Diary 8/12/14: New Delhi
Today morning Gm woke up quite early and we heard from Golokeswar Prabhu that Gm was coughing frequently the whole night. This happens sometimes. By 6.30am he was already off the bed and chanting his gayatri. Then he did his chanting and exercise for more than an hour followed by breakfast. By 11 am he came out to the small verandah of the house to be in the sunlight. At that moment Jaya Radha Krsna Prabhu, Deva Gauranga Prabhu, Shyama Rasika joined Gm to work on the Caitanya Book Project.
>>Shyama Rasika Das: It was very blissful pastime that today Guru Maharaj translated. Nimai's scholarly pastimes and His quarrel with other students from different schools. As Guru Maharaj was sitting at the door step in sun light and was translating, I just joined after 10mins. And assisted in repetition...<<
After Gm had his afternoon nap, Varada Krsna Prabhu, Adideva Prabhu and Hari Ksetra Prabhu ( leaders and preacher from Banglore) were discussing about the implementation of new BHakti Vriksha preaching strategy. During the discussion, Varada Prabhu called Vijay Venugopal Prabhu and Prema Padmini Mataji over the phone. They just arrived after their preaching tour in Mathuradesh. They gave a brief preaching report to gm and they highlighted how the recent Damodara month program was a great success. Mathuradesh Yatra managed to engage 20,000 brand new people to participate in the damodara month festival throughout the month and now they are going to gradually connect these new people to local BHakti Vrikshas. Gm also told them to share their new phase of BHAKTI VRIKSHA preaching which Varada Prabhu was briefing gm before that.
'Gm also commented on the recent proposal by leaders of India to declare Bhagavad Gita as the National Holy book of India. Gm said, Gita was spoken in India more than five thousands years ago and it is a treasured heritage book of India, national heritage, so every Indian should read BG and its a book of knowledge and it doesn't matter which faith the reader practices. They may maintain their belief in other faith but there is nothing wrong in knowing the heritage of India. Even if the government doesn't wish to declare it as National Holy Book of India, they could still consider it declaring it as a National Heritage of India.
After having his dinner, gm started his evening Katha on Srila Prabhupada. While the Katha was going on bhakta Amitaba (Bengali origin) and bhaktin Jia (South Korean) along with their friends walked in. Both Amitava and Jia were just got married in Mayapur and they visited gm in Delhi to seek his blessings. During the questions and answer session, Amitava requested gm if he could give some advice to the newly wedded couple. So following is the excerpt from the advice gm gave them.
" One thing is Srila Prabhupada, although he was grhasta in earlier days, he could not council grhastas. He would say that, "You should speak to the older grhastas." And that was like solving problems, as far as avoiding problems, it's important that the husband and wife treat each other very gently and avoid saying anything, which will damage their relationship. Srila Prabhupada had said that, just like children, they fight one day, next day they are friends.
Yesterday morning I was translating how Lord Caitanya and Jagadananda had a quarrel, they were only 6 or 7 years old. But, Jagadananda, he went to the side of the Ganges and whole day he cried; whole night he cried; he didn’t eat anything, and just before the sunrise Gadadhara and Gaura Hari, They came looking for him. Jagadananda!!! Jagadananda!!! Then They found him by the side of the Ganges, "What are you doing here, so late at night!" And Jagadananda said, "What are You doing here? The roads are very hard, little stones, You may get hurt Your feet." But when he saw they beautiful moon like face of Lord Caitanya and His mild smile, all his anger was gone. And Lord Caitanya said, "Listen, night is over; come to My house and have something to eat." And so he grabbed on Gadadhara's legs and pulled himself up and went back to the house. There he was given some water and he fell asleep for about two to three hours. Then mother Saci and Jagannath Misra came with the plate of hot rice soaked in milk and gave that to him. Then Lord Caitanya said, "I know what you felt like, because I couldn't also eat the whole day while you have gone. When you have gone, I couldn't sleep on My bed; I slept on the ground. Gadadhara came and got Me, and took Me to find you. That is good that now your anger is broken. You see, I love you and you love Me, so we are bound to have disagreement sometime. But after it's over. My love for you and your love for Me has increased." So this is Lord Caitanya when he was 6 or 7 years old. We are all small particles of Krishna. And we are meant to work together. As husband and wife are a team, where two people considered as one. And the wife is the half; and husband is the another half. In sanskrit term for wife is 'Adhangini' or better half. So, it is important that you treat each other nice. If you have some dissatisfaction, keep it practical, "Oh! you are late today!" I had important engagement; my mother-in-law is waiting; we have to meet the minister; whatever it is. Keep it practical don’t say, "Why did I married you?" Nothing like that which hurts the heart.
And I read how in Brhat Bhagavatamrta, there was a couple, who followed varnashrama-dharma meticulously. So they went to the celestial planets. But then from there they come back to earth, when their good karma merit is finished. But some grihastas, may be they didn’t follow the varnashrama so perfectly, but they were devotees of Lord Krishna. They chanted Krishna's name; they worshiped Krishna together; and they also reached the celestial planet and from there they went back to Godhead. We want our couples to be Krishna Conscious and get back to Godhead. -Maha Varaha Das.
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