15 degrees below zero

 

15 degrees below zero, by Haripada dasa

I share more stories about Sankirtana, in 1986 we did the Christmas Marathon in Navarra, Spain, we were 15 devotees and we rented a very large apartment for the entire month of December, that winter was very hard, we were on the street distributing the first song From Srimad Bhagavatam, a luxury book with more than 1,000 pages, it was snowing and it was 15 degrees below zero, we rented a large van and put a butane stove inside, and when we could no longer bear the cold we went to the van to warm up , I would tell people, please, a question, and people would answer me that there is no time for questions, it was difficult to give the books, God or Krishna distributed through me every day from 20 to 25 Bhagavatams, I I think people bought our books out of compassion, I remember that we gave a Bhagavatam to a local policeman and this man called the Nueva Vrajamandala farm by phone and told them that here in Pamplona there are some young Hare Krishnas distributing the p In the first chant of Srimad Bhagavatam, I have read it and have come to the conclusion that these young people are heroes, because they are sacrificing their lives to give us the purest and most sublime message that can be given to human society.

This story that I am going to tell now is incredible, we were distributing the first song of El Srimad Bhagavatam, a luxury book with more than 1,000 pages in a car park in the center of Valencia, Spain, there were politicians, businessmen, professionals, etc., I gave a Bhagavatam to a very successful businessman, in a few minutes we made a great friendship, and when it was time to give me the donation he took out his wallet and told me that I do not know what to give you as a donation, and I with all the tranquility of the world I grabbed his wallet and looked in the wallet for the largest bill, I grabbed a bill of 10,000 pesetas or 100 dollars, when he saw this the businessman caught a fit of laughter, he began to laugh and he did not stop saying this to me I can believe it, I cannot believe it, his laughter infected me and I also started to laugh, when we laughed a lot, the businessman gave me his card and told me that if you want a job there you have your house, I told him thank you but I work for heh Supreme faith, God or Krishna, He is Pure Goodness and the Supreme Controller, the man was very pious and he told me that that is very good.

680 books

 

680 books, by Haripada dasa

I share another story of Sankirtana, it was the 1990 Christmas Marathon, we did it in Andalusia, southern Spain, we were 15 devotees and we rented a very large house for the entire month of December, in one day God or Krishna distributed through me 680 books, 340 Upadesamritas, the Nectar of Instruction and 340 Raja Vidyas, the King of Education, it was in a town in Seville, I arrived at the town at dawn, I parked the car in front of the Town Hall and began to distribute books, I was traveling with two bags of books, in one he carried the Upadesamrita and in the other the Raja Vidya, and he distributed the two books to people, a very funny story happened to me, I saw that an older man was watching me all morning as I distributed the books, And by the mercy of Krishna, this man also distributed books, when a person told me that he did not want the books, this older man approached and said to the man, as you say to the Missionary that you do not want the books, but if in the town tod Or the world has them, and began to say names of the townspeople who had bought the books, of course it was a town of about 10,000 inhabitants and there everyone knows each other, and this older man distributed in that way about 20 books, The truth is that the people of that town were very good people, from 9 in the morning until 1 PM, I had given 400 books, then I went to the car and I respected a giant sandwich of whole wheat bread with cheese and salad, I remember that Our cook and his assistant had many mystical powers, every day they cooked breakfast and made 15 giant sandwiches of whole wheat bread, they washed all the clothes of the devotees, and every day they went to the bank to enter the collection and washed the whole house every day, After respecting the sandwich I took a nap, and then in two more hours I distributed 280 books, even the local police encouraged me and told me you have to give all the books, you have to empty the car of books, that day I collected 82,000 pesetas or 820 dollars, after s from doing this one does not believe it, one only understands and accepts that this is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and God or Krishna, and that one is only an instrument of them.

The world record for the distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books is held by a French devotee who in one day distributed 1,000 books of the great classics of India, they were Krishna's book that had almost 1,000 pages and the first song of El Srimad Bhagavatam which was over 1,000 pages long.

Anxiety

 

Anxiety, by Haripada dasa

We have physical illnesses such as influenza and others and there are also mental illnesses such as insanity and others and there are also diseases of the soul such as anxiety and others. There was a great spiritual master who belongs to our disciplic succession called Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he was a Judge of the High Court, he made many judgments every day and the verdicts were perfect and amazing, the English judges of his day were very attracted to this great pure personality or devotee of God or Krishna, once they asked him how it was possible that we make several judgments every day and you make four times more judgments than us and your verdicts are always perfect, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura replied that I make the judgments as quickly as possible because I feel a lot of compassion to see that the defendant is anxious to know the verdict.

 That is the difference between a pure devotee of God or Krishna and a materialistic and atheistic person, the pure devotee of God or Krishna suffers when he sees others suffer and is happy when he sees others happy in the consciousness of God or Krishna, his Attitude in life is that all he does is to please God or Krishna and His devotees, and the materialistic and atheistic person suffers when he sees others happy in the consciousness of God or Krishna, and is very happy when he sees others suffer, his attitude in life is the law of the funnel, the wide for me and the narrow for others, lives in the concept of me and mine, pure selfishness.

From the President of the Government who has a head full of political problems to the simple sweeper, everyone lives full of anxiety. The question that arises is: What is the cause of anxiety? This is very well explained by my spiritual master in the meaning of the Maha-mantra Hare Krishna, there it says that we are parts and portions of God, that means we are superior energy of God, and when we come into contact with the lower or material energy, the situation is incompatible, but when we come into contact with the higher energy, called Hara or Radharani, the living entity is established in its normal happy condition.

In other words, the process of the consciousness of God or Krishna is a practice of devotional activities that transfer us from the material world to the spiritual world that is our true home, that is called returning home to return to God.

We would all like to have a free life and be happy, but that is not so easy, people generally think that happiness is in the sense gratification, but we see in practice that in countries where there is more opulence for sense gratification there are more suicides. We are not the temporary material body, but eternal spiritual souls, eternal loving servants of God or Krishna and His devotees, when we act in that consciousness there is eternal happiness and one lives without anxiety.

Thought to meditate:

"The slaughter of animals in slaughterhouses, bullfights, hunting and fishing, all these are acts of hatred and envy towards innocent animals."

Positive messages

 

Positive messages, by Haripada dasa
Positive Messages means messages that make you reflect and elevate your state of consciousness to a higher state. Eating, sleeping, fearing and mating are the basic activities of all living entities, the human way of life has the ability to understand who I am, who is God or Krishna, what is my relationship with God or Krishna and with everything, that It is this material manifestation, which is time, which is karma or activities and where I will go after death.
The other day my older brother Paco told me that Javier, the best thing you have is that you are always in the company of good people. My attitude to send these messages is healthy, my only intention is to share experiences, I would have liked people to respond more to these messages, but I understand that most people work very hard to stay and do not have time to respond to messages. I have received all the mercy of my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada and it is my duty to share my experiences with others, that helps me a lot to not be selfish or envious.
Srila Prabhupada says in his books that in the spiritual life the most important thing is attitude, and in the introduction of the Nectar of Devotion he says that the author of Bhakti-rasāmṛita-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, states very humbly that he is only trying to spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the world, although humbly is considered unsuitable for this work. That should be the attitude of all the preachers of the Kṛiṣhṇa consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. We should never think that we ourselves are great preachers, but we should always consider that we are simply instruments of the previous āchāryas, and simply by following in their steps we may be able to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity.

Bharata Varsa or India

 

Bharata Varsa or India, by Haripada dasa
Formerly India was called Bharata Varsa, in honor of the great Holy King Bharatha Maharaja, in the 18th chapter of the Nectar of devotion the great Holy King is glorified.
There is a good example of this detachment in relation to the character of King Bharata. In the Fifth Canto, Chapter 14, verse 43, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said: "Emperor Bharata was so attracted to the beauty of the lotus feet of Kṛiṣhṇa that even in his youth life he abandoned all kinds of family attachments , children, friends, kingdom, etc., as if they were untouchable feces. ”
I remember a walk of Srila Prabhupada that said that this planet Earth is very good for spiritual atorrealization, and that the best place for spiritual life is India, and the best of India is Bengal, there is a saying that says what it is done in Bengal, all of India does it, and this is because Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu appeared over 500 years ago. He is Krishna himself playing the role of Krishna's devotee, to teach us all to be Krishna's devotees.
The entire spiritual culture of India was shattered by caste brahmanas, they invented that no one can be a brahmana if one is not born in a brahmana family, Srila Prabhupada and the whole guru parallax shattered this invented idea, in the sastras or Scriptures it is said that if one is brahmana but not a devotee of Krishna, he is the lowest of mankind, and if one is born in a family of dogs, but becomes a devotee of Krishna, he is the most glorified and fortunate person.

Lord Risabadeva

 

Lord Risabadeva, by Haripada dasa
In the Gita, 9, 11, Krishna says that fools make fun of Me when I descend in human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as Supreme Lord of all that exists.
In relation to this verse of the Gita, in the Bhagavatam there is the story of Lord Risabadeva, who is an incarnation of God or Krishna, there in 5, 5, 30 it is said that Ṛiṣabhadeva began to travel through cities, villages, mining regions, fields, valleys, gardens, military camps, grazing lands, cowboy cabins, mountains, forests, lodges for travelers and hermitages. Everywhere, wherever he went, he was harassed by all kinds of ruinous people, who surrounded him like the flies that fly around the body of an elephant that leaves the forest. Wherever he went, they threatened him, beat him, urinated on him and spit on him. Sometimes people threw stones, excrement and dirt at them, and sometimes they ventured before Him. In that way, people insulted Him with bad words, and caused him great difficulties; but He did not worry about it, for he understood that the body has no other destiny. He was absorbed on the spiritual plane, and from His glorious spiritual position, He did not care about all those material insults. In other words, I understood perfectly that matter and spirit are different, and I had no bodily concept. Thus, without getting irritated with anyone, he walked alone around the world.
Before discarding Srila Prabupada he was being poisoned, you just have to imagine that God or Krishna and His representatives do all those things, that they will do to us, that's why Srila Prabhupada always said that preaching Krishna consciousness is nothing easy, and that all the chaos in the world now is because there are no devotees of God or Krishna, that is the only crisis.

Worldly Religion and Eternal Religion

 

Worldly Religion and Eternal Religion, by Haripada dasa
It is very interesting that the Bhagavatam maintains in its first pages its own uniqueness: dharmah projjhita-kaitavo `tra," All supposed religiosity covered by fruitive intentions is here completely rejected. " (S.B. 1, 1, 2) Fruitive intentions take the form of Kama (complacency of gross and subtle senses), artha (economic development), dharma (worldly or sectarian religiosity), and even moksa (liberation). These four goals are described as materialistic practices, and contaminate every attempt at true religion.
The motivating force behind each of them is the increase in sensual satisfaction. For example, an ordinary man may practice religiosity (dharma) because he actually seeks wealth (artha). Understanding that there is a Supreme Controller, he seeks to plead with his "god" and, thus, reaches his goal. This practice, by the way, is often misleading, and a person absorbed in this type of motivated religiosity mistakenly believes himself to be a serious practitioner of the spiritual life.
In reflecting, however, it becomes evident that such a religious is actually a materialist, since all his practice is directed towards the wrong end: the acquisition of wealth. Why do you want riches, for the sake of kama, or sense gratification, a goal that is directly contrary to religious principles. Moreover, when someone gets tired of this whole business, they look for moksa, or liberation.
Unfortunately, true liberation could not be further from an individual so deceived, since he has completely missed the purpose of spiritual practice. Although many fall prey to this mentality, the Bhagavatam urges its readers to go beyond this situation, and beyond the material illusions that trap even the well-intentioned, the student of the Bhagavatam must abandon all worldly goals and strive for achieving total purity.
If one desires a lower goal, one must approach a lower writing. That is why Srila Prabhupada says in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, adi-lila, 17, 169 that the Old and New Testament and the Koran is for meat eaters, and they are not eternal writings. Bhagavatam is for those who are serious in regard to the ultimate goal of life: love for God.
The first thing that eternal religion teaches you is that we are not the temporal material body, but eternal spiritual souls, in understanding and accepting this point it is natural for the person to be more interested in eternal relationships than in temporal ones, temporal relationships are with Family, society, friendships and worldly love, and eternal relationships means with God or Krishna and with His devotees.
The result of practicing eternal religion is that one knows God and loves him, and since there is only God or Krishna and His energies will naturally love everyone and everything.