Sharanagati

We are practicing Bhakti Yoga. That means: we try to live according to spiritual, divine principles. The first principle on the general platform is that you give what you have got. Have you been to the army? Neophytes come, get all the trouble and when they become old, they give the same trouble to the neophytes that come after them.

This is not an army. Even if you have got something wrong or difficult, as we are spiritual persons, we have to take it as a lesson for ourselves and give only nectar to the others. So don’t say that “well, I had a very difficult past in my spiritual life, therefore I’m torturing the devotees around myself.” No, we cannot do that. We have to personally digest the difficulties that are coming to us and give only nectar.

Therefore if somebody has such a problem, he can worship the cow. Because a cow is taking simple grass, which is not a very good think in one sense. But from a very simple experience, she is able to provide milk. So from grass she can produce milk. Taking some kind of experience and giving MUCH better kind of experience. Or we can worship the orange. However you squeeze the orange, ONLY orange juice will come. So, if we simply become like oranges, whatever kind of pressure, squeezing, tearing and doing is coming to you and only you give orange juice, that’s quite good. Even an orange we can take as an example, as an ideal. And if you have nectar inside, how can you give poison out? It’s impossible! Because we are practicing the Yoga of LOVE!!! How can we give hatred?! How can we give mistrust, how can we give mistreatment or abuse?! That is not Bhakti Yoga! That experience must have been something different. Good, now let’s start Bhakti Yoga!

So be an orange! “Trinad api sunichena, be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree.” Mahaprabhu doesn’t mention, but in this secret esoteric teaching is also added: but don’t be stupid. So if something wrong, if some attack is coming to us, we should accept it. In the shastras it is said: even if somebody is trying to kill YOU, I mean to kill a vaishnava, the vaishnava will accept. What to speak about some little attack, some little bad words – you know these minor things, little criticism, it’s nothing! You can take that. That’s not a big thing. But if somebody is attacking our brothers, or our God, or our master – then we can show our opposition.

Still I would say that if the company or the situation is not beneficial for my spiritual practices, I should go and find such circumstances that are beneficial. And we should try to tolerate, we should try to adjust ourselves, but if finally it doesn’t really happen, better to move out from the difficult situation, not to give the same trouble again and again.

Once I asked Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj about the differences of opinions in the vaishnava world. And he said that “Mahaprabhu is cooking the soup.” To put it short.

But beware: world is a reflection of your mind. Whatever you project, that will be reflected back to you. Because the world is just like an echo. If you say: “SUFFERING!”… suffering will come back to you. If you say “EMPTINESS!” nothing will come back, because emptiness cannot come back, ha? But if you say “RADHE! Vrindavaneshvari!!!” Then reflection will be: “Krishna!”