Krishna and maya

 

Krishna and maya, by Haripada dasa

It is said in The Chaitanya Charitamrita that God or Krishna is compared to sunlight, and maya or ignorance is compared to darkness, wherever there is sunlight there can be no darkness. As soon as one embarks on the path of Krishna consciousness, the darkness of illusion, the influence of external energy, will immediately vanish. Also in The Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that this energy of Mine, maya, is very difficult to overcome, but those who surrender to Me can easily overcome it, in other words, maya is controlled by Krishna, and when a soul obeys the laws of God or Krishna, Krishna tells His energy not to influence His devotee, thus the devotee enjoys full and total freedom.

In the process of surrendering to God or Krishna one must: (1) accept everything that is favorable for the performance of devotional service, (2) reject everything that is unfavorable for it, (3) firmly believe in the protection of the Lord , (4) feel that you depend exclusively on the Lord's mercy, (5) have no interest apart from the Lord's interest, and (6) always be meek and humble.

In relation to the subject Srila Prabhupada says in his meaning of the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra that this atmosphere, in which we now live, is called maya, or illusion. Maya means "what is not". And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we try to be the lords of material nature, when the reality is that we are bound by the shackles of its strict laws. When a servant tries to artificially imitate his almighty master, this is called illusion. Contaminated by this concept of life, we all try to exploit the resources of material nature, but the reality is that we become more and more entangled in its complexities. Therefore, despite our arduous struggle to conquer nature, we depend more on it. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped immediately if we revive our Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada always said that the problem with people is that they are not afraid of maya.

Krishna Consciousness

 Krishna Consciousness by Haripada dasa

When Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York in 1966, a friend of his told him why he didn't put God consciousness instead of Krishna, and Srila Prabhupda replied that God is vague, but Krishna is something concrete, and if someone does not know that Krishna is God, come here and we will explain it to him.

In the preface to Krishna's book Srila Prabhupada explains why Krishna is God: Now, one may ask the question why Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? The answer is, because He exactly and closely fits the descriptions of the Supreme Being, Divinity, in other words, Krishna is God because He is supremely attractive. Beyond the principle of supreme attraction, there is no other meaning of the word "God." How can someone be supremely attractive? First of all, if someone is very rich, if he has great wealth, then he becomes attractive to people in general. Similarly, if someone is very powerful, he also becomes an attractive person; and if someone is very famous, very beautiful, or wise, or unattached to all kinds of possessions, he also becomes an attractive person. Thus, from practical experience we can see that one is attractive thanks to: 1) wealth, 2) power, 3) fame, 4) beauty, 5) wisdom and 6) renunciation.

One who possesses all these six opulences simultaneously and possesses them to an unlimited degree is understood to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Parasara Muni, a great Vedic authority describes these opulences of God. We have seen many rich, powerful, famous, beautiful, learned and learned people; we have seen many people who belong to the renounced order of life and who are detached from material possessions, but we have never seen anyone like Krishna in the history of mankind, who was simultaneously and unlimitedly rich, powerful, famous, beautiful , wise and unattached. Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is a historical personage who appeared on this planet five thousand years ago and behaved just like a human being; but its activities were unparalleled, from the very moment of its appearance to the moment of its disappearance. Each of His activities is unique in the history of the world, and therefore one who knows what we mean by the word "God" will accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to God, and no one is greater than Him. That is the meaning of the familiar proverb “God is great.”

Krishna consciousness means the art of concentrating our attention on God and giving him our love. Many people think that they will be happy by promoting the cause of moral principles and religious rites, others think that they will be happy through economic development, and others through sense gratification, but the truth is that people can only be happy loving God or Krishna. And all the great representatives of God in different cultures like Jesus Christ, Srila Prabhupada, Mohammed, Confucius, etc, preach this truth: Love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself. Krishna consciousness is not a sectarian but universal process, and is practiced all over the world, Srila Prabhupada always said that Krishna consciousness is simple for the simple-hearted and for those who are serious and sincere and it is complicated for those with simple hearts. twisted mind. Although the origin of Krishna consciousness is India, punya bhumi the land of piety, the caste system ruined the whole spiritual culture of India, so Srila Prabhupada came to the West to preach Krishna consciousness and then went to India with its Western disciples and Hindus were very surprised that Westerners out of love for God chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. It is very interesting what Srila Prabhupada says in the introduction to the Bhagavad Gita about the difference between faith and sanatana dharma, faith can change, we see that a Christian becomes a Muslim, or he becomes a Hindu, or vice versa, but sanatana dharma it does not change, sanatana means eternal, and dharma means duty, the eternal duty of the eternal spirit soul is to serve God or Krishna and His devotees.

Personally I am very happy and happy to see that so many people are interested in knowing God and loving him, it is a fact that today there is a great spiritual awakening throughout the world, and that there are more and more peaceful dialogues between religions, The other day a friend of mine told me that Pope Francis talked about the law of karma and when Srila Prabhupada was asked what he thought about Jesus Christ, he always said that Jesus Christ is our spiritual master, thank God that we are no longer of the age media in the era of the Inquisition, that for saying that the Earth was round they burned you at the stake, while that was happening in the West in India Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu and his associates were discussing the Srimad Bhagavatam that informs us of the nature of all planets of the universe and the distances between all the planets in a scientific way.

Serious and sincere

 Serious and sincere, by Haripada dasa

Srila Prabhupada always said that the devotee must be serious and sincere in his practices of Krishna consciousness, this also applies to mothers, serious and sincere means that one does not cheat himself or others, in other words, one is not a hypocrite, we in a practical way show Srila Prabhupada and God or Krishna that we are serious and sincere when we practice verses 2 and 3 of the Nectar of Instruction, there it is said that when someone gets too entangled in the following six activities, his devotional service is ruined; (1) Eating more than necessary, or accumulating more funds than required; (2) trying too hard for worldly things that are very difficult to obtain; (3) talk unnecessarily about worldly matters; (4) follow the rules and regulations of the Scriptures only for the sake of following them and not to advance spiritually, or reject the rules and regulations of the Scriptures and work independently or capriciously; (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in cultivating Kṛishna consciousness; and (6) coveting worldly achievements, and there are six principles that are conducive to the performance of pure devotional service: (1) be enthusiastic, (2) exert yourself confidently. (3) be patient, (4) act according to the regulative principles [such as śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam: hearing, chanting and remembering Kṛishna, (5) abandoning the company of nondevotees, and (6) following in the footsteps of the previous ācāryas. These six principles undoubtedly ensure the complete success of pure devotional service.

In the Padma Purana it is said that so that we are not inhabitants of hell we have to be very careful with these 4 things, 1- see the Deity of Krishna as if it were a stone, 2- consider that the chanting of the Maha-Mantra Hare Krishna , Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare (the H is read as J for jot), is a mundane sound vibration, 3- see the charanamrita, or the water that washes the Deities as simple flowing water and 4- see the devotees from the material point of view.

A great success

 A great success, by Haripada dasa

At the end of the preface of The Bhagavad Gita Srila Prabhupada says that without just one man becoming a pure devotee of the Lord, we will consider our attempt as a success, since Srila Prabhupada achieved success, Jayananda prabhu practicing Krishna consciousness in a way Strict, serious and sincere she became a pure devotee of Krishna, and when she left her body in 1977 Srila Prabhupada said that she went to Vaikuntha, to the spiritual world.

Srila Prabhupada says in his books that there are devotees everywhere but they have forgotten, our mission is to educate pious people to know Srila Prabhupada and love him, Srila Prabhupada says in his books that in this consciousness movement Krishna, there are people who wear kuntis and japa but they are very envious, these people must be ignored, Srila Prabhupada said that everything is in his books, and he also criticized his disciples many times saying that they do not study his books enough, if a person She is an expert in Srila Prabhupada's books, when she hears someone preach Krishna consciousness she will immediately detect if that person is transmitting Srila Prabhupada to others, or if he is transmitting himself to others.

We understand and accept that God or Krishna is the supreme mystic and I can do everything, in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Antya lila, 3, 50 it is said that the scriptures say that the next ten thousand years will be the predominance of the Krishna consciousness movement, but that, after that period, all will turn to melechas and yavanas.