issue no.

129 April 3, 2022

You have to act for Kåñëa

You cannot think yourself out of this material energy. You have
to act in bhakti. Then, you will get liberation from material

photo © Ananta Vrindavan

sufferings and you will get the lotus feet of Kåñëa. 

You have to engage your body, your heart and your voice in
serving Kåñëa. This verse spoken by Brahmä exemplifies this
fact:

“O almighty Lord, in the past many yogés in this world achieved

the platform of devotional service by offering all their endeavors
unto You and faithfully carrying out their prescribed duties.
Through such devotional service, perfected by the processes of
hearing and chanting about You, they came to understand You, O
infallible one, and could easily surrender to You and achieve Your
supreme abode.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam, 10.14.5)

Brahmä remembers those who have achieved bhakti and what
they did. He says devotees achieved the platform of bhakti or
devotional service by offering all their endeavors to Kåñëa.
That’s what you do with the body. He further says they
faithfully carried out their prescribed duties. That’s what you
do with your heart – you have faith in doing your activities
in Kåñëa consciousness. And their (ears and) voices they
engaged in the process of hearing and chanting. This is a simple
program, and Brahmä says:
“This is how they came to understand You, O infallible one, and
could easily surrender to You and achieve Your supreme abode.”
Do you sometimes have difficulties to surrender to Kåñëa?
I have that all the time. However, I have noted, if I just do
something for Kåñëa, if I cultivate my faith in Kåñëa and if I do
kértana, then I feel I can surrender and do anything for Kåñëa.
From a lecture by Çacénandana Swami, on July 23, 2021, in Kiental,
Switzerland.

Çréla Prabhupäda: Mitigating the Fatigue

Bhakti-yoga is the sunlike illumination for delivering the
conditioned souls, whose general condition is[:] They
have no eyes to see their own interests. They do not
know that the goal of life is not to increase the material
necessities of existence, because the body will not exist
more than a few years. The living beings are eternal, and
they have their eternal need. If one engages only in caring
for the necessities of the body, not caring for the eternal
necessities of life, then he is part of a civilization whose
advancement puts the living entities in the darkest region
of ignorance. Sleeping in that darkest region, one does
not get any refreshment, but, rather, gradually becomes
fatigued. He invents many processes to adjust this fatigued
condition, but he fails and thus remains confused. The only
path for mitigating his fatigue in the struggle for existence
is the path of devotional service, or the path of Kåñëa
consciousness.
From Çréla Prabhupäda’s purport on Çrémad-Bhägavatam, 3.29.5.

Çaraëägatí – Teachings, Realizations and Inspirations from Çacénandana Swami, page 1

What if I don’t have the strength
to do bhakti?
Question: I know I should choose bhakti, but often I
simply can’t. I don’t have the strength to do it. What then?

photo © Ananta Vrindavan

Answer: Yes, sometimes we feel weak and overwhelmed
by the circumstances and it becomes clear to us, “I’m not like
that advanced devotee, who just goes for bhakti all the time.” At
that time it is important to recognize something that is yet
unknown to many devotees: you can turn your weakness into
strength. This is not a cheap coaching advice. In bhakti, you can
actually turn your weakness into your greatest strength. You
may say: “Oh well, when I’m weak, I’m in mäyä, I’m totally gone.”
However, my dear devotees, the moment you really, honestly
acknowledge ‘I’m very weak’, something different will happen:
you will change your mind-set and you will become genuinely
humble. There is a difference between being ‘chic’-humble and
being real. In our society it is chic, and everyone will like you
if you use the humble-vocabulary like “Oh, please forgive my
offenses.” and so on.

However, if you are genuinely humble, you will really feel sorry
for what you do, and you won’t make excuses any longer. You
take responsibility for what you did or do, and you feel “Oh,
what a fool I am!” At that moment, you attract powerful mercy
– provided you then continue to act in devotional service.
Bhakti Tértha Mahäräja beautifully expressed this in his book
The Spiritual Warrior, “When your desire to serve is beyond
your capacity, yet you act without hesitation that is the moment
empowerment occurs.”
So, when you feel weak and overwhelmed by the material
energy, the problem may be that you don’t feel it enough.
When, however, you really feel and recognize you are incapable
to serve, and then you still give a little of whatever you can
do, such as a prayer before you go to bed – something like “Oh
Kåñëa, please help me, I couldn’t chant more than 2 rounds today”
or “Again, I ate that cheese with animal rennet” or “Oh no, I can’t
forgive myself for what I watched in the internet today”, and so
on, and: “Oh Kåñëa, please help me!” – then you will attract
Kåñëa’s mercy.
Our problem is that we remain proud, or we don’t turn to
Kåñëa properly, we don’t take advantage of our weakness and
understand that we are not as great as we thought. But if we
do it, Kåñëa sees it. You know, when our äcäryas say, “Kåñëa,
please give me Your mercy, I’m the most fallen, and You said You
would give Your mercy to the most fallen, so my claim is first.” –
they don’t say that in a chic way. They mean it! This is when
mercy comes, when you are humble. This is when real kértana
happens.
From a lecture by Çacénandana Swami, on July 23, 2021, in Kiental,
Switzerland.

Çaraëägatí – Teachings, Realizations and Inspirations from Çacénandana Swami, page 2