The Higher View - 3

Kalpatararu Co-operative Housing Society

Community Hall

CBD Belapur Navi Mumbai

Sector 8-B

September 18, 2010

We can by the process of Devotional service get rid of all of the unwanted habits
cultivated over millions of life times.Such is its potency. There is a funny story
about a small boy who goes to a wedding ceremony. When the bridegroom was
being garlanded by the bride , the aunt looked at the small boy and winkingly
quipped “Next is your turn”. The boy was flabbergasted at this.However he got
over the event.On another ocassion both aunt and the nephew went for a
funeral.The nephew had a hard look at the dead body in front of him and looking
at his aging aunt exclaimed “Next is your turn”.The boy had given a fitting reply to
his aunt. One has to render service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna with single
pointed attention.There should be no other diversion in the process of our Bhakti.

Attending a Bhagavat Gita class once in a week for just 2 hours is just not
sufficient to invoke our latent devotional service.We spend 6 days and 22 hours in
materialistic life and indulgence and on one lazy evening we go to attend Gita
Class.This is simply not enough for elevating ourselves.It is said “Nityam
Bhagavata Sevaya”.One needs to be in the holy association of the Lord and his
devotees all the time if we need to progress even a little in devotional life.Baldev
Vidyabhushan says that a man engaged in direct devotional service to the
Supreme Lord is freed from any obligations even towards the demigods and
forefathers. The example of Jada Bharatha is apt in this regards.Jada Bharatha
was an avadhootha who had no duties to perform and moved around in the forest
like a mad man. One day , Jada Bharatha was made to stand like a scare crow in
the fields by his own brothers.It so happened that during the course of the day he
was kidnapped by some adivasis or tribal men. He was taken to be sacrificed to
the local goddess.They gave him a bath and fed him sumptuously and
subsequently laid him at the sacrificial altar ready to be beheaded.Jada Bharatha
was really unaware of what was being done with him and he remained in his own
glory totally unfazed by the pandemonium that shrouded him.Though Jada

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Bharatha was being offered as a sacrifice to Goddess Kali , the great Goddess
could not accept the fact that a great Krishna Bhakta was being offered to Her as a
sacrifice.Jada Bharatha was a self realized effulgent muni who roamed around the
forests as if mad.On the event of Pariskshit Maharaja preparing to leave his body
in seven days, he sat on the banks of the great river Ganga and was accompanied
by thousands of thousands of highly self realized sages,saints and muni.
Maharaja Parikshit sat down quitely on the banks and so did the assembled
congregation of evolved souls.It was evident that everybody was awaiting a great
Katha to take place at the site.And shortly appeared Sukadeva
Goswami.Sukadeva Goswami was only sixteen years old and the assembly had
senior sages who were thousands and thousands of years old.Sukadeva was not
even wearing clothes.He was absolutely oblivious of his bodily position.He was
continuously followed by the village children and women who made fun of him little
realizing his exalted spiritual status. Sukadeva Goswami was an extremely self
realized soul pretending to be a mad man.In this material world there are great
fools who pretend to be very great learned men.As Sukadeva Goswami enters the
assembly , Maharaja Parikshit and the thousands of Rishis at the site rise to give a
warm welcome to Sukadeva Goswami. According to the Sastric Injuctions a
person advanced in spiritual realization needs to be respected and not a person
who is advanced in age that needs to be given a high pedestal.

Although Sukadeva was a self satisfied Atmarati, he did his duty.When he learnt
that Parikshit Maharaja was searching for the ultimate good that can make his life
successful in the next seven days, Sukadeva appeared on the scene. It is evident
that even a completely self satisfied Mahapurusa like Sukadeva took a lot of
pleasure in narrating the ever sweet pastimes of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead Sri Krishna.The process of becoming Atmarati does not warrant us to
turn our attention inward to our souls.The easiest process to achieving the status
of an Atmarati is by the process of chanting and hearing the Mahamantra “Hare
Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama
Rama Hare Hare”.If we simply render service to the Supreme Lord , the Lord
immediately cuts our attachment to the material world and grants us His abode.

There was a certain King who was a great devotee of the Lord and the Lord
admired him for his sincerity in devotional service.However Arjuna doubted the
King’s devotion to the Lord.Arjuna expressed his reservations about the Love of
the King for the Lord and His devotees. The Lord told Arjuna that they should go
down to the King and test him. The Lord and Arjuna , dressed as brahmins,
approached the King and requested the King for a particular type of Donation.The
King was more than happy to serve the two brahmins.The Lord disguised as one
of the brahmins , demanded half the body of the King to be donated to Him and

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that the King’s own son should carry out the sword sacrifice and fulfill the King’s
promise.

When such stories are being rendered by the Hare Krishnas , many devotees
accept the stories with a pinch of salt and do not believe these stories
entirely.They often do not take these events to be real.

Continuing with the anecdote , the King was in tears as his son readied himself to
sacrifice his father’s half body for the sake of the brahman who was actually the
Supreme Lord himself.The Lord in the form of a brahman immediately ordered the
stoppage of the act.He said that being a brahmin he would only accept the
sacrifice if the King happily parted with half of his body and that crying just at the
time when he was been struck by his son’s sword was an act of reluctance on the
part of the king and that the brahman was not eager to receive the sacrifice. The
King did not have a smile on his face when he was given a part of his body as
sacrifice and this was an insult to the brahman. The King immediately made
himself clear to the brahman who was the Supreme Lord Himself. The King said”I
am not crying because I am going to lose half of my body , I am sad because I am
able to offer you only half of my body and not my entire body for your service.This
pains me terribly”.Thus Arjuna was convinced about the King’s sense of service
towards the Lord’s devotees and accepted the King to be a great devotee of the
Lord.

To act at the behest of the Supreme Lord is to act with detachment. Krishna says
that one should even give up the attachment to the notion of being recognised as
a pious man or to be known as a generous man.The highest principle is to be
obedience to the will of the Lord.Generally what is known to the people is the
mode of goodness.It is ubiquitously rare to find people in the mode of pure
goodness which is beyond goodness and transcendentally motivated.No mundane
logic can explain the acts of a person inspired beyond the modes of
goodness,passion and ignorance. The Bhagavat Gita is more or less
inconceivable to mankind because it talks about the philosophy of obedience to
the Supreme which is much much beyond the mode of goodness.People on the
platform of obedience to God are at a higher level and they can easily concieve
the problems of the people who are situated in lower states of consciousness
namely on the mode of ignorance , passion or goodness. A helicopter flying at a
height of 10000 feet above groundlevel can easily detect two trains running
towards each other on the same track even if they are miles apart. A person on
the helicopter can easily predict an obvious accident taking into account the
speeds of the two carriers but the drivers of the two trains are totally oblivious of
the imminent disaster.

To be continued……