Return to God

 Return to God, by Haripada dasa

Human life is to achieve values. This form of human life is one that can provide values. And, what is the greatest value that can be achieved in life? To return home, back to Godhead, one's egoism should aim to go back to Godhead. Notice how merciful is God or Krishna, Pure Kindness, even though we have turned our backs on Him, He keeps us by giving us food, water, etc., everything, the reason we are in this material world, the world of envy, is that we have misused free will, and we have turned our backs on God thinking that we will be happy without God, and God is so merciful that he does not interfere with our freedom, the material world is a true prison where rebellious souls are punishes them, so-called material pleasures cause more suffering, but because punishments are remedies, souls are reformed through suffering, when a person suffers the false ego loosens, but how right Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was when he always said that the rebellious soul is hostile to serving God and His devotees.

The consciousness of God or Krishna is a spiritual science, and to reach the goal of life which is to have love for God, one has to go through nine stages, the first is faith, then one associates with pure devotees of God, the The result of this is that faith increases, then one begins to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, by singing and leading a sinless life, the heart is purified of the bad qualities that rob the soul of energy, these are the lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and ignorance, then one gets fixed in spiritual life, then one likes spiritual life, then one becomes attached to spiritual life, then when one does spiritual practices he feels spiritual emotions, tears in his eyes and the hairs on his body stand on end, etc., and then love for God, when one reaches this goal he cannot live without God just as a fish cannot live without water.

The difference between the spiritual culture of India and other cultures is that in the Holy Scriptures of India there are ten billion verses that inform us of the unlimited names, forms, qualities and pastimes of God, and there are also many detailed information about God. what is the Kingdom of God, there only exists God, His Devotees and the love relationships between God or Krishna and His Devotees.

In the Nectar of Devotion in chapter 9 it is said the price that must be paid to return to God, to return to our true home, in other words, we must learn to cry for the Lord. We must learn this little technique, and we must be very eager ---and actually cry--- to engage in some particular kind of service. This is called laulyam, and those tears are the price of the highest perfection. If this laulyam, or excessive yearning to find and serve the Lord in some particular way, develops in someone, it is the price for entering the Kingdom of God. Otherwise, there is no material way to calculate the value of the ticket that allows us to enter the Kingdom of God. The only price for that ticket is this laulyaí lālasāmayī, or desire and longing.

We are all devotees

 We are all devotees, by Haripada dasa

Srila Prabhupada said in 1972 in Kartika in Vrindavana that we must always be ready to offer respect to everyone, because each living entity is originally a devotee of God or Krishna, but circumstantially the soul being covered by ignorance, is acting as a demon, in this world there are divine and demonic people, divine people obey the laws of God or Krishna and demonic ones do not, but everyone's original nature is to be a devotee of God or Krishna.

The first thing to do in devotional life is to purify the designations, the designations mean the things that we are not but that we think we are, for example people in general think that I am the body, and therefore I am Spanish, American , Hindu, etc., I am the master of everything, my house and my family belong to me, I am the enjoyer, the controller of everything, this woman is my wife, here is my son, here is my brother, etc., everything these are designations, the result of living with designations is that the person lives full of fear, envy, ignorance and very conditioned, a soul free of designations believes and experiences that I am not the body, but an eternal spiritual soul, a loving servant of God or Krishna and His devotees, my relatives are also children of God or Krishna, my house and everything I own belongs to God or Krishna and I use everything for the service of God or Krishna, the result of having that God consciousness or Krishna, is that the person lives happily and free.

In devotional life there are three kinds of devotees of God or Krishna, the neophyte, the middle stage, and the perfect devotee. First you have to understand what faith is, faith means having complete conviction that when chanting the Maha-Mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare (the H se read as J for j) will automatically fulfill all duties and complete all godly activities. The neophyte devotee exhibits a faith that is formal, even worldly, worships Deity but has not developed an interest in serving the representative of God or Krishna, the authorized spiritual master, the devotee in the middle stage develops loving affection for God or Krishna , makes friends with other devotees, has compassion for innocent people, an innocent person is one who believes in God or Krishna, but is not advanced in spiritual life, and avoids the company of atheists, and the perfect devotee is one who he sees God or Krishna everywhere, and God or Krishna is his life and soul, his life revolves around 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 j), for him, the Holy Name of God or Krishna is the essence of everything.

An ocean of mercy

 An ocean of mercy, by Haripada dasa

Srila Prabhupada is an ocean of mercy. The spiritual master receives the blessing of the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to put it out, the spiritual master releases the afflicted material world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances to the lotus feet of that spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities.

I share a very moving story, we were in Vrindavana, India, in the house of some Italian devotees, we were respecting some maha-prasada pizzas, a very old disciple of Srila Prabhupada arrived, I don't remember her name, but I know she was Lohitaksa's wife , she told us that Srila Prabhupada was in the temple in New York and they were doing guru puja, suddenly a person with very long hair and a beard and very dirty entered the temple as if it were a dog on all fours. He headed towards Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada recognized him immediately, and crying at Srila Prabhupada's lotus feet told him several times that forgive me I have failed you, Srila Prabhupada crying was stroking his head, and all the devotees in the guru puja were crying, then that person left and no one ever heard from him.

A few years ago I was talking to an Iskcon guru in Vrindavana, India, he told me that Srila Prabhupada deviated from the guru-parampara by ordering his disciples to initiate in his name or the Ritvik philosophy, as this philosophy does not come in the Sastras or Scriptures, when I heard this I thought that this person has less intelligence than a mosquito, I told him that Srila Prabhupada distributes his mercy to everyone, but if you do not want to obtain it, the fault is yours, Srila Prabhupada ordered his disciples who initiated in his name, this is supported by a special document that Srila Prabhupada sent to all Iskcon from Vrindavana, India, on July 9, 1977, anyone can read this document, and if you do not want to obey this order, blame It is not from Srila Prabhupada but from you. I also told him that according to Harinama-chintamani, the result of offending the guru is that one becomes a mayavadi or atheist. Then some years passed and we also saw each other in Vrindavana, and he said sorry for what I told you several years ago, I replied that you should not ask forgiveness from me, but from Srila Prabhupada.

Blessings

 Blessings, by Haripada dasa

In relation to the blessings, Srila Prabhupada always told a very interesting story, once a Spiritual Master was walking with his disciples, and in the course of the walk he gave different blessings to several people, first they met a King, and the Master The Spiritual Master told him that I bless you that you live, but do not die….later they met a butcher, and the Spiritual Master told him that I bless you that you do not live and do not die….then they met a pure devotee of God or Krishna and the Spiritual Master told him that you are the same whether you live or die, upon hearing these blessings the disciples did not understand them and told the Spiritual Master to please explain the blessings, and the Spiritual Master said that the King live but do not die means that now that he is King the opulence that God has given him instead of using it to serve God and His devotees, he is using it for his sense gratification, to your personal enjoyment, that's why you live but don't die because when you die you will have to spend a lot of time in hell, then to the butcher you don't live or die, that means that this person his life is hell, always cutting meat, his hands full of blood, and when I die more hell, and to the pure devotee of God or Krishna I told him that it is the same whether you live or die, because living you are living with God or Krishna always, and when you die you will continue living with God or Krishna and His devotees in the spiritual world. A great Spiritual Master always said that those who say that the devotees of God or Krishna die, they die to live, and living are always expanding the glories of God or Krishna and His devotees, reason badly.

Nowadays there is no interest in knowing God and loving him, people have very few reserves of pious activities from their past lives, from the time they get up until they go to bed they only do sinful activities, thus their brain is full of cow dung, they do not understand the simplest truths of life, there is only sense gratification, a demonic principle, the symptom that one has an interest in spiritual life is that they ask spiritual questions, for example what and who am I, why do I not want suffer and I suffer, what and who is God, how can I purify my existence, what awaits me after death, etc., when a person asks himself these questions he is said to be aware of God, the problem is pride, one thinks I know everything, nobody is above me, I am the best, because of his pride that person will never learn from anyone, only the humble person learns from everyone.