Only Krishna can protect us – Remembering Srila Prabhupada

Being somewhat older — late twenties and early thirties — Haridas, myself and a few others marvel over the apparent ease with which teenagers renounce these common drives, inebriants, habits. "Maya is but Krishna’s smile," I try to remember.

"It should be easier for you," the younger members say. "You’ve been partying since 1958. We’ve hardly had a taste."

Swamiji supports another viewpoint.

"Best to be trained up brahmachari from the beginning," he says. "It’s easier to renounce what you have never tasted. Once you are habituated to intoxication, sex, gambling, meat eating, or whatever, it is very difficult to give them up. Habits are hard to break. The urge for sense enjoyment is the very cause of our conditioning. We forget that our real enjoyment is in serving Krishna, and in being enjoyed by Him. In ignorance, we become habituated to so many undesirable things. Now our younger members are finding it easier to give up so much because they’ve not had the chance to become addicted. But even addicted, you reach a point where you see that there’s no happiness in sense gratification. Frustrated by maya, you may turn toward Krishna. But that is not the desirable road. The best way is not to forget Krishna for a moment."

"But Krishna says that all roads lead to Me," someone says.

"Where does He say that?" Swamiji demands.

Swamiji’s translation of the "roads" verse from Bhagavad-gita is precise: "All of them — as they surrender unto Me — I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pritha."

"That does not mean that all roads lead to the same place," he tells us. "Yes, they are all Krishna’s roads, just as all the roads in America belong to the government. But is that to say that all roads lead to San Francisco? The devotees attain the person Krishna, and the impersonalists attain the Brahman effulgence that emanates from Krishna. The roads are all Krishna’s, but the goals are not the same. In the material universe there are 8,400,000 species of life and roads leading to each of them. They are all Krishna’s roads because He is the Father of all living entities. But does this mean that we aspire to be a cat or dog? Our aim should be to serve Krishna, that’s all. We do not aspire to be demigods or whatever. Lord Chaitanya had but one request: causeless devotional service life after life, regardless of the type of body. Hanuman served Lord Rama very well in a monkey body."

Yet many of us stumble on the road of Krishna consciousness and fall back into our old ways. How can we channel everything to the person Krishna? There’s music, fast cars, intoxicants, and golden California lasses calling, "Fun, fun, fun!"

Srila Prabhupada tells the story of a young prince who became attracted by a beautiful girl who happened to be a devotee. Just by seeing this girl once, the prince fell in love with her and made arrangements with her father for marriage. But since the girl was devoted to Krishna, she refused him. "Oh, your beauty has captivated me," the prince said. "If I cannot have it, I will kill myself" Understanding the situation, the girl said, "Come back in two weeks, and my beauty will be yours." The prince went away, but when he returned after two weeks, he hardly recognized the young girl. Because she had taken a very strong purgative that had flushed her body of all liquids, she was shrivelled and emaciated like an old hag. "You want my beauty?" she asked the horrified prince. "You will find it there in the corner." And she pointed to a pot full of stool and vomit. "There is the beauty you desired," she said. "Take it and be happy."

—

Ramanuja-das-brahmachari automatically turns to admire a pretty girl.

"That’s just a combination of blood, pus, and stool," I remind him. "Of bile, urine, flesh, phlegm, bone, and guts."

"Yes," he says, "but it’s all in the right place."

—

"Miss Maya is so strong," Swamiji tells us, "that when she sees you trying to become Krishna conscious, she’ll knock you down." He shakes his head and smiles, as if facing an unconquerable foe. "She is so strong, and we are so weak. Like fire and butter. We should never think that we are stronger than Maya. We have only one recourse Hare Krishna. When Mayadevi attacks, we must cry, ‘Krishna! Krishna! Please save me!’ Since only Krishna is stronger than maya, only Krishna can protect us. When the pure devotee conquers Krishna through love, then Mayadevi stands before the devotee and says, ‘How may I serve you?’ Only then does maya cease to be a foe. Only then is maya seen as Krishna’s smile. "

From the "The Hare Krishna Explosion" by HG Hayagriva dasa

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