Saturday, October 20, 2007
Hope Against Hope
By Bhakta Igor
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
All glories to Swami Gaurangapada!
In our attempts to practice devotional service we may sometimes feel that we have no taste or that we do not have any qualification to properly act and execute such activities. But we should not feel hopeless. On contrary we should have faith and hope against hope, like Srilla Prabhupada wrote in Nectar of devotion:
"In this connection, one prayer by Rupa Gosvami is sufficient to exemplify this hopefulness. He says, "I have no love for Krishna, nor for the causes of developing love of Krishna -- namely, hearing and chanting. And the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one is always thinking of Krishna and fixing His lotus feet in the heart, is also lacking in me. As far as philosophical knowledge or pious works are concerned, I don't see any opportunity for me to execute such activities. But above all, I am not even born of a nice family.
Therefore I must simply pray to You, Gopijana-vallabha [Krishna, maintainer and beloved of the gopis]. I simply wish and hope that some way or other I may be able to approach Your lotus feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because I think myself quite incompetent to approach that transcendental goal of life." The purport is that under this heading of asa-bandha, one should continue to hope against hope that some way or other he will be able to approach the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord."
Srilla Prabhupada Chapter 18: Character of One in Ecstatic Love
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
All glories to Swami Gaurangapada!
In our attempts to practice devotional service we may sometimes feel that we have no taste or that we do not have any qualification to properly act and execute such activities. But we should not feel hopeless. On contrary we should have faith and hope against hope, like Srilla Prabhupada wrote in Nectar of devotion:
"In this connection, one prayer by Rupa Gosvami is sufficient to exemplify this hopefulness. He says, "I have no love for Krishna, nor for the causes of developing love of Krishna -- namely, hearing and chanting. And the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one is always thinking of Krishna and fixing His lotus feet in the heart, is also lacking in me. As far as philosophical knowledge or pious works are concerned, I don't see any opportunity for me to execute such activities. But above all, I am not even born of a nice family.
Therefore I must simply pray to You, Gopijana-vallabha [Krishna, maintainer and beloved of the gopis]. I simply wish and hope that some way or other I may be able to approach Your lotus feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because I think myself quite incompetent to approach that transcendental goal of life." The purport is that under this heading of asa-bandha, one should continue to hope against hope that some way or other he will be able to approach the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord."
Srilla Prabhupada Chapter 18: Character of One in Ecstatic Love
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
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