![](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/Px3SMqz.jpeg\")
\nSatsvarupa Dasa Goswami:<\/p>\n
\nSatsvarupa Dasa Goswami:<\/p>\n
From Best Use of a Bad Bargain:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt occurred to me that it\u2019s possible to be connected to Lord Caitanya\u2019s movement, which is the topmost theology, and practice love of God, yet practice it poorly. Then we would find vaidhi-bhakti dry, chant with offenses, not love the Vaishnavas, not feel real devotion. It\u2019s possible. It\u2019s possible a Christian or even a Mayavadi might have more taste and devotion in his meditation than we do. That doesn\u2019t prove that Buddhism or Christianity or impersonalism are better than Krishna consciousness, but just that we are poor, offensive followers in Srila Prabhupada\u2019s camp. Still, we\u2019re well situated, and we can hope to improve. One of our anarthas might be pride, thinking ourselves better than all other religionists with nothing to learn from anyone, where as actually we need to be humble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a place like this [a health care center], with so much emphasis on the body, you have to bring your own bhakti program and practice it. Nourish your Krishna consciousness. It\u2019s up to you to draw yourself close to the fire in the heart just as someone who has been out in the cold draws near the fireplace. The fire of bhakti is kindled by the holy names. Try for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSign in prayer hall: \u2018No prayer means no peace.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Prabhupada says that chanting will soon bring me to pure love of Krishna, I can only conclude that it hasn\u2019t happened to me because of my offenses to the holy name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking care of the body or doing anything isn\u2019t enough unless we have a purpose and think of it often. Smartavyah satatam vishnur. What am I trying to gain in becoming free of headaches and in lightening my body? How will I use health to better contribute to Lord Caitanya\u2019s mission? How will being free of headaches improve my chanting and hearing? Improved health is only to increase my devotional life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA happy moment this morning was when the attendant was spraying warm water from a pressurized hose at me to wash off the caked-on mud. I helped by pushing it off with my hands. It felt like a ritual\u2014I was shedding a dirty covering. Wish it were that easy to wash dirt off the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only take so much health talk\u2014 pontification about the pancreas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPurusottama, Lord of all,
\ndear Guru, please
\nlet me
\nlet me
\nlearn what I
\nmust learn, although I\u2019m afraid to ask,
\n\u2018Give it all to me now.\u2019
\nYou know this\u2014
\nYou know all\u2014
\nplease take me to You.
\nTake away the
\nstones I carry that
\nweigh me down, my
\nmisconceptions and false possessions,
\nmy ego.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I doubt that process. Actually, I doubt it every day. The poor readers have to read through it all. It\u2019s like having a neurotic husband and having to listen to the same complaints every day. A good wife will encourage him, and he may try to free himself, but the path is not always clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis body is meant for pain. There is no way to free myself from it. Even while sitting in the hip bath this morning, a fierce mosquito bit me in four places, causing big swellings. I could become absorbed in the misery and meditate on mosquitoes as my enemies instead of thinking of Krishna, but that is only more misery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut surrender
\nto Nama Prabhu, the holy name.
\nFall at His feet
\nlike the lost offender you are.
\nBeg Him to sprinkle a few drops
\nof His mercy on you so
\nthat you may rise from
\nthe pit of despair
\nwhere you are distracted by
\na thousand mental mosquitoes.
\nPlease give me the strength to work in
\nYour sankirtana movement
\nin this world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHumility\u2019s the dad of other virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctor just blew my mind with his sensible advice. I asked how to eat in the West. He said I should eat according to where I am, how I work, and how I feel. I must be my own judge of what\u2019s good for me. He said what Prabhupada said: \u2018Eat what you can easily digest.\u2019 When you have digestive trouble or illness, eat only fruit. Or skip a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese mosquitoes don\u2019t even rest during the day. They have day shifts and night shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is revealed as we read Prabhupada\u2019s books. I see how he wants us to preach in order to give both offenders and the innocent a chance to chant the holy name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are many times smaller even than a four-headed Brahma, and we are outcasts, so we don\u2019t get to see Krishna. But He sees us. If we want to attract His mercy, we have to demonstrate sincerity in our endeavors, a service attitude (a servant a thousand times removed, a servant of His servants).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cM. said he discovered himself remembering Krishna in a simple way and wants to pursue that during the day. He thinks how Krishna is his well-wisher. Rather than forget Him, he remembers. When misery comes, remember Him; when good fortune comes, remember Him. That\u2019s how we should live, entering ever deeper into devotional service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRead the Gita and become
\na strong man\u2014not physical bala
\nbut self-realized, in love with Krishna.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be here for a mission: to gain health to preach. Therefore, we are protected, but also have to protect ourselves from the mundaneness of the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no easy cure for the conditioned souls\u2019 illness. Pride, envy, material lamentation\u2014all of these are deep-rooted problems\u2014sense addiction, disinclination to serve Krishna, mental speculation, laziness. We have so many ills. We also have the best science with which to heal them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA pious booklet about Indian Nature Cure advocates that we pray to God twice a day. That\u2019s nice, but he discusses it as a health measure, on the same level with drinking lots of water and eating only two meals a day. Don\u2019t they know that health is for serving Govinda? He is not a mere paragraph in the discussion, something to elevate the consciousness out of the mire that causes disease, but He\u2019s the whole purpose of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking care of the body doesn\u2019t mean identifying with the body. You take care of your car, but you don\u2019t identify with it. You do this in Krishna\u2019s service, so it is spiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy headaches prove that without health you can\u2019t do anything. Didn\u2019t Canakya say that? It\u2019s true. I can\u2019t even prosecute my usual duties properly, although they are meant to sustain me. To try to gain health is certainly not maya, but important service. As Srila Prabhupada ended all his letters to his disciples, \u2018I hope this meets you in good health.\u2019 Without at least tolerable health a devotee can\u2019t work. And this is an active movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the responsibility to imbibe Prabhupada\u2019s teachings in my heart and intelligence and to live my understanding of them as is best suited to my nature. We all have this great, personal responsibility. That\u2019s how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI admit I\u2019m still a beginner, still haven\u2019t attained the higher stages, don\u2019t have symptoms of prema. Alas. But I\u2019m persistent in my attachment to the mercy of His Divine Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLord Caitanya lifts His arms and implores us to chant and dance with Him. He personally distributes the fruits of prema from His own tree. Why hold back? Let\u2019s take it and taste and distribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctor said the stomach can be extended beyond the size of the uterus, which is capable of containing a full-size baby. But it\u2019s not meant to be so misshapen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man is a brahmacari, quite old, but the doctor was not pleased that \u2018his material desires are increasing rather than decreasing.\u2019 What is the proof? The priest requested a personal TV for his room. Yesterday the new antenna for the TV arrived, and the workmen installed it on his roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I accept the inflated praises, it creates a karmic reaction for me. This obscurity allows me to serve the Lord with a pure motive, without expecting to be honored in return.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cO Krishna, without You I am a fool, wandering and lost. You are my mother and father, my friend and my beloved. Your pure devotees are my well-wishers. All living beings are part of You. Your spiritual abode seems so far away, yet still You tell us we can reach it. Please help me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami: From Best Use of a Bad Bargain: \u201cIt occurred to me that it\u2019s possible to be connected to Lord Caitanya\u2019s movement, which is the topmost theology, and practice love of God, yet practice it poorly. Then we would find vaidhi-bhakti dry, chant with offenses, not love the Vaishnavas, not feel real devotion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105988,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105987\/revisions\/105988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}