Establishing the Lord in Our Heart – Part 2 [granthraj]

DAILY SB/BG 3-Sep-2009 Tuesday MALA:5 BEAD:102
NITYAM BHAGAVATA SEVAYA SB 1. 2. 18 (Regularly reading/hearing Srimad Bhagavatam or Serving the pure Devotee)
Karma Yoga	(Do Your Duty, Leave the result to Krsna)	Great (easy to do)
Gnana Yoga	Realising Self by controlling senses and mind	Very Great (tough)
Bakthi Yoga	Realising the Paramatma is Everything and	Very Very Great
KC	Surrender to Krishna is the Ultimate goal	(very easy to do)

We are continuing the topic of establishing of Lord in our heart. Srimad Bhagavatam states the the process of revealing the Lord in the heart through the verse 1.1.2:

SB 1.1.2

dharmah projjita-kaitavo ‘tra paramo nirmatsaraanaam sataam
vedyam vaastavam atra vastu shivadam taapa-trayonmulanam
srimad-bhaagavate mahaa-muni-krte kim vaa parair ishvarah
sadyo hrdy avarudhyate ‘tra krtibhih sushrushubhih tat kshanaat

"Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vya sadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart."

Establishing the Lord in Our Heart – Part 1 [granthraj]

Process of Establishing the Lord in the Heart:

1. Completely reject all religious activities which are materially motivated
2. We should be fully pure in heart
3. Understand the highest truth from Bhagavatam
4. The Highest truth uproots all three-fold miseries
5. Srimad Bhagavatam is sufficient for God realisation
6. By the culture of this knowledge the Lord is established within the heart.

We discussed the first three points in the last mail. We will try to explore the remaining three points in this mail.

4. The Highest truth uproots all three-fold miseries

Since we are in illusion all the times, the three-fold miseries exists all the time and therefore we don’t realize that it is temporary. Illusion means accepting something which is false, as truth. We accept so many things as truth but they do not stay truth always. We accept our youthful body as truth out of illusion that it will stay with us forever, but within few years we lose that youthful body and are given a old body. There is no escape route from this, except one – that is, accepting the highest truth that Krishna is the Supreme Lord and we are meant to serve Him eternally. We are not this body but we are spirit souls, part and parcels of Krishna. This highest truth removes the efffect of all the three-fold miseries from its root, ie., without any chance that they will appear again.

5. Srimad Bhagavatam is sufficient for God realisation

Due to illusion we are running around like a man who has put his eyeglass on top of his head and start searching for it everywhere. We have the greatest gift of Srimad Bhagavatam that too completely translated by Srila Prabhupada in our life time. It is more than enough for realising about Krishna. Whatever we require is in Srimad Bhagavatam. Whatever is not in Srimad Bhagavatam is not required for us. Hence Srimad Bhagavatam is more than enough for us to perfect our life in devotional service.

6. By the culture of this knowledge the Lord is established within the heart.

Because of these blatant facts experienced by us we are unable to perceive the Lord in our heart and this knowledge is eluding us all the times. The answer is in the verse itself where it says that we have to be sushrushubhih – Attentively and Submissively hears Srimad Bhagavatam, then the Lord will immediately (sadyah) and without any delay (tat kshanaat) appear in the hearts of the pure devotee and be permanently seated there.

Attentiveness : Are we attentive in the Class- Most of the times we are thinking of material motivated devotional service and envy which completely decimates our attention and we are completely bankrupt of this transcendental knowledge. As we are attentive to a doctor when there is a serious disease in us, similarly to get rid of the disease called bodily consciousness, we should cultivate this attentiveness. (Prabhupada writes in translation as "cultivation of knowledge"). Atttentiveness does not mean simply hear, but try to the best of our ability to put into practice.

Submissiveness: Submissiveness is completely absent in the classes and we become impatient if some devotee takes the class and talks about the bodily conception of life which we already know. We tend to think that he is repeating the same thing which I know already. We may know so many things but how do we realize or put into practice is the problem. Therefore Srimad Bhagavatam insists that we have to hear the same topic again and again and for a long time to have effect in our lives.

Once we cultivate this Submissiveness and Attentiveness then automatically we will get rid of all the anarthas – material motivation, envy, illusion and complete freedom from threefold miseries and then automatically the Lord who will occupy our heart.

This verse alone should be sufficient to give us complete liberation from material bondage and it can take us from material bondage to Goloka dham. As our Maharaj says, "Which scriptures can give more lucid ways to reach transcendence than Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam"?

Let me therefore pray to Lord Sri Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev to shower Their causeless mercy to understand the deep insight into the scriptures and come to sanity instead of wasting time frivolously.

Thank you very much.
Your humble servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Sajjanapriya Krishna das
Abudhabi.

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the Yahoo Groups run by the disciples of H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/granthraj/ by the devotee name mentioned above. The posting in this article, is original realizations of our Guru Maharaj and the devotee who wrote this. Any comments regarding this article would be passed on directly to the devotee. In this article, ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Gurudev’ implicitly refer to our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj.