{"id":1366,"date":"2006-09-21T21:18:37","date_gmt":"2006-09-21T20:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2007-07-11T22:05:22","modified_gmt":"2007-07-11T21:05:22","slug":"%e2%80%9cwe-are-always-with-you%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=1366","title":{"rendered":"“We Are Always With You”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HareTalks by HH Indradyumna Swami and HH Giriraj Swami during the wedding ceremony of Piyush and Lalita-devi dasi, June 3, 2006 Carpinteria, CA<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

First part is here<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe Are Always With You\u201d by HH Giriraj Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

sri-caitanya-mano- \u2018bhistam sthapitam yena bhu-tale svayam rupah kada mahyam dadati sva-padantikam<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will Srila Rupa Gosvami Prabhupada, who has established within this material world the mission to fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus feet?\u201d<\/p>\n

sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta vrnda<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAll glories to Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Nityananda, Advaita Acarya, Gadadhara Pandita Prabhu, Srivasa Thakura and all those devotees who follow in their footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n

hare krsna, hare krsna, krsna krsna, hare hare hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare<\/p>\n

\u201cO Srimati Radharani [the divine energy of Lord Krsna, O Lord Krsna [the all-attractive reservoir of pleasure], please engage me in Your loving devotional service.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have gathered at a most auspicious occasion to perform a sacrifice for Visnu. In our lives we go through different phases, but the constant factor in every stage of life is service to God. And in the Vedic culture, every social event\u2013every event of any kind\u2013was meant to bring people together for the glorification of God. So we have the deities (arca-vigraha) here: Sri Sri Gandharvika-Giridhari, Sri Sri Nitai-Gaura-nataraja, and Srila Prabhupada. Whatever we have done here and whatever we do in our lives is meant for Their pleasure.<\/p>\n

Our esteemed priest, Caitanya Bhagavan prabhu, has done an excellent job, as usual, of leading us through the ceremonies, reciting the mantras, and explaining them. And we are grateful to him.<\/p>\n

We in Kali-yuga have been given a very special facility by God Himself, and that is that all rituals, all mantras, all devotional activities can be fulfilled by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. In fact, the Vedic scriptures say that what could be achieved in Satya-yuga through meditation, what could be achieved in Treta-yuga through yajna, and what could be achieved in Dvapara-yuga through puja, can all be achieved in Kali-yuga by chanting the holy names of the Lord:<\/p>\n

dhyayan krte yajan yajnais tretayam dvapare \u2018rcayan yad apnoti tad apnoti kalau sankirtya kesavam<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever is achieved by meditation in Satya-yuga, by the performance of sacrifice in Treta-yuga, and by the worship of Lord Krsna\u2019s lotus feet in Dvapara-yuga is obtained in the age of Kali simply by glorifying the name of Lord Kesava.\u201d (Visnu Purana 6.2.17)<\/p>\n

Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is accepted as the supreme evidence in Vedic authority (sabda-pramana), describes that in every age the Lord appears in a specific incarnation to propagate a specific mode of worship for that particular age. And in the present age of Kali-yuga, people who are intelligent will perform sankirtana-yajna, the sacrifice of chanting of the holy names of Hari, or Krsna.<\/p>\n

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the name of Krsna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krsna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.\u201d (SB 11.5.32)<\/p>\n

His Holiness Indradyumna Swami Maharaja has already nicely explained the significance of marriage, vivaha-samskara, so I thought I might emphasize the spiritual continuity of the soul as it goes through different stages in one\u2019s status of life. Actually, as we were sitting here before the ceremony began, I was looking at the deities and getting some impression\u2013it is supported by sastra, but in a more personal way\u2013that They have been with me for a long time. Now I am sitting here with Them, but They have been following me in my progress in life and probably through many lifetimes. The Lord is situated in the heart (isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese \u2018rjuna tisthati), and it is said that He accompanies the soul\u2013the Supreme Soul, Paramatma, accompanies the individual soul, jivatma\u2013life after life, out of His love for the soul, who is His part and parcel, out of His mercy. So He is following our sojourn through different stages of life in our present lifetime and in past lifetimes.<\/p>\n

As the Upanisads say, the jivatma and Paramatma are situated like two birds on the same branch of a tree, and one bird, the jivatma, is tasting the different fruits on the tree. Some are bitter and some are sweet. Thus the jiva is enjoying and suffering in the material world. And the Paramatma is sitting just next to the jivatma, witnessing all of his activities. He remains neutral. As long as the jiva is involved in enjoying and suffering the fruits of his or her actions, He remains neutral. But actually He is just waiting for the jivatma to turn to Him, to have the awakening that \u201cThis enjoying and suffering the fruits of life in the material world is not bringing me real satisfaction or happiness. There must be something more.\u201d And then, when the jiva turns his face toward the Paramatma, the Lord within the heart becomes very eager and willing to help that soul.<\/p>\n

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta describes how that help is manifest:<\/p>\n

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe living entity is wandering through the universe in different species of life, but when one becomes fortunate, by the grace of guru and Krsna such a soul gets the seed of devotional service, the bhakti-lata-bija.\u201d By the grace of Krsna, one gets guru, and by the grace of guru, one gets Krsna.<\/p>\n

Lord Krsna told His friend Sudama, \u201cAs the Supersoul, I sit in everyone\u2019s heart and observe everyone\u2019s activity in every stage and order of life. Regardless of which stage one is in, when I see that one is engaged seriously and sincerely in discharging the duties ordered by the spiritual master and is thus dedicating his life to the service of the spiritual master, that person becomes most dear to Me. Without the blessings of the spiritual master no one can be happy. By the mercy of the spiritual master and by his blessings, one can fulfill the mission of human life.\u201d (Krsna, Ch
\n80)<\/p>\n

As His Holiness Indradyumna Swami said, it is not in every lifetime that we get the association of sadhus. Such association is most rare and valuable. As I was told when I first met the devotees, the living entity in the ocean of material existence is like a turtle in an ocean and the chance of the living entity coming in touch with a bona fide spiritual master is like that of the turtle finding a raft with a hole in it and climbing through the hole to safety on that raft. It is not an ordinary thing. So that is the Lord\u2019s mercy, that He brings devotees in touch with His servants, His representatives\u2013teachers of the science of devotion.<\/p>\n

And these relationships are eternal. Our relationship with our spiritual master, our relationship with Krsna\u2013these are eternal. We might be in brahmacari-asrama for some time, we might be in grhastha-asrama for some time, and then we may enter vanaprastha-asrama, and in the case of some, sannyasa-asrama. Those are external, and those are part of the gradual process of purification. But the constant factor is our relationship with the spiritual master, with the disciplic succession, with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and ultimately Sri Sri Gandharvika-Giridhari.<\/p>\n

We wish the couple, Piyush and Lalita, all the best. Bhakta Piyush has achieved the mercy of His Holiness Radhanath Swami, who is unable to be here with us today but did ask me to convey his blessings and good wishes to the couple. And I am sure that not only Their Lordships Gandharvika-Giridhari, Sri Sri Nitai-Gaura-nataraja, and Srila Prabhupada will be with you through your sojourn; in fact, all of us, all of your well-wishers, to our capacity, as much as we are able to stand on the spiritual platform, will also be with you. You should never feel alone or like you are going into some wilderness and don\u2019t know what awaits you, or going into some palace and don\u2019t know what awaits you [laughter]. We will always be with you, there to help you in your spiritual life and everything that pertains to it.<\/p>\n

Hare Krsna. <\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Giriraj Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our relationship with our spiritual master, our relationship with Krsna\u2013these are eternal. We might be in brahmacari-asrama for some time, we might be in grhastha-asrama for some time, and then we may enter vanaprastha-asrama, and in the case of some, sannyasa-asrama. Those are external, and those are part of the gradual process of purification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","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=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}