A tribute to my mother, Mrs. Kiran Mundada

My mother passed away on 10th of this month, on the auspicious day of Ekadashi, in presence of sincere devotees chanting around, along with my mother's favorite Srila Prabhupad Hare Krishna tune. She had just reached age of 48. She had a colon cancer, detected a year ago.

As my spiritual teachers have taught to me to be grateful. I take an honor to write about my mother who has done unlimited favor on me with giving me birth in this rare human form of life and loving and caring me to her highest extent. To write about her I will go from the present to past.

Two days before she left, Dr. Tulasi (devotee doctor, specialist of palliative care) had come to see her. She asked her about what she would like to say about me. My mother said "We have given this boy to you".
She didn't know these seven simple words are going to inspire me and echo in my ears in all difficult times going to come ahead. I was her biggest attachment and I knew she will never say this. But finally she said it. She had only seen my bad example of devotee before she saw some good examples of Bhaktivedanta Hospital doctors.I couldn't visit home frequently because of job pressure, other many engagements and my dealings at home were not that ideal or responsible. In the end, I am so grateful to her for this charity.
   

My mother while leaving her body

         She had asked me "Whether they will allow me to die in Bhaktivedanta?", just a week before she left her body. I had shown her a video of Bhaktivedanta Hospital and prayed sincerely, 'if she has to leave the body, let it be in the Bhaktivedanta Hospital, which is abode of Lord Jagannath and so many pure souls have sanctified  it with the dust of their lotus feet'. So many devotees were praying for her! All the prayers came true.

       A month ago was Diwali. And my mother was bedridden almost for a week.And she had belly bloated with liters of accumulated ascitic fluid which characteristic of advanced stage of stomach cancer. She would hardly get up.
But she got up on the day of Diwali in the unbeaten spirit of a fighter,as it was difficult for her to refrain from the Diwali Puja ceremony as a dutiful lady. She wore a fresh saree, bangles on her wrists, which had got very skinny because of cancer,and she decorated her with other auspicious articles characteristics of married lady. She performed all rituals and worship that day. I was again inspired, and with moist eyes I uttered in heart, "Bravo!".

Later I requested her to chant, which was difficult for her. She said, she chanted Vishnu Sahastranama in Marathi in morning and meditated on the beautiful form of the Lord mentioned in it. She sang it for me again. As her implanted teeth had become loose so she was stammering like a small child. It was very sweet.

Ever since her cancer was detected and even before that, I was so busy in so many other things, I had not been able to actually look after her very well. The best I could do was to beg as many devotees as possible to pray for her. The day I came to know she had a cancer, it was a great shock for me. I tried hard but I could not stop my tears. I had heard of intolerable pains of cancer and seen few patients.When I heard, the word 'Cancer', first time for somebody so close only resounded as death. It was a total nightmare even I had known the philosophy of Bhagavat Gita, the eternalness of soul etc. and also had taught to so many. She had a very soft heart and skinny body. I was worried, how am I going to see her suffer both physically and mentally. And it was unthinkable of loosing her loving shelter. but her reply was,"Someday anyways we have to die, now or later." She was undisturbed.
       
Much before the cancer was detected when I was in Mumbai, our cook had taken long leave since he was suffering from jaundice. We were cooking lunch and breakfast for lot of people with the assistance of some other friends, along with my job and other preaching engagement. Initially, it went well in enthusiasm. But after few weeks I started frantically praying for cook's return. I was feeling very difficult thing to do but it reminded me of my mother.So many years, month after month, day after day she had served in the joint family. And I don't remember of not getting a lunchbox or not having fresh washed clothes for any single day. She had served her family uninterruptedly withstanding all the personal difficulties. And I never heard any complaints about it from her. I was wondering for years, why my mother would always or at least many times shed tears talking to me on phone?  I got reason, when I would cook and somebody won't get it because of being late, I would feel very bad. In this incident I could understand at least a fraction of heart of a mother.

She was a very chaste lady and supported my father through all thick and thins.My father had his faults and his decisions might not be perfect in everything. But my mother followed him like a shadow, overlooking everything else.And as Srila Prabhupad says, "A submissive wife wins the heart of her husband", my father took care of her day and night during her disease. It gave me inspiration that there might be some problems or faults in an authority but as a chaste lady doesn't disobey  her husband, I should also just stick to service and connection made with parampara in spite of anything else.

When I was in school, one of our neighbors committed suicide. For the first time, I saw a dead-body of a young man so closely. I was shocked! It gave me an impression that my parents may leave me anytime. I was extremely afraid. I would chant for hours names of different demigods and God that I want to die before my parents. I would be counting on names on fingers. I never told this to anybody. later it became too much and I could not continue. But I was very attached to my parents, and especially my mother for her love. And as a child I never wanted to be separated from them.

My mother taught us to embrace high ideals in life. The example she set by her own devotion and the prayers she taught us in childhood, are still basis of my devotional service. Her apparent opposition to certain aspects of my devotional service was because of her love for me, she didn't want to hear criticism about me for those aspects.

When I was leading a funeral march of my mother as only son, I was thinking in my heart what should I give her or what would please her. It revealed in my heart that if I just become humble servant, live a simple life with a simple heart and follow words of Gurudev, then she would be most happy from the sky above or wherever she might be. By this, I can give actual benefit of being a son, if she needs at all.
I am greatly thankful to my mother for everything she had given me.

At the end, following is humble prayer at the lotus feet of the Lord on behalf of me and my family,

Forlorn we are Krishna, to us You please accept
and my mom's eternal soul, I pray, You please embrace.
The love, kindness, care You gave us by giving our mother,
I pray, give same to her, showering Your eternal grace

I pray, I think of You,
as she always thought of me,
I pray, I love You,
as she loved me.

I pray, I see You,
as with full of love, she saw me.
I pray, I accept You,
as in any form she accepted me

I pray, I brim my eyes for You,
as in separation she brimmed her eyes for me.
I pray I strive to please You,
as she strove to please me.

In loving You,
I pray, I send love to her.
and I send my gratitude
as You become the conveyor.

Oh' dear Lord, You are as known
most kind to Your devotees.
to love You freely without any obstacles,
I pray, You grant her this liberty.

In Your love and service when we are engaged,
there is no separation.
I pray, to love and serve You,
You kindly grant my mom & us pure devotion.

Go external Grow Internal

We had a wonderful outing to beautiful farm community-Gokuldham situated near Belgaon. Spreading around 500 acres, it’s lauded for beautiful hills, refreshing water-bodies, grazing cattle and serene atmosphere. What an adventurous experience it was!  2 hours of walking and trekking brought us to a waterfall, very beautiful and highest of that place, from small peak the water was falling in a valley. We decided to trek down and go in the valley to get the refreshing showers of that waterfall.

People go to nature with different motives. We find, some destroy the beauty of places, scribbling on suitable places names of their sweethearts or become intoxicated and go mad. Some click photos to boast to the world of their adventures & to earn "likes" on FB, to receive satisfaction in adoration ,offered for this. Seekers of truth try to reflect on the varieties of the nature and pray for meaningful insights to imbibe in life. For the monk who is partially cut off from the varieties of this world it becomes all the more important to grow internally with maturity, understanding and realization about the external world with variety he sees outside. Such internal growth offers a friendly tool in hours of solitude. It’s a great chance to ponder upon eternal truths taught by the scriptures and try to see the reflection of those truths in the activities of the outside world. Such meaningful contemplation solidifies one’s conviction and offers a practical realization of theoretical things studied in the scriptures. Then whole world becomes like a laboratory.  Off course, paralysis by analysis needs to be avoided. One need not go in so much analysis mode that he loses chance to appreciate booty of splendour planted by Lord in his creation. Like it needs a poetic heart to compose beautiful renditions, it needs a grateful heart tuned with God to get revelations hidden in nature or any situation.

Lord to simplify the philosophy gives examples from the nature, in the revered scripture of Bhagavad Gita.  To quote few examples from it, Lord Gives example of the petals of lotus are unaffected by water to illustrate a point that, how a yogi performing work without getting into any personal attachment is unaffected by sinful reaction. Lord gives example of the tortoise, how a tortoise withdraws his limbs in the face of the danger similarly a yogi trying to control his mind should withdraw his senses from the sense objects. This type of the contemplation, adds to the bliss begotten in seeing beauty of the nature or that situation. Radhanath Swami says that through everything in this world God wants to teach us a lesson, if we have our eyes open then we can learn from each situation. That's how we see in his book too we see. He took lesson of patience from the mongoose; he took lesson of being deeper in life by seeing hock catching a fish swimming superficially in waters etc.

There were lot of rocks around the waterfall. So contemplating on these principles I decided to sit peacefully on the rock meditating on names of the Lord and with a prayer to reveal the message, if any, I am supposed to learn in such a beautiful setting.

drunkards are good (?)

I was in office till late night. It was almost 12:30 PM and I wanted to catch a urgent train to Mumbai. I came out and didn't have much hope getting public transport vehicle and rickshaw at that time & it would be too costly to bear as I had only 100 bucks to travel to Mumbai. I started looking for a hitchhike ride which will drop me near station. But the passing time just increased my anxiety as nobody was ready stop and give a lift to me. But after some time, a person came out of a bar behind my company, he was about to start his bike. I somehow felt that he will surely help me out. And he did, I sat on his bike towards road to Pune railway station. I could smell fro behind, his mouth was stinking with alcohol.

His coming out of bar had given me hope of his allowing me hitchhike ride on his bike as this was not first time that some drunk person had helped me. It had happened many times before. I started wondering whether the drunk people are more generous and helping than the normal ones. Then I was reminded of two Lords, Chaitanya and Nityananda which appeared 500 years ago in the land of Bengal and they were always intoxicated & maddened with love for Lord Krishna. Great acharyas explain, since they were always intoxicated & maddened with love for Krishna, they didn't see any qualification or disqualification in distributing that love of God. And they freely distributed this gift to anyone and everyone, without any consideration of good or bad.

Now somebody may wonder what is this Love of  God. In this world if we see everybody is hankering for some or other thing thinking that it will give him pleasures but that dream seem to be frustrated as soon as we get that thing and we realize,we now want something else to become completely happy and satisfied. Actually, in essence, every body is hankering for endless love and fulfillment but such search is frustrated because anything in this material world is temporary in nature, making it unqualified to fulfill our demand of endless love. God has capacity love endlessly and reciprocate with our tiny drop of love with his oceanic love to completely satisfy ourselves. But that love of God was rarely attainable, it was reserved only for those who have done tremendous physical,mental and intellectual  austerities and completely purified themselves of all the contamination. But Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda in their own intoxicated state of love for God  broke open the jars of love of God for anybody and everybody. By their mere glance, they purified the hearts of all contamination and inundated them with love for Supreme.
Poetry of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta says

preme matta nityānanda kṛpā-avatāra

uttama, adhama, kichu nā kare vicāra

"Because He is intoxicated by ecstatic love and is an incarnation of mercy, He does not distinguish between the good and the bad."- Chatainya Charitamrita Adi 2.208

 It's said that our all tendencies originate in Lord. So tendency to try to help or willing to distribute our things in state of intoxication with others also comes from the Lord. But in the material world, intoxication with alcohol or drugs or other similar things can make one to forget, only for a temporary time, his claim or stubborn desire of possession & identification with things he possesses. The  help offered in such intoxicated state also, may be more degrading and dangerous than what was originally desired. Also because intoxication in this world only gives temporary hallucination, there is no basis for the behavior one may show, so one may act in violent ways too. Intoxication of this world gives us little high but brings us crushingly down to reality and makes us more miserable. And it limits our help to anybody else.

But in Spiritual realm, intoxication with Holy name keeps us always on high, such spiritual intoxication is not limited by our bodily limits. It takes us more closer to God and brings out from our within, the best of the good qualities and unlimited oceanic love for all. One doesn't have to pay anything for spiritual intoxication. Just by chanting "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare| Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ", one can find himself situated in spiritual high.
So I wish you a very Happy Chanting!

The story of little a girl

Today I have planned to write a story of a little girl who is very fond of stories. I went home last 2 weekends to attend the last rites of my grandfather & other related ceremonies with that.
Because of departure of my grandapa all my relatives had gathered. After some time for not finding a suitable subject to discuss than how my grandfather departed they started discussing about business, politics, family etc.
I find it tough to relate with elders & the things they talk so I parted myself in the company of children who had come there. I took them aside & told them I will tell you a story so along with me. Soon I found myself seated in most eager audience I had talked to ever. I told them stories & this is enough for the day. But sooner I found myself nagged by my little eager audience.They didn't wanted to stop. This was really tough experience for me because I am accustomed to talk to people who hear as ritual & for me also it had become somewhat like a ritual but this was audience who sitting on their toes to hear & every word I spoke mattered them most. In them my little cousin sister Sneha was most enthusiastic. She studies in class II. Later whenever she would find she will come & drag me by hands or  give a cuddle & try to persuade me to tell a story. I told her a story of a person who came to Sanatan Goswami in search of most valuable thing, In turn Sanatan Goswami gave him mahamantra "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare | Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare". I told her about reincarnation & the way to get out of the cycle of reincarnation is go to Krishna's abode. She immediately started chanting.
When I went home next week the children were also had come along with their parents. Again they persuaded me to tell stories. In course of talking my little sister Sneha told me " ever since I have heard "Hare Ram Hare Ram Hare Krishna" mantra, I always chant that. I chant in school also, and do you know I don't even talk to my friends because I am always chanting that."
It was a pleasant shock for me. I have personally heard the glories of Mahamantra several times, and shared with others also many many times. Most of the people say that there are many other important priorities & how they can not chant or chant only for few minutes somehow. It also reminded me of the scholarly person whom I just mate while coming home in the bus. He was very inquisitive about God. I told the simple concepts of Bhagavad Gita. He wanted understanding of God at his level. I told him, its simple. God is 16 years old blue boy who resides in Vrindavan & his name is Krishna. But he was telling me that God is very difficult to understand  It has got many different understanding. You can not describe him just like that and bla bla bla.
But here was a little girl who with the power of innocent faith was chanting or at least claiming to chant incessantly the holy name. She got the essence of all the processes of religion & she embraced it in a way which may be difficult for yogi even after years of practice. This may be for only one or few days because of lack of training & regular association but according to shastras such practice also can bear immense spiritual benefit.  This is certainly the great mercy brought down by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Prabhodanand Saraswati has spoken appropriate verses to glorify the mercy of Lord Gauranga. 

" Not attainable by the faithful performers of pious deeds, not
understood by those engaged in austerity, meditation, and yoga, not guessed
by those absorbed in detachment, renunciation or prayers, and unknown even
to the devotees full of love for Lord Govinda, the secret of pure devotional
service has been revealed by the holy name during Lord Gaura's advent. Let
me glorify that Lord Gaura."
chapter 1.3, Chaitanya Chandramrita

"The splendid path of pure devotional service, which bewildered the great sages in the past, which material intelligence has no power to enter, which sukadeva Goswami was not able to understand, and which merciful Lord Krishna never explained to His closest friend , is the place where the dear devotees of Lord Gaur happily enjoy the pastimes."

chapter 4.1, Chaitanya Chandramrita by Srila Prabhodanand Saraswati

Off course I was little afraid that her parents might be afraid of her chanting so much & they may catch me so I told her to make habit of chanting for some time in the morning.
Srila Prabhupad has said "What was possible for Dhruva Mahārāja is possible for anyone. Any five-year-old child can be trained, and within a very short time his life will become successful by realization of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. " (SB 4.12.23,)
Childhood is time when ones life can be easily molded to be either a torchlight for society or vicious
sense grantifier who will create disturbance in society.

Crash of hard disk & that of life!

I was again back in the Medical college at Gulbarga to meet my good friends who are slowly appreciating & applying the principles of the Godly life. I went to meet my friend Dr Pramod in his hostel room. He is a MDS student & very hospitable, genuine & caring in nature.He is pursuing last year of his college studies this year.

 He looked gloomy, when I started talking with him. Looking at his dismal face, I asked him the reason for his dismay. He told me that his hard disk crashed & it contained his work for last 2.5 years. His work included photos of patients, his solutions for the problems of his patients, reports etc. It all vanished in a second when he was working on his laptop. He also told that he won't be able to appear for final exam if he fails to recover the data back. Even the data recovery from hard disk using advanced techniques didn't give guarantee of the percentage of the data which can be recovered & it was really very costly.

 Generally whenever we meet we read few pages from spiritual books. I decided to read a section of Bhagava Gita in which, Arjuna asks about the fate of the unsuccessful spiritualist & Krishna says he continues in next life from wherever he has left. That is advantage of the spiritual life, that little advancement in spiritual life is permanent, And in material life, whatever we do it's made nil at the time of death.

So I told him to remember 2 lessons from his hard disk crash incident
1> Having habit of taking back up for the work he is doing.
2>  And more important lesson, the two & half years work mutilated in just a second & he was very resentful for that, same way whole life's work will be undone at the time of death.
Whatever money one has amassed, whoever friends, relatives one has gathered, whatever fame one has earned, everything will be grounded to zero at the time of death.  With a big  money one may recover the hard disk, but one can not recover anything material of this life to next life for any amount of money. It will be a permanent loss. It's really important to understand what is real progress, And where the priorities of the life should be given. Unfortunately everybody knows this, but very few have courage & guts to really dive deeper into finding solutions for the actual problems of life which Bhagavad Gita enlists viz. Birth, Old age, Disease and Death.
Basic fundamental principle of Spiritual life is to understand that we are anti material spiritual beings & we don't destroy, when the covering- this body is destroyed. Perhaps we change the covering to get new one as soul (our actual self) changes the body. If we purify our existence by reconnecting with Krishna, then we go back to his abode never to come back into in this vicious cycle of birth & death & to be eternally happy & cheerful in his company  :-)

Please hear from the Radhanath Swami about the nature of the Soul & how to uncover it from the dress of the body!

Did Ghanshyam waste his life?

I was avid reader in my college & people would be calling me Novel because I used to read the Novels sitting on the back bench during boring classes.
But one of the most thrilling books read is the 'The Journey Home' book By HH Radhanath Swami. This book is a real life story of the American Boy who in the age of 19 took a historic ride. When the passion for money,honor,sex & worldly things fumes in the heart of most of the youths of this age, this person was searching the deep meaning behind the life, leaving behind the cares and comforts of well to do family in Chicago he was risking his life in search of God.Radhanath Swami in his book 'The Journey Home' writes about his encounter with Ghanshyam Baba in Vrindavan. He came with His Father, Mother all family members on a pilgrimage tour
to Vrindavana. They spent a few days and what the dhama of Vrindavana did to his heart was something wonderful. He became so deeply attached to Vrindavana. Just by being here he became completely detached from everything in life. He saw no other purpose or meaning to existence except surrendering to Sri Radha and Krishna in Vrindavana. So when it was time to go he said I will stay here I will not
leave. Being true to his words he never left Vrindavan for rest o his life. There he lovingly served his deities of their Lordships Radha Gopijanavallabha(The deity form of the supreme lord & his consort) for rest of his life. In 'The Journey Home' book Radhanath Swami narrates his incidents with Ghanshyam Baba, which brings forward his heart melting humility, his devotion & his love.

I was sitting in the hostel room of IIT boy, reading the book, The Journey Home. I read the interaction of Radhanath Swami with Ghanashyam. How Radhanath Swami was moved by the humanity & deep service attitude of Ghanashyam. But this shrude boy could not appreciate the the character of Ghanshyam. He coldly proclaimed I don't appreciate Ghanshyam & I think he wasted his life fanning the deities, fetching water for them & staying in one place for almost all of his life, he should have done something practical for the society. Many people have similar question for the people who choose the path of service to the God as the way of their life. I felt obliged to reply this question & post it here because Ghanshyam represented the age old tradition of devotees who dedicated their Life for the service of the supreme. We will find similar dedicated examples not only in the Vedic tradition but also in all different faiths of the world.

Although Ghanshyam lived his life with natural inclination to serve the Lord without thinking of his personal happiness. I will write how the way of living his life justifies personally for him & socially for others both as per the modern standards of criterion for judging the success of ones life.

Reply:--
1>Personally: Modern philosophy says, if you like to do something & if its fits in the ever changing modern standards of ethical behaviour, don't bother about anything,just do it, keeping in mind underlining principle that every individual has right to become happy, by doing the things he likes.
the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs told following words to a graduating class at Stanford : When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
So simple analysis of how many people will like to do things they are doing on the last day of their life will show there are hardly few people who really want to do that, because current rat race for money,fame,things of this world will make very little sense on the last day of the life when one is going to loose everything of this. Infact The report, based on a Fall 2011 survey of U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen describes survey results in summary as "Workers Less Miserable, but Hardly Happy". So it can be easily seen that very few people in the world would be doing all time they really love to do. And even in those little number of people there would be hardly few, whose goal set for life while doing the things they like to do matches with goal set by scriptures for human life, to develope the loving attachment for the Supreme Lord, to stop the cycle of the birth & death & to reach the supreme abode of the Lord after this life.
But in this case the Ghanshyam baba proves out champion. His only hobby in the life was to serve his beloved deities Radha Gopijanavallabha. He was full time engaged in their service so much absorbed that he had transcended the bodily limits of eating & sleeping. His only goal in life was to render the selfless service to his deities. Scriptures states that if the occupational duty does not produce the loving attachment to the Lord then its merely a waste of time.So in  case of Ghanshyam, there was no conflict in his hobby,his interest, his occupation, his goal of life & the goal set by shastras for the human form of life, everything matched perfectly. And when somebody has such a surety,confidence & coherence in life he is naturally most happy, which he spreads everywhere whoever comes in touch with him.So althought externally looking Ghanshyam lived a life of indigence internally he was experiencing highest treasure of bliss by serving his deities, his life & soul

2>Socially: By living life of total surrender to the Lord, Ghanshyam developed most divine qualities like humility, forbearance & deep service attitude to humanity seeing everybody in connection with his beloved GopijanaVallabha. Now thousands of people go to his place. hear about him & take deep inspiration in their life to develop these divine qualities. When Radhanath Swami took the pilgrimage to his temple with thousands of devotees, everybody was deepy moved in the heart;hearing his natural quality of making sacrifices for the serivce of others.Any materialist even if makes big empire at the cost working very hard & accepting cheating techniques whenever needed,when people see or hear about that, they may respect his possessions but they will despise that person. They can not learn any good quality from his example. So even when Ghanshyan has left his body, he has left behind the enormous treasure of his good character & his divine qualities which are going to inspire innumerable number of people for all time to come. This service is much greater & imperishable by the effect of time. This was scipturally confirmed when day after in morning I was reading the chapter describing the visit of Sudama Brahmana to Krisha in the Krishna book of Srila prabhupada, When Krishna snatched chipped rice from Sudama & he ate that, Lord told to Sudma “I consider that this quantity of chipped rice will satisfy not only Me but the whole creation.” We can understand from this statement of the Lord that When service is rendered to God, its like watering the root of the tree, the water is distributed to all the twigs, branches & leaves to all parts. When service is rendered to God with pure intentions & when He is satisfied everyone being his part & parcel also get satisfaction. So the easiest way to good to do society is to render to service to Krishna. So actually serving his deities, Ghanshyam was doing highest service for the welfare of the humanity, even for whole life he was sitting in his own little place.

Ghanshyams example is symbolic in this case. It applies to anybody who dedicates his life for the service of Lord with pure heart.

Please find the video below in 2 parts in which Radhanath Swami describes his association with Ghanshyam Baba. Radhanath Swami starts talking about Ghanshyam after some minutes in first video.

http://www.radhanathswamivideo.com/tag/ghanshyam-baba

Be attentive, be blessed

Today morning when I sat for japa the thoughts of starting new college program were swirling in the mind as I was relatively free after coming to Pune. Many times when people approach me & ask why are you spending time & money uselessly on others, I tell them "What will you do if you see somebody  committing suicide , wont you go & try to save that person", similarly a person trained in spiritual knowledge when sees a person not taking the human form of life seriously to perfect the life is committing spiritual suicide. And he can't allow that to happen
But it was a japa time & first I needed to purify myself then I could think of being instrument of assistance for others.

In spiritual life what makes any ordinary task as spiritual is the consciousness in which it done.
Any task which is done after taking blessings from the Lord & his devotees for his pleasure, brings the activity from mundane level to spiritual platform.
So the main key is being attentive, understanding that service is being done for the pleasure of the Lord.

In Kaliyuga the Lord incarnates as his Holy Names "Kalikale naam rupi Krishna Avatar"
So while chanting if I am not attentive to holyname & doing some other planning then very purpose of chanting & even activity we are planning to do is lost.
So I thought if I want to take the blessings of Krishna for the activity I am planning to do then I must be attentive in chanting & take blessings of the holynames.

So directing the mind in applying the conclusions of these thoughts I could chant remaining rounds as good as I could.

Combats with mind!

Chanting the holy names of the Lord is the most essential process of the Bhakti,
Srila Prabhupad said 99% of the advancement comes by chanting the holy names of the Lord.
Srila Prabhupad has given process of Daily chanting the names of the Lord in the morning.

So when I sit for chanting many times mind is distracted from the holyname's. After such deviation I try to fix my mind on the holyname while trying to take shelter of the shastras, or realizations which have come after studying them or after hearing from devotees. I find it very useful.

I thought of enlisting the Japa meditations for my own reference in future & it may be useful for others.


09th July 2012: Today when my mind was getting distracted while chanting. My meditation today was: Many times in neophyte stage the Sadhaka struggles with the fact "Does the Lord really exist?".
Although theoretically convinced, without practical realization, this thought sometimes haunts a devotee.
But Srila Prabhupada has written in his books that name, form , qualities & pastimes are orderly revealed to the devotee. means first the name of the Lord is revealed thne form then qualties & then pastimes.
So to expect to see to Krishna directly or perceive or get entrance into the eternal pasttimes of Krishna without first realizing the transcendence of Holy name is not possible atleast in Sadhaka bhakti process. Only when one chants sincerely, takes shelter of the holy name he will get realization that Absolute truth is fully contained in the holy names and it is non different from the holy name & then by the grace of the holy name every thing else will be revealed.

This really helped to get more focus on the chanting!

The wit of a barber!

Today morning I went to barber to have a hair cut. It was like any other indian barber shop.

The owner was a chubby fellow with a short height & tanned complexion. when started cutting the hair, he asked my whereabouts. While cutting my hears he was constantly conversing. He told some nice points which makes lot of sense. From his speaking I understood he was intelligent & had good observation of the outside reality. He was one among many who dared to think differently rather than shippishly following the trends as hyped by media & portrayed by modern society without giving much thinking. I have noted down those points along with my reflections on them as I heard & read from different bonafide sources.

1> The Indians were slaves of British reign few decades ago, now Indians are slaves of status symbols like car, mobile etc.
-Because people have no knowledge about the real spiritual nature of oneself & they identify with lump of body, they have to depend on the bodily designations for happiness than tapping real inherent inner bliss coming from relation with God. So most of people life goes in working hard for accumulating some pieces of paper to buy some pieces of metal thinking that will give them happiness.
2>Most of the life of the modern Indians goes in paying the loans taken for home & car.

-India was agrarian country & 70% of the population of India constituted peoples staying in villages & they had profession directly or indirectly related with farming. Because of the spoiling of the land  by inorganic farming, spoiling of the natures cycles causing irregular rains & spoiling of the ideology of one can be happy in the simple lifestyle because of the modern movies portraying the lavish lifestyle (fake) of the city causing normal villagers getting desire to come to city they have to work hard for basic necessities like few times of food just to survive in city.

3>Modern peoples lives are so much made busy by the modern capitalists that they should not have to think beyond the food. And they are made addicted to the alcohol so in ignorance they will not think deeply what they are doing & about the higher questions of the life.
-(I had also heard similar plot of the politicians, by gifting TV sets & laptops to the people make them be happy in that only. So they wont have time & brains to think how well the government is governing the state.)

4> He also told his observation  about educating modern people only in the certain field making them almost blind about the other branches of knowledge, practical vocational work & social scenarios. This limits their capacity, this makes them highly dependent on the economical currents flowing in the world making them vulnerable to shifts in trends in some other world.

- Srila Prabhupad used to say real science means study of spirit(The living force,Soul), matter & The controller of both (God). Now in education system there is no conception of God. Just study of the dead matter can not produce any happiness for the living spark, The soul. And study only about matter makes them succumb to misery in the end as matter is perishable in nature so can not give actual permanent happiness. Also this makes them blind about the real purpose of life to
stop the cycle of birth & death & enter into eternal kingdom of God.

Teekacharya- The master of commentaries!

I was searching nearby places to Gulbarga to visit. I got to see name of village malkheda having the samadhi of Jayatirtha on google, Sri Jayatirtha is one of the acharyas in the Madhva line.My spiritual master HH Radhanath Swami has given beautiful classes on Madhvacharya, that propelled my desire to visit the place. I have included one of his inspiring classes on Madhvacharya in the end of this post. It immediately reminded me of Parampara song written by Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur,  Second Stanza of the song has the name of Jayatirtha...

nṛhari mādhava-baḿśe, akṣobhya paramahaḿse,
śiṣya boli' ańgīkāra kore
akṣobhyera śiṣya jaya-tīrtha nāme paricaya,
tāra dāsye jñānasindhu tore (The two other principal disciples of Madhva are Nrhari Tirtha and Madhava Tirtha. Madhava Tirtha accepted the great paramhamsa Aksobhya Tirtha as a disciple. The principal disciple of Aksobhya Tirtha was known as Jayatirtha. Jayatirtha's service was for his disciple Jnanasindhu.) 

      Around 40 KM  from Gulbarga is the samadhi of the Sri Jayatirtha at the malkheda, they call it is Jayatirther Vrindavan. I immediately decided to visit the place whenever I get a chance. Last Saturday me & my friend Sandeep reached Gulbarga early in the morning. Immediately after that we took bus to Malkheda.

Few kilometers before the city is the Uttarati muth, the place of samadhi of Akshobhya Tirtha & Jayatirtha. Its on the bank of the Kagini river.

We entered matha. It was big. The priests there welcomed us. I told them our sppiritual family connection. We had nice river bath in Kagini. Then we went to the Samadhi of Akshobhya Tirtha & Jayatirtha. 
Jayatirtha is known as Teekacharya for his unmatched commentary "Nyayasudha" on the commentary of the Madhvacharya on brahma sutra. Its said anybody studying Dvaita philosophy must study Jayatirtha's commentary to complete the study. I prayed to get the deep taste for studying the philosophy  & detachment.

I am pasting amazing Life History Of Jayatirtha below 

Legend

According to legend, in a previous birth, Sri Jayatîrtha was a bull that served as a pack-animal, and traveled with Srimad Ananda Tîrtha (Madhva) and his devotees, carrying his library of teachings. When Srimad Ananda Tîrtha gave a lecture, the bull would stand at a distance and listen silently. Once some disciples approached Sri Ananda Teertha to seek the privilege of writing commentaries on his works, and he told them it would not be any of them, but the bull, that would be is commentator. At this, some jealous disciples laid a curse on the bull, so that it would be bitten to death by a snake. When Sri Anand Teertha heard of this, he changed the wording of the curse slightly, so that the snake bit the bull and itself died immediately, leaving its victim unharmed.

Life

Sri Jayatîrtha's biographies include Anu-Jayatîrtha-Vijaya and Brhad-Jayatîrtha-Vijaya. Jayatirtha was born as Dhondupant (Dhondurao) to Raghunath, a Brahmin king, and Sakubai Deshpande. His birthplace was Mangalavedhe, which lies near Pandharapur, about 12 miles south-east of Pandharpur in today’s Maharashtra. Because he was heir to the throne, he had wealth, power, and the affection of his parents and the people. He was very handsome, healthy, intelligent, endowed with physical vigor, and given to outdoor activity such as horseback riding.

Once, when the young Dhond Pant Raghunath (his name during pûrva-âshrama) was horse-riding, he bent down and quenched his thirst from a river without dismounting or even stopping his horse. Sri Akshobhya Teertha, a direct disciple of Sri Anand Teertha happened to witness this and asked him in Sanskrit “kim pashuH pûrva-dehe?” (“Did you have an animal’s body previously?”). This question triggered the memory of his previous birth within young Dhondupant, and reminded him of his duties to Sri Anand Teertha. He was overcome by a desire to renounce material life and devote his life to the services of his master. Sri Akshobhya Teertha then initiated him in to Sanyasa (monastic vows). When Raghunath Deshpande, Dhondupant’s father came to know about this, he was very angry with Sri Akshobhya Teertha and forcibly took the boy back home, in order to get him married. Forced into marriage against his wishes, Dhondupant took the form of a snake, which made his father realize that his son was no ordinary being but was born to great deeds. He acquiesced to Dhondupant’s wishes, and Dhondupant, after blessing his father to have another son who would take care of the family, attained sainthood and became Sri Jayateertharu.

Sri Jayatîrtha's Brndâvana (sacred tomb) is at Malkheda, in the north of modern Karnataka state, from where he continues to bless devotees who, in spite of their own lack of any significant ability, seek to understand Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's writings correctly.

Works and thoughts

After Madhva himself, Jayatirtha is the most important theologian in the Dvaita tradition. He wrote 22 works, including many commentaries on Madhva. His depth of scholarship can be credited with raising the fledgling Dvaita School to a position of scholastic equality with Advaita and Visistadvaita. Jayatirtha’s lucid style and precise expositions Ananda Tîrtha's masterpieces established him as one of the greatest of the Sanskrit philosophical writers.

Nyayasudha is known as Sri Jayateertha’s magnum opus and is the exhaustive and detailed commentary (Teeka is Sanskrit for commentary, hence he is also known as Teekacharya) on Sri Madhvacharya’s Anuvyakhyana which in turn itself is a commentary on Brahma Sutras by Veda Vyasa. Sri Jayateertha has brilliantly and more importantly, sincerely, captured the pithy statements of his master in simple language. It is universally admitted in the Dvaita tradition that the philosophical depth and breadth of Tatvavada can only be appreciated with the help of the Nyaya Sudha. In a very attractive and lucid style, Sri Jayatirtha not only presents and strongly defends almost all the important philosophical and epistemological issues from the Dvaita point of view, but also severely criticizes other major philosophical systems of India such as the Bauddha, Jaina, Nyaya-Vaisesika, Bhatta-Prabhakara Mimamsa, Advaita and Visishtadvaita. Thus, in the Dvaita tradition, the work is held in very high esteem and it is believed that scholarship in Dvaita Vedanta is incomplete without a thorough study of this monumental work. A popular saying, "sudhâ vâ paThanîyâ, vasudhâ vâ pâlanîyâ," conveys the meaning that the joy of studying the Nyâya-Sudhâ can only be compared to the joy of ruling a kingdom.

Sri Jayatîrtha's VâdâvaLî, which is an original work, refutes the theory of illusion, and is considered to be the earliest major Mâdhva polemical text after those authored by Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself; it also is a precursor to the Nyâyamrta and Tarka-tânDava of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha, and other later works.

Dvaita

In contrast with the advaita (non-dualist) philosophy expounded by Shankara, Dvaita maintains that there is an eternal distinction between the individual self and the absolute. Souls are in bondage to the earthly cycle of life and death because they are ignorant of the true nature of God. Liberation cannot be achieved through knowledge and performance of ritual duties alone, but requires the grace of God, which can only be acquired through bhakti (devotion). The liberated soul does not become one with God but exists separately in bliss.

Major Works

§  Nyaya sudha (Nectar of logic)

§  Tattva prakashika (The light of truth)

§  Prameya deepika (The light of object of knowledge)

§  Nyaya deepika (The light of logic)

Audio biography Sripad Madhvacharya-

Hitchhiking & me

In recent past I got to travel a lot, while sharing joys of Krishna consciousness with others & for the sake of job. Many times travel details are not fixed like the means & time of travelling.
Moreover I have not bought the bike & local transport in Pune is very bad. In that situation I have to opt for another good way that is hitchhiking. I really feel this way very exciting, thrilling & close to my heart.
It really makes one feel dependent on God when in dead night you ate waiting on highway waiting for a vehicle. Even I have few more connections & reasons to favor for hitchhike ride, I have tried to note below

1>It all started with Hitchhike
I was first year of my graduation. I was studying in the library till late night.  While coming down hill of my college I saw a biker going down. I asked him for lift. He stopped & I sat behind him quietly. After few minutes he asked me Do I smoke?, I told him proudly No I don't. He told me you are fresher & seem to be from good parentage. If you want to maintain the values you have , Please attend a satsang program which happens near college & many college students participate in it. I was already interested in spirituality , in fact one of the reason I had taken admission to my college giving up a government college was to visit a monastery of RamKrishna Matha near my college. But I was more interested in Philosophy that time than mere few rituals.
He pointed out a location. There was a temple near our college while going down. He pointed towards that.
I thought of visiting it later. Then I got down at my place & he went ahead. I did not take his no. or asked his name. Later many times when I would walk down from my college I would look towards that temple but I never saw anyhting happening there & so did I go to ask them. It was in my third year that I got Discover Your Self book from my friend & in two hours my reading, it changed my purpose of life & gave a solid concrete goal of devotional service to the Lord is only aim of life. After that my friend took me to their center near college. That center was just little behind the temple towards which the biker had pointed. That center was little inside & hence hidden from direct observation. Now understood that boy actually wanted to point out to this place but I didn't get that properly. So that hitchhike ride gave me my first encounter with the devotees.

2>A family of Hitchhikers.

My beloved spiritual master His Holiness Radhanath Swami in his prime of his youth, hitchhiked for 6 months from America to come to India in search of God. he didnt have any  single penny during his travels & he had to undergo many situations when his very life was threatened.

My beloved grand spiritual master His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupad, took a hitchhike of a cargo ship in the age of 70. It was order of his spiritual master given to him decades ago to preach the message of God in the western world in English language.  He tried for many months to get a free pass to on a freighter which will carry him to US because he was mendicant & he didnt have money to afford any other means. And finally he got the pass. And the rest is history.

3>My Life as a Hitchhiker

As I told previously, recently I have travelling a lot to share the joys & wisdom of Krishna Consciousness.
I don't have bike & I don't like to make a very rigid plan because it reduces the flexibility & takes away the thrill. Also I am people person. I like to meet & interact with people. Also being born in marwadi family I don't like to spend lot of money(Marwadis are famous for being stingy). So most of time I travel hitchhiking.
Its eco(economical & ecological)friendly. Its really makes pray me very intensely pray to Krishna for his help in urgent times.

4> Life as an Hitchhiker

This life can also be compared to journey. Soul is the passenger. Soul is always searching after destination of happiness. And there are so many vehicles of different philosophies & systems taking people to so  many destinations. Many times soul is cheated by the false promise of the different philosophies of Life. Like many times I took a lift & that person said yes I will drop you there & after sometime I found out that person himself doesn't know where he is going & in certain cases even I didn't knew the path to destination to face the frustration after getting down after some time. So in the life if somebody is fortunate to get the company of the bonafide Spiritual master & authorized method of self realization then he should understand himself as most fortunate person.I feel myself most fortunate to get the lift on the path going towards supreme abode Lord Krishna & the captain for this journey are the acharyas coming in the bonafide line Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Sampraday.

Farewell Wishes to Tamal Prabhu & Jagabandhu Prabhu!

Tamal & Jagabandhu are two PhD students passing out from IIT mumbai this year. I was fortunate to get friends like them. We had grand farewell for them. We gifted them handwritten words of gratitude & appreciation for their wonderful Vaishnava qualities inserted in beautiful form of face of Lord Jagannath.

I am pasting below scanned copies of my few words of appreciation.

Our dear Jagabandhu Prabhu's simple words inspire poems, that is his influence. Once he was sick with chickenpox (He is dear devotee of Lord Jagannath, and he fells sick right when Lord Jagannath is sick, during Anavasara period of Lord Jagannath) and when he recovered from it, to signify is back in action he dropped a mail with subject light,camera,action and it inspired so many poems, I am posting below

From Nitin prabhu:

Light , Camera  Action !

Thank you Lord Jagannath for hearing our petition , 

Prabhu's head as cool as moon

Eager to meet you soon ,

May you always shines like a sun

Aspiring for you most awaited association .

Please continue praying from within

In need of your prayers , Your Servant Nitin !

From Pravin pr:

Light , Camera  Action !

your humble presence always gave us satisfaction , 

Servant of lord Jagganath, is your designation,

your dust is the means of our purification,

Lord jagganath's mercy is difficult for our comprehension,

please give us your revelation,

as you get your post graduation,

there will be jubiliation,

when you make your your immigration,

there will be lamentation,

as we always long for your association

Let there always be your glorification!

My Humble attempt 

Light camera action

Jagannath, let the yatra start. 

ohhh! but without Jagbandhu Pr's attention

how will you allow to move the ratha cart?

He has got chicken pox. 

Jagannath! dont you know?

How can you expect without his glance,

your carts & big crowds not to flow?

Your love for jagbandhu & his love for you

is well known fact.

but hardly few knows when both of fall sick together,

its your secret pact.

Anyways! wherever he is, 

he will drink nectar of your face with his eyes.

And then you will move your cart, 

to make us oblige.

Nilachal Nivasay Nityay Paramatmane

Balabhadra Subhadrabhyam Jaga[bandhu]nnathay te namah

And final one from Tamal Gopal prabhu,

Lights, Camera, Action!

Jagabandhu Pr is Jagannath's most-dear tiny fraction.

With his Pre-synopsis scheduled for next month,

he is now eagerly back in action :-)))))))

>>>>>(and believe me, this is no 1st April joke :-)).

Amazing! Yesterday I was in Gulbarga. We have started introducing the Vedic culture & philosophy of Bhagavad Gita in few local colleges of Gulbarga.  Me & my friend Deepak we had gone to MRM medical college in Gulbarga.  Its very good medical college in that area. We thought of introducing ourselves with the celebration of the Ramnavami in the college. We reached in afternoon 3'o clock. We got permission from hostel warden who himself was a MBBS Dr. to conduct program in the college mess. We started invirting students room to room for the program. For that was the instruction of the Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to go to door to door & request people to chant the holy names of the Lord. At around 5:30 PM I thought of starting preparing for the class I was going to speak today evening. When I came to one students room, he was MDS student. He looked very interested in spirituality. He had big pictures of Vivekananda in his room. He welcomed us inside his room. I wanted to use internet. He was happy to allow me to use. When I saw below mail of Prof. Ganesh & read below line.

>>>>>(and believe me, this is no 1st April joke :-)).

for a moment Question came to my mind, why he wrote that line?

I mean, we have this regular program & there was little or no chance of the students taking invitation as April fool messge.

Anyways I continued. Meanwhile my friend Deepak was inviting students from other hostels.He told almost 40 students confirmed to attend the program. When progrma started there were 4 students present. In few minutes totla count went to 13. We started discussing & we had japa, kirtan& obviously Prasadam in the end. I was wondering how few students only came. After some time my friend deepak told me the he came to know that many of the students thought our invitation as a April fool trick & the count was less. One of the participant informed him that.

Whack! I never thought in my dream also that student will take our invitation as Apil fool trick. We had told them we are comign from Pune & we personally invited them unlike some mail.

Just few hours ago what semed funny thing to me, I was ridiculed with same thing.

But there was a message :

Whenever devotees speak with the blessings of the Lord & His empowered representatives there is always potency in their words, their words actually carry message of the Lord for the hearer, which is most relevant to him.

That words can actually transform the life of the person if he takes them as personal instructions of the Lord to him by the medium of the speaker. Many times the words are realised in different contexts & situations and we never know how it will show path & guide us. And One who has faith in the Lord, for him actually it is a personal dialogue with him by the Lord.

So devotee can learn in any situation & circumstace. He actually feels the Love of the Lord for him when he understand the arrangement. But for a non believer everything is just a chance & he can never learn because he cant perceive any love in anything. And he can't see the hand of Krishna.

Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.11 says........

tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo
yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api
nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ńkitāni yat
śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ
TRANSLATION
On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.

Srila prabhupad writes in purport..........

We know that our honest attempt to present this great literature conveying transcendental messages for reviving the God consciousness of the people in general and respiritualizing the world atmosphere is fraught with many difficulties. Our presenting this matter in adequate language, especially a foreign language, will certainly fail, and there will be so many literary discrepancies despite our honest attempt to present it in the proper way. But we are sure that with all our faults in this connection the seriousness of the subject matter will be taken into consideration, and the leaders of society will still accept this due to its being an honest attempt to glorify the Almighty God. When there is fire in a house, the inmates of the house go out to get help from the neighbors who may be foreigners, and yet without knowing the language the victims of the fire express themselves, and the neighbors understand the need, even though not expressed in the same language. The same spirit of cooperation is needed to broadcast this transcendental message of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the polluted atmosphere of the world. After all, it is a technical science of spiritual values, and thus we are concerned with the techniques and not with the language. If the techniques of this great literature are understood by the people of the world, there will be success.

http://vedabase.net/sb/1/5/11/en

 Ram Navami celebrations & Beginning of discussions on Chapter 3 of Gita (YOGA OF ACTIVITY) on Sunday, March 30th evening

Mar 28 02:40PM +0530

Dear Friends

Sunday, 1st April is the most auspicious day of Lord Ram's appearance --
Ram Navami.

We will celebrate Ram Navami on Sunday evening 6 PM instead of the
discussion on Friday evening. Lord Ram served as the perfect example of
Bhagavad Gita 3.8 (http://vedabase.net/bg/3/8/). Thus, taking advantage of
this auspicious occassion, we will continue our journey through the sacred
texts of the Bhagavad Gita and begin our discussion on YOGA OF ACTIVITY
(karma yoga, chapter 3, verses 1-9).

All glories to Lord Ram!! All glories to his most glorious example!

I will send out more details in a subsequent email.

(and believe me, this is no 1st April joke :-)).

Thanks and regards,
Ganesh