Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Deity and Godbrothers
Q. by Bhushan Nityananda dasa
Nityananda!Gauranga!Hare Krishna!
Gurudeva please accept my humble dandavats at your lotus feet
dandavats at lotus feet of all Vaishnavas
1. Gurudeva, I had a question about diety worship. Diety of Lord Nitai GauraKrishna are non different from Them, how does one approach Them? When one goes to temple to see Shri Shri Radha Krishna ,Shri Shri Gaura Nitai, or when one goes to Dhaam and sees pastime places and Self manifested Dieties Lord Tota Gopinath, what should be the mood, how should one glorify and serve?
2. When one visits of Samadhis of Acharyas, what should be the mood and how should one glorify or respect and serve Them? Gurudeva since I am a neophyte and have absolutly no qualification and am filled with offenses, please tell how should I approach the most situations given above.
3. One more question I had regarding service of Vaishnavas, I heard that Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada said that if one accepts service from ones godbrothers/sisters one falls down. Is that true? But then Shrila Rupa Gosvami said that devotees always try to give each other gifts. Would accepting gifts from Godbrother/sisters lead to falldown? Or would it increase love? I am fallen, with dim intelligence hence I cannot understand the words of Acharyas. By serving Godbrothers/sisters is Shri Gurudeva also pleased? I mean like if everyone comes together and helps each other in advancement of KC. In what way would accepting services lead to falldown? Does it mean that one shouldnt serve devotees, as that would lead to thier falldown ?But everywhere its said one should serve devotees.
These statements sound very confusing because of my dim intelligence, please forgive me for mistakes and my ignorance.
Thank you sooo much
aspiring to be humble servant of your lotus feet
bhushan nityananda das
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna
Answer by Swami Gaurangapada:
Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Jaya Shri Guru Parampara! Pranams!
1. The mood should be that we are actually going to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. How much prepared we would be if we have an appointment with Lord Gauranga Krishna Himself? We should read or hear His Pastimes and chant His Names before going to see Him. When we are before him, we should audibly glorify Him with choicest prayers and kirtans by our Acharyas which we should memorize or read or sing for His pleasure in His presence. We should intensely pray for His causeless mercy for our deliverance. And we should offer Him our dandavats, flowers and fruits for His pleasure.
2.Same as above for the Acharyas' Samadhis. These Samadhis are non-different than the Acharyas themselves and the Acharyas are still present there. So we should go with the mood that we will be directly associating with them with a straw in our mouth (very humbly).
3. The six devotional reciprocations in Upadeshamrita are not the association which Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada and Shrila Prabhupada talked about in regards to accepting service from Godbrothers. They were talking about the attitude of seeing our Godbrothers and Godsisters as our servants or inferior to us and ordering them to do personal service for us like washing our clothes, errands etc. That should be minimized. Engaging each other in devotional service of Guru and Gauranga with the proper humble mood of a servant of the Vaishnavas is not prohibited by this injunction.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
Nityananda!Gauranga!Hare Krishna!
Gurudeva please accept my humble dandavats at your lotus feet
dandavats at lotus feet of all Vaishnavas
1. Gurudeva, I had a question about diety worship. Diety of Lord Nitai GauraKrishna are non different from Them, how does one approach Them? When one goes to temple to see Shri Shri Radha Krishna ,Shri Shri Gaura Nitai, or when one goes to Dhaam and sees pastime places and Self manifested Dieties Lord Tota Gopinath, what should be the mood, how should one glorify and serve?
2. When one visits of Samadhis of Acharyas, what should be the mood and how should one glorify or respect and serve Them? Gurudeva since I am a neophyte and have absolutly no qualification and am filled with offenses, please tell how should I approach the most situations given above.
3. One more question I had regarding service of Vaishnavas, I heard that Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada said that if one accepts service from ones godbrothers/sisters one falls down. Is that true? But then Shrila Rupa Gosvami said that devotees always try to give each other gifts. Would accepting gifts from Godbrother/sisters lead to falldown? Or would it increase love? I am fallen, with dim intelligence hence I cannot understand the words of Acharyas. By serving Godbrothers/sisters is Shri Gurudeva also pleased? I mean like if everyone comes together and helps each other in advancement of KC. In what way would accepting services lead to falldown? Does it mean that one shouldnt serve devotees, as that would lead to thier falldown ?But everywhere its said one should serve devotees.
These statements sound very confusing because of my dim intelligence, please forgive me for mistakes and my ignorance.
Thank you sooo much
aspiring to be humble servant of your lotus feet
bhushan nityananda das
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna
Answer by Swami Gaurangapada:
Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Jaya Shri Guru Parampara! Pranams!
1. The mood should be that we are actually going to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. How much prepared we would be if we have an appointment with Lord Gauranga Krishna Himself? We should read or hear His Pastimes and chant His Names before going to see Him. When we are before him, we should audibly glorify Him with choicest prayers and kirtans by our Acharyas which we should memorize or read or sing for His pleasure in His presence. We should intensely pray for His causeless mercy for our deliverance. And we should offer Him our dandavats, flowers and fruits for His pleasure.
2.Same as above for the Acharyas' Samadhis. These Samadhis are non-different than the Acharyas themselves and the Acharyas are still present there. So we should go with the mood that we will be directly associating with them with a straw in our mouth (very humbly).
3. The six devotional reciprocations in Upadeshamrita are not the association which Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada and Shrila Prabhupada talked about in regards to accepting service from Godbrothers. They were talking about the attitude of seeing our Godbrothers and Godsisters as our servants or inferior to us and ordering them to do personal service for us like washing our clothes, errands etc. That should be minimized. Engaging each other in devotional service of Guru and Gauranga with the proper humble mood of a servant of the Vaishnavas is not prohibited by this injunction.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
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