This was my second visit to the Spanish yatra - I came here before in 2016. In my childhood I had sometimes spent my school holidays in Spain, together with my family. In those days, it was a rather poor but beautiful country, and people lived very simple and off the land. Now, 55 years later, economic development and the advancement of Kali-yuga have brought along so many changes - like everywhere else in Europe....
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I was scheduled to visit the rural community of New Vrajamandala for two weeks over Radhastami. We drove around 85 km out of Madrid, and passing through Brihuega, the town nearest to our ISKCON property, I heard that this little town of around 2500 people has eight big churches, but only two of them are functioning these days. A big decline in God consciousness.....
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The property of New Vrajamandala consists of ancient aristocratic buildings
and about 300 hectares of land. It reminds of Villa Vrindavan in Italy - one of those ancient mansions which was purchased by ISKCON in 1979 during the Bhagavan era. Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Govinda Chandra, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Lord Nrsimhadev are residing here, served by around 30 dedicated devotees and a dozen cows. Devotees are growing organic vegetables and flowers, and nice gardens surround the mansion.
and about 300 hectares of land. It reminds of Villa Vrindavan in Italy - one of those ancient mansions which was purchased by ISKCON in 1979 during the Bhagavan era. Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Govinda Chandra, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Lord Nrsimhadev are residing here, served by around 30 dedicated devotees and a dozen cows. Devotees are growing organic vegetables and flowers, and nice gardens surround the mansion.
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The devotees invited me to offer topic-related morning classes on several days, and also the morning class on Radhastami. Later, HH Yadunandana Maharaja, Jayadvaita Maharaja and Hanumat Presaka Maharaja came and offered nice classes. We also had a group of new devotees visiting from the Manor in London, and I enjoyed connecting with them and they eagerly accepted some of the books I published into their lives. In this way, I spent a jolly time in New Vrajamandala.
Let us remember, that Srimati Radharani is the embodiment of the highest form of pure love, teaching the conditioned souls how to fulfil the soul's longing for the perfect and sublime loving exchanges.
Bhakti begins when we give something up which is very dear to us, which we would normally never want to give up; but for Krishna’s pleasure we are willing to make this sacrifice. We accept something that we would normally never accept, but for Krishna’s pleasure we are happy to accept it. Such a mood of service is the beginning of our cultivation of bhakti.
In Chapter Six of The Nectar of Devotion, entitled ‘How to Discharge Devotional Service’, Srila Prabhupada quotes Rupa Gosvami by listing the sixth principle of engaging in devotional service:
"Being prepared to give up anything material for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna (this means that when we are engaged in the devotional service of Krishna, we must be prepared to give up something which we may not like to give up, and also we have to accept something which we may not like to accept)."
Pure bhakti demands our spirit of sacrifice in service. This is a sign of love – that we are willing to sacrifice our own comfort, convenience, pleasure and also ego satisfaction for the satisfaction of the beloved. After all, in the Chaitanya-charitamrita, (Antya-lila 20.52) Mahaprabhu, in the mood of Srimati Radharani, expresses the following:
"I do not mind My personal distress. I only wish for the happiness of Krishna, for His happiness is the goal of My life. However, if He feels great happiness in giving Me distress, that distress is the best of My happiness."
And Srila Prabhupada further comments to this verse:
"Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that a devotee does not care about his own happiness and distress; he is simply interested in seeing that Krishna is happy, and for that purpose he engages in various activities. A pure devotee has no way of sensing happiness except by seeing that Krishna is happy in every respect. If Krishna becomes happy by giving him distress, such a devotee accepts that unhappiness as the greatest of all happiness."
This is no doubt a very elevated level of bhakti, and we cannot artificially jump to such a high standard. Nevertheless, we have to keep the goal of pure devotion clearly in mind. If we want to one day enter Goloka Vrindavana – Krishna’s abode – and join His sweet pastimes, we have to strive to attain this level and do the internal work of gradually transforming our motivations. It requires humility, honesty and introspection.
Personal motivation within our devotional life is very subtle and so very mixed. On the path of bhakti we will gradually have to learn the practice of becoming aware of our motives and, little by little, gradually weed out the increasingly subtle elements of motivation.
Sometimes when we lack the required honesty and humility, we may try to pull down the standard of pure bhakti to our neophyte and conditioned level in order to make ourselves believe that what we are doing is pure devotional service. But, in fact, we may still be engaged according to the rules of karma-mishra bhakti, engaging in those activities that we like to do anyway.
The cultivation of pure bhakti requires that we conquer over such beginning levels and cultivate the spirit of self-sacrifice in devotion, which Srimati Radharani and the gopis clearly demonstrate to us. They embody the highest
level of pure love. Srila Prabhupada explains this very nicely in the purport to the Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.9.24):
"An easy-going life and attainment of perfection in transcendental realisation cannot go together. The Lord is more clever than any living entity; therefore He wants to see how painstaking the devotee is in devotional service."
Only being willing to do those services that we like to do and that give us some personal satisfaction, cannot be described as an unmotivated service attitude. Rather, it is personally motivated. Not being willing to go beyond our comfort zone may lead to an easy-going life, which will not take us to perfection on the path of bhakti.
On the 18th of September I moved on to Barcelona...
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
Bhakti begins when we give something up which is very dear to us, which we would normally never want to give up; but for Krishna’s pleasure we are willing to make this sacrifice. We accept something that we would normally never accept, but for Krishna’s pleasure we are happy to accept it. Such a mood of service is the beginning of our cultivation of bhakti.
In Chapter Six of The Nectar of Devotion, entitled ‘How to Discharge Devotional Service’, Srila Prabhupada quotes Rupa Gosvami by listing the sixth principle of engaging in devotional service:
"Being prepared to give up anything material for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna (this means that when we are engaged in the devotional service of Krishna, we must be prepared to give up something which we may not like to give up, and also we have to accept something which we may not like to accept)."
Pure bhakti demands our spirit of sacrifice in service. This is a sign of love – that we are willing to sacrifice our own comfort, convenience, pleasure and also ego satisfaction for the satisfaction of the beloved. After all, in the Chaitanya-charitamrita, (Antya-lila 20.52) Mahaprabhu, in the mood of Srimati Radharani, expresses the following:
"I do not mind My personal distress. I only wish for the happiness of Krishna, for His happiness is the goal of My life. However, if He feels great happiness in giving Me distress, that distress is the best of My happiness."
And Srila Prabhupada further comments to this verse:
"Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that a devotee does not care about his own happiness and distress; he is simply interested in seeing that Krishna is happy, and for that purpose he engages in various activities. A pure devotee has no way of sensing happiness except by seeing that Krishna is happy in every respect. If Krishna becomes happy by giving him distress, such a devotee accepts that unhappiness as the greatest of all happiness."
This is no doubt a very elevated level of bhakti, and we cannot artificially jump to such a high standard. Nevertheless, we have to keep the goal of pure devotion clearly in mind. If we want to one day enter Goloka Vrindavana – Krishna’s abode – and join His sweet pastimes, we have to strive to attain this level and do the internal work of gradually transforming our motivations. It requires humility, honesty and introspection.
Personal motivation within our devotional life is very subtle and so very mixed. On the path of bhakti we will gradually have to learn the practice of becoming aware of our motives and, little by little, gradually weed out the increasingly subtle elements of motivation.
Sometimes when we lack the required honesty and humility, we may try to pull down the standard of pure bhakti to our neophyte and conditioned level in order to make ourselves believe that what we are doing is pure devotional service. But, in fact, we may still be engaged according to the rules of karma-mishra bhakti, engaging in those activities that we like to do anyway.
The cultivation of pure bhakti requires that we conquer over such beginning levels and cultivate the spirit of self-sacrifice in devotion, which Srimati Radharani and the gopis clearly demonstrate to us. They embody the highest
level of pure love. Srila Prabhupada explains this very nicely in the purport to the Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.9.24):
"An easy-going life and attainment of perfection in transcendental realisation cannot go together. The Lord is more clever than any living entity; therefore He wants to see how painstaking the devotee is in devotional service."
Only being willing to do those services that we like to do and that give us some personal satisfaction, cannot be described as an unmotivated service attitude. Rather, it is personally motivated. Not being willing to go beyond our comfort zone may lead to an easy-going life, which will not take us to perfection on the path of bhakti.
On the 18th of September I moved on to Barcelona...
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
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