Today I came home from a hard day's work and had the following thought: "No time for Krishna. I work 12-hours at two jobs, and when I get home, I'm exhausted and just want to relax, watch some TV, eat, and go to sleep."
As I turned to The Nectar of Devotion, looking for some inspiration, the following passage appeared. Please help me by kindly sharing with me your thoughts and realizations on the following:
"A great authority like Bhishma has explained that love of Godhead means completely giving up all so-called love for any other person. According to Bhishma, love means to repose one's affection completely upon one person, withdrawing all affinities for any other person. This pure love can be transferred to the Supreme Personality of Godhead under two conditions--out of ecstasy and out of causeless mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.
"Ecstatic love of Godhead can be potently invoked simply by following the rules and regulations of devotional service as they are prescribed in scriptures, under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master. In the Eleventh Canto, 2nd Chapter, 38th verse, of the the Srimad-Bhagavatam this ecstatic love, born of the execution of regulative devotional service, is explained: "A devotee, in the course of executing the regulative principles of devotional service, develops his natural Krishna consciousness, and being thus softened at heart he chants and dances like a madman. While performing chanting of the holy names of the Lord, he sometimes cries, sometimes talks wildly, sometimes sings, and sometimes--without caring for any outsider--dances like a madman.
"In the Padma Purana there is a statement about ecstatic love born of spontaneous affection. Candrakanti, a celebrated fair-faced girl, rigidly observed celibacy in order to obtain Krishna as her husband. She always engaged herself in meditating on the transcendental form of the Lord and always chanted the glories of the Lord. She did not desire to accept anyone else as her husband. She had firmly decided that only Lord Krishna would be her husband."
... "From the example of Candrakanti as found in Padma Purana and from the example of the gopis as found in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, it appears that a devotee who always thinks of Krishna and who always chants His glories in ecstatic love, regardless of his condition, will attain the highest perfection of unalloyed devotional love due to Lord Krishna's extraordinary mercy." --The Nectar of Devotion, Chatper 19, Devotional Service in Love of God.
And as I was reading the statement above by Bhishma, one of the twelve great souls, mahajanas, I was reminded of a sermon by Lord Jesus Christ in his teachings to his disciples:
"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ... The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single [focused on the Lord], thy whole body shall be full of light. ... No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [maya]." --The Bible, Mattew, Chapter 6 (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount), Texts 20-24
As I continued reading from that passage, I was amazed that Lord Jesus goes on to give one of the most illuminating and Krishna conscious speeches, the contents of which were exemplified by Saint Francis of Assissi. I couldn't help but smile as I read these statements given 2000 years ago by Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples. It's almost as if Jesus was quoting Lord Krishna's words from Bhagavad-gita :-)
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat [matter], and the body more than raiment [clothing]?
Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet our heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
[Yet I am very proud thinking that "I am the doer. I am the controller of my destiny. By my hard work I am achieving such and such."]
And why take ye thought for raiment [clothing]? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you. That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed [dressed] like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need for all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." --Lord Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount, The Bible, Matthew, Chapter 6, Texts 25-33.
As I read this, I couldn't help but think of the below verse, spoken by Lord Sri Krishna to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita, 9.22, "The Most Confidential Knowledge."
ananyas cintayanto mam
ye janah paryupasate
tesam nityabhiyuktanam
yoga-ksemam vahamy aham
"But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form--to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have."
As well as, "vyavasayatmika buddhir, ekeha kuru nandana" (BG, 2.41). "Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one." ... In the purport, "As by watering the root of a tree one automatically distributes water to the leaves and branches, so by acting in Krishna consciousness one can render the highest service to everyone--namely self, family, society, country, humanity, etc. If Krishna is satisfied by one's actions, then everyone will be satisfied. ... Service in Krishna consciousness is however, best practiced under the able guidance of a spiritual master who is a bona fide representative of Krishna, who knows the nature of the student and who can guide him to act in Krishna consciousness."
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I take it as my great misfortune, my hopeless addiction to mammon [maya], that even after hearing such divine instruction, receiving such causeless mercy, such great fortune, that I still have so little faith ("O ye of little faith") and turn away after reading the above and my mind notes "Very nice... but not practical. Now let me get back to my real work of endeavoring very hard for my own sense gratification."
In this way I continue to knowingly drink the poison of worldly pleasures that keep me in this prison cell of this temporary material mind, body, senses, fraught with the suffering of birth, disease, old age and death.
I need help.
Please help me. Shower me with your prayers and realizations.
