Payonidhi das: Actually Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote 3 books that are all songs , Gitavali- where most of the bhajans we sing from him is from. He laos wrote Saranagati, and Gitamala ,he also wrote Baul Sanget (the song of the madman) and Däläler Gitä—“The Song of the Broker”
1. His Holiness Mahanidhi Swami's inspiring example of Go Seva. 2. How David and Lila Manjari celebrated the birthday of their pet cow Kundalini. 3. CFC's acceptance of an auspicious gift offered by the famous Babas of Radha Thila, Raman Reti. 4. Nandi's completion of his Bull Scholorship and graduation. 5. Another unfortunate car casualty.
Haridev das: Ratha Yatra made its first appearance in the sea-side town of Scottburgh, an English-style picturesque holiday town on the east coast of South Africa. During the former apartheid days, Scottburgh was a ‘Whites Only” town.
bhk Michael R. Lorek: Lord Krishna will be showering His mercy over London in the form of His holy name on 4th October at the Radha-Krishna Temple in Soho Street and at St John´s Lodge Gardens in Regent´s Park, as Her Grace Srimati Urmila devi dasi will be holding a Japa Workshop with special guest support by Bhuta Bhavana dasa.
On 22nd September, 2008, the day of Srila Prabhupada's arrival in New York, devotees of ISKCON Nagpur celebrated World Holy Name Day with a Maha Harinama Sankirtan throughout the streets of Nagpur
Sometimes two creepers may intertwine in such a way to also help each other grow individually upward, moving off the ground and on to a mighty oak tree where they go higher than they ever could alone and touch the stars, and beyond to Goloka.
I have been thinking today of friendship and its power of influence over us which indicates the secret meaning of association. What drives us to seek friends and close relationships and what will be the effect on us?
Our heart is compared in the scriptures to be like a clear crystal that reflects what is before it. We become like who we associate with closely or intimately. That means that when we open our heart to someone, and they open their heart to us there is an exchange of energy or power–we and they are influenced.
I meet people all day where I work. Some I have gotten to know well, others casually. I see coming together with someone like two doors facing each other. Behind each door is many pathways leading to different oceans. So two people coming together has the potential of revealing many oceans. We could get lost in our own or another persons’ ocean unless we can uncover the soul, which is what spiritual association can offer us.
There is an urge of human beings for intimacy—to be able to share their story and who they currently are or are trying to become. Sharing our self means being able to open our door to let someone in. It may be a crack to reveal our particular color of light in the beginning, as we are all eventually guarded as to who we let in—otherwise we may have boundary issues or be taken advantage of.
Everyone has needs and the desire to be needed. Perhaps the single most important reason many people come together is the desire to be understood. From that we feel we gain strength, can be our self, with the ability to face the world which can seem alien, being inhabited by those other people that don’t really understand us. We doubt our self and want to find someone who believes in us. This doubt or low self esteem drives many people to therapists or spiritual paths. From a spiritual perspective, real self esteem comes from realizing our nature as souls who are part of the Supreme Great. He or we could say—They, as in Radha and Krishna–is (are) our real friend(s).
This urge to share the details of our life and it’s journey is fascinating to me. We think this sharing of who we “think we truly are” to be what friendship and intimacy is about—with the addition of giving support and respect to one another, while accepting who the other is without negative judgment. We may give up our family are reputation to find this.
In our both our professional and personal life, we have acquaintances, and close friends. I mentioned sharing the details with another and mutual support and acceptance, though there are other things as well which constitute friendship. What do you think they are?
Some further ideas I have are as follows.
Friendships are about giving and receiving, like a dance where first one person leads, then the other, and sometimes it seems like an invisible partner is directing us. Other than a saint who makes no distinctions between people, seeing everyone as a soul, there is some calculation in who we choose for a friend. We see or feel something in them, some quality, attractiveness, that causes us to want to be with them. We are charmed, fascinated, or at least interested to know more, and have their company. We may see some quality in them we would like to have, or they may be in need and we are drawn to help them in some way. Birds of a feather, flock together, or are attracted in the first place. Or on the downside, we could want to exploit them for our selfish purpose, which when revealed can end the so-called friendship. Sometimes even with a real friend, there may be a mixture of both the good and bad, since we are imperfect human beings and devotees.
Most people are hungry for relationships, either as friends or lovers. Since we have forgotten our original, primal love with Krishna and our true spiritual self, we seek the fulfillment of our eternal needs through the flesh, which is our conception of who we are. Even in material relationships we can gain much and learn more about our self because people are like mirrors that reflect back to us what we like or dislike, or want or hate. We devotees of Krishna or anyone on a spiritual path can also gain those things from relationships, yet more importantly in spiritual relationships we are reminded of our true spiritual self interest, and object of love.
Friendship or good relationships are synergistic, there is more substance in the combination than there is with one person alone. Some metaphors have come to mind this morning regarding this effect of friendship. One is that friendship is like two flowers cross pollinating each other—helping each other to realize their potential and fullness. Or we provide encouraging words, support, or our practical insights about KC which act like fertilizer to help one another grow and move forward, or upward. Sometimes two creepers may intertwine in such a way to also help each other grow individually upward, moving off the ground and on to a mighty oak tree where they go higher than they ever could alone and touch the stars, and beyond to Goloka. So we can think of sankirtana (group chanting of the holy name) or the power of saintly association with devotees as the perfection of friendship and association.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive, definitive essay on friendship and association as it is my usual method of writing flow. I am quite aware that many of my posts here are very basic, yet I hope they are relevant to devotees’ lives, and provide food for thought and reflection. Perhaps you could share with me and the other readers, your insights about what friendships are to you, and the meaning of all types of association. Discerning what positive and negative association with others is important as most of us here know. We have learned that spiritual advancement is helped by first associating with devotees in openhearted friendship (and in the case of a guru, with friendly reverence) and secondly by avoiding intimate dealings with the unfaithful. Therefore this is an important topic to understand and discuss, even though it might seem very basic.
Wow! Karnamrta Prabhu, you have really outdone yourself with this beautiful essay. Friendship is a very important topic. We are enjoined to make friends with devotees. “tad adhinesu. . .prema-maitri-krpopeksa yah karoti sah madhyama” (S.B. 11.2.46)
One thing very special about the bhakti path is that it is followed in the association of friendly devotees. Associating with devotees reflects our understanding of God, not as something impersonal or alone, but full of playful pastimes with innumerable, blissful associates.
In the Bhagavad Gita, there are various verses in which Lord Krishna extols the virtue of living in a secluded place (e.g., B.G. 6.10), the idea being that to make spiritual progress, one has to give up the association of worldly-minded people. The yogis can go out alone into the forest because they know Krishna or Paramatma to be their friend. However, it must be terribly difficult.
When I was a new devotee, struggling to hear my rounds, I sometimes would fantasize during japa period about going off alone to practice Krishna consciousness in the wilderness somewhere, now that I knew how to meditate. What a fool I was to think that I would have had the slightest chance outside the association of devotees. Why on earth was I thinking like that?
In the Purport to B.G. 4.10, Srila Prabhupada talks about how impersonalists are fearful of retaining personality after liberation. He tells us we have to get rid of this fear of our spiritual personal identity. By the slow process of devotional service under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, we can become free from all material attachment, from the fearfulness of our individual spiritual personality, and from the frustrations (from encountering contradictory specuative philosophies) resulting in voidism. Then we can attain the Lord’s abode.
“Perhaps the single most important reason many people come together is the desire to be understood. From that we feel we gain strength, can be our self, with the ability to face the world which can seem alien, being inhabited by those other people that don’t really understand us. ”
Yes. This material world is really inhabited by people who don’t understand us (and want to exploit us and do not really care about us). Only the devotees know “who we really are” and can engage with us in the six loving exchanges. Only they can really “get” us, because we really, truly are “krsnera nitya das.”
Comment posted by Akruranatha on October 3rd, 2008
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for your thoughts and insight on relationships and their various facets. Association is very important. One time Govinda dasi wanted to live alone and left the temple in Hawaii and Srila Prabhupada was not encouraging this. He did not want her to live alone and he always emphasized the importance of association. He said we are not meant to live alone.
I myself have to work a regular job and in my daily activities have various relationships. There are a few people I have come to know who are receptive to Krsna Consciousness and the process of meditation and devotional service. However, there are others that I maintain a respectful friendship, however, more distant.
Yes, we are in these human physical bodies and are full of desires. By association we can be encouraged spiritually and emotionally, therefore, to choose who we associate with is very important. We can become energized, grow and flourish by the proper spiritual association, or we can be drained and disillusioned by the wrong association.
Since I am older now and have survived through the years, my past experiences remind me of my real focus points and what is more beneficial and long term to me wherein I can gravitate more so to positive association. To share one’s experiences and help another person is important. I believe that just as it is important to preach to people about Krsna it is very important to give of our self to others what we have learned in our personal experiences. To be an encouragement and impetus for growth, knowledge and strength.
I like your comment that “friendships are about giving and receiving….”. That is so true. By giving and receiving (and sharing) we help each other genuinely grow. It gravitates from sincerity. If someone is sincere and honest by their endeavors all positive things fructify.
They say lawyers are buried 12 feet underground, because . . . “deep down, they are really good people.” :-)
Really, isn’t everyone a really good person, deep down far enough? By true nature, everyone is a devotee, part and parcel of Krishna.
But somehow, due to forgetfulness of Krishna, communication can be lacking, and friendship on that deep, emotional level goes missing.
We find that real communication and fellowship within kirtans and bhagavatam class, because it is during those times that we are really who we are “deep down”.
Suta Goswami congratulated the sages for enquiring about Krishna, because only discussions about Krishna can fully satisfy the self. Otherwise, so many questions and answers are going on, so many discussions and superficial friendships, but it never really gets “deep down.”
Oh, materialistic people can get really serious about their so-called soul-mates, and Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers can end up committing suicide for each other and so on, but when the basis of friendship is the external mind and senses and our various asat-dharmas, it can never really, truly be “deep down.”
But sometimes we hear devotees complaining about “impersonalism” and/or a lack of friendly dealings within our spiritual communities. This is a serious concern.
Neophytes, or materialistic devotees, worship Krishna in the temple, but do not know how to form deep, serious, spiritually-satisfying friendly relations with Krishna’s devotees.
We might be able to repeat the formulas of spiritual instructions from Prabhupada’s books (a good start), but in order to really connect with other devotees and derive “great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing” about Krishna, we need to really digest these formulas and also know how to listen to other devotees with a proper service attitude and respond sympathetically to their devotional moods and intentions.
The “urge to share the details of our life and it’s journey” can be truly fulfiled if we share with knowing devotees about each others’ journeys toward Krishna consciousness. We can share our realizations, and properly raise doubts or problems for each other to help solve.
Everyone seeks true friendship and love. Krishna consciousness is the only means of finding it. Only Krishna and His devotees are truly worthy friends. As George Harrison says, “All you need is love (Krishna)”
Comment posted by Akruranatha on October 3rd, 2008
By Kurma Rupa Das 
By Ekalavya Das 
By Karnamrita dasa 
