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

Coincidence is Gods way of remianing anonymous- Part II

Yesterday, I had planned to go to IIT once my office was over. I started
from my office at 6:40PM. I had planned to discuss beautiful stories of
Lord Rama with my friends in IIT, stay back overnight & start next morning
after meeting all my previous roommates & after greeting the deities in the
morning. I hitchhiked twice from my company to reach to Pune-Mumbai highway
from my company & boarded a cab on the Pune-Mumbai highway. On the way, I
was engrossed in reading Ramayana stories in the dim light of the vehicles
coming from behind. I told the cab driver that if he doesn’t make me reach
Bombay in 2 hours, I won’t pay him full. He was sure of his driving skills.
I had to reach IIT well before 10PM unlike last time, when I somehow made
to go inside campus with lot of anxiety. I was in high spirits. Meanwhile,
I left in hurry. I didn’t wear my shoes very properly & one of that was
little loose.

We touched Bombay 9:10PM. I got down at Mankhurd and went to the local
railway station there. The local was running late than its scheduled time.
I was feeling every second very, very long. Finally, it came & I boarded
the local. Then I reached Kurla. As soon as train halted at Kurla, people
just started jumping inside without waiting for us to go out. The influx of
the people boarding the train was so great that somehow I barely managed to
come out. But my shoe came out of my leg in the rush, and I had to wait
next 45 seconds to get my shoe back.

I hurriedly changed the platform just to see my train for Kanjurmarg
speeding away. I was startled. Just an hour ago in the cab there was clear
inner voice had spoken to me that ‘Tushar, wear your shoe properly you may
get into problem’. I was engrossed in planning & reading so I didn’t pay
any hid to that. Now, on the platform I could clearly distinguish that was
not my thought, it was from somebody different from me. From the authority
of Bhagavad Gita, I can say that it was Lord within my heart as Paramatma
instructed me as he instructs us time to time – "this is not good or this
is good, bla bla bla…", when we are doing something & people call it as
conscience.

I had to wait 7 more minutes to catch the next train. My friend Nirmal
called me, I requested him to wait for me at the IIT Main Gate. It was
10:53PM & I was at Ghatkopar station in the train. I had a mad hope that I
will reach before 10PM. Finally, after catching rickshaw from Kanjurmarg
railway station, I reached the IIT Main Gate at 10:05PM. When I went to do
entry in the register for visitors, the guards said politely but sternly
that I can’t go inside. They won’t allow anybody after 10PM.

It was completely different when I posted last post about my journey to
Kota. At that time, I had followed the inner call & I had miraculously (it
was miraculous to me) caught train when it had just started moving. This
time I didn’t follow & I was unable to taste & share nectar from Ramayana
in company of my friends.

Lesson: Perhaps, above incidence was very small & damage was almost none
but I got good lesson that, Krishna will interrupt in our life in the form
of divine instructions of the scriptures, in the form of his devotees who
are trying to spread his message & in the form of our conscience. But if we
are too busy in our work or thoughts there won’t be any option other than
lamenting at the end for not being able to follow the divine call of the
Lord.

Scriptures say that human form of life is so rare & short that any
negligence on our part may ensure our stay on this mortal planet for 10 or
100 or 10000 or 100000000 more or many more lifetimes to come.

Srimad Bhagavatam says:

"matir na krsne paratah svato va
mitho 'bhipadyeta grha-vratanam
adanta-gobhir visatam´ tamisram´
punah punas carvita-carvananam"


which means: "For those who are too busy in one’s own plan forgetting the
God, the inclination towards God doesn’t come by efforts of self or that of
others. Then they have to take pleasure in something which is available in
any other form of life also than that of human being."

So I decided to be more careful about following the instructions of the
scriptures, of the mentors of scriptures & of the paramatma in the heart
after conforming with the mentors & holy books.