The only price is earnest desire (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Excerpt from Follow the Angels

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Dedicated to Primal Scream, my first spiritual masters, 

who taught me how to walk, the first bit, following Beauty
(and what That turned out to be)

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This is just the beginning, then gradually there is improvement and we are to go up to the absolute service of Krsna. Krsna is independent of any form — without consideration of any law or any form; only service, krsna santus. Yat karosi yad-asnasi. Whatever we do, think, speak, everything should be for the service of Krsna. That is the standard of devotion.

And mere formalism may be favorable, but not always. The spirit is all-important, even when crossing every formality. What is required of us is our absolute attraction for service, for beauty. Laws have no status there. In the beginning they have some sort of utility, but when one is a little advanced, one should not care for them, for anything.

Only seek sadhu-sanga, adherence to the saints of similar type, a little better than ourselves, our guides in raga-bhajana, those who are in the path of divine love and attraction.

That is the only way. That is the only thing that can guide us. Laulyam, the only price is our laul, earnest desire, nothing else. Krsna bhakti rasa bhavita matih. Ramananda Raya says to Mahaprabhu that if one finds it anywhere, one should try to purchase it. What is that? The pure inclination towards the service of Krsna. The innermost tendency to want Krsna, to get Him, to have Him; the earnest desire to have Him. Anywhere you find that desire, a drop of that divine attraction, try to purchase it for any price. Acquire it! It may be obtained from anywhere or anyone, it does not matter. Kiba vipra kiba nyasi sudra kene naya, yei krsna tattva vetta sei guru haya. A brahmana, a sannyasi, or a sudra who knows Krsna, he is guru. Wherever there is a drop of that love divine, only try to get it. And what is the price? Earnest desire for it. Laulyam api mulyam ekalam. The only price is earnest desire.

Primals

Narasimha Caturdasi Festival!

Sunday Chat: Love (Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj)

Miami, May 5, 2013

Dear devotees,

Receive all my affection from Miami mandir.

Today I want to talk about the greatest love I've ever known.

To begin, I want to offer my sincere obeisances unto my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, who is the savior of my life. Before meeting him, I knew nothing about love, I just had the wonderful experience of love I received from my mother. But even if the love of a mother is one of the largest representations of selfless love we can know, nothing is compared to the true love that is beyond the material conception. This is important to understand.

Still, if we want to know something about the divine love, we must try to identify the closest examples to this, for example: the love of a mother, the loving couple and transcendental spiritual love. The love of a mother is very high, because it is full of dedication and committed service, this is what makes a mother very famous in the field of love. As for romantic love, it is based on the original model received from the divine couple, formed by the original divine masculine and original divine feminine, Sri Sri Radha Govinda.

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (13): Beyond immortality, beyond liberation, beyond oneness

Excerpt from Life-nectar of the Surrendered Souls

by Srila Sridhar Maharaj

A barren conception of mere "deathlessness" cannot afford us any knowledge of a positive thing, but only freedom from the negative side. If immortality means "no influence of mortality," what, then, is its positive conception? What will be the nature, movement, and progress of that which is immortal? Without this understanding, immortality is only an abstract idea. Because it does not appear to exhibit the symptoms of death, stone would be "more immortal" than human beings, and conscious entities would be "mortal," forever denied immortality. 

What, then, is the positive conception of immortality? How are the immortal "immortal"? What is the positive reality in immortality? How can one become immortal? One must search out his intrinsic location in the universal order. It will not do to attempt to solve only the negative side of life which is full of suffering — birth, death, infirmity, and disease. We should know that there exists a conception of life worth living for. This positive side has been almost totally neglected in most general religious views.

For instance, the Buddhist theory is that after liberation, nothing remains. Buddhists crave absolute extinction of material existence. And the Shankarite monist theory of liberation is to lose one's individuality by "becoming one" with the non-differentiated aspect of the Absolute. They postulate that when the triad of seer, seen, and seeing, or knower, knowable, and knowledge culminate at one point, the triad is destroyed and nothing remains.

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (12): Entering the Play of God

Entering the Flow of Lila

By Swami B. V. Tripurari

Lila, or divine play, pastime, is a philosophical/theological necessity arising out of metaphysical worldviews such as Sri Caitanya’s acintya-bhedabheda [inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference — both horizontal (soul-soul) and vertical (God-souls)], as well as other Vaishnava interpretations of revelation/Vedanta. Lila also plays a prominent though secondary role in Advaita Vedanta, where the divine play of Godhead is said to be a manifestation of ultimate reality in this world that does not endure in liberation.

The Bhagavata [Srimad Bhagavatam] itself is decidedly theistic and embraces a post-liberated life of participation in lila with God as its end (prema prayojana). Thus it was firmly embraced by Sri Caitanya. Although Krishna lila as depicted in the text represents an impression of the nature and basic structure of his transcendental lila, it at the same time represents an approximation of the lila, for Krishna lila lies beyond the scope of thought and language.

"A post-liberated life of participation in lila with God", in one of the five relationships, rasas. Arjuna on the left: friend.

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (11): Plato's cave. And after liberation?

The 2400 years old works of Greek philosopher Plato can be called the basis of all western philosophy up to modern day. Some go so far as to say that the entire western philosophy history is but a footnote to Plato. If this is so, then all western philosophy must start off in his famous allegory of the cave, describing humanity's situation. (And if it doesn't?)

Plato lets Socrates describe a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall, backs to the cave-opening and the sun. The people watch shadows projected on the wall, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality.

Auspicious Nectar (Nimaihuset News Bulletin): The Peach Tree is Planted

Some time ago one of the bhaktas/hangarounds (Bh Lucas) donated a peach tree to the temple (read about it here). Today the tree was planted. Here is the first modest picture directly from The Makhan Chor Manor:

Stay tuned to the Bulletin for updates on the peach tree!

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (10): Simply by Chanting Krishna's Name

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

From  Amrta Vani — Nectar of Instructions for Immortality

Question 8. When will we understand that Lord Krsna is nondifferent from His holy names?

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (9): Here is Krishna

Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
in Melbourne, Australia, 1974

Interviewer: Your Divine Grace, is the purpose of human life to realize God? 

Srila Prabhupada: Yes — that is the only purpose.

Interviewer: Srila Prabhupada, have you realized God?

Srila Prabhupada: What do you think? What is your opinion?

Interviewer: I can't say.

Srila Prabhupada: Then if I say yes, what will you have understood? If you are not expert, then even if I say, “Yes, I am God-realized,” how will you take it? If you do not know what God-realization is, then how can you ask this question, and how will you be satisfied by the answer? Therefore, you should not ask this question. It has no value — unless, of course, you are prepared to accept whatever answer I give. Are you prepared?

Satsang with Swami B.A. Sridhar Maharaj!

Welcome to satsang 

with Swami B.A. Sridhar Maharaj!

Saturday the 4th of May from 5 pm

in Nimaihuset!

Satsang means company with an assembly of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate the highest Truth.

Swami B.A. Sridhar Maharaj is the first polish sannyasi, disciple of Srila Prabhupada and Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj, and an old and dear friend of Nimaihuset.

Come on up to Nimaihuset and join us for some hi-quality spiritual refill — sing mantras and devotional songs, hear Maharaj speaking on the highest Truth, ask questions, and afterwards take some fine prasadam (sanctified food) with us!

The satsang does not cost anything but donations are gladly accepted.

I want to serve You, I want to be with You - Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj yesterday in Berlin

Service, seva — again and again... 

The purest teaching — love in action. The main teaching of 
Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj.   

(Service gives the highest pleasure, raises consciousness, clears karma, yields freedom and immortality, and it's how to control the mind, step out of maya/illusion, master reality/all the Cosmic Laws, make spiritual progress, and approach Beauty/The Beloved — and how to play, eternally). 

From 12:35

Some Nimaihuset blog posts on service:

So the real current is His pastimes (Srila Sridhar Mahraj)

Service - Samadhi - Lila (Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj)

Service, service, service (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Two instructions (Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu)

Service to the Absolute  (Srila B.B. Tirtha Maharaj)

Service, Beauty (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (8): Dovetailing with Krishna

Srila Prabhupada explains bhakti yoga, the technique taught in Krishna Consciousness, as "dovetailing with Krishna":

15:09 - 15:54.

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Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness 

(1) The Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra (Srila Prabhupada)

(2) Begin by engaging the tongue (Srila Prabhupada)

(3) Absolute Harmony  (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

(4) Truth and Beauty (Swami B. V. Tripurari)

(5) The right vision (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

(6) Not religion, not yoga, not philosophy

(7) Neither poetry nor imagination (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Sand in the Sweetrice - Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj today in Prague

Hear Gurumaharaj giving some Krishna-katha (talk about or related to Krishna) and get a little taste of the sweet energy that comes from that.

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (7): Neither poetry nor imagination

Excerpt from Subjective Evolution of Consciousness 

— The Play of the Sweet Absolute 

Questions & Answers with Srila Sridhar Maharaj, 

Dr. Marchetti, Dr. Singh, Dr. Murphey, and others

Srila Sridhar Maharaj

Srila Sridhar Maharaj:

We should understand that we are living in the plane of misconception. The whole thing is false. It is all a part of illusion. Within the world of illusion, some thing may have its place, but when we deal with the real truth, however, we will conclude that everything here is like a dream. This whole world is like a dream, a misconception. Any part of this world will therefore also be misconception. What is real, what is truth, will become apparent when a thing is judged in connection with the real world. The association of saints who have a genuine connection with spiritual reality promotes this transaction.

What is real and what is unreal? Whatever has a connection with the real self, with the soul, is real. Soul is consciousness in the world of pure consciousness. Whatever is connected with the mind in the mental world of false ego, is all false. A part of the false is also false, extremely false. But it has got its negative utility.

Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness (6): Not religion, not yoga, not philosophy

Chatting with Subal

[2012/9/29 (Subal)]

Thank you for these two texts. I especially resonated with the part "transcending even spirituality, which is a search in and of itself."

Also the second text... I knew in quantum physics the observer affects the quality and behaviour of reality BUT I never equated it with maya. It does of course make perfect sense that it is so.

Thanks again!

Subal

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

[2012/9/29 (Sevananda)]

Yes, transcending spirituality. Just like Krishna Consciousness is neither religion nor yoga — it's just consciousness of What Is. But since this means The Supreme Person, surrender, and devotion, it will look like "religion". And since the purification of one's consciousness is a process, and includes spiritual knowledge, it will look like "yoga"... Neither is it "philosophy". But since it is a systematic science, expounding an idea (the Truth lol), it will look like that. But it's just about love of Godhead — Krishna Prema. Eternal, ecstatic, ever increasing... Or self-realization, the full meaning of it.

Well, quantum physics — what's physics about? Material energy. In sanskrit (and with a deeper understanding): maya... But I didn't connect to that until just recently. 

Hare Krishna

Sevananda

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Selected Posts on Krishna Consciousness 

(1) The Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra (Srila Prabhupada)

(2) Begin by engaging the tongue (Srila Prabhupada)

(3) Absolute Harmony  (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

(4) Truth and Beauty (Swami B. V. Tripurari)

(5) The right vision (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)