Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth – all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.
Today we shall start about what is Tolerance and then the rest. In BG, these principles, Arjuna is asking several questions. So what is knowledge. Knowledge is that thing which helps us to get information about something. Knowledge means to know. We all want to acquire knowledge. Krsna is qualifying these principles as true knowledge. Knowledge as per BG. As soon as someone gets the glimpse of these descriptions they can be situated at a better platform.
Tolerance means the ability to practise to bear insult and dishonor from others. When someone is on the process of devotional service, (either if we are practicing sincerely or not), dishonor will come and they are the ones who will test our Tolerance. Material nature is designed to frustrate the living entity to the fullest. We are on a roller coaster ride, sometimes we are up, sometime we are down, sometimes happy sometimes in deep misery. That is the material life. Hence, once should tolerate just like winter and summer months come and go. Don't get to happy when things are nice and don't get sad when things don't go well. Just like winter comes, on it's own accord, even when we don't want it, similarly, nobody can adjust the thermostat of life to say I want to add some misery, some happiness in my life - it comes on it's own accord. Intelligent person just tolerates! We just tolerate the things coming to us in this material world. We are not jumping around to say this body is getting old, we need to do plastic surgery to remove the wringles. We are just tolerating, yeah we are getting old - can't complain. The world is giving this to us and this is expected as the material nature is designed for this to happen. The key to success is tolerance.
Prahlad maharaj's father tolerated so many times of his father trying to kill him. Mahaprabhu taught us Trinad api.....the principle of chanting the holy name constantly is only achieved when we are tolerant and humble. A brahmana is taking bath, scorpion is seen drowning and the brahmana picks up the scorpion bites him, so brahmana drops him, tolerates and try to save him again and again - because the sadhu's nature is such - keep trying with tolerance.
Same way we have so many challenges - challenges of our mind, body, senses, friends, relatives - all of them are challenging us to not do the right thing of practicing KC. You have no time, you have so many things to do, you have no time to do this chanting, you are still very young, the time hasn't come to chant. Hence, we are being challenged everyday everymoment to practise our KC. We are not able to tolerate these challenges and tolerate our mind and tell the mind that - let's put everything elese to rest and this is the most important thing for me right now because this will give me the joy, peace of mind and happiness eternally. To practice KC, we need to develop tolerance. When this is missing, the entire purpose of life is lost. That's why Krsna states Tolerance - simplicity - simple living and high thinking here. Simplicity means one without diplomacy can state the right truth to an enemy. Approaching a bonafide spiritual master - Guru Ashray. There are 5 principles stated in NOD
- Take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. Without the instruction of the spiritual master one can't progress in their spiritual life. We all went to school, all have our degrees and to get those degrees we had to get information from such bonafide teachers. Similarly in our spiritual life, we are all trying to practice spirituality and learn the science of Krsna so we can have spiritual progress. We have to take Guru Ashraya. Without having a Guru, ones progress is impossible. One may actually give many arguments but this principle of accepting a Spiritual Master is very crucial.
What does it mean about having a Spiritual Master? This is not for fashion. We are not doing it just for the name or reputation or for a status. Accepting Guru is for spiritual progress - we follow the instructions of the spiritual master. No point of having a Guru if we can't follow the spiritual master. One must think and one must act. Yasya prasadad.... when the SM is satisfied then we make progress but if SM is not satisfied them there is no progress because if SM is satisfied Krsna is satisfied. We can't just ask for blessings. When you have done something right, automatically he gets the blessings. But if someone has done something wrong, then the hear of the SM cries out for that devotee. But if you do something nice and please the heart of your SM, then Krsna notes that yes my pure devotee is very happy and hence he notes who made him happy.
Cleanliness - One must always think of Krsna and chant the Hare Krsna mantra always. It is external and internal cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Externally we should keep very clean, dirt mean ignorance. Have you see places which are not cleaned for many days - it starts smelling and you have flies and you don't like living there and then you have ignorance and ghosts start living there. Hence, externally it is very important to keep everything clean and when you keep things clean - then your heart just feels so clean. Cleaning your body is such a refreshing experience. Why? That is the nature of a sadhu. A brahmana must take bath 3 times a day and the brahmana must be fresh and take bath 3 times a day. That is the nature of cleanliness. Lot of positiveness. Internal cleanliness is more important and that is cleanliness of mind - Ceto darpana marjanam - the mind has accumulated lots and lots of dust in terms of bad experiences - lust, anger envy, enmity .... how to clean by the mirror of the mind - Hare Krsna Mantra sincerely - it burns away your sins and cleans the mind. It is very scientific and mind the driving force for everything. The whole day we are driven by our mind. For example a person using glasses, has dust on his glasses then he sees everything hazy and can't see things clearly, same way we need to chant the holy name of Krsna to cleanse the mind of all the dust that has accumulated millions of lifetime. Why is it so important? - Our vision is contaminated and mind is dirty and hence we engage ourselves in all these dirty activities.
If we want to lead a good nice life - only possible by keeping our mind clean and that is done only by chanting the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra.
Most important concepts from Sistastakam:
Tolerance, Humbleness, No respect for us and is ready to give respects to everyone - complete humility is not possible unless you have Bhakti. Tolerance is very important because if someone can't tolerate he can never become a devotee of Krsna. The Pandavas were so tolerant. Prahlad maharaj was so tolerant, Dhruva, Ambarish, Brajavasis were so tolerant. One cannot realize Krsna without tolerance. Respecting others without expecting respect for us, in that steady state of mind we can chant the holy name of Krsna without any disturbance. One who truly wants to make progress in spiritual life then all these 4 principles are very important - this is the gateway to spiritual life. Withouth going through the gateway we can't even start our journey. Chant the holy name with feeling and you will become perfect. SP explains that crocodile of death is ready to consume us at anytime. Come out of our complacency - then Krsna in our heart will help us remember Him, wherever we are at whatever stage you are - Krsna sees your sincerity and he will help us get us to come to Him. So please chant with feelings and then you will become perfect.
Today we shall start about what is Tolerance and then the rest. In BG, these principles, Arjuna is asking several questions. So what is knowledge. Knowledge is that thing which helps us to get information about something. Knowledge means to know. We all want to acquire knowledge. Krsna is qualifying these principles as true knowledge. Knowledge as per BG. As soon as someone gets the glimpse of these descriptions they can be situated at a better platform.
Tolerance means the ability to practise to bear insult and dishonor from others. When someone is on the process of devotional service, (either if we are practicing sincerely or not), dishonor will come and they are the ones who will test our Tolerance. Material nature is designed to frustrate the living entity to the fullest. We are on a roller coaster ride, sometimes we are up, sometime we are down, sometimes happy sometimes in deep misery. That is the material life. Hence, once should tolerate just like winter and summer months come and go. Don't get to happy when things are nice and don't get sad when things don't go well. Just like winter comes, on it's own accord, even when we don't want it, similarly, nobody can adjust the thermostat of life to say I want to add some misery, some happiness in my life - it comes on it's own accord. Intelligent person just tolerates! We just tolerate the things coming to us in this material world. We are not jumping around to say this body is getting old, we need to do plastic surgery to remove the wringles. We are just tolerating, yeah we are getting old - can't complain. The world is giving this to us and this is expected as the material nature is designed for this to happen. The key to success is tolerance.
Prahlad maharaj's father tolerated so many times of his father trying to kill him. Mahaprabhu taught us Trinad api.....the principle of chanting the holy name constantly is only achieved when we are tolerant and humble. A brahmana is taking bath, scorpion is seen drowning and the brahmana picks up the scorpion bites him, so brahmana drops him, tolerates and try to save him again and again - because the sadhu's nature is such - keep trying with tolerance.
Same way we have so many challenges - challenges of our mind, body, senses, friends, relatives - all of them are challenging us to not do the right thing of practicing KC. You have no time, you have so many things to do, you have no time to do this chanting, you are still very young, the time hasn't come to chant. Hence, we are being challenged everyday everymoment to practise our KC. We are not able to tolerate these challenges and tolerate our mind and tell the mind that - let's put everything elese to rest and this is the most important thing for me right now because this will give me the joy, peace of mind and happiness eternally. To practice KC, we need to develop tolerance. When this is missing, the entire purpose of life is lost. That's why Krsna states Tolerance - simplicity - simple living and high thinking here. Simplicity means one without diplomacy can state the right truth to an enemy. Approaching a bonafide spiritual master - Guru Ashray. There are 5 principles stated in NOD
- Take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. Without the instruction of the spiritual master one can't progress in their spiritual life. We all went to school, all have our degrees and to get those degrees we had to get information from such bonafide teachers. Similarly in our spiritual life, we are all trying to practice spirituality and learn the science of Krsna so we can have spiritual progress. We have to take Guru Ashraya. Without having a Guru, ones progress is impossible. One may actually give many arguments but this principle of accepting a Spiritual Master is very crucial.
What does it mean about having a Spiritual Master? This is not for fashion. We are not doing it just for the name or reputation or for a status. Accepting Guru is for spiritual progress - we follow the instructions of the spiritual master. No point of having a Guru if we can't follow the spiritual master. One must think and one must act. Yasya prasadad.... when the SM is satisfied then we make progress but if SM is not satisfied them there is no progress because if SM is satisfied Krsna is satisfied. We can't just ask for blessings. When you have done something right, automatically he gets the blessings. But if someone has done something wrong, then the hear of the SM cries out for that devotee. But if you do something nice and please the heart of your SM, then Krsna notes that yes my pure devotee is very happy and hence he notes who made him happy.
Cleanliness - One must always think of Krsna and chant the Hare Krsna mantra always. It is external and internal cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Externally we should keep very clean, dirt mean ignorance. Have you see places which are not cleaned for many days - it starts smelling and you have flies and you don't like living there and then you have ignorance and ghosts start living there. Hence, externally it is very important to keep everything clean and when you keep things clean - then your heart just feels so clean. Cleaning your body is such a refreshing experience. Why? That is the nature of a sadhu. A brahmana must take bath 3 times a day and the brahmana must be fresh and take bath 3 times a day. That is the nature of cleanliness. Lot of positiveness. Internal cleanliness is more important and that is cleanliness of mind - Ceto darpana marjanam - the mind has accumulated lots and lots of dust in terms of bad experiences - lust, anger envy, enmity .... how to clean by the mirror of the mind - Hare Krsna Mantra sincerely - it burns away your sins and cleans the mind. It is very scientific and mind the driving force for everything. The whole day we are driven by our mind. For example a person using glasses, has dust on his glasses then he sees everything hazy and can't see things clearly, same way we need to chant the holy name of Krsna to cleanse the mind of all the dust that has accumulated millions of lifetime. Why is it so important? - Our vision is contaminated and mind is dirty and hence we engage ourselves in all these dirty activities.
If we want to lead a good nice life - only possible by keeping our mind clean and that is done only by chanting the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra.
Most important concepts from Sistastakam:
Tolerance, Humbleness, No respect for us and is ready to give respects to everyone - complete humility is not possible unless you have Bhakti. Tolerance is very important because if someone can't tolerate he can never become a devotee of Krsna. The Pandavas were so tolerant. Prahlad maharaj was so tolerant, Dhruva, Ambarish, Brajavasis were so tolerant. One cannot realize Krsna without tolerance. Respecting others without expecting respect for us, in that steady state of mind we can chant the holy name of Krsna without any disturbance. One who truly wants to make progress in spiritual life then all these 4 principles are very important - this is the gateway to spiritual life. Withouth going through the gateway we can't even start our journey. Chant the holy name with feeling and you will become perfect. SP explains that crocodile of death is ready to consume us at anytime. Come out of our complacency - then Krsna in our heart will help us remember Him, wherever we are at whatever stage you are - Krsna sees your sincerity and he will help us get us to come to Him. So please chant with feelings and then you will become perfect.
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