The Lord states in the Gita that He accepts a leaf, flower, fruit or water from His bhaktas if it is offered with devotion. These items are easily available and by offering these things one can get His blessings to enter into His Kingdom. And from the scriptures we hear that the Lord has great liking for Tulasi leaves and He is very much pleased if we offer tulasi leaves to Him.

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The Story of King Chitrabhanu

In the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma, whilst resting on a bed of arrows and discoursing on Dharma, refers to the observance of Maha Shivaratri by King Chitrabhanu. The story goes as follows.

Once, King Chitrabhanu was observing a fast with his wife, and it was the day of Maha Shivaratri. The sage Ashtavakra came on a visit to the king’s court. The sage asked, “ O king why are you observing a fast today?” King Chitrabhanu explained the reason, as he had the gift of remembering the incidents of his previous birth. The king said to the sage, “in my past birth I was a hunter in Varanasi (Kashi). My name was Suswara. My livelihood was to kill and sell birds and animals. One day, I was overtaken by the darkness of night. Unable to return home, I climbed a tree for shelter. It happened to be a bael tree. I had shot a deer that day, but I did not have time to take it home. I bundled it up and tied it to a branch on the tree. As I was tormented by hunger and thirst, I kept awake throughout the night. I shed profuse tears when I thought of my poor wife and children who were starving and anxiously awaiting my return. To pass away time that night I engaged myself in plucking bael leaves and dropping them down onto the ground. “The day dawned and I returned home and sold the deer. I bought some food for myself and for my family. I was about to break my fast when a stranger came to me, begging for food. I served him first and then took my food.”

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From the scriptures we understand that the Supreme Lord is the bestower of all benedictions to the living entities based on their desire and qualification. Many living entities approach the Lord with different desires and praying to Him for many things. However, we can see in Mahabharata and Ramayana and other scriptures that the Lord Himself asks for many benedictions from His so-called elders, devotees and devatas. We see in Mahabharata that Lord Krishna went to Mount Kailash and prayed to Lord Shiva for a son (The history is that Lord Shiva once prayed to the Supreme Lord for an opportunity to offer a benediction to the Supreme Lord. The Lord said He will fulfill Lord Siva’s desire during Krishna lila, by praying for a son). In Ramayana, we can see that Lord Rama asked two benedictions from Lord Brahma after the battle with Ravana was over. In Bhagavata purana, Lord Parasurama asked benediction to Jamadagni to bring back His mother and brothers back to life. In all the above situations the Lord always asked benedictions to glorify the other person and nothing for Himself. This is because the Lord by nature is ‘aapta kaama‘ (one who has no unfulfilled desires). In spite of this, He asks benedictions from His servant devotees to satisfy and please them. There was one instance that the Lord asked for a benediction for Himself and we can see how exemplary was that benediction. This wonderful pastime occurs in the Mahabharata and is briefly stated below.

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"Every day hundreds and millions of living entities go to the kingdom of death. Still, those who remain aspire for a permanent situation. What could be more wonderful than this?"

Yudhisthira Maharaja – Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.116

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

"In the vedic literatures, including ramayana, puranas and mahabharata, from the very beginning to the end, as well as in the middle, only Krsna, the supreme personality of godhead is explained."

Sri Hari Vamsa

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

In Srimad Bhagavatam Maharaj Pariksit after inquiring about so many things from Sukadev Goswami, concludes his questions with the following verse 2.8.24:

sarvam etac ca bhagavan / prcchato me ’nupurvashah
tattvato ’rhasy udaahartum / prapannaaya mahaa-mune

"O great sage, representative of the Lord, kindly satisfy my inquisitiveness in all that I have inquired from you and all that I may not have inquired from you from the very beginning of my questionings. Since I am a soul surrendered unto you, please impart full knowledge in this connection."

We can see that the bonafide spiritual masters are always ready to impart knowledge to the disciples and enlighten them even on subject matters not inquired specifically, if that is for the supreme benefit of the disciple.

We can see that in Srimad Bhagavad Gita 2.7, Arjuna who was completely confused about his duties, surrendered to Krishna and asked Krishna to tell what is best for him. yac chreyah syaan nishcitam bruhi tan me sishyas te’ham shaadi maam tvaam prapannam. Lord Krishna could have immediately told Arjuna that the best thing for him is to fight and thus closed the whole issue. If Krishna had told like that then we will all be unfortunate because we will not be having the Bhagavad Gita for our guidance. Thus Lord Krishna out of His unlimited compassion for all the conditioned souls gave so many verses of transcendental instruction.

We find that any conversation between great souls is always for the eternal benefit of the living entities. Never was it for their personal gain or profit. In our case, we will never open our mouth to a person if we are not getting some personal benefit out of it. In Mahabharata also we find that Maharaja Yudhistira approached Sri Bhishmadev who was lying on the bed of arrows and posed to him the following question:

kim-ekam daivatam loke / kim-vaapyekam paraayanam
stuvantah-kam kamarchantah / praapnuyur maanavaah shubham
ko dharmah sarvadharmaanaam / bhavatah paramo matah
kim japan muchyate jantur / janma samsaara bandhanaat

"Who is the one and only diety in the world? What is also the sole supreme ultimate goal? By praising and worshiping whom will we achieve all that is auspicious? Which is the dharma that is considered by you as the highest? By repeating which, one can obtain relief from the bondage of birth and worldly ties?"

In reply to this inquiry Bhishmadev replied:

jagatprabhum devadevam anantam purushottamam
stuvan naamasahasrena purushah satatotthitah
tameva caarcayan nityam bhaktyaa purusham avyayam
dhyaayan stuvan namasyamshca yajamaanastameva ca
anaadininidhanam vishnum sarva loka maheshwaram
lokaadhyaksham stuvan nityam sarvadukhaatigo bhavet

"The one who is ever engaged in meditating, worshipping and praising with the thousand names the Lord of the universe, the God of Gods, the endless Supreme Personality Of Godhead, transcends all grief."

Considering the precarious position in which Bhishmadev was lying on the bed of arrows, he could have just stopped with this answer. We also find that Yudhishtira never asked Bhishma to list out all the transcendental names with which we have to glorify the Lord. Even though this was not asked for, Bhishmadeva considered it necessary to recite the Vishnu sahasranaamam so that even today so many living entities are chanting these names ad getting eternal benefit.

Just like Bhishmadeva, Srila Prabhupada during his final days in the material world, wanted to give the transcendental knowledge of Srimad Bhagavatam for the benefit of all the souls rotting here and he dictated the transcendental purports even during the last days. We see our beloved Guru maharaj travelling even today in his ripe old age and preaching loudly the message of Srila Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 1.4.17, describes the nature of the these transcendentalists very wonderfully:

"And all such transcendentalists, who are naturally devotees of the Lord, are always eager to render welfare service to the people in general. They are the real friends of the people in general, not the so-called public leaders who are unable to see what is going to happen five minutes ahead. In this age the people in general as well as their so-called leaders are all unlucky fellows, faithless in spiritual knowledge and influenced by the age of Kali. They are always disturbed by various diseases. The unfortunate men of this age are always reluctant to give a reception to the transcendentalists who are representatives of Srila Vyasadeva and selfless workers always busy in planning something which may help everyone in all statuses and orders of life. The greatest philanthropists are those transcendentalists who represent the mission of Vyaasa, Naarada, Madhva, Caitanya, Rupa, Sarasvati, etc. They are all one and the same. The personalities may be different, but the all of the mission is one and the same, namely, to deliver the fallen souls back home, back to Godhead."

I remember that eleven years back, when we came to Abudhabi, H G Svayam Sphruti Prabhu used to call us for the Bhagavad Gita classes. I, in all my foolishness used to think why is he again and again calling us for the program? What does he want from us? Still Prabhuji used to call us tirelessly and HG Radha charan maathaji, single handedly made prasadam for all of us. With so much of persistent efforts he has given us the treasure of Srila prabhupada’s literature even though we never asked for it or infact trying to runaway from it. How can we repay our gratitude to them?

The great souls who give this knowledge do not want to be worshiped. They will be happy if we ourselves can study, take advantage of this literature and preach and pass on the message to other living entities. That is the only way we can repay them. If we do that, then we can be called ‘krta-jna‘ meaning a grateful person who remembers the service that has been done to us. Otherwise we will become krta-ghna ungrateful – those who have forgotten the service done to us. The difference between krta-jna and krta-gna is a single letter only. Hence we should be very careful to become krta-jna and not krta-ghna which depends upon one single thing that is to pass on the message by preaching it to others so that generations can be saved from getting entangled in the material mire.

Thank you very much.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Vaijayanthimala devi dasi
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.

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
imaḿ vivasvate yogaḿ
proktavān aham avyayam
vivasvān manave prāha
manur ikṣvākave ‘bravīt

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Who is Lord Balarama?

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is the fountainhead of all incarnations. Lord Balarama is His second body. They are both one and the same identity. They differ only in form. Balarama is the first bodily expansion of Krishna, and He assists in Lord Krishna’s transcendental pastimes. He is the source of the entire spiritual world and is the adi-guru, the original spiritual master.

He assumes five other forms to serve Lord Krishna. He Himself helps in the pastimes of Lord Krishna, and He does the work of creation in four other forms called the catur-vyuha (four armed) forms known as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Anirudha. He executes the orders of Lord Krishna in the work of creation, and in the form of Lord Sesa He serves Sri Krishna in various ways. In all the forms He tastes the transcendental bliss of serving Krishna. No one can approach Krishna without first getting the mercy of Baladeva.

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"The word krs is the attractive feature of the Lord’s existence, and na means spiritual pleasure. Krs added to na becomes Krsna, which indicates the Absolute Truth."

Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva 71.4

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

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Candana yatra starts on this day, which is celebrated as well as the day on which treta yuga began. Barley, one of the main ingredients for homa, which is the yuga dharma of Treta Yuga, was also created on this day. Ganga devi also descended to earth on this day. Many common people have special puja on this day. One should bathe in a sacred river, give charity, perform japa and offer barley in a sacred fire, and offer barley preparations to the deity.

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Unless the root cause of committing sin is eradicated, the attitude to commit sin cannot be removed. The cause of sin is desire for committing sin and the cause of desire for committing sin is misconception of self. The cause of misconception of self is nescience (ignorance) and the cause of nescience is aversion to Supreme Lord, who is All-Existence, All-Knowledge and All-Bliss. Therefore root cause of sin is aversion to Sri Krishna. So, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said, "The conditioned souls of the world, due to forgetfulness of their relation with Supreme Lord are averse to Sri Krishna since time immemorial." Therefore it is advised to cultivate devotional service principally to chant the Holy Name for remembrance of Sri Krishna. We have forgotten Krishna from time immemorial, we are to undo it and for this we are to take the help of bona fide pure devotees and practice devotional service strictly.

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Below is concluding part of the transcription of lecture, "Life begins from Cleanliness", given by our spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on 2008-12-10.

Part – 1

Part – 2

These scriptures are not in sky. They are very much intimately connected with day to day life. Unless the way we deal things in our day to day life is not changed what is the use? Outward show is quite alright. Tilak is there; dhoti is there; japamala is there – but what is inside? Nothing. Outward show cannot continue. Mahabharat show cannot continue for more than 3 hours. After 3 hours, each one of us are our own selves. How long can it continue?  But we are very expert in showing up what we are actually not – but one fine day we are revealed. Hypocrisy cannot take us anywhere. Hypocrisy is known as "dambh" in Sanskrit. Hypocrisy should be avoided. At any cost – hypocrisy should be avoided.

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There was once a hunter who lured birds with food and captured them after spreading a net. He lived as if appointed by death personified as the killer of the birds. While wandering in the forest, the hunter saw a pair of kulinga birds. Of the two, the female was captivated by the hunter’s lure.

The male kulinga bird, seeing his wife put into the greatest danger in the grip of Providence, became very unhappy. Because of affection, the poor bird, being unable to release her, began to lament for his wife."Alas, how merciless is Providence! My wife, unable to be helped by anyone, is in such an awkward position and lamenting for me. What will Providence gain by taking away this poor bird? What will be the profit?

If unkind Providence takes away my wife, who is half my body, why should He not take me also? What is the use of my living with half of my body, bereaved by loss of my wife? What shall I gain in this way? The unfortunate baby birds, bereft of their mother, are waiting in the nest for her to feed them. They are still very small and have not yet grown their wings. How shall I be able to maintain them?"

Because of the loss of his wife, the Kulinga bird lamented with tears in his eyes. Meanwhile, following the dictations of mature time, the hunter, who was very carefully hidden in the distance, released his arrow, which pierced the body of the Kulinga bird and killed him.

Purport:

Yamaraja once asked Maharaja Yudhisthira, "What is the most wonderful thing within this world?" Maharaja Yudhisthira replied (Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.116):

ahany ahani bhutani
gacchantiha yamalayam
sesah sthavaram icchanti
kim ascaryam atah param

Hundreds and thousands of living entities meet death at every moment, but a foolish living being nonetheless thinks himself deathless and does not prepare for death. This is the most wonderful thing in this world. Everyone has to die because everyone is fully under the control of material nature, yet everyone thinks that he is independent, that whatever he likes he can do, that he will never meet death but live forever, and so on.

The scriptures recommend that we should become the servants of the servant of Lord Krishna. But if we really become servants of the servants, then, instead of us serving the Lord, the Lord serves us beyond all our imaginations. Of course this is an embarrassment for pure devotees; their motive of service is not to get service from the Lord, but the Lord being bought over by the unmotivated service of His sincere devotees, does anything for their welfare. In Srimad Bhagavatam 1.16.16, there is a list of menial service that Lord Krishna did to the Pandavas which we cannot normally imagine the Supreme Lord to do for anyone.

saarathya paarashada sevana sakhya dautya
viraasanaanugamana stavana pranaamaan
snigdeshu paandushu jagat pranatim ca vishnor
bhaktim karoti nr-patis caranaaravinde

"Maharaja Parikshit heard that out of His causeless mercy Lord Kirshna [Vishnu], who is universally obeyed, rendered all kinds of service to the malleable sons of Pandu by accepting posts ranging from chariot driver to president to messenger, friend, night watchman, etc., according to the will of the Pandavas, obeying them like a servant and offering obeisances like one younger in years. When he heard this, Maharaja Parikshit became overwhelmed with devotion to the lotus feet of the Lord."

Lord Krishna performed services like:

1. Sarathy – He served as the Charioteer of Arjuna in the Battle. Being a charioteer is one of the most menial service one can do. In the battlefield, since the fight will be so intense and fast that the fighter will not have time to tell the charioteer which way to turn. So, many times, the fighter commands the charioteer with signs using his legs hitting the back of the charioteer.Krishna took such a low position of service to serve Arjuna in the battlefield. At the end of everyday, Krishna would also feed and bathe the horses and maintain the Rath clean for Arjuna.

2. Paarashada – Yudhishtira Maharaj wanted the Lord to preside over the Rajasuya ceremony and worship Him. Without any hesitation the Lord accepted the request of the Pandavas and in the process He delivered Sishupala who did not like Krishna being worshiped in that ceremony.

3. Sakhya – The Lord acted as the intimate friend of the Pandavas, especially Arjuna. During informal interactions, Arjuna would often deal with the Lord as if He is his side-kick, but Krishna would always enjoy such informal interactions wherein Arjuna and the other Pandavas would forget the opulence of the Lord and deal with Him as if He is one among them.

4. Dautya – When every attempt failed to stop the war, the Lord volunteered to go to Duryodhana as a messenger on behalf of the Pandavas begging at least 5 villages for them so that there would not be unnecessary loss of lives on either sides. In that process He was even insulted by Duryodhana but the fact is that the Lord was willing to go to any extent to serve His pure devotees.

5. Viraasana – Once the battle is over for the day, both the camps will do strategic planning for the next day’s fight. During that time, the Lord would act as a night watchman for the Pandavas camp so that the spies won’t sneak in from the opposition camp to learn about their next day’s strategy. He was doing this to protect the Pandavas at any cost.

6. Anugamana – Krishna was always following the instructions of Yudhishtira Maharaj, Kunti Maharani, Vidura etc even though He is the almighty Lord.

7. Stavana – Whenever the Lord went to meet the Pandavas, He would says glorifying prayers to them and greet them lovingly, eventhough it should have been the other way round.

8. Pranaamaan – The Lord was offering obeisances to the Pandavas whenever He met them.

He did all these to the Pandavas only because they were malleable to the will of the Lord. They were willing to act in whatever way the Lord desired. The interesting word we should observe in this connection is jagat-pranatim – The whole world is obeying the Lord, but the Lord is obeying His sincere servants.

The Bhagavad Gita is the divine conversation between a man named Arjuna and God himself in the human form, Lord Krishna. The conversation took place in the middle of the battleground 5137 years ago just before the start of a great war in Kurushastra, India. Kamlesh Patel

The Bhagavad Gita is the word of God, as it was spoken by God himself and not a self declared son of God or prophet. The Bhagavad Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna, 3100 years before Jesus and 3700 years before Muhammad. It is the only known scriptures spoken by God in person. Hinduism is the only religion based on following a God who has been actually seen by millions. All other religions are based on believing in a God who has never been seen. The Bhagavad Gita gives exact information regarding God, the soul, material nature, birth, death and life after death. No other religious scripture provides this information.