Enthusiasms - Ekadasi Thoughts
If everything goes as planned (do I hear Krishna laughing ;) His Holiness Niranjana Maharaja will officially accept me as his disciple in a few months by giving me Harinama initiation. After almost ten years (on and, yes, off) "in the movement" it's hard to believe that I will finally be getting initiated. Recently, I have been thinking more and more about what I need to do in the next few months to be better prepared for this big step, and I've been spending a lot of time wondering if I'm really qualified for such a serious commitment.
What I've got going for me...
Although I get much less devotee association these days, since moving out of the Hartford temple and into my "bachelor-daddy" pad, I still get to see my spiritual Mom&Pop a couple times a week. I am extremely fortunate to have such fantastic devotees (Prabhupada disciples, no less) as my well-wishers and guides.
I am also extremely fortunate to have become fairly regulated in spiritual life over the last year or so. Sticking to my "daily routine" in Krishna consciousness keeps me going on the spiritual and the material planes. I don't always look forward to rising early and chanting my rounds, but I never regret starting my day with a heavy dose of transcendental sound vibration.
Despite the positive, there are certainly some other things that I could improve in my sadhana and my general spiritual situation (a lot less time spent on the internet ;) or watching movies, for instance), but there's one thing in particular that keeps coming to mind.
Niranjana Maharaja's mood is quite distinctly one of active preaching, especially book distribution. I enjoy giving classes and telling others about Krishna. I love going out on Harinama. I want to distribute books, but truth is, I'm a coward. The story I tell myself is that book distribution is just contrary to my temparament (Guru-Maharaja told me a wonderful story about this... maybe I'll share it later). I'm also a little concerned about the general tendency in the often "thoughtlessly-liberal" northeast towards distrust of all religion and distaste for "preaching" of all sorts. Honestly, I'm scared of people and scared of confrontation. I am too attached to the bodily concept to just hit the streets with a bag of books without being concerned about what other people think of me.
Dear devotees! What can I do? I suppose the simple answer is to just get out there and do it, depend on Krishna and see what happens, but does anyone have some good advice in this regard?
Help me get fired up to go out and distribute Srila Prabhupada's books!
What I've got going for me...
Although I get much less devotee association these days, since moving out of the Hartford temple and into my "bachelor-daddy" pad, I still get to see my spiritual Mom&Pop a couple times a week. I am extremely fortunate to have such fantastic devotees (Prabhupada disciples, no less) as my well-wishers and guides.
I am also extremely fortunate to have become fairly regulated in spiritual life over the last year or so. Sticking to my "daily routine" in Krishna consciousness keeps me going on the spiritual and the material planes. I don't always look forward to rising early and chanting my rounds, but I never regret starting my day with a heavy dose of transcendental sound vibration.
Despite the positive, there are certainly some other things that I could improve in my sadhana and my general spiritual situation (a lot less time spent on the internet ;) or watching movies, for instance), but there's one thing in particular that keeps coming to mind.
Niranjana Maharaja's mood is quite distinctly one of active preaching, especially book distribution. I enjoy giving classes and telling others about Krishna. I love going out on Harinama. I want to distribute books, but truth is, I'm a coward. The story I tell myself is that book distribution is just contrary to my temparament (Guru-Maharaja told me a wonderful story about this... maybe I'll share it later). I'm also a little concerned about the general tendency in the often "thoughtlessly-liberal" northeast towards distrust of all religion and distaste for "preaching" of all sorts. Honestly, I'm scared of people and scared of confrontation. I am too attached to the bodily concept to just hit the streets with a bag of books without being concerned about what other people think of me.
Dear devotees! What can I do? I suppose the simple answer is to just get out there and do it, depend on Krishna and see what happens, but does anyone have some good advice in this regard?
Help me get fired up to go out and distribute Srila Prabhupada's books!
posted by e at 3:53 PM
2 Comments:
Who said you had to get out and do this to be a good devotee? It seems to me that that kind of activity keeps the "image" negative and maybe there could be another way to "spread the word" or whatever the purpose is.
I didn't say I had to do this to be a "good devotee". The mood of my spiritual master, and most other gurus in ISKCON, is one of active preaching with the desire to spread Lord Caitanya's Sankirtan mission. His Holiness Niranjana Swami was a very active book distributor in his early days in ISKCON, feeling that this was the foremost desire of Srila Prabhupada - to preach the message of Krishna and Lord Caitanya by distributing books. This was Srila Prabhupada's desire because it was the instruction of his Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. The composition and dissemination of transcendental literature has long been an integral part of the Gaudiya-Vaishnava tradition. The six goswamis produced an incredible amount of literature on Krishna consciousness and Narottama dasa Thakur was responsible for bringing that literature from Vrindavana to Bengal and Orissa.
Of course, there are many different ways of preaching, and even in book distribution there are both positive and negative ways to distribute books. Unfortunately, the feeling in America at this point is that any form of "preaching" is soliciting and that persons who are engaged in this activity are not trustworthy (at least). More unfortunately, while the desire to "spread the word" should spring from a pure desire to alleviate the suffering of others, it may become tainted by the desire to collect funds or increase one's prestige.
I can't say that my own desire is pure, as one's motivation is often a difficult thing to identify or understand, but _one_ of my primary motivations is the desire to please my spiritual master. After all, by pleasing the spiritual master we are able to please Krishna and pleasing Krishna should be the only motivation for a devotee.
Can I suggest a little inpiration from Bhagavad-Gita? This more or less "blew my mind" when I reread it recently... BG 3.26 And an excerpt from Prabhupada's purport: Men who are ignorant cannot appreciate activities in Krishna consciousness, and therefore Lord Krishna advises us not to disturb them and simply waste valuable time. But the devotees of the Lord are more kind than the Lord because they understand the purpose of the Lord. Consequently they undertake all kinds of risks, even to the point of approaching ignorant men to try to engage them in the acts of Krishna consciousness, which are absolutely necessary for the human being.
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