The Pursuit of Bliss

Pride Vs Humility

2016-07-25T19:16:00.000+10:00

The mind is our enemy. The biggest fault of the mind is pride. Due to pride we are not able to become humble. And God is friend of humble souls. He cannot become our friend as long as we are not humble. We may bang our head against the ground uncountable lifetimes, but it will be useless.

The very first verse of the Ashtpadi (eight verses) of Gaurang Mahaprabhu says – Be more humble than a blade of grass. If you step on grass – on ‘doob’ etc. – you will notice that the blade of grass bends down. When you remove your foot, it becomes normal once again. A tree bears fruit. When you throw stones at the tree, the fruit drops to the ground. The tree does not get angry. In fact, it gives you fruits to eat. The tree responds to your stones with fruits. It is so tolerant. The tree does not eat its own fruits. It feeds you instead.

What do we have in our possession that we are proud of? If Sarasvati becomes proud of her knowledge; if Ravan becomes proud; if Indra becomes proud; if Kuber (celestial god of wealth) becomes proud; if Agni dev (god of fire) and Vayu (god of wind) become proud, their pride is valid. All of these personalities possess great powers. What power do we possess? What are we proud of?

If someone points out one of our faults, why do we feel bad? Who does not have faults? Think about this in private, behind closed doors. As long as the individual soul is controlled by maya, which fault does he not suffer from? Does he not possess desires, or anger, or pride, or attachment? Which fault does he not have? There are countless faults within, and if someone points out one of these to us, why do we feel offended? Why does the aspiring devotee ruin himself like this? If we feel offended, our mind will become polluted. We will suffer even physically due to anger.

Roop Gosvami wrote the scripture ‘Bhakti Rasamrit Sindhu.’ Jeev Gosvami went to visit Roop Gosvami. There, a scholar from Kashi had come, who identified a mistake in one of the verses of Roop Gosvami. This angered Jeev Gosvami greatly. He challenged the scholar to a debate on the bank of the Yamuna; debated with him all day long, and defeated him. How dare you find fault with the verses composed by my guru! Then he went to Roop Gosvami and said, “Guru Ji! A scholar had come from Kashi, and he had the audacity to find fault with one of your verses. I debated with him all day long and now I have come to you after defeating him.” Roop Gosvami said, “Get out of Braj! You do not deserve to stay here. You should have gotten angry at your own anger. Why did you become angry at him? Your Shri Krishna is sitting within him, and you caused him pain. On top of that, you have come here praising yourself! Your pride has increased; this has caused you further harm. I teach you the lesson of humility daily. And you have earned pride. Moreover, you have come to your guru so that he may congratulate you! If there is a mistake in the verse, let it be.”

So, Humility and Tolerance are the foundation of devotion. Think about it. Realize it. Reflect on this again and again. Realize it again and again. And, practice daily. In just ten days’ time, you will find yourself to be peaceful when you renounce your pride.

— Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
Excerpted from His discourse “Deenata aur Shahansheelata”

Is it possible to minimize (the effect) of destiny?

2016-06-26T11:05:00.000+10:00

Q. Maharajji! Is it possible to minimize (the effect) of destiny?

A. God and Saints are all-knowing and all-powerful. They can do whatever They want, They can do whatever They don’t want, and They can do the opposite. However, They also observe the rules and regulations (of this world). God does not alter destiny, and Saints also do not alter destiny. They don’t even alter Their own destiny, what to say of others’? (As an exception,) there have been a few such great, great Saints who had to ascend to Golok sooner than expected, so in order to reduce their longer destiny of fifty years, each multiplied their body by fifty times so as to remain in this world for only one year, but they still lived that (fifty years) destiny.

Although Saints live their destiny, the fact is that they remain unaffected by the pains of their destiny. Son died – “Fine, cremate his body.” (In other words,) whatever people commonly practice in the world does not affect Saints. If anything gets destroyed, they claim, “It’s all okay, as material things are momentary by nature.” Whether it is a situation of loss or harm or bad reputation or even death, Saints remain detached in all. This is the reason they very effortlessly and peacefully go through their destiny.

Saints never act against the rules of conduct established by God, and God also does not act contrary to the same rules; otherwise, people will object by saying, “Lord Ram saved His own father Dashrath and Shree Krishna saved Abhimanyu, but He did not save my son from dying.” No one (in the world) should get an opportunity to raise an objection; for this reason alone, God did not save His own father during the time of His descension. God is allowing things to happen as per the protocol of this world.

The five Pandav, all Saints, and devout devotees of Shree Krishna were wandering in the jungles for fourteen years and Lord Ram Himself was roaming the jungles for fourteen years with Sita Ji, and although He could very well have changed it, He did not change or alter the boon and curse as part of His destiny.

Although nothing is ever impossible for God and Saints, They follow the disciplines of this world so that the people do not get a chance to raise any objections. They live Their destiny. This is the difference.

For this reason, a Saint willingly undergoes his destiny and we should also willingly undergo ours. (For example,) if someone murders another person, he is well aware that he will receive a death sentence. “Oh you are going to commit a murder? You will be hung to death.” “Yes, I know I will be hung, but it is okay. We are four brothers, there will be one less.” Thinking in this way, he commits a murder. He knows (the outcome of his action).

Similarly, when we have committed sins in our past lives, then when it comes time to bear the fruits (of our past actions), we should unhesitatingly encounter them. At the time of committing the sin, you didn’t think about the teachings of Saints, scriptures and the Vedas. (Your attitude at the time was…) “Of course, I am going to commit this sin.” When the time to suffer the consequences comes, then we say, “O God! Please forgive me.” “O yeah! Should I excuse your sins just like that?” No government of any country spares anyone (for committing a crime). Whether one has committed a single murder or a hundred, death sentence would be inevitable. (If someone says,) “O Sir! But I only committed one murder, please pardon me. I promise I will not do it again.” “O sure, you will be sentenced to death once not to repeat the same mistake again.”

Thus, the fruits of our own karmas (actions) is known as destiny. We should gratefully accept the fruits of our actions as the prasad (blessings) of God. When we know that we have to undergo our destiny, why not face it with a smile instead of tears. (Someone may say,) “How could we possibly smile in a situation of despair?” We can look at another person who is in a situation of greater suffering than ourselves. “My father is dead, but both his parents are dead. At least I have my mother. My son is dead, but he not only lost his son, he is blind also.” You at least have eyes to be able to go out and earn money to feed yourself. “Yes, that is true.” So, in essence you won’t feel so bad if you look at another person who is in a place of greater misery than yourself.

On the other hand, if you keep comparing yourself with anyone above you, then in that case, even Indra (king of celestial abode) is miserable too. This is because there is always someone above someone else. Someone may say, “I have four sons, but they are all rascals. Well, I am a millionaire, but my brother is a billionaire.” Surely, there is always going to be someone superior to you, (and if you will keep gauging your situation against others’) you will find yourself crying without escape.

Thus, don’t look above, look below. There are thousands of such people in our country who either don’t have an arm or a leg or eye, and yet they are alive. Some beg for survival and after a whole day, they get to fill their stomach and some barely fill half their stomach. We are in a much better position than they are. In fact, we are way better than many for more reasons than one. Every individual should realize the Grace of God as it will aid in lowering the effect of the pain (caused by our destiny).

Regardless of how much they attain, those ignorant souls who are always looking at those above them will always keep crying (over their destiny). For this reason, while undergoing your destiny, you should always realize God’s Grace knowing that your past sins are now diminishing; sins are now finished after having gone through destiny. For example, if a person committed a crime of stealing something, and was thrown in jail for five years, after being released (at the end of the five years) his sin has ceased.

Why does Discouragement In Devotion Occur?

2016-06-26T10:56:00.002+10:00

Answer by Jagadguru Shree Kriapalu Ji Maharaj, in response to the question “Why does Discouragement In Devotion Occur?”

Discouragement occurs as a result of prior practice. It has to be eliminated through knowledge, through practice. The feeling of discouragement comes when not just one, but all of our weaknesses culminate. They reside in our subtle body and therefore, from time to time, they become strong and manifest. Just like a strong wind that suddenly comes and passes, in the same way, they also come and go. They are not permanent. During that time (a devotee) should hasten his devotion. Everything will be possible with practice only.

For example, when someone is riding a bike or when someone is driving a car up a hill or a slope, he puts the car in first gear, puts it in second gear and the car easily drives up the hill. One who is riding a bike puts out more effort trying to get up a hill. When the slopy part ends, then the bike runs smoothly. Similarly, due to the old practice of our attachments, our consciousness becomes prone to mistakes. However, with practice it slowly and gradually becomes normal.

Sometimes a piece of stone accidentally appears in the food, but it is picked and thrown out and the person continues eating. Therefore, in the same way, when negative thoughts and ideas arise in the mind, we should understand that our past bad actions are causing a hindrance and that we should eradicate them with our devotional strength. We can conquer the negative thoughts and ideas by heeding the Divine teachings of the scriptures and Guru.

God is omnipresent, yet why have we not found Him so far?

2016-06-26T10:56:00.001+10:00

The following question was asked by a devotee and answered by Jagadaguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj Himself.

God is omnipresent, yet why have we not found Him so far?

You did not desire for Him. There are several levels of desiring. You may desire something so much that you are unable to survive without it; without it a moment may feel like a yug. This stage will come when you are totally and perfectly surrendered to God. Our mind is full of worldly attachments – “this is mine, that is mine.” In place of these worldly attachments, one should fully dedicate himself to the lotus feet of God.

Look at God’s Grace! Out of His compassion He gave you this human form, He gave you inquisitiveness to know about God, He arranged for you to meet a Divine Saint. Our heart should melt if we sincerely feel how much God has Graced us.

Mind alone is the reason for mayic bondage and liberation. Mind is attached in the world; it has to be attached to God. This is true devotion.

By your own effort, you can only purify your heart. Guru alone will bless you with the Divine Bliss of God. Loving remembrance of leelas of God are to delight in His Bliss and not for intellectual entertainment. Utilize your intellect in worldly matters. When you will fully comprehend and embrace the fact that the world is mayic and you (soul) are spiritual, you are a part of God, therefore, God alone belongs to you (soul) and your body belongs to this world, then you will turn towards God.

While humbly accepting that you are a fallen soul, afflicted by mayic defilements, with tears of love and repentance, beg God for His selfless love. Do not ask for worldly things from God. Then, God will reveal His Divine form to you through a Divine Saint.

Lord Shiva comes to Gokul for baby Krishna's glimpse!

2014-08-24T17:38:00.000+10:00

Wherever Lord Krishna is there Lord Shiva also dwells and wherever Mahadev Shambhu is there Shree Hari also dwells.

In this self composed kirtan Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj explains a beautiful Leela of Lord Shiva coming to Gokul to get a glimpse of baby Krishna. Mother Yashoda is petrified by His looks and thus, refuses to grant Him the audience. Disappointed, Lord Shiva returns, but Shree Krishna is not happy with it. What does He do to fulfill His devotee's wish?!?

When Lord Krishna appeared in Gokula, Lord Shiva could not content himself. Dressed as a jogi , He went to Gokula and stood at the door of Nanda Baba's house asking to see the new-born.

जोगी शिव अरु मातु यशोमति, रहे दोउ बतराय l

Mother Yasoda eyed the wild looking jogi suspiciously and felt that his appearance would frighten the little baby. She refused to let Him see the boy.

Meanwhile Shiva sings outside ..“ O Mother! I want to see the face of your little child. In your cradle lies the supreme ruler of the universe. Show me His face O Mother!”

Yashoda looked outside and said “’ I won’t bring my child outside, you have snake wrapped around your neck that will frighten my child.”

Shiva said, “ O mother,your Kanaiya is deadly for death. He is Brahma of Brahma. How can he get frightened ? No one can harm him and he also cannot be frightened ? Moreover He also knows me.

ओ जोगी! क्यों बात बनावत, मो ते जो तेहि जाय l
सुनु मैया! यह लाल अजन्मा, ले अवतार सिधाय l

Maiya said," Why are you making stories?
Shiv said, “ Listen Maiya, the unborn God is incarnated as your son.

ओ जोगी! ले भीख जाहू घर, तोहिं उन्माद जनाय l
सुनु मैया! मोहिं भीख इहै चह, दे मोहिं लाल दिखाय l

Yashodaji said,” What are you talking ? My child is very small. Please don’t be so stubborn. I can give you whatever you want “.
Lord Shiva said, “ I don’t want anything else then the Darshan of your child."

शम्भु दरस हित बैठी यमुन तट, दृग-असुवन झारी लाय l
उत काहि ‘कहां कहां ‘ जनु लालहु, नैनन नीर बहाय l

Finally, maiya told Him,” If you want to curse me,do that but I cannot bring my child to you.”

Listening to maiya, Lord Shiva returned to the bank of Yamuna and sat over there. Tears started rolling down Lord Shiv’s cheeks.

Lord Krishna knew that His dear Sadashiva was eager to have His darshan. So right at that moment, He started crying very fiercely and loudly. Yasoda mata tried her best to pacify Him, but to no avail. She was deeply worried about the painful weeping of her son.

Then finally, thinking that the jogi baba might at least distract the child, she rushed to Him but Lord Shiv had already left the place. Somebody told her that the jogi is meditating on the bank of Yamuna. Maiya reached there hurriedly, prayed and requested Shiv to come to see the child and do something to pacify Him.

चलू मैया! ‘कृपालु’ कही जोगी, मिळत हंस्यो बलभाय ll

Lord Shiva and Maiya, came back to baby Krishna.

Baby Krishna and Lord Shiva saw each other. Both were extremely happy to have darshan of each other and immediately baby Krishna stopped crying.

There was divine twinkle in their eyes !!

Naag Panchami

2014-08-01T13:06:00.001+10:00

Naag Panchami

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (Shri Maharaj Ji) explains the significance of Naag Panchami.

Once, King Pareekshit was hunting in a forest. Tired and thirsty, he entered the ashram of a sage Semeeka with the hope to get some water to quench his thirst. The sage however was engrossed in deep meditation and could not hear the king repeatedly asking for water. Pareekshit, was the emperor of the entire Earth. Never in his life had he been so disrespectfully ignored. He misunderstood the sage’s silence to be a great insult to him. In a fit of fury, he picked up a dead snake and put it around the meditating sage’s neck (to insult him) and left the Ashram.

As soon as he left, the sage’s sons came back after a bath in the river and were infuriated seeing a dead snake hanging around their father’s neck. One of his son, Shringi, went into meditation, to find the offender who had committed this unpardonable offense. Realizing that King Pareekshit was the offender, he put a curse on King Pareekshit that he will die due to being bitten by a vicious snake named Takchhak, after seven days.

When sage Semeeka came out of his meditation, he learnt about the incident and the curse put on Pareekshit by his son Shringi. Sage Semeeka was shocked to hear that such a just, religious and king has been cursed to die in seven days. He reprimanded his son saying an austere must not become a victim of anger. One can lose all his hard earned religious merits, by one wrong action taken in anger. However, the sage was also aware that Shringis’s curse was irrevocable as he was “Satya Vaak Paripaalak”. Out of mercy and kindness towards the pious king, sage Semeeka sent his disciple Gaurmukh to inform Pareekshit about the curse of Shringi.

Pareekshit realized his mistake and after crowning his son Janmejaias the king, left his kingdom and family members, to retire to the forest and repent for his misdoing. There he heard a seven day discourse of Shrimad Bhaagwat Mahapuran from Swami Shukdev Paramhans. As per the curse, he was bitten by the poisonous snake Takchhak on the seventh day, but by the grace of Swami Shukdev Paramhans, he had already achieved the ultimate goal of life.

Meanwhile, Janmejai was infuriated by his father’s death. He decided to conduct a yagya, in which he incited all the snakes to come out from their burrows and fall into the yagyafire. Many snakes died like that.Eventually, Sage Narad came over and inquired about the cause of Janmejai’s ruthless actions. Janmejai narrated the entire story and indicated that he was avenging his father’s death. Narad Ji explained to him that by killing all snakes, he was transgressing against God since this was an interruption to God’s creation. He also advised him that the scriptures proclaim that one should be merciful towards everyone. Janmejai on the other hand was torturing the entire species of snakes!! He said, “if you are angry, kill that snake who bit your father. Why kill other innocent snakes”.

Then for the atonement of his sin, Narad ji suggested Janmejai to put an end to this cruel yagya and seek forgiveness by worshiping all remaining snakes. Janmejai stopped his Yagya and worshipped all the remaining snakes respectfully.

This Naag Panchami story inspires us to control anger, be just and merciful to all creatures. Misuse of powers, especially on helpless creatures, is a great sin
.

Meditating on Krishna’s Form by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj

2013-12-21T10:43:00.000+11:00

Meditating on Krishna’s Form by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj
(Translated from a speech at Brahmand Ghat, 1965)

Leave your physical body here and think of yourself in a Divine body, like Krishna’s body. In your Divine body go towards Golok, Krishna’s eternal abode. In Golok the sun, moon, air, land and hills are Divine because Krishna Himself has become all these. Every object there glows with a Divine effulgence.

Now imagine that you are walking there along the gently flowing Yamuna river. On either side there are Divine meadows. The plants and trees on its banks are blossoming with flowers. They are attracting honey bees, which are droning around them. On the banks of such an enchanting Yamuna, which are studded with sentient, Divine jewels and precious stones, is Brahmand Ghat.

Having reached there, you can’t find Shyam Sundar. It is possible He has gone somewhere else to play. Look for Him; He may be coming soon. Look for Him in all directions. He will come only when you long intensely for His vision. The more intense your yearning is for Him, the sooner He will come and reveal Himself to you.

Look! There is a flash! He has come. Watch His enticing gait. How it charms and drowns the mind! Every pore of His Divine body is filled with Bliss, sweetness, freshness and beauty. The locks of His curly hair are swaying gently in the breeze. How wonderful! He has begun playing His flute for your pleasure. He is standing up and looking towards you. Why is He looking in your direction? Because you were longing for His vision.

Now you are unable to control yourself. You run towards Him and fall at His lotus feet. You embrace them tightly. They are soft like a lotus flower and emanating a beautiful fragrance.

Reverently touch His feet to your head and then place them lovingly on your chest. Then roll joyously in the dust of this Divine land and implore Him, “O Shyam Sundar! So many lifetimes went by without seeing You!”

Observe what is happening: Shyam Sundar has stopped playing His flute. Tears of love are falling from His eyes because a soul that was separated from Him has finally come. Krishna is now lifting you up with His own hands and embracing you. On receiving His Divine touch, You again fall to the ground. Now Shyam Sundar is sitting beside you. He lifts you up and places your head in His lap. Stroking your forehead with His lotus-like hand, He tells you, “I was waiting for you since eternity. Why didn’t you come to Me earlier? Oh, it was probably My fault. I didn’t Grace you earlier.”

In your meditation you should now think of serving Shyam Sundar in some way. What service can you do? He likes nam sankirtan or the chanting of His Divine name the most. So chant His names while shedding tears of love.

This is your true service to Him.

The day you have complete faith that God and His name are one, and that they both possess the same powers and virtues, that very day you will become God realized. Write this in golden letters!

God has manifested His name in this world as His special Grace. He says, “I am all-pervading, but you are unable to perceive Me. I reside in Golok, but you cannot reach Me there. I am always with you, seated in your heart, but you do not know this. So I have placed Myself with all My powers in My name. The day you truly understand this and attempt to say ‘Radhey’, you will be unable to finish. Your voice will falter, your throat will be choked in emotion and your mind will be drowned in love. Then what delay will there be in receiving God realization? What impediment will there be in receiving the Grace of a Guru? Simply have faith in this.”

Krishna can easily be found through His name. When He is completely and wholly in His name, then what difference is there between He and His name? We cannot see His personal form at present, but it is within our capacity to take His name whenever and wherever we wish. Now, do nam sankirtan, keeping this faithful feeling in your heart.

Courtesy of Radha Govind Dham NY

2014 Festival Calendar

2013-12-19T17:44:00.000+11:00

Hindus observe sacred occasions by festive observances. All festivals in Hinduism are predominantly spiritual in character and significance. Many festivals are seasonal. Some celebrate harvest and descension of God. Some are dedicated to important events in Hindu Ithihasa Purana (Historical Facts). Every festival is a unique opportunity for everyone to remember the Divine glories of our beloved Lord and their leelas (Divine past times). As Hindu’s we are graced with multiple festival dates to remember Him and to celebrate their Divine glories.

The following major festivals are celebrated in all the ashrams of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.

1^st January, 2014 – Bakthi Diwas / New Year Celebration

14^th January 2014 - Makar Sankranti / Jagadguru Divas

Makar Sankranti signifies the beginning of the harvest season. It’s celebrated not only all over India but other South East Asian Countries as well.

Jagadguru Divas commemorates Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Maharaj Ji’s being proclaimed the supreme Jagadguru of this age (Jagadguruttam) on Jan 14, 1957.

30^th January 2014 - Mauni Amavasya

As per Hindu scriptures Mauni Amavasya is the day when the universe was created. It is believed that Manu Rishi appeared on earth at this very day. The Sun and the Moon enters into the Capricorn sign. People observe a vow of complete silence known as Maun Vrat on this day, to control their senses and engage into the service of Lord Hari. It is believed that practicing austerities helps to purify one’s existence and the easiest way to do so is through vow of silence. Traditionally Hindus take bath on this day in holy waters during Kumbh gives freedom from the clutches of materialistic comfort.

4^th February 2014 - Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami marks the beginning of the spring season and falls on the fifth day of spring (Maagh). Also known and celebrated as Saraswati Puja.

25th February 2014 - Prem Mandir Anniversary (Prem Mandir, Vrindavan)

27^th February 2014 - Maha Shivratri

Maha Shivratri or ‘Shiva’s Great Night’ symbolizes the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati.

12^th March 2014- Rang Ekadashi

Shri Maharaj Ji showers blessings and divine rose water with the essence of bhakti on this auspicious day.

16^th March 2014- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti / Holika Dahan

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti is the descension day of Shri Radha Rani as Gauranga Dev Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Nadia.

On the eve of Holika Dahan huge bonfires are lit to commemorate the burning of the Demoness Holika, the sister of Demon Hiranyakashipu.

17^th March 2014 - Holi Dulhendi

Festival of Colours. Bonfires are lit the day before, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi. Holi in the ashram is played with coloured powder and water dyed from the natural colours of flowers.

19^th March 2014 – Pyari Amma’s Punya Tithi Aaradhana

Pyari Amma’s (Guru Mata) Ascension Day to Divine Goloka. On Chaitra Masa Krishna Paksha, Tritiiya Tithi at 3.35 am our beloved Pyari Amma left Her material body and ascended to Divine Goloka. (13^th March 2009 – On Gregorian calendar)

8th April 2014 - Shri Ramanavami

This festival commemorates the descension day of Lord Ram.in the Bala Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana ………On completion of the ritual six seasons have passed by and then in the twelfth month, on the ninth day of Chaitra month [March–April], when the presiding deity of ruling star of the day is Aditi, where the ruling star of day is Punarvasu (Nakshatra), the asterism is in the ascendant, and when five of the nine planets viz., Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus are at their highest position, when Jupiter with Moon is ascendant in Cancer, and when day is advancing, then Queen Kausalya gave birth to a son with all the divine attributes like lotus-red eyes, lengthy arms, roseate lips, voice like drumbeat, and who took birth to delight the Ikshwaku dynasty, who is adored by all the worlds, and who is the greatly blessed epitome of Hari, namely Rama. (Bala Kanda, Ramayana by Valmiki, Chapter (Sarga) 18, verses 8, 9, 10 and 11)

14^th April 2014 – Hindu New Year (Vedic)

15^th April 2014 – Shri Hanuman Jayanti

Hanuman Jayanti is celebrated on full moon day during Chaitra month to commemorate the birth of Hanuman.

1^th May 2014 - Shri Parasuram Jayanti

2^nd May 2014 - Akshaya Tritiiya (2 days overlapping each other)

Akshaya Tritiiya which is also known as Akha Teej is highly auspicious and holy day for Hindu communities. It falls during Shukla Paksha Tritiiya in the month of Vaishakha. Akshaya Tritiiya falling on a Rohini Nakshatra day with Wednesday is considered very auspicious. The word Akshaya (अक्षय) means never diminishing.

Akshaya Tritiiya also is the appearance day of Lord Parasuram, the sixth descension of supreme God. It falls during Shukla Paksha Tritiiya in the month of Vaishakha. It is believed that Parasuram was born during Pradosh Kal and hence the day when Tritiiya prevails during Pradosh Kal is considered for Parasuram Jayanti celebrations. The purpose of the sixth incarnation of God is to relieve the Earth's burden by exterminating the sinful, destructive and irreligious monarchs that pillaged its resources and neglected their duties as kings. The Kalki Purana states that Parasuram will be the martial guru of Shri Kalki, final Avatar of God. It is not the first time that 6th Avatar of God will meet another Avatar. According to Ramayana, Parasuram came to the betrothal ceremony of Sita and Lord Rama and met the 7th Avatar of God.

8^th May 2014- Shri Sita Mata Jayanti

Sita Navami is celebrated as birth anniversary of Goddess Sita. This day is also known as Sita Jayanti. Sita Jayanti is celebrated on Navami Tithi during Shukla Paksha of Vaishakha month. It is believed that Goddess Sita was born on Tuesday in Pushya Nakshatra. Goddess Sita was married to Lord Rama who was also born on Navami Tithi during Shukla Paksha of Chaitra month. On Hindu calendar Sita Jayanti falls after one month of Shri Rama Navami.

Mata Sita is also known as Janaki as she was the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Mithila. Hence this day is also known as Janaki Navami. According to Ithihasa Purana, when King Janaka was ploughing the land to conduct a Yajna he found a baby girl in the Golden casket. The Golden casket was found inside the field while ploughing the land. A ploughed land is called Sita hence King Janaka named the baby girl as Sita.

11^th May 2014 - Mother’s Day

A day of gratitude for our beloved Guru Mata, Ma Padma (Pyari Amma) so that She may continue to grace us to be in the Seva of our beloved Gurudev Shri Maharaji.

16^th June 2014 - Father’s day

A day of gratitude towards our beloved Gurudev, as a father figures in our lives, so that He may continue to grace us in our Sadhana Bhakti towards Shri Hari.

29^th June 2014 - Jagannath Rathyatra

12^th July 2014 - Guru Poornima

Full moon day during Ashadha month is known as Guru Poornima day. Traditionally this day is reserved for Guru Pujan or Guru Worship. On this day disciples offer Pujan or pay respect to their Gurus. Guru refers to spiritual guide who enlighten disciples by his knowledge and teachings. We are blessed indeed to have Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj as our Gurudev and we offer our gratitude to or spiritual master and thank Shri Hari for giving us a Guru.

30^th July 2014- Haryali Teej

Haryali Teej falls on Shukla Paksha Tritiiya in Shravana (Savan) month and usually falls two days before Nag Panchami. Nature can be seen flourishing. Heavy rains can be witnessed during this period in which everything can be seen full of life because of the Shravana month. Everything can be seen green because of the trees and plants and that is the reason why this festival is known as Haryali Teej. Teej is also the festival swings. Swings are an intricate part of the festival. Beautifully decorated swings are hung in Krishna Temples and the deities of RadhaKrishna are lovingly swinged by devotees.

1st August 2014 - Nag Panchami

Shukla Paksha Panchami during Shravana month is observed as Nag Panchami. Usually Nag Panchami day falls two days after Haryali Teej. Usually Nag Panchami falls in month of July and August in English calendar. The five Nagas worshipped on Nag Panchami: Ananta, Vasuki, Taxak, Karkotaka and Pingala.

10^th August 2014 - Raksha Bandhan

The day Shri Maharaj Ji ties a protective knot (Rakhi) on everybody’s hands.

17^th August 2014 - Shri Krishna Janmashthami

Shri Krishna’s descension day. The festival is celebrated on the eighth day (Ashtami) day of the dark fortnight of the month of Shravana (August–September) in the Hindu calendar.

29^th August 2014 - Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated as birth anniversary of Lord Ganesh. On Ganesh Chaturthi, Lord Ganesh is worshipped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. It is believed that Lord Ganesh was born during Shukla Paksha of Bhadrapada month. Currently Ganesh Chaturthi day falls in month of August or September in English calendar.

2^nd September 2014- Shri Radha Ashtami

Shri Radha’s descension day. She was about 1 year elder to Krishna, whose birth is celebrated as Janmashthami 15 days earlier. She descended at 4am early in the morning on the eight moon day. Shri Radha Rani descended in Barsana as the daughter of King Vrishbhanu and Queen Kirti.

8^th September 2014 - Anant Chaturdashi

Also known as Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturdashi or Anant Chaturdashi. The last day of the Ganesh festival, which begins with Ganesh Chaturthi.

3^rd October 2014 - Vijayadasami / (Dussehra)

8^th October 2014 - Sharad Poornima

The full moon day in the month of Ashwin. It is also referred as Ras Lila Divas or Ras Lila day. Our Beloved Gurudev, Shri Maharaj Ji’s birthday. He appeared in 1922 at midnight on Sharad Poornima in the lap of the eternally Divine, most fortunate Shrimati Bhagwati Devi. On the same night five thousand years ago, Shri Krishna bestowed the highest class of Divine love Bliss in the form of Maharas to qualified souls.

11^th October 2014 - Karva Chauth

Karva Chauth is a fast observed by married Hindu women mostly in North India for the well-being of their husbands. This festival comes 9 days before Diwali on ‘kartik ki chauth’, the fourth day of the dark moon.

21^st October 2014 - Dhan Teras

After the Sagar Manthan between the Devatas and Asuras, Dhanvantri came out of the Milky Ocean with celestial amrita. It is also known as Dhanvantri Jayanti. The Mohini Avatar takes place on this day.

23^rd October 2014 - Diwali

Deepawali or Diwali is the festival of lights. Goddess Lakshmi is also worshiped on this day. Diwali is also the descension Day of our Guru Mata, Pyari Amma. Amma, our Divine Mother. Her name was Shrimati Padma Devi. She took birth in Leelapur in a family of Brahmins. , Shri Rama, Mother Sita, and Lakshmana returned to Ayodhya on the 30th day of Ashwin (19–20 days after Vijayadasami). To mark the return of Lord Rama, in the evening, the residents of Ayodhya lit their city with millions of earthen lamps (called Diya / Deepak). Since then, this day is celebrated in India as Deepawali or Diwali.

24^th October 2014 - Govardhan Puja

The word Govardhan has two meanings. Go means cows and vardhan means nourishment. In the other meaning Go stands for senses and vardhan means to divert the senses towards Shri Krishna. Both of these are done by Shri Giriraja. By residing in the foothills of Shri Giriraja, all the senses are inclined to serve the Lotus Feet of Krishna. Lord Krishna also lifted Govardhan Hill to save the Brajwasis from heavy rainfall caused by Indra.

25^th October 2014 - Bhaiya Dooj

Also known as Bhaiya Dooj tikka festival, it honours the special bond between a brother and a sister.

31^st October 2014 - Gopaashtami

Gopaashtami occurs on the eighth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Kartik. On this day, as Krishna entered the pauganda age he was initiated as a cow herder. Normally the pauganda age begins as a child enters his sixth year. Five years are allotted for youth (kumara), five years for boyhood (pauganda), and on the eleventh year adolescence begins (kisore). However, Krishna, being an extraordinary child in every way, passed through these ages quickly such that by the time he was seven he had entered adolescence. Even in ordinary human society we find that some children are mature for their age, and Krishna was such that he was one and one half times as mature as his actual age. At four, he was six years in terms of maturity.

3^rd November 2014 - Dev Prabodhini Ekadashi

The importance of Dev Prabodhini Ekadashi was narrated to Sage Narada by Brahma in the Skanda Purana. Prabodhini Ekadashi also known as Devotthan Ekadashi is the 11th lunar day (Ekadashi) in the bright fortnight (Shukla Paksha) of the Hindu month of Kartik. It marks the end of the four-month period of Chaturmas, when Lord Vishnu is believed to sleep. It is believed that Vishnu sleeps on Shayani Ekadashi and wakes on Prabodhini Ekadashi, thus giving this day the name "Prabodhini Ekadashi" ("awakening eleventh").

4^th November 2014 - Tulasi Vivah

Tulasi Vivah is performed on this day, the symbolic wedding of Tulasi Devi (Vrinda Devi) to Lord Krishna.

5^th November 2014 – Shri Maharaji’s Punya Tithi Aradhana

When our beloved Gurudev, Shri Maharaji brought His visible pastimes on this earth to a close and left for the Divine Abode of Shri Radha Krishna, on November 15th, 2013 (on the Gregorian calendar) . The Hindu Panchang date is the 13th day (Trayodasha) of Sukla Paksha in the month of Kartik, in the year 2070 of Vikram Samvat.

6^th November 2014- Kartik Poornima

Kartik Poornima (Kartik Poornima) is a Hindu holy day celebrated on the full moon day or the fifteenth lunar day of Kartik (November–December). It is also known as Tripuri Poornima and Tripurari Poornima. It is sometimes called Deva-Diwali or Deva-Deepawali - the festival of lights of the gods. The Kartik Poornima festival also coincides with the Sikh festival of Guru Nanak Jayanti. Lord Shiv killed the demon called Tipurasura on this day. Also marks the appearance of Matsya (Fish Avatar) , the fifth descension of supreme God. The birthday of Vrinda Devi, the personification of the Tulasi plant. The day when Shri Krishna was tied with a cord (daama) around His waist (udara), denoting a divine pastime in which Krishna's mother Yasoda bound Krishna for being mischievous and earning the name Damodhara.

Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj's Final Lecture

2013-12-11T13:42:00.002+11:00

Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj's Final Lecture - Man Karu Sumiran [Subtitled Eng]

Its all about the Mind and how to use the mind to aid your sadhana and its importance.

O Mind! Meditate Upon the Lotus Feet of Shri Radha Rani

This was the final talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj,

Bhakti Bhavan, November 11, 2013

One with true spiritual knowledge addresses his mind, “Listen, mind! Meditate on the lotus feet of Radha Rani.” Every sense organ performs its respective function. The tongue performs the function of speaking; ears perform the function of hearing; eyes perform the function of seeing; the nose performs the work of smelling; skin performs the function of touching, and the mind performs the function of thinking. But here the devotee is asking the mind to listen. He is telling not the ears, but the mind to listen. Imagine someone asking his eyes to listen attentively. Eyes cannot hear. Since the mind is told to meditate, the question arises – How will the mind hear? The only function of the mind is to think. Ears cannot see or perform any other work besides hearing. Every sense organ performs its own independent work. One sense organ cannot perform the work of another. No matter how sophisticated an instrument you come up with, you cannot make the eyes or the nose perform the work of hearing.

If you consider this matter superficially, it would seem that indeed the mind cannot hear. However, this is not so. The mind is such an organ that it performs the work of all other organs. All sense organs are contained within the mind. At night, you dream. At night all your sense organs are on the bed. None of them is performing its work at that time. And yet all the functions of the organs are being performed. In your dreams you see in the same way as you see while in the waking state. You hear everything in the same way. You taste delicacies in the very same way. You experience pleasure in the very same way. You experience sorrow in the very same way. You experience fear in the same way as you do while waking. Is there anyone who realizes in the dream state that he is dreaming? No! He feels that he is awake; he experiences that he is seeing with eyes wide open. How does this happen? All the sense organs are unconscious at that time. Even if there is a theft at home while we are dreaming, we remain completely unaware. Despite the fact that we are performing the work of seeing, hearing and smelling, we remain unaware of the outer world. So, if the sense organs were not included within the mind, the mind would be able to only think. How would it be able to see, hear and smell the world? How would it manage to perform all the functions of all the sense organs in the state of dreaming?

Now, I shall explain to you in layman’s language. Everyone makes a statement such as, “I saw it with my own eyes” and “I heard it with my own ears.” If someone’s mind is preoccupied somewhere else, then having heard something with the ears would be like having heard nothing at all. Having seen something would be equal to not seeing anything at all. Some time ago, the Rath Yatra, i.e. Chariot Festival was underway in Orissa. Hundreds of thousands of people participate in Rath Yatra with great fanfare, playing various instruments. Ramkrishna Paramhans had also gone to participate in it, but he was delayed. On his way he saw an artist doing some delicate artwork. Ramkrishna Paramhans asked him, "Did a procession pass by here?" The artist replied, "No." His neighboring shopkeeper said to him, "You fool! Don't you know this is Ramkrishna

Paramhans? You are lying to him!" The artist said, "No, I am not lying." Ramkrishna Paramhans sat down right there. He went into the state of samadhi and discovered that the artist was not lying. The artist's mind had been so engrossed in his work that he had neither seen nor heard anything. He had not even raised his eyes. This is your daily experience also. If there is too much salt in the food two days in a row, the husband asks his wife, "Where is your mind wandering these days? You are putting in more and more salt everyday!" This implies that if the mind is preoccupied elsewhere, the sense organs don't function properly, even if you are fully awake.

Each sense organ functions with the association of the mind, not by itself. The senses do not perform their function without the mind, whereas the mind performs its function without the senses. This is why we shouldn't wonder how the mind can see and hear, or question why it is being said, "O mind! Listen. Meditate on Radha Rani." So the mind may listen, or pretend as if it didn't hear anything. But the mind first heard and only then ignored what it had just heard. The mind may say, “Forget it. Why do you talk of Radha Rani all day long? Do you expect me to sit and think of Radha Rani instead of focusing on the important task of looking after my family and my work?” No action can be performed without the mind. The mind governs all the senses; all ten of them.

Quotation .................

The most important thing is that in the realm of God, actions performed by the mind are the only ones that are counted as actions. Understand this philosophy clearly. Once, Bhagvan Ram requested His Guru, Vashishth to impart knowledge. Vashishth said:

Quotation .................

“The works performed by the body alone are not considered actions.” Those works do not bear fruit. Since they are not considered actions, there will be no consequence. Actions performed by the mind are the only ones considered to be true actions. Actions performed by the mind cannot be seen, whereas physical actions are visible. This is the reason people of the world consider actions performed by the body to be true actions. They are not aware of the actions of someone's mind; so they do not consider these to be actions at all. A man invites his enemy, planning quietly in his mind that he will give the guest poisoned milk which will cause him to die. And when the guest arrives, the host says, "Welcome, welcome...You never come this way." He acts friendly and gives his enemy poisonous milk to drink, causing him to die. Had the visitor known what was in the host’s mind, he would not have drunk the milk.

Look at some simple examples. We have read in history that so many great Saints, and even God Himself, are seen performing actions, but they do not reap fruits of their actions. At the beginning of the Geeta, this was the main question Arjun asked Shri Krishna. "I will have to kill all of these people. This will result in sins and lead me to hell." Shri Krishna gave a lengthy response to Arjun in the Geeta, as you all are aware.

Lord Krishna explained to Arjun repeatedly,

Quotation .................

“Think of Me at all times and fight the battle.” Meaning..."O Arjun! If your mind is not attached to the battle - either favorably or unfavorably - and is attached to Me instead, then you won't taste the fruits of your actions since they are not actions at all. They are a mere act."

Actions that are performed with intention – good or bad – are called karm, i.e. fruit- bearing actions. You see, lots of pranks are played all over the world on April 1 st . These are just jokes. The day is known as April Fools’ Day. Suppose someone files a lawsuit based on a harmless prank played on this day. The one playing the prank testifies in court, "Your Honor, it was April 1 st yesterday and I was just pulling a prank." The judge would say, "Oh, I see! Okay, okay," and he would tell the plaintiff to leave the court because he knows that everyone commonly plays harmless pranks on each other on April 1 st . All kinds of mockeries and jokes are played out amongst friends and close relatives, including hurling abusive words towards one another. However, no one gets upset because everyone knows that none of this is done with ill intention. The mind is certainly involved, but it is not attached (with good or bad intentions). It is one thing to be involved and another to be attached.

There is a big difference between involvement and attachment. Let's say your wife, mother or sister is preparing food for you. While cooking the mother is thinking, "My son is going to eat, so let me make good food." She is attached to you. On the other hand, if you have hired a cook, he also prepares food, but out of fear. He thinks, "I must make good food, with the right amount of salt; otherwise the boss may get upset and fire me." There is no love in this work. You people also work all day long like this at your job.

So; actions that are performed when the mind is attached, either with affinity or hatred, are called karm. That is why the physical senses were ignored here. The mouth is not being told to utter the holy name. Feet are not being asked to go to God’s temple. None of the physical senses is being asked to do anything. They are not addressed at all. Why? God says, "Look, my government considers only those actions that are performed by the mind to be actions." Moreover, what if someone can't see; what if he is blind from birth? What if someone is deaf? How can he listen to spiritual discourses? Some may be blind, deaf, and lame. There are all kinds of people in the world. Those who are disabled physically in one way or the other could demand God realization without any effort on their part since their physical senses are not functioning properly.

The laws which God has established for Divine attainment and which Saints have explained, stress the importance of the mind alone when it comes to performance of actions. However you describe the method – whether you call it devotion, knowledge, detachment or something else – the method has to be practiced by the mind.

In reality, there are only two types of actions; and no more than that. One is to become neutral towards the world, and the other is to attach your mind to God. That's it! This brings an end to all spiritual discourses. Whether you study the Geeta, the Vedas or the Purans, they will all lead you to this conclusion: become neutral towards the world. Who should become neutral? Your mind! Not your hands or your feet! It will not do to become neutral outwardly while continuing to harbor wrongful thoughts in your mind. This will not work. This is prevalent, as you are well aware. There is an empire of such hypocrisy amongst so-called holy people and also lay people. Mostly everyone behaves in this way in the world, according to their capacity. People deceive one another through outward acts. And the poor individual controlled by maya, is incapable of gauging others’ true intentions and feelings. He is helpless. As such, he considers the outward hypocritical acts of the physical senses as being genuine, and is easily deceived.

Thus, only the actions performed by the mind are considered true actions in the spiritual world. Which action is considered the most gruesome? Murder. For which crime does the Indian government hand out the severest penalty? For committing murder, as specified under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, it is the death penalty. All other penalties – be it life imprisonment, or 10-20 years behind bars – are subservient to the penalty for murder. A murderer is given the death penalty. And what about the one who murders openly? Well, in that case, there would be no need for testimonies. He is murdering someone at a busy crossroad in plain sight of everyone. Like Arjun did in the Mahabharata war! Everyone is witnessing him commit murder. He would release one arrow, and hundreds would die. Arrows were propelled by a special power of mantras in those days. When released, one arrow would turn into a thousand arrows along the way and would kill a thousand people. Everyone, including outsiders, was witnessing this. God, however, did not note in his register that Arjun even thought of committing these murders in his mind, let alone that he actually committed murder. Arjun did not even involve his mind; a task that is required before committing such an action. Shri Krishna noted, "Arjun is only thinking of Me." To our mind, this seems like an extremely difficult task to do. Yes, it is difficult. But it is not impossible.

Consider a task such as riding a bicycle or a motorcycle, or driving a car. There is a lot involved in performing these tasks. Someone is flying an airplane. Yes...How many switches are there in the cockpit? If you pay attention to what the pilot is doing in a helicopter, you will see that he tends to so many buttons and switches, and only then is he able to fly the helicopter. And he is pressing those buttons rapidly. Look at the many people who operate a keyboard and type so fast with both hands.

You ride a bicycle...yes. Your legs are moving. Your hands are carefully holding onto the handle bar. You are aware of where you have to go. A car is coming from this side; another is coming from the other side. The one behind you is honking in order to alert you. You are observing all of this. And your legs are working! Yes. Your hands are also doing their work. All of them are working simultaneously now! Yes. The traffic is heavy, yet you ride your bike or drive your car and safely reach your destination. This is all due to practice.

Great feats are performed through practice. A tight rope walker ties a rope at such a great height, and you see how skillfully he walks on it carrying only a balancing stick. If you start thinking – Oh, there is nothing in this; even I can do it; I am very muscular – you will fall down and die. This is not something you are capable of doing. The circus performer has spent a lot of time training for it.

Shri Krishna had told Arjun –

Quotation .................

Through repeated practice, the yogis perform great feats. They achieve great powers through disciplined practice. And they do it using the same mind you have. Their mind is not imported from somewhere else. At one point, they had the same fickle, impure mind as the one we have right now, whether we speak of Tulsidas, Soordas, Meera, Shankaracharya, Nimbarkacharya or any other Saint.

In my opinion, no one can compare with Tulsidas in shamefulness. Why? Think for a moment. He had gone to his in-laws to meet his wife. He was so anxious to meet her that he mistook a snake for a rope. First of all, doesn't Tulsidas know that all houses are equipped with at least one door? You can't find a house without doors. And secondly, he went to meet his own wife. He should have knocked at the door. He could have shouted, "Open the door!" It is not a crime to meet one's wife. It is also not considered an immoral act.

Tulsidas, who was that much under the grip of lust, heard just one sentence from his wife, "If you had this much love for God, you would have met Lord Ram by now." These words opened his eyes. He immediately turned away from the world and towards God. He didn't turn just a little. He turned fully towards God. And he actually attained Lord Ram in that very life. Not just amongst you but, in my opinion, in the whole world one would not find a person who is as obsessed with his wife as Tulsidas was.

Through repeated practice, everything becomes possible. All of you have also done great practice in the past due to which you are sitting here. Otherwise, no one has even a moment to spare. Why have only a handful of people come here? Why haven't the others come? They think, "Forget it! These people, who keep talking about God the whole day, are a nuisance. They are all insane. Only I am sane. What is all this about Divine abode, God, sins and pious deeds? All of this is nonsense." When such people are being punished for their sins after death, they think, "Oh! I used to think all that talk about God was nonsense. If only I could get a human birth one more time, then I will sincerely practice devotion to God." And then when he is granted human birth, he once again decides all Godly talk to be nonsense.

This is what many have been doing since beginning less time. The few, who have faith in the Vedas and the scriptures, develop their faith further in their next human life. Then they develop it further in the following human birth. They are the ones who come and practice devotion like you are doing. After a considerable amount of practice, one can do this - through practice alone.

Arjun performed very delicate and precise task of shooting arrows at the enemy, but after lots of practice. If someone is aiming at a target 600 feet away and miscalculates by even a fraction of a centimeter, he will miss the target by four feet. Precision is essential in archery. But Arjun is aiming perfectly. And he is not doing it in a state of anger. If an ordinary person were to kill someone, he would get angry first. He would grind his teeth; his eyes would become red and he would hurl abusive words at the victim. Once he has reacted like this, he will then attack. To commit murder would be the final step. And Arjun is killing not just one or two, but hundreds of thousands of men. Arjun had seen all of these men at the beginning of the war and trembled. He

thought, "Oh God! I have to kill these people! No, I won't do it. I won't fight. I prefer to go to hell instead." The same Arjun is killing them now and Shri Krishna is seeing him do it. But He is not noting any of Arjun's actions. He is instead saying Arjun has not performed any action.

'Actions' mean the ones that have consequences, ones which are performed with feelings of love or hatred. Arjun did not perform such action. But the entire world is bearing witness to the actions Arjun has performed. God says, "You silly! What do you know?"

This is why only the mind is being told to meditate on Radha Rani. And this very fact has not been understood by people of this world. People talk big about devotion and prayer, and even allocate time for it. Many are sincerely practicing devotion diligently, but they have not yet understood that only meditation done with the mind is considered to be true devotion. They consider the work of the physical senses – reciting scriptures, worshipping deities, and going on pilgrimage – as having practiced devotion.

They are striving to achieve a numerical goal. I shall recite the scripture this many times. I shall chant God's name this many times. If there is a deity established on a mountain, I shall go there. The deity in the neighborhood temple is ordinary. But God who is sitting in Badrinarayan is an extraordinary God. These days there are proper vehicles and facilities so that people can go and come back from places like Badrinarayan within days. In the olden days, people used to travel by foot. And quite a few of them would die along the way.

Thus, meditation done with the mind is what devotion is. It is good if the physical senses are involved alongside the mind and okay even if they are not. Just through loving remembrance of God with the mind, one will attain God despite being blind, deaf or mute. This is why we should also carefully practice devotion this way. But, we don't do it. Our mind forgets. We chant names of God. That is good. Something is better than nothing. If we chant the name of Radha instead of engaging in random talk, we will at least develop some loving feelings for Radha Rani. But this is carelessness. Since we are allocating so much of our time, we should at least practice devotion properly so that we may progress quickly towards our goal. Then we will truly start feeling, "Yes, I have made some progress. Now I don't get upset as much when someone insults me." It is because of our faults that we cannot make progress towards God. We know fully well that even if one sin is committed in one life, everyone has committed uncountable sins. These are called sanchit karm (accumulated actions which have not yet borne fruit). But despite being such a sinner, there is such pride that we get upset thinking that someone has insulted us. Why do you feel insulted? Your body is made out of dirt; are you talking about this body being insulted? Or did someone insult your soul? And how can anyone insult the soul when the poor fellow doesn't even have an awareness of the soul?

If someone insults the body, why should we care? It is all the same. A child takes birth; he grows up and receives education till the age of 20 or 25. Thereafter, he enters family life, or goes on the wrong path and becomes a dacoit. This goes on for some time and then he dies. That's it. Even his body becomes completely useless at that point. At least animal skin is valuable; people pay money for it.

So, why worry about praise and insult? These feelings are just a weakness of the mind. Even the notion of being insulted becomes palatable through practice. A rogue and a scoundrel is called many insulting words throughout the day, but he keeps on laughing. He tells a friend, "Today a girl threw her sandal at me; I ducked and she missed me." He is happily narrating this to his friend. He doesn't feel bad about it. He is used to it.

Similarly, a prostitute becomes accustomed to her way of life. People become accustomed to lying. The very first time we told a lie our inner conscience spoke to us, “Hey! What are you doing?" A small child was instructed by his mother, "If the neighbor comes and asks for me, tell her I am not at home." The little child kept thinking, “My mommy is at home, yet she is instructing me to say that she is not here." The neighbor came and asked, "Where is your mom?" The child replied, "My mommy is at home, but she said that when the neighbor comes, tell her that mommy has gone out." The neighbor smiled and left. But the mother was listening. After the neighbor left, she slapped the child. What does this mean? The mother is teaching the first lesson to her child, “You are not supposed to say that your mom is at home." The child learns to tell lies. Thereafter, speaking one lie after another, the child grows up day by day and eventually lying becomes second nature to him. Similarly, people develop an addiction to alcohol. Whatever addiction it may be, once you adopt it, you get used to it through practice and stop feeling guilty about it after a while.

That is why you should pay careful attention to the instruction I am repeatedly giving you; to meditate on God with your mind. You should practice it with a firm resolve. It is understand-able that you won't be able to imagine a form easily in the beginning. But keep practicing again and again. Then you will be able to easily meditate on the form of God, and you will start experiencing devotional bliss. The happiness you used to experience in the world will become tasteless. You will be able to remember God effortlessly while walking, sitting and standing. This will happen through practice. When feelings of love or hatred increase to a great extent, they dance in your mind. In the same way, Radha Rani and Shri Krishna will also dance in your mind. Radha and Krishna are the ocean of Divine Bliss, after all. Even the objects and people of the world fully consume your mind once you become attached to them; then what to speak of

Radha-Krishna! Even a glimpse will give you unlimited Divine bliss.

That is why you should take great care. Even if you sit for just two hours, you should practice devotion properly. Having done that, you will develop great devotional feelings in the following two hours. You will say to yourself, "Yes, I am receiving benefits of my practice, and I will practice like this more and more.”

This is why the one with true spiritual knowledge is saying, "O mind! Meditate upon the lotus feet of Shri Radha Rani."

Actions of God and Saints

2013-12-07T14:48:00.001+11:00

Actions of God and Saints

Hari Guru karma divya Govinda Radhey,
mayic budhi te agamya bate dey.

(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on December 29, 2010, in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, India, explaining this new kirtan verse) The Vedas and scriptures and also Saints have said that there is no difference between God and His Saints.

Tasminstajjaney-bhedabhavat. (Narad Bhakti Darshan)

In some places in the scriptures, God has even regarded His devotee Saint as greater than Him. How astonishing!

Nirapeksham munim shantam… (Bhagwatam, 11/14/16)

Shri Krishna said to Uddhava, “When My Saints walk on the earth, I secretly walk behind them.” Uddhava wondered, “Why do You secretly follow them? It must be to protect them.” Shri Krishna said, “No, Uddhava, anubrajamyaham nityam puyeya, I do this so their footdust may fall on Me and purify Me. That is how loving My Saints are to Me.”

After God realisation, God bestows all His powers on the bhakta Saint. For this reason, the Saint’s actions also become divine. In other words, God Himself performs the Saint’s actions; the Saint from his side does nothing. Has a soul attained God realisation? If so, now he does nothing. And why should he do anything? He has attained everything.

When a pot is placed in water, while it is filling it makes a gurgling sound - bak, bak, bak… When it is completely full, it is silent. You can keep on dunking it under the water, but now it won’t make a sound. There is some water that is naturally mixed in butter. When butter is heated to make ghee, it also makes a sound, pat-pat-pat… The reason for this is the water is being cooked off. When the butter is fully cooked and it becomes ghee, then this sound comes to an end. Now, no matter how much you heat the ghee, it may burn but it won’t make a sound. Yet we have seen when people cook with ghee that it makes sounds. When does this happen? When you place raw dough in it. When this becomes a fully cooked puri, then the ghee once again is silent. If you put more raw dough in, then it will again make noise. The ghee itself is not making any noises; the ghee is causing the sound to come from the raw dough as it is cooking.

Arjuna and Hanuman killed thousands, but this wasn’t their own decision. They were following the order of Lord Krishna and Lord Ram for the salvation of the world. Both God and His Saints have performed great activities in the world. Prahlad ruled this world for 300 million years. They were great God realised Saints like this who performed worldly-looking actions like ours, but unlike our actions, their actions were not worldly at all.

Shri Krishna had 16,108 wives, and with each wife he had 10 children. These children in turn also had children. But in the midst of this, Shri Krishna had no attachment. In the end, even though the whole Yadav clan was destroyed, Shri Krishna remained ever-blissful. How could lust, anger, greed, delusion and jealousy remain in a Saint’s heart after God realisation? If a Saint appears to exhibit these qualities after God realisation, it only for the spiritual upliftment of the souls, not for himself. Our material intellects cannot understand this secret of a Saint’s actions. Why not? Look, if you slap someone, first you became very angry. Then an argument follows. Your anger escalates until it’s out of control and this ends with a slap. But Arjuna killed millions in the Mahabharat War with no anger at all. Instead, everywhere he only saw Shri Krishna. Hanuman saw only his beloved Lord Ram everywhere in the world. We think, “How did they do it? I could never do that!” Yes, it is true that you couldn’t, but does that mean there is nothing beyond what you experience? You are bound by Maya; Saints are beyond Maya. You have limited powers and Saints have unlimited powers.

For this reason, in uncountable births we have seen uncountable descensions of supreme God and in spite of this we said, “This Krishna is nothing but a loafer. Day and night He keeps traipsing after girls.” When we saw a Saint like Surdas we said, “He visits a prostitute and afterwards he goes here and there playing his tanpura and chanting ‘Hare Ram Hare Ram’!”

Now that these divine personalities have left this world, we worship them. While they were here, we tried to measure their divinity with our material intellect. We were not able to understand them because we don’t have a divine intellect. As a result, we have always committed spiritual transgressions and caused our own spiritual downfall. We ruined the opportunity of a human birth. We have done this in uncountable births. We have met innumerable Saints and descensions of supreme God. God is not senior to us; like God, we have also existed eternally. Shri Krishna appeared 5,000 years ago on this earth. We were also living at that time. Imagine, if we had the chance to associate with a divine descension in this birth, we would still try to measure his divinity using our material intellect. We would say, “Look, that person is eating and drinking just like I do. He also gets angry. He is also acting greedy. Well, what is the difference between me and him?” Someone else says, “Listen, I heard he is a descension of God!” We would say, “Rubbish!” And if we were to see any contrary behavior from that divine personality, we start heaping even more criticism on him.

For this reason, do not apply your intellect and try to analyse the actions of God or His Saints.

Gaurang Mahaprabhu said,

Jar chitte Krishna prema karai uday,
Taro vakya kriya vigyena bhujhe.

The words and actions of the God realised Saint who has attained Shri Krishna’s divine love cannot be understood even by great intellects such as Brihaspati. Only when one achieves the same divine status and becomes a Saint will one understand. God bestows worldly possesions on a soul. This is His grace. God destroys the worldly possessions of another. This is also His grace. We can only accept that one of these situations is the result of God’s grace, not both simultaneously. After Prahlad attained God realisation, God told him, “Rule this earth for onemanvantar (300 million years)” Prahlad said, “My Lord, you want me to do this for one whole manvantar?” God said, “Yes, you have to stay in the world this long.” Prahlad thought, “After attaining God’s bliss I have to remain in this rubbish heap of a world? Anyway, it is his order. It’s fine.” Otherwise, Prahlad might have said, “What nonsense is this? I attained God realisation. I’m going to Golok abode! Why should I stay here?” Because here one doesn’t see Saints like Prahlad. The world is full of selfish and ignorant mayic souls with material attachment. And in every age only a few true Saints are on this earth.

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that since we can’t understand the words and actions of God and His Saints, we should accept and follow their teachings. When we achieve their divine status, then we will understand everything.

A child of four years can’t yet understand how he is the child of both his mother and father. He wonders, “Why do they both call me ‘son’?” His mother and father also can’t explain this to him as he still is unacquainted with the facts of life and has no sensual desire. When he reaches 16 years of age and starts having these feelings, then he’ll realise, “Oh, so that’s how babies are born! Why didn’t they explain this to me before when I was younger? Instead they kept shooing me away and told me to stop talking nonsense!” Now his understanding comes naturally.

Similarly, when you arrive in the class of a God realised Saint, who even while performing action remains free from all karmic consequences, you will naturally understand. You do have some degree of understanding of this in the world, but you keep forgetting. When you love someone, you hug them to your chest. You hug your husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, and child. But the feeling you experience while hugging each of them is different.

A person is observing a man and woman hugging on the street. If he has a pure mind, he will have pure thoughts about this. If he has an impure mind, he will immediately criticise them, “Look at that promiscuous behavior! Hugging on the street!” What is the actual situation? A brother lost his sister for some days. When he finally found her, he couldn’t control his joy and embraced her. But the onlooker observing this is thinking something quite the opposite.

When we make such wrong appraisals of worldly behavior, then what would happen in our analysis of a Saint’s actions? We just cannot understand their actions. For this reason Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said not to apply one’s intellect in such areas that could lead to one’s spiritual downfall.

When you are studying in school, you don’t attempt to imitate the teachers. If a student sat in the teacher’s chair and made the teacher sit on the floor with the other students, what would happen when the teacher asks the imitation teacher a question? That child has no knowledge. Thus we should always remain careful not to have a negative or judgemental attitude towards God and His Saints.

WHO IS SHRI RADHA ?

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Without knowing who Shri Radha actually is, your love and devotion for Her cannot develop.

Typically it is understood in India that Radha and Krishna must be like Lakshmi and Vishnu or Parvati and Shiva, but They are not like this. Lakshmi and Vishnu are husband and wife or eternal consorts, as are Parvati and Shiva. Radha Krishna are not husband and wife. Shri Krishna is the absolute supreme divine power.

For example you have a father. But your original father’s father is the progenitor of the human race, Manu. Manu’s father was Brahma, the creator of our brahmanda. Brahma’s father was supreme God Shri Krishna. There is no father of Shri Krishna; He is the Father of all.

So the One beyond whom there is nothing else is supreme God Shri Krishna. He governs uncountable Brahmas, uncountable Vishnus, and uncountable Shivas. The Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva that you have heard about, belong to one brahmanda, just as in India, each state has its own governor or chief minister. The one who governs all the uncountable brahmandas is Shri Krishna, just like all the states of India are governed by the prime minister. There is no post or position beyond this.

So there are uncountable brahmandas, and each and every brahmanda has one Brahma, one Vishnu and one Shiva.

Sankhya chet rajasamasti na vishvanam kadachan. (Padma Puran)

Even today’s scientists have accepted that, when light takes millions of years to reach the earth, we can never know how big the universe is. Light travels 186,000 miles in one second, and that takes millions of years to reach the earth! How inconceivably far! Who could go that far? Who will ever see it? There are millions of suns in the Milky Way galaxy like our sun, and there are uncountable galaxies in the universe. Even Jagadguru Shankaracharya accepted this.

Brahmandani bahuni pankajabhavan…

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are servants of Shri Krishna. They are uncountable. Everything that relates to Shri Krishna is absolutely unlimited. He has uncountable names, uncountable forms, uncountable qualities, uncountable pastimes, uncountable abodes, and uncountable souls related to Him – they are all unlimited. His powers are also unlimited.

Shri Krishner ananta shakti tate tin pradhan.

Gauranga Mahaprabhu has said that out of uncountable divine powers, three are foremost: sat, chit, ananda. A name of God is “sat-chit-ananda“. These are three powers. The relationship they have to each other is that sat is included in chit, and sat and chit are included in ananda. This is why God is referred to as sat-chit-ananda, as chid-ananda (which includes sat), and simply as ananda (which includes sat and chit).

Anando brahmeti vyajanat. (Veda)

Ananda-mayobhyasat. (Brahma Sutra)

Ananda, the foremost power of these three, also has an essence. This is called the power of hladini. This is the greatest power of God. All of God’s powers are governed by this power. What does this power do?

Kartum akartum anyatha kartum samarth.

With this power God does whatever He wishes, or He doesn’t act at all, or He does the complete opposite of both of these. What does it mean to perform the opposite of both of these? For example, you have eyes. What do they do? They only see. They can’t hear or smell. They perform one kind of action. But God’s eyes can see, smell, taste, touch, think, decide and be all-knowing. This is the miracle of hladini power. Even with no senses He is all-seeing and hears everything. He knows which soul has called to Him from which brahmanda.

One aspect of God resides in all the souls and notes all our unfaithful thoughts, yet He remains ever-blissful. None of these contrary thoughts affects Him. Just see that in a typical family there are about ten people – a father, mother, wife, husband, and a few children. Just from these associations alone people feel troubled! Someone or the other says something hurtful. All the children have different demands. One person feels so troubled just from ten people, and God has so many children – they are uncountable! And they are all wayward. They have forgotten Him. They don’t regard Him as their true father. God notes all this as He resides in our hearts. Even so, He doesn’t feel troubled by this. He smiles and simply notes our thoughts. This is all possible through God’s hladini power.

Hladini power also has an essence. It is called divine love (divya prem). This also has various classes. These are called prema bhakti, sneha bhakti, maan bhakti, pranaya bhakti, rag bhakti, anurag bhakti, bhav bhakti, and mahabhava bhakti, the final class. Mahabhava bhakti also has two classes, rudha mahabhav and adhirudha mahabhav, which is the highest class. Adhirudha mahabhav also has two classes, maadan and modan. Maadan is reserved for Shri Radha alone. Even Shri Krishna cannot reach there. Only Shri Radha resides here. Shri Krishna is the servant of maadanakhya mahabhava Shri Radha, and that is why He lovingly presses Her lotus feet and serves Her.

The Saint Raskhan had a big doubt, “People say that Shri Krishna is a servant of Shri Radha.” He thought, “For Hindus the wife serves the husband, and here the situation is reversed. He is pressing Her lotus feet? No one has ever seen this! Why is it like this with Radha Krishna?” He thought that Radha was merely Krishna’s wife. So when Raskhan became God realised,

Dekho duryo vahan kunja kutir men

baithyo palotat Radhika payan.

Shri Krishna appeared to Raskhan in this form. He was softly pressing Shri Radha’s lotus feet. Then He bestowed this knowledge on Raskhan and made him understand that He was the servant of Shri Radha, and His servant was Lakshmi, His eternal consort or wife.

So Shri Radha is the soul of Shri Krishna. Our body is the servant of our own soul, and our soul is a servant of Shri Krishna, so Shri Krishna is a servant of Shri Radha. She is that great a divine power. Every pore of Shri Krishna’s divine body is resounding with “Radhey Radhey”. Her name is this important. We should understand this when we take Radhey name.

Imagine you found a ring. Someone asked you, “Where did you find that?” “I was just going somewhere and I found it on the road. Why?” “That’s worth a million!” “What? I though it was worth $10 or $20!” How much happiness will you feel when you look at the ring and realise it has made you a millionaire? Now you will take great care of it.

In the same way, when we understand the greatness of Shri Radha, and then say or sing Her name, our love for Her will grow. Always keep in mind who Shri Krishna and Shri Radha are, who you are, what is the world – knowing the philosophy related to all of these is absolutely essential. By knowing these we become detached from the world and attached to God.

JAGADGURU SHRI KRIPALU JI MAHARAJ.

An Introduction of Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj by Swami Mukundananda

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Swami Mukundananda reveals the history, greatness, grace and the importance of the divine life of our incomparable and beloved Guru, Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj, the 5th authentic Jagadguru of this age.

Explained in a detailed series of 5 lecture sessions, Shree Swami Mukundananda gives us a very rare glimpse of many of Shree Maharajji's divine leelas over the last 60 odd years.

A source of immense inspiration and guidance for all devotees and rejoice in the bliss of the greatness and magnificence of Shree Maharajji's divine presence.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5 Ram Navmi Special Speech 2013 - Bakthi Dham Mangarh

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Ram Navmi Special Speech 2013 - Bakthi Dham Mangarh By Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (Hindi)
Part 1 & 2

Ram Navmi Special Speech - Part 1

Ram Navmi Special Speech - Part 2

Shivratri (The Great Night of Shiva)

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Shivratri (The Great Night of Shiva)

(A quick synopsis from the view point of Itihasa Puranas and Scriptures of the Vedic Tradition)

Consort of Lord Shiva. By rigorous penance she won over Bhagawan Shiva, himself a great ascetic. Mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya. By becoming the wife of Shiva she paved the way for the spread of peace and felicity in the world.

Mother Parvati

Goddess Parvati is the wife of Lord Shankar. She has several names, each with a special significance. Since Ishwara or Shiva is also called 'Bhava' (Of course by now you would have also known that Maha Bhava Swarupini is Shri Radha Rani and thus Lord Shiva is constantly in Radha Samadhi, earning Him the name Bhavaya) his wife is known as 'Bhavani.' She is 'Parvati', being the daughter of the king of mountains, Parvataraja. With the same connotation she has two other names ‘Girija’ and 'Shailaja'. As she is the source of all good things to all those who have faith and follow the path of virtue, she is 'Sarvamangala'. Since her childhood days she was a devotee of Lord Shiva. She would constantly engage herself in meditation and worship of Shiva, without even changing the posture. So her mother Mena would out of exasperation say "Parvati, don't do this tapas (meditation)." In Sanskrit “U” is a word of address and “ma” means don’t or Not wanted. Hence she got the name 'Uma'.

After she grew up, she perforrmed a severe penance in the forest with the purpose of securing Lord Shiva as her husband. Much moved by the hardship endured by her tender body, Mena frequently went near her fondly calling her "Uma", Uma." Who would not be thrilled by the story of the life of

Parvati who, though born human, became, through hard penance the consort of Shiva and became

Mahadevi, the great goddess.

Affection for and obedience to the elders, loyalty to tradition, determination steady devotion to

Shiva, kindness towards those in trouble, perseverant effort till the completion of a good deed these are the traits Parvati had. Her story is narrated in Sanskrit by Vyasa in the Shiva purana. The great poet Kalidasa has narrated it in the poem Kumara Sambhava. The Kannada poet Harihara has dealt with the story in Girija Kalyana, a mixture of verse and prose.

Parvataraja - Mena

To the north of Bharat, there is the Himalayan mountain range. It is the highest in the world and occupies thousands of miles from east to west.

From ancient times it has been a choice abode for the meditation of the sages. Baratiyas believe that it is the peasure ‐ haunt of the higher order of beings like the angels, the Gandharvas, the Yakshas and the Kinnaras. It is the home of different types of precious stones and rare plants like Jyotirmati which gives light. Lord Shiva’s realm of Kailasa is also there. In the plains below the Himalayas there flows the river Ganga with its clear and holy waters. It is lined on both sides with the hermitages of sages. Nearby was the hallowed town of Oushadhiprastha ruled by king Parvataraja. Being the chief of all the Himalayas, he was called “Himavanta”.

He was a devotee of Shiva. With great respect for good men, saints and sages, he looked after his people justly and virtuously. He was also called Giriraja and Shailaraja. His wife was Menadevi. She was truthful and calm, devoted to her husband. After a while, they had a son by name Mainaka.

The Desire for a Daughter

Later Menadevi developed a great desire to have a daughter - a daughter with beauty and character, knowledge and wisdom. It was her deepest wish to have a daughter who would be Lord Shiva's wife. With that as her aim she decided to undertake a penance to please Shiva's wife, in the form of

Gowridevi. Giriraja was himself a devotee of Shiva. So, getting his consent for her penance was not so difficult for Mena. Having obtained his permission, she went to a serene spot. There she performed her meditation with severe concentration and obtained the favour of Dakshayani who stood before Mena and promised that she would be born as daughter to her. Soon afterwards Mena became pregnant. On an auspicious day she gave birth to a female child. It was just as she had wanted. There was a shower of flowers. A cool, fragrant breeze spreading delight all around. Various instruments gave out music and musicians tune up festive songs. Giriraja gave gifts to everybody; his mind was overjoyed and his hands were tired.

The Wonder Child

Though a couple of days elapsed after the birth of the child, the baby would not open her eyes or mouth. The baby did not even suckle milk. Everyone was worried as to what should be done. Then, as advised by the family preceptor sage Gargamuni, Parvataraja had an idol of Shiva brought to the child for darshan. The baby opened her eyes and folded its hands in salutation to the Lord. Butter which had been offered to Shiva was put into the child's mouth and the baby ate the prashad. Then she began to suckle milk from the mother's breast. Everyone was struck with wonder at this devotion to Shiva noticeable so early in the child. People thought that she would definitely win the favour of Shiva later.

The naming ceremony for the baby was a grand occasion. She was given the name 'Parvati.' As the days and months passed, the first sound she uttered was the name of Lord Shiva. The infant closed her eyes frequently as if she felt the presence of Shiva in her mind. By herself she often laughed, and showed joy and delight. When she grew up further, she showed great interest in playing with a ball or in the game of worshipping Shiva on the sandy banks of the river Ganga.

In her previous incarnation she was the famous Dakshayani, the daughter of Daksha. She was the

wife of Lord Shiva.

She then went to attend a great sacrifice (Yagna) being performed by her father. There the proud

King Daksha in the full assembly spoke insultingly of Shiva. He insulted even Shiva's wife who is

Dakshayani (His daughter). Unable to bear that sacrilege, she jumped into the sacrificial fire, offering herself to it (Thus earning her the name Sati Devi). Now all the knowledge and qualities of her previous birth automatically appeared in Parvati. So she became learned in no time. Being also very beautiful, she shone with her youth.

Parvati attained the age of marriage. Parvataraja's mind directed that he should give his daughter in marriage to Lord Shiva only, as she had such great piety.

But how to do that, without the bridegroom's people asking for it?

Should he ask Shiva himself if he would marry her?

What if he refused?

Parvataraja was hesitant.

Shiva in Penance

At that time Shiva was not in his abode in Kailasa. He was in a pensive mood as his wife Dakshayani had given up her life. He had become an ascetic. Giving up Kailasa and searching for a place suitable for penance, he had come to a sacred spot called Gangavatara near Oushadhiprastha on the

Himalayan slopes. The place was full of the fragrance of musk and tall red cedars nourished by the

waters of the Ganga.

He set up a fire there and forgetting all affairs of the world, was in a severe penance, meditating on

Maha Bhava Swarupini Shri Radha.

'This is Certain'

The holy sage Narada once came to Oushadhiprastha in the course of his sojourn. It was his wont to show the right part to good men who might at any time be worried not knowing what they should do in life. Likewise he would go to wicked people like a well- wisher and put them on the path of self-destruction. With this purpose he had the habit of roving around in all the three worlds and upholding piety to God by singing songs of devotion. Thus when Narada came there, Giriraja and Mena welcomed him, saluted him and honoured him with all hospitality. They called Parvati also to salute him. Mutual enquiries followed.

"O wise sage, my daughter Parvati is now grown into a young maid, What is her future, and who will marry her?"

"Listen, Parvataraja. She who in her previous birth was Dakshayani and plunged to her death in the sacrificial fire because of her devotion to her husband is now your daughter (Sati Devi). Only Shiva can wed her and none else. There is no doubt that she will marry Lord Shiva. It is not possible to please Shiva by mere external beauty or fondness. Devotional piety, worship and penance these are the ways of earning his favour and marry Him through her penance and meditation. This is certain". So, saying, Sage Narada left.

Parvati was very Happy with Sage Narada words. It was like wishing for milk and getting it too, because Parvati had determined that though out her life thereafter, her days should be spent only in the service of Shiva and in meditating upon him.

The Sight of Shiva

Parvataraja came to know that Shiva was now in penance grove at Gangavatara. The spot was not very far from Oushadhi - prastha. He went to see Shiva. Shiva was sitting in meditation with closed eyes. Giriraja sang in praise of Lord Shiva. Once Shiva opened his eyes just a little. Then Giriraja said, "Great Lord Ishwara, I am ready, at your service. Command me, for your needs."

"Parvataraja, my penance should go on uninterrupted. For that only I need help. People from your town flock to me here. See that no one comes like that. That is all I want from you."

Himavanta returned to his palace. He ordered that none from among his servants and retinue, none from the palace women or even children should go near Shiva to see him. But, he had it in his mind to appoint his daughter Parvati somehow to attend upon Shiva.

The next time when Parvataraja went to Shiva, he took Parvati along with him. Both of them sang in honour of Shiva for long and worshipped him. Shiva continued to be in his meditation. After a long time, he looked around.

Parvataraja pleaded: "O great Lord, I have brought my daughter who is a great devotee of yours. She cannot stay alive without worshipping you. Therefore do kindly permit that she may come here daily with her companions, Jaya and Vijaya, worship you and then go back."

"Parvataraja, if you so desire, you may come daily to see me. But leave your daughter at home. I am an ascetic, given to penance and meditation. So women need not come in front me”.

Himavanta repeated his request in a variety of ways. At last Shiva had to agree that Parvati could attend on him. With cause for the mind to deviate, those who still keep their minds firm are really great men. Shiva had this grit and continued with his penance.

Parvati got up at dawn every day and with her companions Jaya and Vijaya went from Oushadhiprastha to Gangavatara where Shiva sat. She took with her all articles of worship. With the water from the river Ganga, she washed Shiva's feet, offered worship and rendered all needed services. She was very beautiful. But Shiva's mind did not falter. He did not consider her as his wife.

Tarakasura

Long ago there was a sage by name Kashyapa. From Diti, who was one of his wives, ensued the

Rakshasa race. Her son Vajranga married Varaangi and their son was the Rakshasa Taraka. He performed severe penance to please Brahma, the Creator, and obtained two boons from Him. The first boon was that there should be no one more powerful than he himself was. The second boon was that his death could come only from a son born to Shiva, who would, on the seventh day itself, fight with him as commander. Taraka was very bold and confident because Shiva was already deeply lost in penance and had no wife, so no son could be born.

Taraka was ruthless and wicked. He hated sacrifices (Yagna), charity(Dhan), benevolence and righteousness. He was intolerant of people given to penance. Only Shiva could go on meditating, because it was his own advantage. Taraka felt that nobody in the world should acquire knowledge or become intelligent. The Celestial Beings (Devatas) were afraid of his arrogance and shivered with fear. They behaved like his slaves.

Taraka killed all kings who ruled over their subjects righteously. He drove away the deities guarding the Cardinal Directions and oppressed the angels. He destroyed the hermitages of the sages and had the homes and hearths of good men set fire to. He pitilessly put to death all pious people and all the three worlds were full of pained cries.

Kamdeva Can Help

Unable to bear Taraka's harassment, sages and angels, all pious persons and Goddess Earth herself, went to Brahma and prayed for help.

Brahma said, "It is impossible for me to kill Taraka. Even Hari and Hara Cannot do it. He can be killed only by a son of Hara. If Hara has to get a son, he must marry Parvati. He is now, in penance. Parvati goes to him every day to attend upon him. But Shiva does not even open his eyes and see her. So how can this marriage come about? Of course I myself gave Taraka the boons he wanted. So I'll try to tell him not to cause unnecessary harm."

Out of respect for Brahma's words Taraka remained in his Shonitapura without attacking the Celestial Beings for a while It gave the Devatas a little respite to meet sometimes and discuss what their course of action should be. Brahma Vishnu and Indra met together. Brihaspati, the preceptor of the Devas, was sent to Taraka, to negotiate an agreement. But that Rakshasa did not yield to Plain good words or promises of gifts or even the attempt to create a dissention among his group. So there was war and the Devas were defeated.

Again the Devas met in conclave. They were now engaged in making Shiva stop his meditation and marry Parvati. So they sent Brihaspati to Kusumapura to fetch Kamadeva (Cupid). Kamadev went to them with his sugarcane bow and flowery arrows along with his consort Ratidevi, and asked them, "What do you want me to do? Please tell me."

Indra replied, "Now you have to confer a great benefit on the world. Taraka's wickedness has become intolerable. The one to kill him is Shiva's son, who is not yet born. But, Shiva has not ended his penance. Without ending it his marriage cannot take place. Parvati who is to be his wife is near him but Shiva does not as much as look at her. Now he must be made to fall in love with Parvati. And that, only you can do."

Kama realised the importance of his role. He now thought of aiming his floral arrow at Shiva and thereby ending his tapas. Even if he had to lay down his life in this venture, he would never mind. Would he not have done a great deed for the welfare of the world? So thinking, Kama arrived with Rati at Shiva's penance grove.

Kamdeva is Burnt to Ashes

No sooner did Kama approach Shiva, than did his ally, the king of spring (Vasanta Raja) , also come there. The grove around Gangavatara was charged with the charm of spring. The mango trees blossomed. The ashoka trees were in sprout. The cuckoo burst into melodious music. There was a pleasant breeze and the scent of flowers spread around. The moonlight was captivating. The penance grove of Lord Shiva looked a hypnotic realm. All this was Manmatha's (Kamadeva) influence. He then stood before Shiva. A little away stood Rati. She prayed to God that no evil should befall her husband.

Just at that time Parvati had also come as usual with fruits and flowers to worship Shiva. Her friends were also there. Parvati stood with folded hands singing in praise of Shiva. Pleased with her devotion and delighted with her sweet voice, Shiva just for a moment stopped his meditation and looked at her once. Kama decided that was the most opportune moment and got ready to make Shiva fall in love with Parvati. Unafraid of the third eye of fire on Shiva's forehead, he shot five of his arrows of flowers at his heart. Shiva's tapas were broken.

This made Shiva terribly angry. He opened the fiery eye on his forehead. With a frightening noise a fierce blazing flame burst forth. It seemed the fire of final destruction had struck the body of Kama. As he stood, he was reduced to ashes. Shiva, smearing his body with the same ash, disappeared.

Path of Penance

Seeing Kama burnt to ash by the third eye of Shiva, Rati, Kamadeva wife fainted. When she regained consciousness, she was in tears and rolled on the ground in great grief. She implored Parvati to give back to her husband as alms. She begged the Devas. Parvati in kindness caressed her and consoling her, said, "Rati, don't weep. I will help you. I will beg Shiva and see that your husband comes back to life. You will have him as husband again. As I now get the one who was my husband in the previous birth, so your husband also will get another birth and have you as wife." She gave the assurance. TheDevas also consoled Rati.

Parvati was 'greatly pained at the way in which Shiva had treated her. She told her companions "The merciful lord Shiva has not shown any kindness to me. Alas! He has gone away rejecting me. While I was coming here to the spot of his meditation every day and rendering service to him, He has disappeared without speaking a word to me. I know that he cannot be won over by mere beauty or charm but will yield only to true devotion. I won't give up my devotion. I will please him with the hardest penance and draw him to myself." When Parvati told her mother of her resolve, Mena said, "My dear daughter, you need not go out and perform penance. You have such a delicate body. Penance is a hard thing. Do stay at home and do your tapas." Mena thus tried to dissuade her but she could not succeed.

Just then the sage Narada came there. Parvataraja told him about his daughter. The sage said, "It is not proper to come in the way of her tapas." He saw Parvati separately and told her to undertake her penance in the same place where Shiva was meditating. He taught her great ‘Panchakshari’ the five lettered mantra (incantation) to please Shiva "Om Namah Shivaaya and blessed her.

Parvati's Penance

Parvati obtained from her parents their permission and blessings. She then went to the sacred spot of Gangavatara. The same spot later came to be called the Gowri peak. Jaya and Vijaya also went with her to facilitate her tapas. Parvati's penance was rigorous. In the summer of sweltering heat she lighted fire on all four sides and did her penance amidst five fires. In the rainy season she sat on the rock in pouring rain and meditated. In winter she stood neckdeep in the cold water of the pond and meditated on Shiva. She never cared for any kind of difficulty, sorrow or pain, and focussed her mind fully on Shiva. She wore flaxen cloth with twisted hair top and chanted the mantras or prayers with the rosary in hand. She excelled the rishis or sages in going on with the penance conquering hunger and thirst. In early stages she was eating fruits; gradually she gave up that also. She ate leaves or 'parna.' Then she left off that also and got the name 'Aparna,' continuing her hard penance. Many came to her penance grove now and then, and returned with wonder at her determination and with sympathy too.

It was the greatness and effect of Parvati's penance those all wild animals of that forest became mild. The young of the deer rolled about on a tiger in their sleep. Venomous vipers would not bite any one. Rats played with snakes. The penance grove was a kingdom of love, an abode of affection and kindness. But the heat generated by Parvati's tapas began to burn the Devatas. All of them prayed to Shiva. They appealed to him to be pleased, with Parvati and marry her.

Testing Time

For any effort to gel its proper reward, the effort has to be evaluated. Such evaluation depends on the test. The moment approached for testing the strength and essence of Parvati's penance. Her tapas had this effect: kindness did blossom in Shiva. His mind was softened. Still he wanted to test her mind. He sent the seven sages known as the 'Saptarishis' to find out her firmness.

Parvati saluted the sages who went to her. Her friends Jaya and Vijaya rendered hospitality. The sages asked of Parvati the reason for her tapas and who her preceptor was. She narrated everything. And 'the sages replied "Well, listening to the words of Narada, you went the wrong way. Don't do this penance for Shiva. Nor should you marry him." But she did not heed their words. She had already decided that qualities mattered more than appearance. She told them of her resolve thus "I feel that I am already married to Shiva. If he does not accept me, I'm not going to marry any other person. There cannot be two marriages for me."

The sages were pleased with her firmness. They blessed her by saying "May your wish succeed!" and went to Kailasa. They narrated all this to Shiva. They said that it would not be proper to subject her to any more pain with the pretext of testing her mind. But Shiva thought that he should himself test her firmness.

He changed his real form for that, purpose. He disguised himself as a young student and went to Parvati’s penance grove. He sat in the shade of a small mango tree near her. Thinking that a Brahman youth had come as a guest; Parvati's friends went to him and made inquiries about his welfare. They gave him water to wash his feet and then some good fruits to eat. Then the youth pointed at Parvati and asked them, "Who is she? Why is she performing this penance though so young? Is there none to stop her tapas? None to check her and advise her?" Hearing these words of his, Parvati became angry. She stopped her meditation, put aside the rosary, and stared at the youth.

Then the young man, pretending to be sympathetic, began asking several questions. "At the prime of your youth, why are you engaged in this tapas in this forest, ignoring cold and heat and rain, hunger and thirst?" he asked. With a sign of her eye from Parvati, Vijaya told him everything and said, "My friend thus desires to wed Shiva and hence this tapas." The disguised youth laughed loudly and said. "O, I understand. What more can I say? It's your will and pleasure. So let me go."

When he started to go, Parvati went near him and saluting him, asked thus "Please wait. Can you not give good advice to me in this matter? Can you not guide me as to how I can win Shiva's favour?"

"Listen then," the youth said. "You are innocent. Though a young maiden you have no wisdom. Why do you wish to marry that three eyed person? What an ill- starred person you are! His home appearance, nature is all peculiar. He lives in the burial ground. His ornament is the snake! The garland he wears is of skulls. His weapon is a trident and he wears only animal skin. Most of his hairs are s catered in the sky and the rest are matted locks. Poison in his neck and ash all over the body! With Ganga and the moon fixed on his head he is severely cold. He moves about on an ox, with demons and spirits as his companions. He is also a beggar. You are beautiful and tender, whereas he is ugly and austere. Don't you think of him and don't marry him."

Hearing these words, Parvati was in an unbearable anger. Her brows were knit in a frown and eyes were red. Not able to hear this abuse of Shiva, with trembling lips she said, "Vile man, you do not know anything about Shiva. Of course the conduct of great persons will not be like that of the common men. Witless persons who cannot understand it criticise like this. Shiva's glory cannot be had by anyone else. Those who trust Him escape from sins. Though Shiva looks a destitute, he can confer upon others all the riches. What if he lives in the burial ground? He is the lord of all three worlds. His looks may be awkward, but he is the giver of felicity. He is the universal Lord. Though he sits on a bullock, his feet are touched by Indra mounted on his elephant, Airavata. There is no need for so much talk. My mind is firmly rooted in Shiva. None can change it. I am fully aware of Shiva's form, qualities and greatness. He has neither deformity nor any defect."

Even as Parvati was speaking thus, the young man's lips moved as if he would again speak. Parvati called her friend and said, "Even as those who revile great ones are sinners, people who listen to that abuse become sinners too. This wicked man is about to speak bad words. Send him away. Or I myself will leave this place." So saying, Parvati started to go away. Suddenly the youth in disguise assumed Shiva's form and held Parvati's hand. She bowed her head. Shiva told her, "0h thou bowed beauty, I am pleased with your penance and your love. You have won over my mind. I have caused you much pain in testing you in many ways. You must pardon that. Now come, let's go to my palace on Kailasa."

“Ask the Elders for the hand in Marriage "

It was true that Shiva, whom she trusted and won over with her tapas, himself came to her and asked her to go with him. But Parvati did not think it correct to go away with him as her husband then and there. It did not seem proper to go away by herself without her parents performing the prescribed ceremonies of the marriage.

"Lord, my father Parvataraja and mother Menadevi are there. Other relatives are also there. You must come to my father and ask him for my hand in marriage. I request that the wedding be performed with the prescribed rites with the consent of elders and relatives." Shiva agreed to her words since following the custom would be a sign of culture.

Just then Ratidevi came there in tears with the sorrow of separation from her husband. She saluted them both. Parvati told Shiva "0h Lord, her husband Kama, in his striving for the welfare of the world, has been burnt by the fire of your third eye. I have assured her that I will beg you and get her husband back. You must first give her husband.

Though Parvati was now in her happy days, she had not forgotten the sorrows of others. She did not ignore the need to remove the sufferings of others. Shiva, who was merciful, said "Be it so. Whenever Rati wants him Manmatha will come to her even without a body and make her happy. Manmatha gave up his life so that the world could be happy. Whenever the people of this world remember him, he will yet come unseen and do good to them. Later in the Dwapara yuga he shall be born as a son to Shri Krishna and will be resplendent as the true husband of Rati."

Shiva conferred his favour thus, as requested by Parvati, and then went back to Kailasa with his retinue. All his devotees, sages and retinue in Kailasa were overjoyed. Parvati returned to Oushadhiprastha with her companions. As one who had won Shiva's favour, she was welcomed with great splendor.

Lord Shiva Weds Mother Parvati

Shiva sent for the Saptarishis, the seven sages who were very wise and pious, and requested them to go to Himavanta. Parvataraja was in immense joy that the greatest of sages had come to request for his daughter to be Shiva's bride. Giriraja exclaimed "My good fortune has borne fruit! My righteousness has yielded a fragrant flower! The tree of my good race has borne fruit!" That he would be the father-in-law of Shiva, the world's, preceptor, put him into a transport of joy. The marriage was fixed.

Parvataraja sent for Vishwakarma the architect of the Deva loka. With his help a marriage pavilion was built, which was extremely beautiful and a wonder to set eyes upon. The extensive hall for the marriage assembly was unique. The wedding of Shiva and Parvati was performed with great splendour.

Welfare of the World as Mother Parvati

The wedlock of Shiva and Parvati opened as it were the portals of the world's bliss. Shiva is the world's father. Having married him, Parvati became the mother of the universe. The son born to her later was Kartikeya. He as commander of the army of the angels attacked the Rakshasas, killed them and re- established the path of virtue and righteousness. Tarakasura was killed. The other son of Parvati is Ganesha or Gajamuka. He places obstacles to the wicked deeds of bad men and removes impediments in the way of good men. He also gives knowledge and wisdom.

Shiva is Known as Shankar

Mother Parvati had a deep desire to see Her Lord is the most auspicious from of a groom, Shiva understanding this desire sent Sage Narad to find out how Mother Parvati was decorated for the wedding and that he will match her beauty. Sage Narad witness the beauty of Mother Parvati and sings the beauty and charm to Lord Shiva and in that bliss Lord Shiva starts dancing and ornamenting him self as a beautiful groom. Thus earning him the name Shankar (Handsome Groom) and the Rag in which Sage Narada sings the song is known as Shankarabarana.

It is also in the tradition of Raganuga Bhakti the devotees of Shri Krishna pay obeisance to Lord

Shiva on this day to ask for blessings and grace so that they will be able to be in the service of Shri Krishna. On the auspicious night of Sharat Poornima when the Divine flute was played upon by our beloved Shyamsundar, the call of the flute reached Kailash, the divine abode of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva who is always in the meditative state of Shri Radha Samadhi immediately rushed down to the Maha Raas Mandal in Vrindavan to participate in the Divine Dance. The condition of entry in the Raas Mandal is that Lord Shiva must transform into a Gopi form, which he does in order to participate. It is from this time that He is also known as Gopeshwar Nath and one of the oldest temples in Vrindavan is a testimony to this.

Let us all celebrate our Divine Father and Mother wedding anniversary with great favour and Devotion and be ever reminded that Bhakti is the only way of salvation this age of time.

Uma Maheswar Ki Jai, Shankar Mahadeva Ki, Hara Hara Maha Deva Ki Jai.

This article is written by Dr Gopal Raja with references from Linga Puran, Markandeya puran, Shiva Puran, Bhrama Vaivarta Puran, Shrimad Bhagawatam, Garuda Puran, Bhrama Samhita, Valmiki Ramayan and lectures given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.

Vasant Panchami

2013-02-15T07:42:00.000+11:00

Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami marks the beginning of the spring season and falls on the fifth day of spring (Maagh). Also known and celebrated as Saraswati Puja.

This festival is celebrated at the beginning of the Spring season, when vibrant yellow flowers in the mustard fields are blooming, creating a joyous atmosphere everywhere. In Braj, from the time of Vasant Panchmi, devotees begin to sing Holi songs in the Temples. Shri Maharaj Ji dresses up in lovely yellow garments. Devotees chant special Holi songs, dance in spiritual happiness and play Holi of flower petals throwing them on each other, and Shri Maharajji showers his Grace by throwing flowers on them.

“Pad Kirtans” sung during this season usually recount how the exasperated gopies, took their sweet revenge on Shri Krishna and his friends. Tired of being teased and harassed by Shri Krishna and his friends, the gopies decided to retaliate by pelting the darling of Braj with cow-dung, mud, dyes made out of local flowers, vermilion powder etc. If an unfortunate Gopa (Shri Krishna's mate) happened to be caught by the gopies, he was forcefully dressed in female attire and made to dance amidst them. Needless to say, Shri Krishna survived several close calls, and made fools of the gopies on a number of occasions. Not to be outdone, the gopies gave as good as they got.

The various leelas of Shri Krishna in the time of spring are truly blissful our beloved Gurudev, Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj has written many “Pad Kirtans” depicting the lovely Leela (plays) of our Divine Beloved Shri Radhakrishna.

As per the Ramayan, this day Lord Rama ate half tasted grapes of Shabari and to commemorate this day, the festival of Vasant Panchami is celebrated.

Wishing all of you a blessed Vasant Panchami, may the Joy of Spring blossom in your hearts and grow in to Divine Love for your beloved RadhaKrishna.

Jagadguru shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj explains Hare Ram kirtan

2013-02-11T09:54:00.003+11:00

Jagadguru shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj explains Hare Ram kirtan

Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

You see, this 'Hare Ram' sankirtan is described in the Vedas. Other sankirtans have been composed and revealed by Saints and some have been written by ordinary worldly people. These days, people make kirtans based on tunes from film songs and in all-night chanting events they create a huge storm of devotional entertainment. That's not what kirtan is all about.

This 'Hare Ram Hare Ram' is a mantra of an Upnishad. There is an Upnishad called 'Kalisantarnopnishad'. This (Hare Ram) Ved mantra has been revealed for the souls of kaliyug. All the Ved mantras in the Upnishads have particular and very distinct vocalics and rules. However, in this (Hare Ram mantra), there is no formality or protocol. The Vedas have given this freedom. You could be in the most unpleasant environment and in the most unfavorable situation and keep chanting this mantra. There is no such strict rule where one would have to first take a bath or face the east (in order to chant Hare Ram).

There are three words in this mantra - Hari, Ram and Krishna. So, a lot of people have this misconception that, "We are worshippers of Ram and chanting 'Hare Krishna' is a little difficult for us. I cannot absorb my mind." There is an organization by the name of 'Gaudiya Sampradaya' that has reversed this mantra. They say, 'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna' followed by 'Hare Ram Hare Ram'. These differences that Ram, Krishna and Hari are separate are indicative of one's defective and polluted mind. Actually, it is not like that.

Whatever is the meaning of the name Hari, the same is the meaning of the names Ram and Krishna. Likewise, whatever is the meaning of the name Krishna, the same is the meaning of the names Hari and Ram. God has uncountable names, uncountable forms and uncountable descensions. God Himself has said, "I Myself cannot count My own appearances, My own descensions, My own names and My own virtues." Why? "Because they are unlimited. I have given souls full right and freedom to call Me by whatever name they desire." This is the extent of the privilege granted by God to the souls.

Mother Yashoda never chanted the 'Hare Ram' mantra. (She used to say,) "Hey Kanua! Come here." Where in the Vedas is such a name (of Shri Krishna) described? Just as we nickname our kids out of affection - Pappi, Pappu, Khappu, Gappu - they still get called by their nickname even after they grow up and go to college, as the same name was given at the time of admission into college.

Thus, God has infinite names. For this very reason, whether anyone is a worshipper of Lord Vishnu, a worshipper of Lord Ram, a worshipper of Lord Krishna or a worshipper of another descension, this mantra can be chanted for all the forms of God. What does 'Hari' mean? It means the one whose Divine beauty entices and captivates the hearts of paramhans. Vishnu, Ram and Krishna all entice and captivate the hearts of paramhans. Many scriptures describe that the names Ram and Krishna have the same meaning.

Therefore, whether anyone is a worshipper of Ram or Krishna, they are all various names of God and they all have the same meaning. For this reason, one should be careful to not allow any kind of doubt creep into the mind (about the absolute oneness and greatness of the various forms of God) and along with that, everywhere, all the time and in every situation, anyone has the freedom to do jap or chant 'Hare Ram' mantra.

Translated by Sushri Diwakari Deviji of Radha Madhav Dham
Visit Diwakari Devi's blog for more lecture translations: http://radhamadhavdham.org/blogs/sushree-diwakari-devi

"O Krishna, please give in" - Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj

2013-02-05T21:59:00.003+11:00

"O Krishna, please give in" - Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj

An incredible 1987 lecture by Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj, titled "Tum Hi Maan Lo Haar". with English Subtitles

Realise that God Dwells Within

2013-01-08T09:37:00.005+11:00

Realise that God Dwells Within

Synopsis of a lecture given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on August 2, 2011, in Bhakti Dham, India.

All the scriptures, from the Vedas to the Ramayana, and all other religious books and spiritual paths to God believe that God is omnipresent. He doesn't merely permeate everything, but He also resides in ours hearts as paramatma. In this form He is not just a divine presence but also a performer of action. He calculates the consequences of our uncountable accumulated karmas or actions of the past, gives those consequences in the form of our present destiny, and most importantly, He notes our current actions. Actions in this sense are our thoughts, not our physical actions.

Karmas were performed by all great Saints. For example, Arjuna killed millions in the war of the Mahabharat. Hanuman destroyed Lanka. But what was the internal state of their mind? This is what God observed, not their external actions. Similarly, our government has particular rules and laws. Only if a person commits a crime with premeditated intention to cause harm is his action called a crime. If it was an accident, his action won’t be judged a crime. For example, the car a person was driving was in good operating condition, he had a license, and suddenly a man walked in front of his car to commit suicide. He won’t be found guilty of any crime, because he had no premeditated intention.

A worldly court can only examine physical evidence. God is not like this. He notes our internal intention, judges it and gives a consequence. God Himself does all this work. If we were to reflect upon and practice this understanding, all crime and wrong actions would come to an end. It also would put an end to all police departments and armies.

Otherwise, if a government gave an opportunity for its citizens in the next 24 hours to do whatever they wanted with no consequences, then after 24 hours you could imagine what condition that country would be in. The capacity for this wrongdoing is in all of us, hidden. But due to fear of the law and punishment, we resist acting out in this way.

So what we have to realize is that God is really and truly seated within and He is noting our every thought and organizing the consequences we will receive for that. He won’t listen to our excuses or give us time in court for our case. He will straight away give us a punishment. This realization has to be practised You heard it – that’s fine. You also read it – that is also fine. Still, it’s not enough. It has to be practised.

For example, you believe your physical father is your father. This is very firm in your understanding. Why? You repeatedly thought, “He is my father.” You did this on the basis of what he and others told you. So to practise the understanding of God’s presence, repeatedly think, “God is seated in my Heart. I am not alone. We are together.”

Dva suparna sayuja sakhaya samannam vriksham parikhasvajatey.
(Shvetashvataropanishad, 4/6)

The Vedas are also saying this.

Ur prerak raghuvansh vibhushana. (Ramayana)

He is residing in everyone, even in evil rakshasas. Look at the situation that occurred with Hiranyakashipu. He said to Prahlad, “Does God dwell in the home of demons?” Prahlad said, “Yes, He does.” “Well, is He in this pillar?” “Yes, He is.” Finally when Bhagwan Narsingh appeared, Hiranyakashipu had no doubt about this.

So we have to practice this. Everything we have achieved in the world we have accomplished through practice. When you are driving, you simultaneously talk to friends in the car, talk on the phone, see what is behind you, avoid what is on the road, look to the left and right. Is this some special skill that we humans possess? No, this was all accomplished through practice. All the amazing things that you see circus performers do is the result of practice.

Just add one more practice to what you already know – practice the presence of God. If you do, you will become peaceful. The amount of anxiety, restlessness and lack of peace in the world is escalating. Whether we become a victim of this or transcend it is in our hands.

God gave us such a machine in the form of the mind, that the intellect can’t go against its own judgements The mind acts according to the intellect, and the senses act according to the mind. None of these can revolt against each other or strike. Whatever the intellect decides, it follows in a straight line all the way down.

A five year old boy is on his way to school and he passes by a shop that is making jalebis, “Oh, yummy!” But he didn't bring any money with him today. He thinks, “If I take even one, the shopkeeper will punish me! He has a terrible temper.” With great regret, he longingly gazes at the jalebis as he walks past the store, just because his intellect said, “You will get a beating.” So everything is dependent on the intellect. The Vedas say,

Atmanagwam rathinam vidhi shariragwam ratha meva cha…
Kathopanishad 1/3/3-4

God gave us a chariot. There is a passenger seated on this. There are horses, who are being guided by bridles. The reins of the bridles are in the hands of a driver, who is determining the direction of the chariot. Why were we given the chariot? The Vedas say you were given this chariot in the form of the body to go to God. The passenger is the soul. The horses are the senses. The reins are the mind. The driver is the intellect. In the world, horses can run away with a chariot, but our chariot is different – as the intellect dictates, so the other parts have to obediently follow.

In the heat of the hot season, who wants to get up in the morning? No matter who it is, everyone feels sleepy. Your spouse shakes you, “Hey, it’s six o’clock.” “6:00??? Oh, no I have to get up to go to the office.” You don’t think, “Just go to sleep! Forget about the office!” If you forget about the office, they will forget about you by firing you. So in all these instances of life, we are careful. Similarly, we have to come to this realization of God’s presence through practice. If we say, “No, I won’t do it,” we will still have to come back to this even if it is after 10,000 lifetimes. Plus if we do it, we attain peace.

If everyone were to accept and follow this, the pious age of satyuga would come again on this earth. Otherwise, every rule and manner of civil behaviour we have to externally enforce. This doesn't create true peace. Instead we think the really important things to do in life are to make more money, act according to our whims, and engage in as many sensual entertainments as possible. These tendencies will only go away when we remember God’s presence. If we don’t practice remembering Him, then the consequence is tension and the suffering that comes from incarnating in lower species – because there is no guarantee that we will receive a human birth in our next life.

Iha che dashkadbodhum prasharirasya visrasah. (Vedas)

The human form is only occasionally received in millions of lifetimes.

Kabahunk kari karuna nar dehi,
deta Isha binu hetu sanehi. (Ramayana)

God grants this sometimes according to our karmas. Thus, begin by practising this every hour. Don’t say anything aloud. No one has to know what you are doing. For just one second think, “He is seated within.” Then repeat this every 30 minutes. You can still do this while working. You don’t have to enter into meditative trance to do this. Then repeat this every 15 minutes. After this, the feeling, “He really is seated within,” will come naturally.

Think of the pride that a billionaire like Mukesh Ambani or Bill Gates has when they think about their position in life. But what would we feel if we fully realized that supreme God who is the Lord of the universe is seated in our hearts? This feeling would remain and we wouldn't be able to perform wrong action.

Courtesy of Bhakti Bliss

From the writings and satsang of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj

Daily Prayer or Dainik Prathana

2012-12-18T15:26:00.001+11:00

The Daily Prayer or Dainik Prathana is done daily by devotees at all our Ashrams, satsang centres and homes. Composed and written by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj for the benefit of all aspiring devotees to use in their daily sadhana bakthi .

ÅI gurve nm: ÅI gurve nm: ÅI gurve nm:

s=ri[ gurave namah>

I bow at my Gurudev’s lotus feet again and again.

AacayR³ ma³ ivjanIyaNnavmNyet kihRict\ |

n mTyRbu¥\ya¤sUyet svRdevmyo guá: ||

a[ca[ryam ma[m vija[ni[ya[n na[vamanyeta karhicit

na martya buddhya[ su[yeta sarvadeva mayo guruh>

“Know the Guru to be Myself (God). Never think unfavorably about Him. Do not use your material mind to comprehend the Guru’s divine actions, for all forms of God dwell within Him.”

he prm ip/ytm pUÂRtm puáqoÐm ÅIkÀQÂ ! tum se ivmuû hone ke karÂ Anaidkal se hmne AnNtanNt du:û pa v³ pa rhe hE³ |

he param priyatam pu[rn>atam purus>ottam s=ri[ kr>s>n>a!

tum se vimukh hone ke ka[ran> ana[dika[l se hamne

ananta[nanta duh>kha pa[e evam pa[ rahe haim*.

O my Divine Beloved! O Supreme Lord Krishna! I have been suffering from countless sorrows as a result of having ignored You since beginningless time.

pap krte krte ANt:krÂ [tna miln ho cuka hE ik

risko³ »ara yh janne pr ºI ik tum ApnI ºujaAo³ ko psare

ApnI vaTsLymyI d

tuMharI §rÂ me³ nhI³ Aa pata |

pa[p karte karte antah>akaran>a itana[ malin ho cuka[

haiki rasikom* dva[ra[ yaha ja[nane para bhi[ ki tum

apani[ bhuja[om* ko pasa[re apani[ va[tsalyamayi[ dr>s>t>i

se hama[ri[ prati[ks>a[ kar rahe ho,tumha[ri[ s=aran>a

mem* nahim* a[ pa[ta[.

Committing sins lifetime after lifetime has made my heart so impure that in spite of having learnt from Your loving saints that You are waiting for me with open arms to embrace me and benevolent eyes to grace me, I still fail to surrender to You.

he A§rÂ-§rÂ !

tuMharI kÀpa ke ibna tuMhe³ ko{ jan ºI to nhI³skta |

he as=aran>a-s=aran>a! tumha[ri[ kr>pa[ ke bina[ tumhem*

koi[ ja[n bhi[ to nahim* sakta[.

O shelter of the shelterless! It is absolutely impossible to know You without Your grace.

esI iS it me³, he AkarÂ-káÂ, pittpavn ÅI kÀQÂ !

tum ApnI AhEtukI kÀpase hI hmko Apna lo |

aisi[ sthiti mem* he aka[ran>a-karun>a patita-pa[vana

s=ri[ kr>s>n>a!tum apani[ ahaituki[ kr>pa[ se hi[ hamko

apana[ lo

In such a situation, O causelessly-merciful Shri Krishna! O redeemer of sinful souls! Make me Yours with a glance of Your causeless grace.

he káÂa-sagr ! hm ºuiKt-muiKt Aaid ku nhI³ ma`gte |

hme³ to kevl tuMhare inQkam p/em kI hI kma cah hE |

he karun>a[-sa[gar! ham bhukti mukti a[di kuch nahim*

ma[n*gte. hamem* to keval tumha[re nis>ka[m prem ki[ hi[

ekma[tra ca[ha hai.

O ocean of mercy! I have no desire for earthly or heavenly pleasures, nor do I seek liberation. My only desire is to love You unselfishly.

he na ! Apne ivrd kI Aor deûkr [s A¶m ko inra§ n kro |

he na[th! apane virad ki[ or dekh kar is adham ko

nira[s= na karo.

O my Lord! Keeping Your reputation in mind, do not disappoint this fallen soul.

he jIvn¶n ! Ab bhut ho cuka, Ab to tuMhare p/em ke ibna yh jIvn m

he ji[van-dhan! ab bahut ho cuka[. ab to tumha[re prem ke bina[ yaha ji[van mr>tyu se bhi[ adhik bhaya[nak hai.

O treasure of my life! I have suffered enough. Now I have come to realize that life without Your love is more frightening than death itself.

Atv -

atev -

Therefore, I beg of You again and again:

p/em iºxa³ deih, p/em iºxa³ deih, p/em iºxa³ deih

prem bhiks>a[m dehi

Give me alms of Your love.

ÅImd\ sd\guá srkar kI jy |

sa[ket-biha[ri[ s=ri[ ra[ghavendra saraka[ra ki[ jai

vr>nda[van-biha[ri[ s=ri[ ya[davendra saraka[ra ki[ jai

s=ri[mad sadguru saraka[ra ki[ jai

All glories to the Supreme Lord Ram!

All glories to the Supreme Lord Krishna!

All glories to Shri Maharaj Ji our Beloved Gurudev!

jy jy ÅI ra¶e, jy jy ÅI ra¶e, jy jy ÅI ra¶e |

jai jai s=ri[ ra[dhe, jai jai s=ri[ ra[dhe

jai jai s=ri[ ra[dhe

Sat Sattya Sattya Ho

2012-12-08T09:55:00.000+11:00

Sat Sattya Sattya Ho - By Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (English Translated Lecture)

"Sat Sattya Sattya Ho Govind Radhey

Sang Sattya Sattya Ho To Lakshya Dilaa De"

You are no doubt familiar with the word 'Satsang.' 'Sat' means 'Saint,' and 'Sang' means 'Association.' If 'Sat' (Saint) is 'Sattya Sattya', (a true Saint), and the 'sang' (association) with him is 'Sattya', (true), then the ultimate goal of God-realization can be attained. The Vedas say:

"Tadvijnanaartham sa Gurumevabhigachhet

samitpaanih shrotriyam brahmanishtham"

(Mundakopanishad)

A true saint is one who possesses theoretical knowledge of scriptures and a practical experience of God. A genuine saint is one who can impart to us the theoretical knowledge of Vedas and Vedic scriptures. Furthermore, he must have attained darshan of God; he must possess the treasury of divine-love-bliss. If he has a check book but nothing in the bank, what can he give to us? If he only talks about God but is not surrendered to God; if he has not attained the divine love of God, then he is feeding his ego by merely talking about God. He is not a true saint.

Now, what is true 'sang'? This is where we have gone wrong. In the course of innumerable past lives we must have met saints countless times. Countless times! Saints are always here on earth, and we are also eternal. So all the saints we hear about - Tulsidas, Soordas, Meera, Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram, Adi Shankaracharya, Nimbarkacharya, Madhvacharya, Vallabhacharya - we have seen them, we have heard them, we have met them. We were living during their lifetime. We visited them, we heard their lectures, but we did not gain any spiritual benefit from them. Why did we not gain anything? We said to them, "You are not a true saint." They said to us, "You did not do true sang."

For making spiritual advancement we need two things. We need a genuine saint, and we need to genuinely associate with the saint. It would be insane for us to think that we have never met a true saint. We have met even God during His innumerable descents to earth; how is it that we have never met true saints? We have met them, but the mistake we made is that we did not associate properly with them. The question is: How do you associate with a saint?

We have three possessions: body, mind and soul. Scriptures say that all three must associate with God and saints.

"Yaahi sarvaatm bhaaven yayaa syaahyakuto bhayah (Bhagavat)"

God says that we must offer all that we have in our possession. It is true that everything we have is impure, yet we must offer it anyway. God doesn't expect us to offer Him divine goods from Golok. He says, "Offer everything you have." Of our three possessions, the mind is the main possession. There are two forms of the mind: mind and intellect. The gyanis (impersonalists) say that the mind has four forms. However, only two are important, and these have been identified in the Gita.

"Maiyeva man aadhatsva mayi buddhim niveshaya"

"Arjun! Offer your mind and intellect to Me." Arjun thought, "I have only one thing; the mind, but my Lord is asking me for mind and intellect." Yes, yes, there is only the mind, but there are two states of the mind. When it is thinking, it is called the mind; when it is making decisions, it is called the intellect.

The Vedas say:

"Buddhim tu saarathim viddhih manah pragrahameva cha

Indriyaani hayaanaahur vishaya gvamstesu gocharaan

Atmendriya manoyuktam bhokte tyaahur manishinah"

God says, "I have given you a chariot." What is in the chariot? First of all, there is the chariot itself. Then there are horses pulling the chariot. In the mouth of the horses there is a rope; the reins. Then there is a driver. There is also a passenger who is seated in the chariot.

The chariot is our body - the human body which is attained through the greatest fortune; horses are the sense-organs; rope is the mind; chariot-driver is the intellect, and passenger is the soul. God says, "I have provided you the chariot so that you may come to me. You don't have to get dressed up; come as you are." We have been traveling in the chariot for countless lives but still we have not reached God. And God's house is not far; it's very near. As soon as we turn the chariot around and go in the other direction, we will reach God. All we have to do is to turn around. We simply have to surrender to God. We have been going away from the direction of God. It's like someone who wishes to go to Allahabad, but instead of going in the east, he is going west towards Lucknow.

"Justam yadaa pashyantya meeshamashya mahimaanamiti vitoshokah"

(Mundakopanishad)

The Vedas say, "Turn around. Take a right-about turn or a left about-turn, but just turn around. God is standing right behind you, waiting for you." But we do not wish to turn around. We have accepted one another as mother, father, son, wife and husband, and we are seeking happiness through these people. We are begging door-to-door, and the ones we are begging from are beggars themselves. And all the beggars are fooling us. Each one is saying, "Come to me; I will make you very happy." Mother, father, wife, husband, son, everyone is saying this. They are deceiving us. We are being kicked around everywhere in the world. Sometimes we do realize that no one can give us happiness because everyone is selfish, but this knowledge doesn't remain with us for very long. We quickly go back to the world, searching for happiness.

Thus, it is the mind and intellect that must associate with the saint. And of these two, the intellect is the main one. The poor mind is just a servant of the intellect. It merely does what the intellect tells it to do. Write this down in golden letters. You people say time and time again, "Oh! My mind doesn't want to think of God; my mind tells me to go to sleep; my mind is telling me to go away from here." Granted the mind is telling you to do all this, but you must learn to control the mind with the intellect God has given to you. Even a little child controls the mind with his intellect.

Let us say that a child is going to school. On the way to school he sees hot jalebi being made in a sweet shop. Seeing the fresh jalebi being made, the child's mouth starts watering. He wants to eat the sweets, but he has no money with him. He thinks to himself, "Go ahead; steal the jalebi." Then he thinks, "No, no, if I am caught I will get a beating. Keep walking to school." The child looks longingly at the hot jalebis but keeps walking to school. What has he done? He has controlled his mind. He could have said to the mind, "Hey, tell the hand to pick up the jalebi." But he could not give this order to the mind.

Out of all the works we do in the world, there are very few that the mind wants to do. We do most of our work despite the fact that the mind does not wish to do it. Now let me talk about you people. You have left home to come here and do sadhana. You have great devotional feelings, and I accept that you have renounced a lot to come here. But despite this, when the early morning bell is sounded, you get out of bed not because your mind wants to, but because you have to. You reason to yourself, "I must get up. If I don't, I will get a scolding from Maharaj Ji." You get up forcibly. Even at home, the child gets out of bed because Mommy or Papa wakes him up. He doesn't like to get up, but he does so anyway. And Mommy and Papa themselves don't want to get out of bed. They do it forcibly. Papa gets out of bed because he has to go to work; Mommy gets out of bed because she has to make breakfast.

All day long you are engaged in doing many works you don't want to do, and you have to put up an act. You welcome someone who comes to your house, but you do so half-heartedly. You do it because you have to, not because your mind wants to. The fact is that even if your Guru tells you to render some service, you do so reluctantly. It can be said that 99.9% of your work is done because you have to, not because you want to. Because the mind is your servant, it has to do what the intellect instructs it to do. The mind cannot revolt against the intellect. God has given us great power in the form of the intellect, with which we can control the mind. But we accept defeat. We do what the mind tells us to do. We should do what the intellect tells us to do. Have the intellect govern the mind; do not allow the mind to govern the intellect.

Now let's talk about our intellect. Our faulty intellect has not allowed us to associate with saints. Our intellect decides - I have a B.A. degree; I have an M.A.; I am a Ph.D.; I have lived a long life; my hair did not turn grey by sitting in the sun; I have seen the world; I have lots of life-experience; how can I blindly believe that Tulsidas and Soordas are saints? Our intellect has always criticized saints - why does he sit like this; why does he stand like this; why does he wear these clothes; why does he talk like this? We always did this. We criticized even God; why would we spare the saints? We did not listen to the saints. Saints, God and scriptures say that God snatches away the world from the one He graces. But we did not accept this truth. We thought, "This cannot be. The receiver of God's grace becomes a billionaire. If he is childless, God gives him a child. If he doesn't have a mother, God provides him with a mother. If he is fatherless, God gives him a legal guardian." In other words, we think that when God graces us, He gives us worldly property. However, God and saints say the complete opposite. So a fight ensues. A fight between the knowledge of God and Godly saints, and our intellect. We don't care what the Vedas say or what is written in the Bhagavat; we disagree.

I ask you; how many people are there in India who would accept that when God graces an individual he snatches worldly property from him? Even amongst all of you, I don't see a single person who would agree with this. There is no one amongst you who would happily accept insult, physical illness, loss of wealth or death of a loved one as a sign of God's grace. The reason is that your intellect is faulty. The faulty intellect does not allow us to associate with a saint. We may say in words that we accept what God and Saints say, but in our heart of hearts, we say, "I don't agree with you." And if you don't agree, then you are not associating with a saint. Associating with a saint means accepting his words fully from the heart.

How many of you would feel fortunate to be scolded by your Guru? You would not feel fortunate. On the contrary, you would get upset. Of course you will not tell the Guru off externally, but internally you will be annoyed with him. He scolded me in front of everyone. I would not have minded if he had scolded me in private. How much you love respect! You want respect despite the fact that you are a slave of lust, anger, greed, attachment and ignorance. You are not prepared to hear even your Guru scolding you.

This means that your intellect is not associating with the saint. Once your intellect starts associating with a saint, the mind will follow automatically. The intellect must become ecstatic upon hearing the Guru's instruction. The intellect must accept that it isn't when the guru praises you that he is being merciful to you. Rather, it is when the guru scolds that he is being merciful to you. If you can accept this, it means that you are surrendering your intellect, and now you will certainly make great advancement on the path. Until this point, you are only fooling yourself by thinking that you are surrendered to God or Guru. And even if you are surrendered, you are 1% surrendered or 10% surrendered. You ask yourself, "Am I fully surrendered?" The answer comes from within, "Yes, I am." Whom are you asking? I am asking the intellect. Why are you asking the faulty intellect? Why would the intellect give a judgment against itself?

So, if you truly associate with a saint, it will not take you long to reach your destination. The Guru says, "Chant 'Mara Mara' and you will reach God." We ignored millions of lectures based on the Vedas and Vedic scriptures; are we going to accept a Guru if he says that we will attain God by chanting Mara Mara? The Guru said, "Keep saying Mara Mara until I return," and the disciple said, "Yes, Guru Ji." He did not question the Guru. He didn't ask, "Why should I say Mara Mara? How long should I go on saying Mara Mara?" No such questions! He simply followed the Guru's instruction and became Valmeeki, the saint. All due to self-surrender; all due to true association.

Your Guru throws a flower or a bead necklace in your direction. You should feel extremely fortunate. You should feel ecstatic; thinking that you have received His ultimate grace. Instead you are thinking, "Hmm! I got an ordinary necklace; the person next to me got a nice one." What are you thinking? The intellect is very spoiled; it has been spoiled for countless lifetimes. This is why it is not willing to surrender itself. This intellect is ever-ready to judge saints. The Guru asks, "Why are you sitting like this?" The devotee answers back immediately, "What else should I do? How else should I sit?" And even if you don't say this out loud, you think it in your mind. You think adverse thoughts. You all do this. And after making a mistake you don't realize your mistake. You don't even resolve to not repeat the same mistake.

So, if you ever do true 'sang', if you ever associate correctly with a saint, you will quickly reach your goal. I shall describe 'sang' in greater detail some other time.

Lecture given By Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (Translated by Sushri Siddeshwari Didi of Radha Madhav Society )

2013 Festival Calendar

2012-12-05T22:59:00.000+11:00

2013 Festival Calendar

The following major festivals are celebrated in all the ashrams of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.

1^st January, 2013 - New Year Celebration

14^th January 2013 - Makar Sankranti / Jagadguru Divas

Makar Sankranti signifies the beginning of the harvest season. It’s celebrated not only all over India but other South East Asian Countries as well.

Jagadguru Divas commemorates Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Maharaj Ji’s being proclaimed the supreme Jagadguru of this age (Jagadguruttam) on Jan 14, 1957.

15^th February 2013 - Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami marks the beginning of the spring season and falls on the fifth day of spring (Maagh). Also known and celebrated as Saraswati Puja.

10^th March 2013 - Maha Shivratri

Maha Shivratri or ‘Shiva’s Great Night’ symbolizes the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati.

23^rd March 2013- Rang Ekadashi

Shri Maharaj Ji showers blessings and divine rose water with the essence of bhakti on this auspicious day.

26^th March 2013- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti / Holika Dahan

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jayanti is the descension day of Shri Radha Rani as Gauranga Dev Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Nadia.

On the eve of Holika Dahan huge bonfires are lit to commemorate the burning of the Demoness Holika, the sister of Demon Hiranyakashipu.

27^th March 2013 - Holi Dulhendi

29^th March 2013 – Pyari Amma’s Punya Tithi Aaradhana

20th April 2013 - Shri Ramanavami

25^th April 2013 - Hanuman Jayanti

Hanuman Jayanti is celebrated on full moon day during Chaitra month to commemorate the birth of Hanuman.

12^th May 2013 - Shri Parasuram Jayanti

13^th May 2013 - Akshaya Tritiiya (2 days overlapping each other)

19^th May 2013- Shri Sita Mata Jayanti

19^th May 2013- Mother’s Day

A day of gratitude for our beloved Guru Mata, Ma Padma (Pyari Amma) so that She may continue to grace us to be in the Seva of our beloved Gurudev Shri Maharaji.

2^nd June 2013- Father’s day

A day of gratitude towards our beloved Gurudev, as a father figure in our lives, so that He may continue to grace us in our Sadhana Bhakti towards Shri Hari.

22^nd July 2013- Guru Poornima

10^th August 2013- Haryali Teej

12^th August 2013 - Nag Panchami

Shukla Paksha Panchami during Shravana month is observed as Nag Panchami. Usually Nag Panchami day falls two days after Haryali Teej. Currently Nag Panchami falls in month of July and August in English calendar. The five Nagas worshipped on Nag Panchami: Ananta, Vasuki, Taxak, Karkotaka and Pingala.

20^th August 2013 - Raksha Bandhan

The day Shri Maharaj Ji ties a protective knot (Rakhi) on everybody’s hands.

28^th August 2013 - Shri Krishna Janmashthami

Shri Krishna’s descension day. The festival is celebrated on the eighth day (Ashtami) day of the dark fortnight of the month of Shravana (August–September) in the Hindu calendar.

9^th September 2013 - Ganesh Chaturthi

13^th September 2013- Shri Radha Ashtami

18^th September 2013- Anant Chaturdashi

Also known as Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturdashi or Anant Chaturdashi. The last day of the Ganesh festival, which begins with Ganesh Chaturthi.

14^th October 2013 - Vijayadasami / (Dussehra)

18^th October 2013- Sharad Poornima

22^nd October 2013 - Karva Chauth

1^st Nov 2013 - Dhan Teras

3^rd Nov 2013 - Diwali

Deepawali or Diwali is the festival of lights. Goddess Lakshmi is also worshiped on this day. , Shri Rama, Mother Sita, and Lakshmana returned to Ayodhya on the 30th day of Ashwin (19–20 days after Vijayadasami). To mark the return of Lord Rama, in the evening, the residents of Ayodhya lit their city with millions of earthen lamps (called Diya / Deepak). Since then, this day is celebrated in India as Deepawali or Diwali.

Diwali is also the descension Day of our Guru Mata, Pyari Amma. Amma, our Divine Mother. Her name was Shrimati Padma Devi. She took birth in Leelapur in a family of Brahmins.

4^th November 2013 - Govardhan Puja

5^th November 2013 - Bhaiya Dooj

Also known as Bhaiya Dooj tikka festival, it honours the special bond between a brother and a sister.

10^th November 2013- Gopaashtami

13^th November 2013 - Dev Prabodhini Ekadashi

14^th November 2013 - Tulasi Vivah

Tulasi Vivah is performed on this day, the symbolic wedding of Tulasi Devi (Vrinda Devi) to Lord Krishna.

17^th November 2013- Kartik Poornima

Importance of Human Life

2012-12-04T23:05:00.002+11:00

Importance of Human Life..............
Lecture by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj

There are three things that are attained only through God’s grace and all three are very rare. Number one is human body. Human birth has been given to us through the grace of God. It is not our doing. Ramayan says –
After millions of births; after revolving in 8.4 million forms of life, the individual soul is granted the rare human birth. God gives us a chance to attain the ultimate goal of our life. If we fail to attain the aim of life, then as the Vedas say –
–we will be forced to revolve in 8.4 million species. But we did not listen to God. Therefore, we are going round and round. Then once again God took pity on us and gave us the human form. So, this human life is attained with God’s grace and it’s very rare. You may think, “I have attained the human birth as a result of virtuous actions of previous lifetimes, and therefore why should I consider this to be God’s grace?” But I ask you; do you have any recollection of any action of any previous lifetime? You don’t even remember actions of the present lifetime. God graces us by keeping an account of our actions of past lifetimes and giving us the fruits of those actions. Do we pay God for this work? Or have we ever asked God to give us fruits of your actions? The answer is no. God does this work for us without our asking. This is His grace.

The human form of life is so rare that the same celestial beings (such as Agni, Vayu, Indra) that we pray to and to whom we offer oblations in the yagyas, desire to be born human themselves. Everyone knows that the body of a celestial being is the best out of the 8.4 million bodies. Their body exudes fragrance; it is very effulgent and attractive. However, the celestial beings merely reap fruits of previous actions. They do not have the right to perform fruit-bearing actions. God has given the privilege of performing fruit-yielding actions only to humans. Such is the value of the human birth. What this means is that we have waited a long time to become human, and we have undergone great suffering before attaining the human birth through God’s grace.

Alright then! We attained the human body. The question is, what did we do with it? We got an education and received fancy degrees, got married, gave birth to a few children, had grandchildren, built a few homes, accumulated a few billion dollars, and then died. We forgot the very aim of our life; we forgot it. By attaining the human birth we have made our situation even worse. How so? A human has the greatest intellect of all creatures.
We see creatures such as dogs, cats and donkeys. In fact we are all able to see every creature except the celestial beings. We see how small the intellect of the lower creatures is, and in contrast we see how developed our own knowledge is. A human can bring all creatures under his control. He can put even ferocious animals such as lions and cheetahs in a cage and control them using a whip. Such is the intellect of a human! If this knowledge is not put to good use, it makes us perform wrong actions. If a dog, a donkey or a bull wishes to steal something, how will it do it? It will steal right in front of your eyes, and will get a beating from you. But what about your knowledge? A human has such great knowledge that he robs banks despite heavy security. This means that a human commits very serious sins due to his knowledge. Other creatures commit small sins. So if we do not use our knowledge wisely, the misuse will be a first-class misuse.

Saint Tulsidas has disclosed the importance of the human birth.
All creatures beg God for the human form.

People asked Tulsidas, “Why is it that every creature wishes to be born human?” He answered, “The human body is so important that even the celestial beings (devtas) desire it. Shall I tell you why?” “Yes, tell us.”
It is because you can attain hell through the human form of life. Why has he mentioned hell first? He mentions hell first; secondly he mentions svarg, or the celestial abode; thirdly he mentions liberation; fourthly he mentions devotion equipped with knowledge and dispassion. He says that a human can attain these four things, and this is why the human birth is the rarest and the most important. Of the four, he mentions hell first. The reason is that very few humans employ their superior knowledge in the right direction. Because knowledge is being misused and abused, the individual attains hell as a result. There is only one in a million who uses his knowledge wisely, and he will attain svarg after death. There are very few individuals who are more knowledgeable. They opt for liberation. The wisest ones ask God for devotion equipped with knowledge and dispassion. So, the hidden reason behind writing ‘hell’ first is that the majority of the people do not make good use of their knowledge, which consequently puts them in hell after death.

Though the human birth is the most important, yet it is the worst of all births from two points of view. Firstly, the human body is a very dirty body. Secondly, a human misapplies his superior knowledge. Therefore, we need the second grace, and that is a genuine Guru. We need a guide to show us the path. We are not able to decide on the right course of action. By ourselves we are not able to understand the reason we have been given the human birth, nor do we understand its importance. We need someone to enlighten us. Someone has to point out to us that the ring we are wearing has a diamond that is worth a billion dollars; we are thinking that it’s worth only 10 or 20 dollars. A Guru has to tell us our aim and disclose to us how to attain that aim. In other words, he has to tell us about ‘Sambandh,’ i.e. our relationship with God, ‘Abhidheya,’ i.e. the method of strengthening our relationship with God, and ‘Prayojan,’ i.e. our reason behind practicing devotion. We need a Guru to give us solid knowledge so that we may make good use of the human birth. Otherwise, how will we do it? Our father, our mother, our brother and neighbours all teach us the same thing. What is that? Accumulate as much wealth as you possibly can. During His descent, Shri Ram delivered one discourse only.
He gave one lecture only. After the lecture, the public said to Him –
Even mother and father are selfish. What will they teach their child? They will tell him, “Son, become a millionaire and serve us.” No one will tell you about God. Of course they don’t know anything about God themselves, then how can they tell someone else?”

After attaining the human birth, it is the attainment of a Guru that will ensure that we will make good use of the human birth and attain the ultimate goal of life. However, we have come into contact with genuine Gurus countless times. We have been blessed with the human birth innumerable times and we have met countless saints in our countless lives. However, we did not derive any benefit. We went to a Guru and looked at him. How tall is he? How short is he? How thin is he? How fat is he? Is he dark-skinned? Is he fair-skinned? How capable is he? Why does he sit like this? Why does he stand like this? Why does he look like this? Why does he live in people’s homes? Why does he live in the jungles? He should live amongst us so that he may help us spiritually. In other words, we criticize saints no matter what they do, and as a result, we do not go any further towards our goal. We refuse to move from the spot where we are standing. Great Jagadgurus came and left, but we are where we were earlier. They tell us that God is ours, but we firmly believe the world to be ours. They tell us that there is happiness in God; we persist in our belief that there is happiness in the world. We believe that though we have not yet received happiness, yet if we persist we will one day attain it. A person gets $100,000 and he thinks that if he had one million he would become happy. When he accumulates one million, he thinks that if had one billion dollars, he would be happy. So thinking everyone is running towards the world. In other words, it is not enough to even have a genuine Guru’s guidance. Instead of gaining, we are in fact incurring loss. We take the intellect that we have in our possession and we use it to pass judgement on the Guru and in so doing we commit serious spiritual transgressions. We look at a saint and declare him to be even more ordinary than we are. But then we think, “No, no, he is a true saint.” But then, “No, no, he is not genuine.” “No, no, he is real.” Thinking this way we have deprived ourselves of the benefit that a genuine Saint’s association can bring.

This means that a third thing is necessary. Now what is that? It’s ‘Shraddha,’ i.e. 100% faith in the Guru and the Vedas and Shastras.

Gaurang Mahaprabhu says that the word ‘Shraddha’ means full faith in the words of the Guru and the scriptures. Shraddha means to accept the Guru’s words to be true and to accept them fully. Never must the intellect interfere. Valmeeki was a sinner of such great proportions that he could not utter the name of Ram. His Guru told him, “Keep chanting Mara-Mara until I return.” Valmeeki did not ask, “Guru ji, when will you be coming back?” He did not ask, “What will I get by chanting Mara-Mara?” He did not say, “Guru ji, you are trying to make a fool out of me.” We would have spoken such words to the Guru. Valmeeki had strong faith in the Guru’s words. Consequently he did what the Guru said, without asking all sorts of questions and employing his own intellect. As a result, he transcended Maya and became a saint.

You all go to a doctor when you are not feeling well. Putting full faith in that doctor you offer him your arm as he checks your pulse. The doctor tests your heart. You tell him your ailment and ask him for a diagnosis. He diagnoses your ailment and writes out a prescription. You quietly go and purchase the prescribed medication and take the medication in exactly the same amount as he has prescribed it. Four drops in one spoonful of water three times a day. You do not question the doctor. You don’t think to yourself, “Why did he ask me to add only four drops of medication to water? Four drops is really nothing. At this rate it will take me four years to get better. I shall consume an entire bottle everyday and get better faster.” If someone does this, he will die within 24 hours. However, we do not think like this. Innocent little children go to school to study. The English teacher says, “‘A’ looks like this.” Has any child ever asked why the letter ‘A’ looks the way it does, or why this letter is called ‘A’?” No child has ever asked such a question. The English language is such that 99% of the words have unusual spelling. You have to simply memorize the spellings. “But why do I have to write this letter when I am not speaking it?” “No, no, you have to write it; it’s a silent letter.” We accept all this. We do not ever argue with the teachers on this point. Otherwise, we would not ever graduate. It’s by having faith in the doctor that the patient gets better. We trust the doctor and the teacher but we are filled with doubts when we approach the Guru. We approach scriptures with doubts. How can it be that Arjun did not feel any anger and yet he committed millions of murders? That’s impossible. Before a person even slaps someone, his face becomes red with anger. He is not able to contain his anger, and then he slaps the other person. And you are saying that Arjun committed murder, he killed millions of people, and yet he saw Lord Krishna everywhere! What nonsense! “The Pandavas, Arjun and his brothers are all saints. They are five brothers with one wife. How wonderful! They all have children, and yet you expect me to believe that they do not suffer from lust! This is impossible. It cannot be. I am not a fool after all. This is how we employed our intellect every time God descended on earth and saints came to the world.

Thus, we must have ‘Shraddha,’ i.e. full faith. This is the third thing. If we have shraddha, it will not take us long to attain God-realization, divine bliss and freedom from Maya.

So, number one is the attainment of a human birth, which is given by the grace of God. Then with further grace of God a Guru enters our life.
Ramayan says that a Guru is attained only through God’s grace.

And the third thing is the greatest grace of God. To have ‘Shraddha,’ i.e. full faith in the Guru’s words. Tulsidas ji has said very beautifully – and I am speaking only from the Ramayan today, because you people are afraid of the Vedas –
Even if a genuine Guru enters your life, you must have full faith in that divine physician, and you must take the medication that he prescribes. You must take the precautions that the doctor tells you about. If precautions are not taken the medicine will not work. If a person suffering from diabetes takes his medication but keeps eating sweets, his medication will not work. Precautions are necessary. This is why it is said –
This is a reference to ‘Shraddha.’ If the disciple has shraddha, he will obey the Guru’s instruction, and practice devotion properly. He will not present material logic and faulty arguments in front of the Guru.

Shri Krishna says in the Gita, “Arjun! If he has doubts, his spiritual downfall is certain, though he may be Brihaspati himself.”

The Gita says, “Surrender fully to the Guru.” Complete surrender refers to the surrender of the intellect.

Thus, the three things we spoke of are attained through God’s grace and if someone has all the three, he is certain to attain God-realization. And if someone has the first two he must make an effort to attain the third thing.
Ved-Vyas says that if someone does not have the third thing, i.e. full faith, he should not be discouraged. Really? Tell us; tell us. He says, “The individual bereft of faith should associate with a genuine Saint, listen to his words and try to understand the philosophy.” What will happen consequently?

The knowledge attained with a Saint’s grace will give birth to Shraddha. Once we have a clear understanding of the philosophy we will develop full faith. The Guru says, “Listen, the laws of India are not applicable in Russia, then why do you take your worldly laws and try to apply them to the divine ones?
That world, the divine world, is beyond the reach of the material intellect. The divine ones possess divine powers. Their works are those of Yogmaya. While performing works of Maya, they remain untouched by Maya.” We are not able to do this, but we will be able to do the same once we become divine. Then we will start understanding everything very clearly. What we once thought to be impossible will become very easy to accept and understand.

Thus, we must understand the three acquisitions, accept them and work according to them. Only then will we reach our goal in life.

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
June 6, 2007

I am His Vs He is Mine

2012-12-02T10:11:00.000+11:00

I am His Vs He is Mine

Translation of Lecture by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj

There are three entities: the lover, the Beloved and Love. That which unites the lover and the Beloved, is called Love. In other words, Love is the intimate union of the lover and the Beloved. The lover is the one who loves the entity "Beloved". And the "Beloved" is he, towards whom love is directed. He is the one who possesses Divine Love.

This "Love" is God's most intimate personal power, which can be attained only by the Grace of a Rasik Saint. It cannot be attained through personal effort. This is why even the greatest yogis, paramahansas beg for Divine Love. The treasure house of this Love is Shree Krishna and His associates alone. No one else can lay claim to owning this power called "Love". No personality controlled by Maya, not even the king of heaven, can occupy the seat of the Beloved. Therefore, no material personality can be the Beloved.

We have to begin by developing the two sentiments within us: "I am His," and "He is mine." Let us consider both of these carefully. Which of the two sentiments do you prefer? Do you prefer to think, "I am His," or "He is mine?" Some prefer to think, "I am His." Some prefer to think, "He is mine." However, "He is mine" is a superior sentiment. "He is mine", that is all. "I do not care whether or not He considers me His. There is no doubt about my being His, because I am a part of Him, I have an eternal and natural bond with Him and cannot be anyone else's."

chinmātraṁ śhriharaṁshaṁ

The Vedas say, "All individual souls are parts of God."

dhātā mātā pitāmaḥ

The Vedas declare, "All relationships of the soul are with God alone. No one else can have any true relationship with the soul."

This proves that we belong to God. There is no denying that "I am His." However, knowing this has not helped us. Countless lives have passed. "The soul was His. The soul is His. The soul will always be His." This has been declared boldly by Shree Krishna personally and has been clearly stated in the Vedas but to no avail. So, how will we get results? By instilling the sentiment "He is mine". We have to accept Him as ours.

The fortunate souls, Tulsi, Sur, Meera, Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram, who accepted Him as theirs, reached the goal, crossed the ocean of Maya, and attained the ultimate Bliss of Divine Love. They who have not realized this fact are rotating in the 8.4 million species of life. So, we must endeavor to develop the sentiment that "He is ours."

Some people think, "He is only mine." Shri Maharaj ji says that this expression is inaccurate. Rather than, "He is only mine," we should think, "Only He is mine." In other words, "I have no one else but Him." The day this sentiment "He alone is mine" becomes grounded in us, our work will come to an end. We will have nothing more to do - no karm, no gyan, no bhakti, or anything else. The last action required by the soul is to accept that "He alone is mine," after which everything will be attained and we will be free forever.

In the world, you love many people. What do you think twenty-four hours a day? Whether it is the mother, father, son, husband or wife, you always wonder whether or not the other person loves you. Why are you troubled by this thought? Keep on loving, without wondering about whether or not the other person loves you. You will say, "Am I a fool that I should keep on loving him even if I receive no love from him? I will not love him anymore. I sent him four letters; he did not send me even one. I vow never to write him a letter again." Or, "I sent him four letters, and he sent me eight. He loves me a lot." What a wonderful way you have of measuring love!

You are innocent, and this is why people fool and cheat you. Now, if you want perfect reciprocation for your affection, you cannot love, because if the love of the other party reduces, so will yours. If he becomes neutral, so will you. And if he opposes you then you oppose him too. Where did your love disappear? This is not called love. It is the opposite of love.

A child loves rasgulla (a popular Indian sweet). He never thinks, "O Rasgulla! I always cry in front of mummy and daddy for you. Do you love me also?" The child loves the rasgulla and does not care whether or not the rasgulla loves him back. If we love someone, why do we want to know whether that person loves us or not? This is not love. It is a business, where we are constantly weighing profit and loss. "I gave you ten dollars, but you gave me only five dollars’ worth of goods." This is not proper. You get upset. For ten rupees, you expect ten rupees worth of goods. If you get eleven rupees worth, you are happy. But at the very least you expect ten rupees worth. This is called good business sense. The problem is that we apply the same business sense when it comes to loving. We try to show all the time that we love the other person more than he loves us. All the while, internally we want the other to love us more than we love him.

Now, if we accept the sentiment "He alone is mine," then we will not be in this constant dilemma, wondering "Am I His or not? Does He love me or not? Does He consider me His own or not?" We will not get caught up in thinking any of this. God proclaims in the scriptures:

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁstathaiva bhajāmyaham (Gita)

"I reciprocate the love of the individual soul to the exact degree and with the exact sentiment."

This is an indisputable, unchanging Divine law. Keeping this Divine law in mind, you should never worry that perhaps He does not love you. He has to love you; He has no choice. You do not need to think that someone may have poisoned His ears against you which may have made Him stop loving you or not loving you as much as before. Why the doubt? He is not some worldly person, that He will listen to some third person and stop loving us, or reduce His love. Why is there any doubt on your part about His love for you?

He is All-seeing, All-knowing, the witness to everything, the well-wisher of all, the Supreme Almighty Lord. There is no question of doubt in this regard. There is no power that can shake or disturb the degree and amount of His love. There is no need to speculate, "Does He love me?" Or, "How much does He love me?" How much He loves you, depends on how much you love Him. "How much love do you want from Him?" "A lot." "Then love Him a lot." How is it that you love Him a little bit and expect Him to love you a lot? Even if your love is just a business transaction, you still cannot expect a hundred rupee shirt for only ten rupees. The paper money in your hand is a ten rupee note, and the shirt made of cloth is worth a hundred rupees. You should stay within your means. If you want a hundred rupee shirt, you must spend a hundred rupees.

So, God loves us to the extent that we love Him and surrender ourselves to Him. When you understand this law, you no longer worry about whether He considers you His or not. Questions such as, "Does He love me and how much does he love me," come to an end.

We speculate in the world about the status of someone's love for us because people are not all-knowing and can get confused if someone poisons their ears against us. Moreover, in the world, love is measured by external behaviour. But, Shree Krishna is eternally seated within our heart noting all our ideas and cannot make such mistakes.

sākṣhī chetā kevalo nirguṇśhcha

So, there is no question of His not knowing the extent of our love for Him.

"Vedvaani Alaukik" - by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj

2012-11-12T18:19:00.000+11:00

"Vedvaani Alaukik"

"Vedvaani Alaukik" - by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
6.11.12 - The first lecture given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj at Bhakti Bhawan, Bhakti Dham, Mangarh

Vijaya Dashami (Victory of Bhagawan Shri Ramachandra over Ravan)

2012-10-24T10:10:00.004+11:00

Vijaya Dashami (Victory of Bhagawan Shri Ramachandra over Ravan)

On this day in the Treta Yug, Bhagawan Shri Ram killed the great demon Ravana who had abducted Shri Rama's wife Mother Sita to his kingdom of Lanka. Shri Rama, his brother Lakshmana, Hanuman, Jambavan and an army of monkeys fought a great battle to rescue Mother Sita. The entire narrative is recorded in the epic Ramayana, a Hindu scripture.

Shri Rama had performed "Chandi Yagna" and invoked the blessings of Godess Durga, who blessed Shri Rama with secret knowledge of the way to kill Ravana. On the day of Ashvin Shukla Dashami, Rama's party found Mother Sita and defeated Ravana. Thus it is termed as Vijaya Dashami. Based on the scriptural writings from Valmiki’s Ramayana, Kalidas’s Raghuvans, Tulsidas’s Ram Charit manas, and Keshavdas’s Ram Chandra Yas Chandrika as well as common perception in India, Shri Rama, Mother Sita, and Lakshmana returned to Ayodhya on the 30th day of Ashvin (19–20 days after Vijayadashmi). To mark the return of Lord Rama, in the evening, the residents of Ayodhya lit their city with millions of earthen lamps (called Diya / Deepak). Since then, this day is celebrated in India as Deepawali or Diwali.

Some people perform "Aditya Homa" as a "Shanti Yagna" and recite Sundara Kanda of Srimad Ramayana for nine days. These Yagna performances are thought to create powerful agents in the atmosphere surrounding the house that will keep the household environment clean and healthy. These rituals are intended to rid the household of the ten bad qualities, which are represented by ten heads of Ravana as follows:

Kama (Lust)
Krodha (Anger)
Moha (delusion)
Lobha (Greed)
Mada (Over Pride)
Matsara (Jealousy)
Manas (Mind)
Buddhi (Intellect)
Chitta (will)
Ahankar (Ego).

It is also that on this day that Shri Maharaji our beloved Gurudev (Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj Ji) starts the annual month long sadhana programme from Vijaya Dashami to Kartik poornima. It is at this time that devotees practicing the path of Bhakti Yoga are able to come together under the guidance of a Shrotriya Bhramanistha Guru (Theoretically and practically God realised saint) to lean and experience the inner intricacies of Bhakti. With heavy emphasis of sewa (service – in 3 modes Than Man Dhan – Body mind and wealth) we get rid of the 10 vasanas like that of Ravan and truly surrender to a Guru’s Lotus feet. One may say that I have met Shri Maharaji and that you have His divine hands of protection over you, but it does not work that way as He will test and test and test the aspirant like putting gold through fire and making it pure so that only purity remains in the hearts of the devotee. When that happens yours antahakaran (inner- mind mechanism) is cleansed and ready for Bagawad Prapti (God realisation) until then. ………. A devotee or an aspirant will remain as a contaminated gold not knowing its full potential and keep rotating in this cycle of Maya.

Well we don't have to perform the “Chandi Yagna” or "Aditya Homa" as a "Shanti Yagna" and recite Sundara Kanda of Srimad Ramayana for nine days but to make Sadhana as a daily part of our lives like when we are there in Mangarh India with our Gurudev, Shri Maharaji and bring that feeling that Hari and Guru are always with me as a conscious effort in our lives. Having that conscious feeling at every step of our lives will change and make us into true karma yogi’s who is practicing Bhakti towards Radha Krishna. The dilemma of how about this and that will not arise as we will learn to be trustees of this life and look forward to that Blissful state of being in love with God. Currently instead of being trustees of this life we are all behaving like owners of this life and as long as we behave like owners of this life, the pit falls of this life due to the karmic reaction and the shortfall of not truly understanding will pull us down into a false perception that this is a true life. As long as you behave that you are owners of this life you are liable for every action and reaction that follows suit. Let’s learn to become trustees of this life as what we are truly meant to be, we have had so many opportunities to become trustees but instead we have chosen to become owners of this life. Live a life were we carry out our duties as a father, mother, husband wife, child, and every other character that we are given as trustees, performing to what is truly required of us.

On this day of Vijaya Dashami let us take the active role of practicing sadhana if you are going to India have a blast with Gurudev, Shri Maharaji and bring that back with you and consciously practice that as a daily part of your life. If you are not going to India, join the satsang programmes in your area and practice daily.

Gopal R Tripathi