Our Eternal Friend

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! God is our only eternal friend. To be frank with you, the harsh reality that no one in this world is interested in you. Don't expect the world to rush to your rescue when you are in trouble; it will just not happen. Far from run­ning to help you, even our best friends may run away from you when you are in trouble...

There are many levels of friends - official friends called bandhu, social friends called mitra and so on. But Lord Gauranga Krishna is our only real friend. He is therefore called suhrt, meaning that He is our heart-to-heart friend. There is no one as close to us as God, although we may not know it. God is such a great friend, that even if we forget Him, even if we neglect Him, even if we become envious of Him, He still loves us. Just as a selfless mother only wants to serve her child always, irrespective of whether he is obe­dient, disobedient or naughty, similarly God is always very keen to help us, whether we re­ciprocate with Him or not. Krishna says, suhridam sarva bhutanam "I am the suhridam, well wisher, of every living entity. I am the heart to heart friend of every living entity." So we should always learn to keep God in the center of our lives.

An ideal example of this is Arjuna. Arjuna never did anything unless it was connected in service to Lord Krishna. Even his act of fighting was for the pleasure of Lord Krishna; before going to the battlefield, he circumambulated Lord Krishna and offered Him obeisances. So for Arjuna, there was no one as close as Lord Krishna. And the same is true for every living entity because Lord Krishna says: sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto "I am residing in the heart of everyone as the Parmatama." So in the hearts of each one of us, besides the soul there is the Supersoul, who is an expansion of Krishna. And the Paramatma is always ready to help us and give us guidance about what to do and what not to do.

Therefore we should work for gaining God's friendship; it is the greatest gain. And when we have that, peace of mind is an automatic byproduct. We cannot achieve peace of mind overnight by taking some pills told by some doctor. Nor can we achieve it by following some godless mechanical methods. Sometimes people teach some mind control techniques in which they say, "Imagine a form." or "imag­ine a picture." But all such methods are futile because they cannot give lasting peace of mind. Actual peace of mind can arise only out of spiritual growth and such spiritual growth is greatly aided by external support and greatly marred by external incompatibilities. The aiding supports are all those things, which en­hance the mode of goodness (sattva guna) in us. For example, by taking spiritually sattvika diet known as prasadam, wearing sattvika dress, living in a sattvika environment, coming to sattvika association of those who are devotees of God and reading spiritual books, we can enhance our understanding about God. And in this way all these sattvika habits can help us to come closer to God and become internally mature On the other hand, if we associate with those things, which increase the lower modes of passion and ignorance in us, our mind will be­come more and more agitated. For example, by watching horror movies, seeing porno­graphic pictures, taking intoxicants etc, we will go further away from achieving peace of mind. (Adapted from an article compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa, etc.)

Laws of God

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! We have to understand that unless we agree to abide by the laws of God, we can never achieve peace of mind. This can be understood from an example. Suppose a person wants to break all the laws of the government; he wants to steal, he wants to harm others etc...

And he comes running to you and asks you, "I want to be peaceful. But I also want to break the laws of the state. Please tell me how I can still have peace of mind." What solution can you offer such a person? An intel­ligent person will advice him, "My dear friend, first of all you follow the laws of the country. Then when you are living as an ideal citizen, you can be free from persecution and anxiety and can live peacefully."

In a similar way, the whole world is the state of God; after all, He has created it. And He has also made many laws for those who live in the world. These laws of the divine government are given in the bona fide scriptures of the world. So an intelligent person should hear the scriptures from the saintly people and, based on scriptural  knowledge, he should discrimi­nate between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad, and act accordingly. And in this way, when he carefully follow the instructions of God given in the scriptures throughout his life, then he can have peace of mind. (Adapted from an article compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa, etc.)

Superior Spiritual Enjoyment

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Many people understand, at an intellectual level, that material enjoyment is always the cause of suffering, but still despite their best efforts to restrain themselves, they are un­able to give up the desire to enjoy. Therefore the million-dollar question is: how can we give up the enjoying mentality?

It is possible only when we engage all our senses in the service of God. Our senses are like venomous serpents with the fangs of the enjoying mentality. But if we engage the senses in the service of the Lord, it is like removing their poison teeth. Without its fangs, a snake can cause no harm. Similarly if our senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, they be­come harmless. Service to the Lord gives us a higher pleasure, which enables us to give up the pleasure derived from sense enjoyment.How can one engage the senses in the ser­vice of the Lord? By using our eyes in behold­ing the beautiful forms of the Deities in the temple, by using our hands in cutting veg­etables for the Lord  and in washing the temple, by using our legs in going to the temple of Lord Gauranga Krishna, by using our whole body for dancing in front of the Lord, by using our tongue for chanting the Holy Names of God, especially the Nityananda and Gauranga Mantrarajas and the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and for honouring prasadam. In this way all our senses can be purified of the contamination of the desire to enjoy.

And if our mind starts making too much demand for material enjoyment, still we don't have to experience it to realize its futility. We can see and learn from the experience of the worldly people. Those who are struggling to increase their enjoyment more and more in the world are only becoming more and more frustrated. Thus, using our intelligence, we can control the mind.We can derive further spiritual strength by knowing that life, after all, is flickering and tem­porary; it is just like a dream. Every night, when we sleep, we have an 8-hour dream. But life is an 80-year dream; that is the only differ­ence. Both are temporary and, after they are over, neither has any factual existence. Know­ing that life will pass away like a quick jour­ney, we should cultivate the Hanuman men­tality of serving Lord Rama. Just as Hanuman was trying to make arrangements to bring Sita back to Rama, similarly we should try to bring all the things of the world closer to God by engaging them in His service. Then we can achieve peace of mind.

How can we actually engage all the things of the world in the service of God, especially in the modern times? All of us can use our various talents in the service of God. Some of us who are expert in computers can do com­puter services for publishing ebooks and websites about God and His message. Some of us can make beau­tiful garlands to decorate the Deities of the Lord. Some of us can engage in cooking and offering to the Lord. Thus according to individual abilities and inclinations, we can engage ourselves in service to the Lord. By perform­ing such service, the most dangerous enjoy­ing mentality will subside and we will get the serving mentality, which alone can bring us to the platform of sanity and peace. The enjoy­ing mentality is a deadly disease and the ser­vice of the Lord is the perfect medicine for it. (Adapted from an article compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa, etc.)

Enjoying God's Property

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! At this point, a question may come up, "Daily spiritual practice is alright, but how should we go about our various duties? In other words, how should we live in this world?" The first and foremost thing to un­derstand is the most basic truth; that we are not God, but we are the eternal servants of God. We are therefore meant to utilize our whole life and all our possessions, not for our own enjoyment, but for the service of God.

This principle is graphically illustrated in the Ramayana in the way Ravana and Hanuman behaved towards Lord Ramchandra. In the Ramayana, we see that Lord Rama was served by everyone; by mother Sita, by Lakshmana, by Hanuman, by Bharata, by Sugriva, by Guha and by so many other persons. But there was only one person who was opposed to serving Lord Rama - Ravana. He wanted to take away Lord Rama's property, mother Sita and enjoy her for himself. And what was his ultimate destination? He had to meet cruel death at the hands of Lord Rama.

In the same way, nature and all the resources provided by her are the property of Lord Gauranga Krishna. If one tries to take the resources of the world like grains, fruits, minerals, water, air, 58 light, etc., provided by God and tries to enjoy them without acknowledging the proprietor­ship of God, such a person has Ravana-like mentality: he wants to enjoy the property of God for himself without even thanking God and thus he is doomed. Therefore, while liv­ing in this world, we should always humbly bow down before God and thank Him for all that He has offered us for our subsistence.

And one should never ever try to extract enjoyment from this world. If we have this enjoying mentality of dominating others and extracting pleasure from this world by engag­ing in sinful activity, then we will be inevitably frustrated. Why? Because trying to get enjoy­ment through materialistic engagement is like trying to extract nectar from the mouth of a venomous cobra. It is an inherently futile at­tempt; all that one can get from the mouth of a cobra is poison. There will be so many people who will tempt us to eat, drink, be merry and enjoy life, but, if we look into the lives of these very people, we will find that they are the most frustrated people. Apart from the propaganda of these materialistic people, our senses are also so agitated that they are dragging us in all directions to enjoy. Our tongue is pulling us in one direction to taste a variety of delicious food­stuffs. Our eyes are scanning all the directions in the search of beautiful forms. And the same is true for every one of our senses. Just like a man having five wives is dragged in different directions by each one of them for enjoyment, similarly, we are also dragged by our five senses in various directions. And if we close our eye of discrimination and go in the direc­tion dictated by the mind and the senses, then we are on the royal road to hell.

We can see with our own eyes the disas­trous consequences of material enjoyment. One who smokes is afflicted by lung cancer; one who drinks wine is struck by liver dis­eases; one who eats gutka is tortured by oral cancer in the teeth and gums; one who wants to enjoy with many women is terminated by AIDS. Thus nature gives severe slaps and kicks to those who try to extract enjoyment from this world. (Adapted from an article compiled by Radheshyam Dasa, Jaigopala Dasa, Chaitanya Charana Dasa, Sundara Vara Dasa, etc.)