20180807 Evening Darśana Question and Answer Session

Nāma Oṁ…

Mukham..

Here in Chennai there is a 24-hour bandh because the previous chief minister Karunanidhi has left his body. So just when he was sick 21 people died, his followers, they couldn’t take the fact that he was sick. So all our devotees have left early and so we will have just a short question and answer session. We were discussing how Lord Caitanya went to Gāya and there seeing the lotus footprint of Lord Vishnu, He began to manifest ashtakam saatvika bhaava, crying, choking up, tears, hairs standing on end. So this was the first time that He displayed love of Krishna. So He went to Gāya as Nimāi Pandit but when He went back to Navadvip, He was a changed person. So these are very important pastimes. We will continue that tomorrow. Any questions now?

Question: What are the instructions for practicing devotees to observe Shraadha? Do we need to follow the Vedic rituals or just serve the vaishnavas and do Harinaam? Sevapadma dd

Guru maharaj: Both. Offer forefathers the Krishna conscious rituals, also chant Hare Krishna and feed the vaishnavas. Make it a festive occasion. Sevā Padma is one of our leading outreach devotees situated in Shyamadesh. I first met her in New Delhi. 

Question: Gurudev aapni Shushto hoi jaan please, aapni koshthe thaakle āmra kaimun kore bhalo thaakthe paari? (Gurudev, please get well, if you are unwell how can we be okay?)

Guru maharaj: It is in the hands of guru and Gaurāṅga. He said I should get healthy. It is not in my hands. 

Question: What are your aspirations for this lifetime? Meaning for how long will you keep blessing us with your out of this world, merciful loving presence, giving us your personal association. Vijay Rādhā

Guru maharaj: These are not philosophical questions. Birth, death, disease and old age are also Krishna, He controls. 

Question: Which quality do you really, really want your disciples to have?

GM: I asked this to Prabhupad. Many devotees asked. Prabhupad said, I want my devotees to have love of Krishna. So that makes the spiritual master most pleased. 

Question: Sometimes we wish to forget some bitter happenings in this material life. But though we try in many ways, the surroundings and people make us reminded of those bitter happenings again and again. What can be done for this? Alamelu Vishnwanathan.

Guru maharaj: You cannot forget something by thinking about it. You have to bring Krishna into the mind and then other things become insignificant. So we want to be always absorbed in Krishna consciousness. 

Question: How do we focus on our spiritual practices without any hindrances or deviations?

Guru maharaj: Two things he said, without hindrance and without deviation. So hindrance is external distraction. But deviation is our internal choice to not serve Krishna and instead to serve the senses. So we should be either go das or a Goswami. Go das means a servitor of the senses and Go swami is a controller of the senses. We control the senses by using them in the service of the Master of the senses. 

Question: When we are getting some service towards the Lordship or we get some good association, is this by the mercy of the guru? How do we understand it? Anushree Gopikā dd.

Guru maharaj: Anything we get favorable to our Krishna consciousness take that as the mercy of guru and Krishna. Any deviations we take it as our own illusion. This is how we safeguard our consciousness.

Question: By what kind of service can I please you the most?

Guru maharaj: All glories to your service. It is a really a question of each individual, what service will really involve their mind. Some people might like brahminical activities, some protecting the devotees in their Kshatriya mood. In the UK they were taking out the Harinaam party and the football hooligans would go out and look for a fight. So then you get a group of hooligans and a group of simple devotees doing Harinaam.  And sometimes they would start and punching and beating up the Harinaam devotees. So some devotees in a Kshatriya mood protected the devotees. They directly confronted the hooligans. For each situation devotees do different services. Some may be very expert in farming, some may be very expert in book publishing, so it is not what service, it is doing the service which you are most suited for. In Māyāpur some of our vaishnavis do wonderful altar decoration. Some are very expert in pūjā. So it is not that you have to change your service it is doing your service with concentration, bhakti.