Transformation

Happy Janamashtami 2020 everyone!!

Yesterday was Lord Krishna’s appearance day which is His birthday. And today is celebrated as Nandotsav. Krishna’s father Nanda Baba had arranged festivities at their home on this day. From the lives of vrajavasis, the residents of Vraja, we can see that Krishna was their everything. They did everything with Krishna at the center. They dressed opulently for the festivities. They donated opulently in honor of Krishna’s birthday. They expressed an attitude of gratitude for Krishna’s love, his beauty, his mercy and his extraordinary pastimes. We must also celebrate with a spirit of gratitude, that we are here and have an opportunity to be apart of this celebration. We are blessed to be part of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings and are able to practice the method given for this age of Kali, the chanting of the holy names.

This year is a year to remember and a year to forget. Everything has this form of duality in the material world. This year has been for many, a year of suffering, and for some it may also be a year of learning hard lessons. Suffering seems to be a kind of punishment from God. We always hear, “why do bad things happen to good people?”. The laws of karma are supposed to transform us. Krishna has given us freewill, but due to our misuse of it we are suffering here in the material world. We only experience and act on a body and mind platform, but Lord Krishna is on a spiritual platform. Sometimes the soul needs to learn through intense suffering. The soul is sat, cit and ananda, eternally all knowing and blissful. But due to our misuse of freewill unless we go through this suffering, the soul does not come to the right conclusions about life. We have to have some repentance in life. That repentance is supposed to bring transformation within us, not depression within us.

The suffering all of us are enduring this year and otherwise, should bring about a change in our consciousness. These transformations should be such that they individually and collectively make us choose a healthy and blissful life to love God. Loving Krishna is the purpose of life. We practice it here and then at the end of life we can be transported back to the spiritual world and serve God there.

One must ponder on this question, how to learn from suffering? How can we make a difference individually and collectively? How can we transform our consciousness? How can we put Krishna in the center of all of our activities? How can use all the talents and skills we have to serve Krishna? How can we use everything in the service of the Lord? Using the method given by Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the chanting of the holy names, the covering of false ego is removed and then the freewill is properly guided by the soul. All things fall in place with this kind of transformation. Prince Siddhartha Gautama transformed into the one we know as Gautama Buddha, the enlightened one. We can enlighten the soul by becoming an instrument of love of God. This is the best birthday present we can give our sweet Lord.

Please chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,

Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare

Some excerpts taken from a Radhanath Swami lecture