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!

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.

All glories to Vivek Kulkarni Pr.

Dear Vivek Pr.,

Hare Krishna,

Please accept my humble obeisance’s.

All glories to Srila Prabhupad! All glories to Sri Guru & Sri Gauranga!

On this auspicious day of your appearance although you are hundreds of kilometers away (555 km’s exactly) but  warmth of your love & affection still protects me from the cold formal impersonal  atmosphere of company. To be in the company where I work  I had to qualify the criteria, but to be in your company you saw that I am very unqualified & you blessed me with association Krishna in the form of his devotees. To remain in company I had to take so many assessment but for you, I assessed your tolerance, patience, calmness & humility etc.  so many times but you always kept me in your company, such merciful is your character. While company motivates me to meet the deadlines in the hopeless world; you are inspiring me for initiation of journey of endless love.

Srila Prabhupad writes in the purport of SB 1.5.28

Transcendental loving service for the Supreme Lord is the natural inclination of every living being. The instinct is dormant in everyone, but due to the association of material nature the modes of passion and ignorance cover this from time immemorial. If, by the grace of the Lord and the great-souled devotees of the Lord, a living being becomes fortunate enough to associate with the unadulterated devotees of the Lord and gets a chance to hear the unadulterated glories of the Lord, certainly the flow of devotional service takes place like the flow of a river.

My flow of devotional service was choked up from time immemorial but you became the instrument in paving the way for the flow of my devotional service. Not only that but you always vigilant that my flow should not go astray but reach to its ultimate destination, to the oceanic love of Krishna Prem!

            Your eagerness to practice devotional service is unparallel. Another high class quality of you is your uncomplaining nature. Although your health was very bad & you are currently far from association but you humbly accepted that without cribbing to anybody.

As stated in SB 10.14.48 purport

    A sincere devotee earnestly desires to go back to the Lord's abode. Therefore he willingly accepts the Lord's merciful punishment and continues offering respects and obeisance’s to the Lord with his heart, words and body. Such a bona fide servant of the Lord, considering all hardship a small price to pay for gaining the personal association of the Lord, certainly becomes a legitimate son of God, as indicated here by the words daya-bhak. Just as one cannot approach the sun without becoming fire, one cannot approach the supreme pure, Lord Krishna, without undergoing a rigid purificatory process, which may appear like suffering but which is in fact a curative treatment administered by the personal hand of the Lord.

You are exemplifying lines of above purport by your personal example.

Your gentle & calm demeanor soothes the heart of anybody associating with you and you like association of senior Vaisnavas especially HG PHP, HG BGP. In yatra you got association of HG Radheshyam Pr. HG Gaurang Pr.  & HG Shyamanand Pr.   also because of your sincere hankering.

As stated in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.29, Narada says
TRANSLATION
I was very much attached to those sages. I was gentle in behavior, and all my sins were eradicated in their service. In my heart I had strong faith in them. I had subjugated the senses, and I was strictly following them with body and mind.

Anybody knows you will tell that first thing they noted about you is that  you are very cool headed & never waste time.

In letter to Madhudvisha Srila Prabhupada writes

  “So now you must all my senior disciples and leaders become very, very much aware of your grave responsibility to the human society for delivering them from the clutches of catastrophe, and be always cool-headed and utilize every moment in the best manner possible.”

You are possessing all these wonderful qualification necessary to practice devotional service. You are specially endowed with all musical talents to glorify the holy name & you like to do so very much!

Your company is one of the most precious gift I possess in Krishna consciousness. I am very thankful to you for being so kind to me

& always encouraging me in all my thick & thins. My only one complain to you is you are very miser in correcting me & I need that in abundance. Time is short to describe all your wonderful qualities so I could only touch those which came in my mind without much thinking.

I pray to Lord that you may get all necessary empowerment to execute will of the Lord in the glorious mission of Srila Prabhupad

Please forgive me for all my offense & Please pray for me that one day I will able to serve devotees properly

your servant,

tushar