{"id":32322,"date":"2016-10-14T16:59:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T14:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dandavats.tumblr.com\/post\/151795791791"},"modified":"2017-01-26T15:49:55","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T14:49:55","slug":"three-life-lessons-from-our-founder-50-years-ago-at-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=32322","title":{"rendered":"Three Life Lessons from Our Founder.\n50 years ago, at this time…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Three Life Lessons from Our Founder.
\n50 years ago, at this time of the year, a 69 year old sadhu (saintly person) was on a cargo ship traveling from Kolkata to New York. He was alone on this journey and his journals at that time are a moving read. Within a year he would officially establish the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in a store front in the Lower East side of New York. Today ISKCON is flourishing throughout the world all because of the journey of this one man \u2013 our Founder-Acharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.<\/p>\n

We can list hundreds of things that we have learned from Srila Prabhupada but here I will share just three:<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s Never too Late to Start<\/p>\n

At 69, Prabhupada set out on this long and arduous journey. It was the request of his spiritual teacher to bring the teachings of Krishna to the West. This request had been given when he was a much younger man; the time wasn\u2019t ripe then.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we may feel we have missed our chance, or it\u2019s too late to begin, or we are afraid to fail. Prabhupada didn\u2019t let his age, or similar misgivings or circumstances stop him. Neither should we \u2013 especially when it comes to important and meaningful spiritual actions and activities.<\/p>\n

2. Early Morning Treasure<\/p>\n

Every day, no matter where he was in the world, Prabhupada would rise very early in the morning (from 1.30am onwards) to write his translations and commentaries of sacred Sanskrit literature belonging to the Bhakti tradition. He planned his day so those hours were protected and available for him. It was there he produced his masterpieces \u2013 his books that can bring the greatest spiritual insights to anyone who reads them. The early morning hours are available to all of us. It\u2019s the open secret of spiritual advancement.<\/p>\n

3. Individuality<\/p>\n

The essence of the Bhakti practice is developing our personal relationship with Krishna. Prabhupada again and again stressed the individual and personal nature of God and our unique and personal relationship with Him. This is perhaps his greatest gift to us and our greatest lesson \u2013 we belong to Krishna, are eternally related with Him, and thus we are never alone. Despite whatever desperate circumstances we may find ourselves in, we are never, ever, alone.<\/p>\n

Ananda Vrindavanesvari Devi Dasi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Three Life Lessons from Our Founder.
\n50 years ago, at this time of the year, a 69 year old sadhu (saintly person) was on a cargo ship traveling from Kolkata to New York. He was alone on this journey and his journals at that time are a moving read. Within a year he would officially establish the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in a store front in the Lower East side of New York. Today ISKCON is flourishing throughout the world all because of the journey of this one man – our Founder-Acharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.<\/p>\n

We can list hundreds of things that we have learned from Srila Prabhupada but here I will share just three:<\/p>\n

1. It’s Never too Late to Start<\/p>\n

At 69, Prabhupada set out on this long and arduous journey. It was the request of his spiritual teacher to bring the teachings of Krishna to the West. This request had been given when he was a much younger man; the time wasn’t ripe then.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we may feel we have missed our chance, or it’s too late to begin, or we are afraid to fail. Prabhupada didn’t let his age, or similar misgivings or circumstances stop him. Neither should we – especially when it comes to important and meaningful spiritual actions and activities.<\/p>\n

2. Early Morning Treasure<\/p>\n

Every day, no matter where he was in the world, Prabhupada would rise very early in the morning (from 1.30am onwards) to write his translations and commentaries of sacred Sanskrit literature belonging to the Bhakti tradition. He planned his day so those hours were protected and available for him. It was there he produced his masterpieces – his books that can bring the greatest spiritual insights to anyone who reads them. The early morning hours are available to all of us. It’s the open secret of spiritual advancement.<\/p>\n

3. Individuality<\/p>\n

The essence of the Bhakti practice is developing our personal relationship with Krishna. Prabhupada again and again stressed the individual and personal nature of God and our unique and personal relationship with Him. This is perhaps his greatest gift to us and our greatest lesson – we belong to Krishna, are eternally related with Him, and thus we are never alone. Despite whatever desperate circumstances we may find ourselves in, we are never, ever, alone.<\/p>\n

Ananda Vrindavanesvari Devi Dasi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32322","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\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37132,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32322\/revisions\/37132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}