Endurance by Mantra Yoga

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! You may be wondering, "How is it possible that with disturbances all around me, I should remain undisturbed?" It is possible when we depend on the power of God by taking His shelter whenever such inconveniences come. When we surrender to Him, He will give us the necessary will power, inner strength and patience to endure such trying circumstances.

This is the reason why godly people are able to stay undisturbed in the face of trials and tribulations, whereas those who are not sur­rendered to God, when faced with a crisis, usually seek refuge in some illusory escape-route such as  drinking or taking drugs. And sometimes, they may even go to the extent of committing suicide like a coward. At this juncture, you may ask, "Taking shel­ter of God is a very vague and abstract con­cept. Is there any practical way of actually doing this?" Certainly! We can very easily take shelter of God by  chanting His Holy Names.

The chanting of the Nityaananda and Gauraanga Mantrarajas and the Hare Krishna Mahamantra i.e. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Raama Hare Raama Raama Raama Hare Hare, when done  everyday, can give us tremen­dous inner strength and iron-like determina­tion to tolerate any situation in any walk of life. So by inner spiritual strength derived from regular chanting, we can learn to endure all the suffering of the world.

And of course it is not that we just have to go on enduring the blows of the world for the rest of eternity and that there will be no respite ever. Though we may be suffering at the present moment, we should know that, as we are performing devotional service to God, we are gradually becoming purified and we will eventually be taken out of this world of misery and be situated in the kingdom of God, an abode of eternity, bliss and knowl­edge, which is our original home. So as long as we are connected to God and are on our way back to God, we can be assured that in the future there will be no suffering for us and, even in the present, as we develop more and more tolerance, our suffering will keep decreasing. On the other hand, if someone has no connection to God, he is, at present, being helplessly tossed about in an ocean of suffering and, due to his present sinful activi­ties, he is going to be cast deeper into that ocean in the future. So as long as he does not connect himself with God, there will be no respite whatsoever in his sufferings. (Adapted from an article compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa, etc.)

How to Counteract Insults

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Generally we can see that our mind be­comes especially agitated whenever we are insulted and the thorn of the desire to take revenge torments the mind for a long time. The only way to control the mind in such cir­cumstances is by shutting our eyes to the in­sults. On reading this, you will probably be thinking, "Why in the wide world should I not take revenge on the person who has insulted me? He has caused me so much pain; he must suffer." But the reality is that he is not the actual cause of our suffering. We must have done some sinful activity in the past as a reac­tion to which we are insulted now as per the law of karma. And the person who has in­sulted us is just acting as an instrument in the hands of nature to deliver us our due suffer­ing. When we understand this, then we will be able to take the insult in a mature way with­out being unnecessarily agitated and without maintaining a vengeful feeling.

This is vividly illustrated in an instructive pastime that took place about 5000 years ago. The emperor of the whole world at that time  was Maharaj Parikshit. Once when he was go­ing through a forest, he was afflicted by se­vere thirst. Though he was the king of the en­tire world, here he was in the midst of the for­est and there was no one to fetch even a glass of water for him. At that time he saw a sage, Shamik rishi, performing penance in a hut. Being desperate to quench his thirst, he re­quested the sage to give him a glass of water. The sage was in deep trance and so he did not even hear the king. Parikshit was angered due to this apparently discourteous behavior of the sage. In his anger he put a dead snake around the neck of the sage and went away. After some time when the son of Shamik rishi Shringi came to know about how his father had been in­sulted, he pronounced a curse on Parikshit, "You will die after seven days due to the bite of a poisonous snake-bird."

When King Parikshit was informed about the curse, his response was highly exemplary. He was the emperor of the entire world and he was also a pure devotee of Lord Krishna. And for a minor mistake on his part, a young im­pudent boy had sounded his death-knell. If King Parikshit had wanted he could easily have counter-cursed Shringi. But far from try­ing to 'get even' with Shringi, Parikshit hum­bly accepted the curse and immediately re­nounced his entire kingdom in order to pre­pare for his imminent departure from this world. He went to the banks of the Ganges, offered his humble obeisances to the great sages assembled there and requested them:

tam mopayatam pratiyantu vipraganga ca devi dhrta-cittam
isedvijopasrstah kuhakas taksako va dasatv alam gayata visnu-gathah

"O brahmanas, just accept me as a com­pletely surrendered soul, and let mother Ganges, the representative of the Lord, also accept me in that way, for I have already taken the lotus feet of the Lord into my heart. Let the snakebird—or whatever magical thing the brahmana created—bite me at once. I only desire that you all continue singing the deeds of Lord Vishnu."

In this way Parikshit reacted to the curse in a very composed positive way. And conse­quently he was able to end his life on a very glorious note by returning to the kingdom of God. On the other hand if someone takes an in­sult very seriously then he can never be peace­ful as is seen from the story of Hiranyakashipu.

The king of the demons, Hiranyakashipu, was the master of all the three worlds. He had practically conquered the entire universe. Just by the raising of his eyelashes, all the power­ful demigods would start trembling in fear. His small five-year-old son, Prahlada, however, did not accept him to be supreme and. did not obey him. Though he was the emperor of the whole universe, just one tiny boy not accept­ing his supremacy was intolerable for him. His life became completely miserable; he lost his night sleep. He decided to ruthlessly murder small innocent Prahlada. But when all his at­tempts to do so were foiled, he became totally dejected. And finally Hiranyakashipu himself had to meet a ghastly death.

In the same way, if a hundred people re­spect us but one person insults us, that one insult makes us thoroughly miserable; the re­spect of hundred other people has no value for us. But if we understand that all these in­sults are coming upon us as a result of our past activities then we can learn to shut our eyes to the insults.And when we are insulted in such a way due to some reason, we should learn to for­get and forgive. We should never maintain grudges. If we nurture an ill feeling in our heart towards a man who has insulted us without openly expressing it, that is even worse than openly expressed anger. Suppressed anger is like mental cancer. It leads to sleeplessness, it poisons blood, it increases blood pressure and takes away all peace of mind. An insult is like spilt milk. If milk is spilt on the ground, then what can we do about it? Its finished; it's done. So we should learn to forget such incidents, which have already occured and just go ahead with our regular activities without becoming distracted or diffident. But if we nourish the grievances and brood over the past happen­ings, then not only does it cause immense pain to our heart but it may also lead to disas­trous consequences, as seen in the following incident from the Mahabharata.

When Drona, a brahmana's son, and Drupada, a prince, were studying in the same gurukula, they became close friends. One day, in a moment of intimate friendship, Drupada promised Drona, " When I inherit the kingdom of my father, I will give half of it to you." Later, Drupada went on to become the king of Panchal, whereas Drona became a poor brahmana. Once in a moment of acute pov­erty, when his son was crying piteously for milk and Drona  had no money to get any milk, he remembered the promise of his boy friend, Drupada. He therefore went to meet Drupada and reminded him of their old friendship. Sit­ting on his majestic royal throne, in the midst of the court, Drupada looked at the poor brahmana standing in front of him and said to him, "0 unfortunate brahmana, how do you consider me as your friend now? Past friend­ships are meaningless. Only equals can be friends. Now I am a great king and you are a poor brahmana. Do not try to invoke a long dead relationship." Saying this, Drupada laughed at Drona, gave him a little chanty and sent him off. Deeply insulted, Drona left Panchal, but his mind was fixed on revenge. He did not forget and forgive; instead he kept the memory of the incident burning in his heart and resolved to take revenge when the right moment came.

Later on Drona became the military teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. When they completed their training and asked him what guru-dakshina they could give him, Drona re­quested them to capture Drupada and bring him as a prisoner before him. On hearing the desire of their guru, first the Kauravas, headed by Duryodhana, attacked Drupada, who eas­ily defeated them. When the Kauravas returned defeated, the Pandavas, headed by Arjuna, in­vaded Panchal. They defeated Drupada, ar­rested him, brought him as a captive to their gurukula and threw him. at the feel of Drona. On seeing how Drupada had been thor-oughly humiliated, Drona smiled at him and asked him,  "Oh my dear king, do you now desire to revive our old friendship? It seems that your kingdom and wealth have all become mine." Humiliated and ashamed, Drupada couldn 't speak a word. Adding insult to injury, Drona further said, "After all, I am a liberal brahmana, I am not going to take away your life. Moreover I have always cherished affec­tion for you as a friend. So 1 still desire your friendship, but, my dear Drupada, friendship can only be among equals. Now you have lost your whole kingdom and have become a beg­gar. And your entire kingdom and wealth have now become mine. So how can friendship ex­ist between a king like me and a beggar like you9 Having pity on a beggar like you, I give half of my kingdom to you. " And Drona gave half of the kingdom of Panchal to Drupada.Although he felt severely insulted, Drupada kept silent, knowing that he was in no position to retaliate. He understood that the mar­tial power of Drona was much greater than his. And moreover Drona now also had the mighty Pandavas as his disciples. So Drupada quietly took half of the kingdom and went away, but in his mind, he resolved, "One day I will take revenge for this great insult. " Later Drupada performed a massive fire sacrifice (yajna) to beget a son Dhrishtadyumna, who would kill Drona.

Thus we can see that, when one is insulted by another, but is not ready to forget and for­give, then one insults the other, the other counter-insults the first and the fight goes on and on. So, when we meditate on insults, there is no end to such fights. Therefore instead of wasting our precious human form of life in brooding over such past events, it is better to turn to God and seek refuge in Him. And, even if our heart is very much pained by the insult, we should go to God for shelter just like Dhruva did. When he was insulted by his stepmother, Dhruva took the right shelter. He went to the forest and approached the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. By taking shelter of Lord Vishnu, in­stead of being left in the cold tofutilely mourn and grieve, all of the pains of Dhruva were wiped out and he achieved a kingdom greater than that of his great grandfather, Lord Brahma. In the same way, we can also become free from all suffering if we turn to God when we are insulted. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa.)

Doctor of the Mind

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! We all know that, somehow or other, if we can learn to control our mind, then we can accomplish many things in our life. So naturally, an of us are interested in controlling our mind. At the same time we are all well aware of the disastrous consequences of an uncontrolled mind. If the mind of a person is uncontrolled, it will make him miserable throughout his life and may harass him so much that he may even go to the extent of committing suicide.

Every intelligent person should learn to con­trol his mind and lead a peaceful life. There are many institutions offering courses on Mind Control, but most of them don't go to the root of the problem. They are based on only a superficial knowledge of the mind and the way in which it works. Mind control without proper understanding of oneself, God and the purpose of life is just an eyewash; it can yield no tangible benefit.

The mind frequently causes us a variety of problems. And amateur attempts to tackle these problems are bound to fail since the body-mind mechanism is extremely complex. Therefore the first step in mind control is to understand the answers to the following ba­sic questions: What is this body? Who am I? What is the purpose of this creation? In order to get authentic answers to these questions, the best course of action is to ap­proach the super-intelligent Designer of this body, the Mastermind behind the creation, namely, the Supreme Lord, and ask Him, "Why did You create all these problems?" This approach involves tackling the problems of life by going to their root cause and so it can pro­vide a permanent solution. Just as when we get a disease, we go to a doctor, an expert in that field, to diagnose the root cause of the disease and get it cured, similarly we need the help of a guru or a spiritual master, an expert in the knowledge of the essence of life, who can teach us why our mind and body give us so much suffering in this world and the way to permanently get rid of all suffering.

Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is universally acclaimed as the jagat guru or the spiritual master of the whole universe. And He is teach­ing Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita how to control one's mind and how to lead a pure life. Right at the outset of the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna that we are not these material bodies; we are actually spirit souls. This body is simply like a dress; it is just an external covering. The atma, the eternal being, who is the eternal servant of God, is now trapped in this body exactly like a parrot trapped in a cage. Being trapped in the body we are constantly suffering due to the miser­ies caused by the body and the mind. It is not  that we are suffering only now; our history of suffering dates back to many, many lifetimes. Therefore according to all the scriptures the ultimate goal of life, the only way to lasting happiness, is to liberate oneself from the cycle of birth and death and to achieve the king­dom of God. That is our original home and it is from there that we have come to this for­eign place, the material world.

Due to our stay in the material world, our mind has become the storehouse of varieties of thoughts, impressions and unfulfilled de­sires. These material impressions on the mind drag the atma from one body to another, birth after birth. Until all these material impressions are wiped out from the mind and pure spiri­tual consciousness is established, there is no possibility of returning back to the kingdom of God. But as long as we are in this material world, we are inescapably stuck up with the body  and the mind. And the mind gives us a variety of sufferings.

Herein we will try to learn a few tips, which can help us to control the mind. But these tips have to be applied while a person simul­taneously engages in cultivating knowledge about God, the ultimate goal of life and about himself. There is no overnight, short cut to control the mind; if it were so easy, modern man would not talk so much about mind con­trol. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa.)

Greed and Technology

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! People ask for peace of mind but they want to very carefully preserve their material greed. But the truth is peace of mind and material greed are incompatibles. You have to make your choice. It is wisely said, 'God has provided for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.'  An angry man can be pacified when he gives vent to his anger by chastising some­one; a thirsty man can be satisfied by having some water; a hungry man can be satisfied by having some food. But a greedy man can never be satisfied by anything, no matter how much he accumulates. So the only way to deal with greed is to give up the greedy mentality.

People go on increasing their facilities more and more, thinking that they are becoming bigger and bigger controllers. But, by increas­ing their facilities, they end up becoming slaves of those facilities. Just imagine a modern man surrounded on all sides by modern gadgets. He has a grinder; so he has no need to use his hand. He has a mobile phone; so he doesn't have to move from his bed to attend to phone calls. He has a remote control; so he doesn't have to get up from his bed for switching on the television. Nowadays there are remote switches even for fans and lights and one can switch them on from one's bed. In this way man has increased his luxuries and facilities and he thinks, "The control for the whole world is at my finger tips. Just by a slight move­ment of my fingers, I can control everything around me."

But, in the process, he becomes utterly dependent on these gadgets. If even one of them doesn't work properly, he becomes miserable. And what is the ultimate consequence of such needless indulgence? Those who use such gad­gets throughout their lives get a variety of bodily maladies in their old age. And when they go to a doctor, he tells them, "You have not done any exercise throughout your life. So now you have to move your hand up and down as if you were drawing water from a well." Or You have to rotate your hand working on a grinder " Or "You have every  ' morning for walking or jogging."

What an irony! By the arrangement of na­ture, man has to do all these things and, if he does them, he will never get rheumatic pain or any such sickness. But considering such basic bodily activities to be troublesome, he works hard to earn money to get gadgets to avoid doing these things. But on getting such gad­gets, he suffers because he becomes utterly dependent on them. And, in the end, he gets health problems and is forced to do the very things, which he originally wanted to avoid! But despite the foolishness of it all, unfor­tunately people today increase their needs more and more and work hard like donkeys to accumulate more wealth for procuring these facilities. But it only entraps them fur­ther. For example, in the modern times, there is the credit card system. A person can take any gadget he wants just by showing his credit card. Tempted by the desire to have the best facilities in his house, he takes many expen­sive gadgets. But later he finds out that he has to work like a donkey for another ten or twenty years just to pay the installments for what he purchased using his credit card.

So in this way people think that they are getting more and more facilities and that they are enjoying but actually they are only increas­ing their suffering. The material nature cre­ated by the Lord, Maya, is so powerful that she thoroughly cheats those who try to ex­ploit her resources without using them in the service of God, as is illustrated by the follow­ing story.

Once upon a time a sadhu was climbing a mountain. Finding the climb laborious, he thought how nice it would be if he could climb the mountain on horseback. He therefore started singing, "Hey Rama ghodi dila de, hey Rama, ghodi dila de". "O Lord Rama please give me a horse. " And lo and behold! While he was praying like this, a passerby came and, seeing a sadhu struggling to climb the moun­tain, donated a horse. The sadhu was very happy that the Lord had fulfilled his desire immediately. He promptly mounted the horse and contin­ued climbing up the mountain. After some time, all of a sudden, the horse stopped and, despite repeated proddings, would not budge even an inch. When he got down to see what was wrong, he noticed that the horse was actually a mare. She had been pregnant and had just given birth to a baby horse. And due to her natural mater­nal affection for her offspring, she was not ready to leave it.

Perplexed, the sadhu wondered how he could make the horse move. Suddenly an idea struck him and he picked up the baby horse and started walking. Being attached to her off­spring, the mare quietly followed him. The sadhu was very pleased with himself, "Just see how clever I am! I have tricked the horse into walking." But after just a few steps he started panting due to the weight of the foal. He then started thinking, "Hey! Wait a minute! I wanted a horse to carry me, but I have ended up carry­ing a horse! I was much better off earlier; at least I did not have any burden to carry."

In this way we sometimes increase our fa­cilities in order to enjoy life but later we see that those very facilities become sources of trouble; we become slaves of those facilities. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa.)

Recognition by Godly People

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Instead of aspiring for such ephemeral and temporary worldly recognition we should be aspiring to be recognized by God and His Devotees. Why? Because God is a person who loves you for what you are and not for what you have. And He loves you so much that He remains your greatest well wisher and heart-to-heart friend, even if you are not in the least interested in Him.

There­fore, instead of directing our craving for recognition towards the people of this world, we should redirect it towards the Lord and His representatives, the saintly persons who are our real well-wishers and friends.

A person can do this only when he has un­derstood what is the greatest achievement in life. In modern times, people generally think that earning fabulous sums of money or going abroad and returning with a lot of wealth or leading a very happy family life or having hun­dreds and thousands of possessions is the greatest achievement in life. But history shows that anybody who thought like this had to suffer terribly in the end. The inevitable time factor defeats all such hedonistic plans for en­joyment and reduces to nothing all one's ac­complishments exactly like the roaring waves of a ocean devastating a sand castle built by a child. This is the harsh reality of the material world. That is why Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu says, "I don't aspire for wealth, opposite sex or followers", but rather He prays to the Lord, "Please give me pure love for you." As the scriptures proclaim, prema pumartho mahan "The greatest achievement in all of creation is to achieve pure love of God." Why? Because the only true need of each one of us is happiness. And happiness comes only when we truly love and are truly loved. And the only person worthy of reposing love in is God, because He alone can be the eternal object of our love; all other so-called loving relationships are inevitably severed by the sharp sword of time.

We can achieve happiness and peace of mind auto­matically if we re-awaken our dormant love of God. And this love can be awakened sim­ply by serving and remembering God in what­ever we do and by chanting His Holy Names of Nityananda, Gauranga and Hare Krishna. But instead of trying to re-establish our re­lationship with God, if we get entangled in the rat race for recognition, we will be doomed to disappointment and frustration. While we are alive, we will never get any peace of mind and, at the time of death, we will re­alize that we have been cheated because all the things, which we gave our entire lives to obtain, will be forcibly taken away. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa.)

Craving for Fame

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Craving for worldly glory and recognition is the surest way to physical and mental rest­lessness. The whole world is running madly after name, fame and recognition. But why do we want recognition? Have we ever asked ourselves this question? We want name, fame and recognition so that people may under­stand our greatness. Many people in this world consider themselves to be very great persons and so want all people to greatly respect themselves.

Even some of those, who don't have any extraordinary abil­ity or talent by which they can become famous, try to obtain fame by connecting themselves with those who are famous. That is why people want to have their photograph taken with a popular film star or cricketer; so that they can show it to others and make an un­spoken statement, "Just see! I am putting my hands on the shoulder of this famous crick­eter. Just see it! And understand my great­ness!" Thus most people want to achieve rec­ognition in some way or the other.

But in complete contrast, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu prays:

na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisha kamaye
mama janmani janmani isvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

"O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accu­mulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of follow­ers. I only want your causeless devotional ser­vice birth after birth." (Shikshashtakam 4) The first reaction of most people on hearing this prayer is shock and utter disbelief. Wealth, women and followers are what people hanker and toil tirelessly for throughout their lives. But to the degree a person is hankering for recognition from worldly people, to that degree his mind will be torn to pieces. Why? Because the harsh unpalatable truth is that no one in the world respects you, has any con­cern for you or is even  interested in you; their respect, concern and interest are all for what you possess. Countless examples can be given to substantiate this truth:

A prostitute will smile at a man, speak sweetly with him and provide him with all enjoyment; due to her behavior, the man may naturally start thinking, "O she's attracted to me. I am so handsome!" But she is not the least interested in him; the moment his pocket is empty, she will disappear.

When a tree is full of fruits, multitudes of birds flock to the tree. The tree may think, "All these birds are coming to me. I am such an important entity." But the moment the fruits get over, not a single bird even glances at the tree.

When many charming deer are grazing in a forest, the forest may think, "I must be so wonderful that even these beautiful deer are coming to me." But when there is no green grass in the forest, the deer will not stay there even for a moment.

Similarly, it appears that all the people, who surround you, are interested in you and that they are all impressed by your greatness. But when you grow old and are no longer beautiful or when you lose the opulence that you have today, none of these people will come near you; they will simply disappear. Films stars and cricketers have thousands of fans in their youth and they feel on top of the world, re­ceiving the adulation of their fans. But when they grow old, none of their fans pays even the slightest attention  to them, leave alone respecting or adulating them. And for one who has been famous, obscurity is worse than death. For example, there was a cel­ebrated football player and, due to his excep­tional talent in maneuvering the ball with his foot, he had millions of fans all over the world literally mad after him (or so he thought). But one day he somehow broke his leg and he could no longer play football. And that was the end of all his fame; not even a single soul would come to meet him thereafter. Even if nothing like this happens to a famous person, still all his accumulated wealth, possessions,recognition etc., are going to be lost in the sands of time at the time of death. In this way we can easily understand that being mad for recognition from the people of the world is foolishness. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa.)

Envy and the Hand of God

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Resentment and envy for the success of others are actually a sign of cowardice, a sign of the ab­sence of the courage to accept the reality that we cannot control the world around us. We are disturbing the peace of mind for no gains whatsoever, because nobody has the power to change the will of God. Wisdom lies in understanding that the happiness and distress destined for us at the time of our birth, as fixed according to our past karma, are inevitably going to come, no matter what we do. just as distress comes in our life unin­vited, by higher arrangement, happiness will  also come of its own accord.

Therefore real wisdom lies in seeing the loving and well-wish­ing hand of God behind everything that hap­pens in our lives. Only with such a vision can we live in peace. But if a person is jealous of others and is trying to pull them down or destroy them, then he can never be at peace. Why? Because such a person is concerned not so much with how well he has fared, but with how badly others have fared. His success lies in the fail­ure of others. His mentality is like that of a crab, who having been trapped in a fisherman's basket along with many other crabs, is wor­ried, not about saving his own life by jumping out of the basket, but about pulling other crabs down so that he may stay at a higher level than them within the basket. What an utterly foolish mentality!

Therefore an intelligent person, a devotee of God, does not measure his success by such a meaningless standard - the failure of oth­ers. He understands that real success in life is in pleasing God because only by the mercy of God can all problems be solved, once and for all. And  knowing that everything happens by the will of God, he lives by the wise saying: what cannot be cured has to be endured.

This same truth is taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita (2.14)
matra sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna sukba duhkha dah
agamapayino 'nityas tarns titikisasva bharata

Krishna says, "O son of Kunti, the nonper-manent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being dis­turbed."

For example, the duty of a housewife is to cook. In the summer season, though the kitchen may be very hot, she cannot say, "I will cook only in the winter. In summer, the kitchen is very hot. So I cannot cook." Even though the kitchen may be hot, she has to just tolerate the heat and go on with her duty of cooking.

In the same way, we have to know that there are many things in life, which are beyond our control. If a person thinks, "I can control ev­erything in every situation throughout my life", the mind of such a person will be literally torn to pieces. An intelligent person knows that God is the Supreme Controller and that He is controlling everything that is happening throughout the world as well as in his own life. Such a person, who sees with the eyes of knowledge, can understand that he is bound from head to toe by the laws of nature. When we ourselves are so completely controlled, how then can we expect to control every situ­ation, or for that matter, any situation? Therefore though there may be hundreds of incon­veniences, annoyances and irritations from the moment we wake up every morning to the moment we sleep at night (and even when we are asleep), we have to understand that they are not within our power to change. So we should learn to tolerate them without be­ing disturbed. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa.)

Career, Karma, No Peace

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! We should also know that no one can make or mar our career. Sometimes we imagine, "A has blocked my promotion." or  "B has ruined my business by competing in the same field." and so on. And due to such imaginary conceptions, we feel envy and animosity to­wards others. But actually our career and life is shaped by our previous karma; others can­not influence it.

A typical example of one nourishing such needless envy and enmity is Duryodhana. Right from the time the Pandavas came to Hastinapura as small children, Duryodhana was envious of them. He was afraid that they might take over the kingdom. So. to destroy them, he hatched various demoniac schemes such as feeding Bhima a poisonous cake, gift­ing the Pandavas a palace made of inflammable shellac and then arranging to have it set on fire so that they would burn to death and so on. But by none of these tricks could he succeed in killing them. Later during the svayamvara of Draupadi, he became mad with lust on seeing her exquisite beauty, but he was crestfallen when he could not win her hand. And when the Pandavas won the hand of Draupadi, his envy increased manifold.

When he realized that the Pandavas had be­come very powerful and wealthy due to their alliance with Drupada, the father of Draupadi and the king of Panchal, he feared that they might attack and defeat him. So he decided to give them half of the kingdom, but once again, due to his envious nature, he tried to cheat them by offering them the barren part of the Kuru kingdom called Khandavaprastha.But, by the mercy of Lord Krishna, that deso­late land was miraculously transformed, in no time, into the great city Indraprastha. Indraprastha was a magnificent and opulent city filled with learned brahmanas, chivalrous kshatriyas, well-to-do vaishyas and faithful shudras. All the subjects were living a very happy God-centered life in accordance with the Vedic scriptures. All the cows, women, old men, children and brahmanas were properly protected. The mellifluous chanting of auspi­cious Vedic mantras could be heard every­where in the city. And Mayadanava con­structed the Mayasabha, a gorgeous mansion akin to a heavenly abode, for the Pandavas. When Duryodhana heard about the opulence of the Pandavas, he just could not stand it. In fact the very thought that was now the em­peror of the world caused him indescribable agony. He felt that that position was his ex­clusive birthright and that the Pandavas had unlawfully usurped his position.

At that time, Maharaj decided to conduct the Rajasuya yajna to establish the supremacy of Lord Krishna. He invited all the kings and sages from all over the universe for the yajna. At the time of the yajna, he allocated various services to his relatives and close friends. He requested Bhishma and Drona to oversee the organization of the sacrifice, Dushasana to take care of distribution of food to all the guests, Ashvatthama to attend to the brahmanas and Duryodhana to receive all the gifts. Lord Krishna took the humble role of washing the feet of all the sages and brahmanas arriving for the Rajasuya yajna. Seeing the hundreds and thousands of price­less gifts that came for Yudhishtir, Duryodhana's heart burnt with envy. And when he saw the incomparable opulence of the famed palace of the Pandavas, the Mayasabha, he could no longer control his jealousy. He sniffed and huffed and frowned harshly at the innocent servants who were cheerfully passing by within the place. He was in a state of total misery and despondency. On his way back to Hastinapura, Duryodhana told his uncle, Shakuni, "It is impossible for me to see the prosperity of the  Pandavas. What man who possesses any self-respect can bear to see his enemies prosper more than him? How can I ever equal the power and the opulence of the Pandavas? All my efforts to do so have been frustrated. And my attempts to destroy the Pandavas have also met with total failure. On the contrary, they are flourishing like lotuses in a pond. Therefore I cannot live any longer. 1 will enter into fire or I will swallow poison and thus end my life. Please inform my father Dhritarashtra about the terrible anguish I am in. " And while he was speaking, the fire of envy in his heart started burning more and more and he became even more fearful that the Pandavas would vanquish him.

When Dhritarashtra came to know about the devilish mentality of Duryodhana, he tried to pacify him, "My dear son, whatever you may want for your enjoyment is already at your dis­posal. Our opulence is no less than that of the gods in heaven. We have immense wealth, magnificent mansions, the best of clothes, the finest food and beautiful women. All these are just waiting to give you pleasure. What rea­son is  therefor you to become depressed?"  Duryodhana sullenly muttered, "Don't you know that got thousands of invaluable gifts in the Rajsuya yajna?"

Dhritarashtra suggested, " You can also perform a similar sacrifice and you will also get those gifts." But Duryodhana knew that he would not get even one tenth of the gifts that Yudhishthira got.

Therefore the evil-minded Duryodhana, along with the diabolical Shakuni, decided to devise some devious way, by which the Pandavas could be destroyed. Duryodhana knew that he could not challenge the Pandavas in a battle; they would easily defeat him. So he decided to invite the Pandavas to a gambling match so that they could be cheated of  their kingdom and be exiled into the forest. Even during the exile of the Pandavas, Duryodhana, though the emperor of the en­tire world, was constantly in anxiety about the possibility of the return of the Pandavas in the future; he was never at peace. On the other hand, the Pandavas, who were great devotees of Krishna, being nonenvious, lived peacefully though they were in utter poverty in the forest.

In a similar way, in the present times of cutthroat competition, most people live totally insecure lives, being torn apart by im­measurable anxieties, "This person is trying to pull me down", "It is only because of that person that I cannot progress in my life", "That person is growing bigger than me, how can I cut him down?" Such people grit their teeth, bite their lips, frown, grumble, brood and, riding on the chariot of their mind, make elaborate plans to destroy all their so-called enemies and become supreme. But all their endeavors are repeatedly frustrated and they have no peace of mind whatsoever. (Compiled by Radheshyam Dasa)

Mind Control Game

 Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! The search for happiness is the eternal quest for every living entity. In the modern times, the propaganda throughout the world is to work very hard to earn ones livelihood to accumulate more and more wealth to increase one's name and fame and thus become happy.

Consequently, everyone is caught up in an environment of cut-throat competition In such a situation, every avenue to stay alive to get ahead in life is thoroughly exploited. Mind control plays a decisive role in determine the performance and shaping the future of a person and it has therefore become a buzzword in professional circles nowadays. Unfortunately no one knows how to control the mind and for what. This is due to a lack of spiritual Vedic knowledge. The rare and valuable human life is wasted in playing unsuccessful mind control games.