either in this life or in the next. Nonetheless, I order you to enjoy

the opulences of the demons in this material world, acting as their king until

the end of the duration of time occupied by Manu. It does not matter that you

are in the material world. You should always, continuously, hear the

instructions and messages given by Me and always be absorbed in thought of Me,

for I am the Supersoul existing in the core of everyone's heart. Therefore, give

up fruitive activities and worship Me. My dear Prahlada, while you are in this

material world you will exhaust all the reactions of pious activity by feeling

happiness, and by acting piously you will neutralize impious activity. Because

of the powerful time factor, you will give up your body, but the glories of your

activities will be sung in the upper planetary systems, and being fully freed

from all bondage, you will return home, back to Godhead. One who always

remembers your activities and My activities also, and who chants the prayers you

have offered, becomes free, in due course of time, from the reactions of

material activities.”

 

In the Satsanga, there was also a brief discussion about the ontological

position of Jaya and Vijaya, who are the two gate keepers of Vaikuntha and were

cursed to appear in the material domain as asuras for three births.

You can hear this Transcendental Nectar of Satsanga at

 

Leave a comment You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

You can browse year/month wise Streaming Satsanga MP3s at:

http://mahaprabhu.net/satsanga/ .

 

Timing of weekly Satsanga: 6:00 PM India time, Every Sunday.

 

You may visit http://mahaprabhu.net/satsanga/about/ to know the details about

joining process for the online ‘Weekly Satsangas’.

 

All Glories all Sadhus, Guru and Vaisnavas.

 

Thanking you.

 

Your humble servants

Purushottama Jagannatha Das & Sushen Das