Live at home like a Guest [granthraj]

In Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 11, Chapter 17  Lord Krishna describes to Uddhava about the prescribed duties and responsibilities of people in each of varnashrama. In verses 51 through 58 the Lord explains what are the do’s and dont’s for a person in grhastha ashrama. The Lord insists that it is the duty of the householder to maintain his dependants through wealth which has come of its own accord or earned through honest means.  At the same time, the mood in which we have to stay in our house is very nicely explained by the Lord in the following verse (11.17.54)

ittham parimrshan mukto / grheshv atithi-vad vasan
na grhair anubadhyeta  / nirmamo nirahankrtah

"Deeply considering the actual situation, a liberated soul should live at home just like a guest, without any sense of proprietorship or false ego. In this way he will not be bound or entangled by domestic affairs."

When we go to some one’s house as a guest – we really don’t mind if things don’t get arranged in the way we want. If we are received nicely, we are happy. But if the situations are not favourable – then we don’t make it a big issue. For we know that we are going to stay in that place only for a short time and so we habituate ourselves to over-look the shortcomings of others and just leave the place when our time of stay comes to an end.  Lord Krishna is insisting in the above verse that we need to maintain the same mood at our home as well.  Our spiritual master always advises us – "Keep your baggage ready always."  We somehow comfortably forget the eternal truth that this world is not our permanent home. We might struggle so hard and toil all our life to build a beautiful house or to get permamnet residency in some other nation. But all these are temporary designations. For our own physical and mental well-being it is very important for us to remember these practical instructions of Gurudev and Krishna.

As a responsible house-holder we may build a house. But we should remember that we are mere guests.   In our old-age, our own kith and kin might chuck us out of the house or  even now the government might pass an order to demolish the house stating that its not built as per their rules etc. However hard we may try, we might not get the permanent residency etc in some other nation. Even if we had got one, with ups and downs in the economy, we might not be able to survive in those places. All said and done, be it home, job or any country, only as long as Krishna allows we can stay in any place. If Krishna wills, we might be thrown out of the place any moment. Whether we like it or not we are neither the owners nor the controllers of any place.  The reality is we are just "guests".  If we fail to understand and accept these eternal truths,  we would be immersing ourselves in pools of anxiety and depression which would in turn affect our physical health as well.

Knowing  that we are guests here, we should carefully utilise the available time in hearing Srimad Bhagavatam and engaging ourselves in the service of the Lord. Parikshit Maharaj, while explaining the glories of people engaged in pure devotional service of Lord to Sukadeva Goswami says in verse 2.8.6

dhautaatmaa purusah krishna / paada-mulam na muncati
mukta-sarva-parikleshah      /  paanthah sva-sharanam yathaa

"A pure devotee of the Lord whose heart has once been cleansed by the process of devotional service never relinquishes the lotus feet of Lord Krishna, for they fully satisfy him, as a traveler is satisfied at home after a troubled journey."

In his wonderful purport to the above verse Srila Prabhupada says, "A traveler leaves home to search for wealth in far distant places, sometimes in the forest and sometimes on the ocean and sometimes on hilltops. Certainly there are many troubles for the traveler when he is in such unknown places. But all such troubles are at once mitigated as soon as the sense of his family affection is remembered, and as soon as he returns home he forgets all such troubles on the way."

Our eternal permanent house is the abode of Lord Krishna and every other place is just a temporary stay for us. We are all travelers in this world and we can be "at home" only at our eternal abode with our Supreme Father Krishna.  So just like how guests ignore/over-look the unfavourable situations and meditate only on their way back home – we should also not waste our time in finding faults/quarreling with people around – but should completely meditate on our way back to our real home – back to Godhead.

We pray at the lotus feet of Gurudev and Krishna that we remember Their words, engage ourselves completely  in Their service and never waste time in other entanglements.

Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the Yahoo Groups granthraj – run by the disciples of H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – 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.

Related posts:

1. Live a Clean Life [granthraj]
2. How to Live and How to Leave [granthraj]