Zitat von Vedanta am 5. Januar 2022, 17:00 Uhr

Admittedly, sometimes spiritual life is not exactly easy, especially in today's very exciting times. However, from a higher perspective, such challenges are rather insignificant. When I recently watched the following near-death video, I understood once again what a privilege it is to have a body at all, let alone a human body. As we all know, as atma, we have neither a body nor a form. But in order to be able to act and feel, we depend on a body, be it material or spiritual.

Near-death experience of a skeptic
Please switch on the automatic English translation!
from min 4: "Originally I never had hands, feet or a body"
from min 10: afterdeath contact with her father

Therefore, we should make the best and active use of our body and mind for bhakti, which Shri Haridas Shastri Maharaj ji recommends for all humans:

Generally, people do not take to bhakti sincerely. If they accept it, they do so for material reasons. This is the natural trend. To begin with, people do not like the guru. Guru means spiritual education. Basically, people do not have a liking for spiritual education. Therefore, they do not take to it, and nobody can change that.

There was a brahmana who was not doing anything. Inspired by others, he went to do some austerities. Then the Sun god, the deity whom he worshiped, put some wealth on the path that the brahmana usually walked. When the brahmana was taking his usual walk, suddenly he thought, „Let me see if I can walk with my eyes closed“. As he walked with closed eyes, he passed the wealth.

We behave similarly with regard to spiritual life. Spiritual knowledge is available to us. Krishna gives it to us, but if we close our eyes, we cannot blame others for that. Therefore, we should make some effort to try to understand this knowledge, imbibe it, and put it into practice. It is meant for all.

- Shri Guru Darshanam, p. 174

Similary, Shri Babaji Maharaja in a recent talk identified our main problem as being lazy. He elaborated that even olympic champions, for example, or scientists with a Nobel Prize, have to make enormous efforts to be able to achieve such successes. They do practically nothing else. Likewise, extreme mountaineers to Mount Everest, who must carry their heavy equipment, braving oxygen-poor air and freezing snowstorms, without being able to bathe or shower for many days, and having to sleep in bitter cold at night. In conclusion, Babaji forcefully stated that if we use only (genuine) 10 % of our strength, we will succeed in bhakti.

Today we are celebrating the disappearnace day of Shri Jiva Gosvami. Therefore, In the following, the prayers of Babaji Maharaja to Jiva Gosvami are reproduced:

We bow down to Shrila Jiva Gosvami Prabhupada who revealed the essential meaning of Shrimad Bhagavatam to the people of the world just as plainly as one would display an amalaki fruit kept on one's palm.

One who has not undergone comprehensive study of Shat Sandarbhas must struggle to assimilate the message of Shrimad Bhagavatam. One who has studied Shat Sandarbhas, however, will have no misgivings about the essential meaning of Shrimad Bhagavatam.

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Wishing you all a happy new year!

Radhe Radhe

vedanta