Amul: Realizations

August 27th, 2006, 11:54 AM Sunday

 

    It's hard to write something when theres nothing really exciting going on.  I've gotten into a routine, so things that might have seem exciting 2 months ago (man, its been that long!?) are just second nature now.  School is going well, I'm really learning alot.  Our teachers are stressing putting the knowledge into practice.  It's how much you apply that counts, not the degree you get at the end.  I find comfort in that statement since I am not the academic type...haha.

   

    Nectar of Instruction is such an amazing book.  I was always looking for a book that would tell me the do's & dont's, what to practice, what to avoid, in Krishna consciousness.  What made it better was our instructor, H.G. Kurma-Rupa prabhu, a old-school devotee from the historical New York ISKCON crew.  He really teaches from realization and tells us these awesome experiences he's had, that totally relate with the book.  I'm telling you, if you have the right teacher, everything becomes perfect.

 

    Yesterday was a whole ordeal.  My friend Satyanarayan's knee was injured when he accidentally walked into a ditch. I don't know, i think he just stepped on it the wrong way, but he was in so much pain.  The whole morning he was just writhing in pain whenever he moved his leg.  So we decided to get him to a doctor.  But how would we get him down the 4 flights of stairs, he could not even stand up on his own!  And I could not lift him, he's quite a husky fellow.  Chaitanya to the rescue!  Chai volunteered to take Satya on his back and bring him downstairs to the awaiting riksha.  Many people were astonished at the super-human strength of my roomate.  It was as if he had gotten the strength of 10,000 elephants (i wonder if it had anything to do with his Mahabharata reading...he reads it every chance he gets!). 

   

    After that, we went to 2 doctors, had 2 X-rays done, and still no results.  The 2nd X-ray said that Satyanarayan had a large fracture in his knee.  By this time, it was 7pm!  On top of that our riksa walla was so slow, he had only one working leg (here's a tip for everyone out there, make sure your riksa driver has TWO working legs).  And I had an exam the next day (today, it was a take home, and i hadn't finished it yet).  So I was in alittle bit of anxiety.  Update: Satyanarayan went to a doctor at 10pm last night, when Radha Govinda Maharaj, his guru, found out.  He's going to be okay.

   

    But then realizations cleared my anxiety.  Since everything was in Krsna's hands, what could I learn from this incident? (I have recently learned this technique, it really helps against getting fried easily).  I thought for a bit, and I realized a few things:

 

1) The body is a huge source of suffering, there's no question about it.  You may get some pleasure out of it, but it will never last.  Satyanaryan was in so much pain just because of his knee, i couldn't even look at his face sometimes.

2)  This world is a dangerous place.  You can just be walking and two seconds later, your knee is fractured.

3)  Taking shelter of the holyname can really help one's mind feel peaceful.  As soon as I started chanting on the riksa, with-- care and attention (NOI), I felt assurance that everything would be alright, it reminded me of a quote from Bhagavad Gita:

“For one who has accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Mukunda, or the giver of mukti, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s footprint. paraà padam, or the place where there are no material miseries, or Vaikuntha, is his goal, not the place where there is danger in every step of life.”  BG 2.51

 

Most of my realizations were based around those 3.  The material world is all suffering, the body is miserable...does that seem pessimistic to anyone?  Ah, but there is hope! The holyname is like a soothing balm (like tiger balm, that junk works so well ,on mosquito bites, thanks to Chai's mom, thanks Aunty!) on the worrying mind.  "Similarly, if you chant this Hare Krsna mantra, then your first vision of your self, your constitutional position, will be visible just like a line of the moon. But if you go on continuing, you will find one day it is [a] full moon and brilliant, very soothing, and nectarine. You’ll taste your life as very sublime, blissful, and hopeful."  -Srila Prabhupada

 

So much more but no time, I will write more later, until then..chant Hare Krsna!

   

dasamula