The need for spiritual desires
The need for spiritual desire (Excerpts have been used from the lecture “Develop the greed for Krishna” given by HH Bhakti Vijnana Gosvami)
In our daily life we are all influenced by some or the other desires. We all want to do something and that to do something is a desire. So desire is the basis of our existence. Sastras reveal that we fell into this material world just because of our desire to live independently from Krishna, desire to lord over the material world. According to the degree of that desire we take that position into the material world, which can be classified into 3 modes: Goodness - take birth as a demigod or higher being, passion - take birth as a human being, ignorance - take birth as an animal or lower species of life. According to a person’s desire, he can either be elevated or can degrade himself to lower species of life. In material connection, the desir this desire is greed. Greedy for more and more, more enjoyment, more sense gratification, and thus more entanglement. Prabhupad said as soon as one desires to enjoy his senses, he puts himself under the control of material energy and automatically, or mechanically, is placed into the cycle of birth and death in various life-forms. So this desire, it’s very strong. With the power of desire, it’s possible for the living entity to degrade as well as upgrade. And the desire to upgrade is very essential in the connection to have a spiritual life. Sacred or spiritual desire is the very foundation of the bhakti which Lord Caitanya brought to us. Only if we desire to attain pure love for the Supreme, then and then only we will think of making some efforts to achieve our desire. This human form of life is the most valuable asset for the living entity who can utilize it for solving the problems of life only if we desire. When we have the desire to progress in bhakti, what is the result? We then try to make every effort to progress. Now it’s not that we will always go smoothly in Krishna Consciousness. There are hurdles to cross. If we strongly have the desire, then difficulties will not make us failure but will urge us to make more efforts than ever to attain our goal. There is a beautiful story illustrating the essence of spiritual desire. When Lord Ramacandra was residing in Dandakāranya, the sages who were engaged in devotional service there became attracted by His beauty and immediately thought of the gopis at Vrndavana, who enjoyed conjugal loving affection with Krishna. In this instance it is clear that the sages of Dandakāranya desired conjugal love in the manner of the gopis, although they were well aware of the Supreme Lord as both Krishna and Lord Ramacandra. They knew that although Ramacandra was an ideal king and could not accept more than one wife, Lord Krishna, being the full-fledged Personality of Godhead, could fulfill the desires of all of them in Vrndavana. These sages also concluded that the form of Lord Krishna is more attractive than that of Lord Ramacandra, and so they prayed to become gopis in their future lives to be associated with Krishna. Lord Ramacandra remained silent, and His silence shows that He accepted the prayers of the sages. Thus they were blessed by Lord Ramacandra to have association with Lord Krishna in their future lives. As a result of this benediction, they all took birth as women in the wombs of gopis at Gokula, and as they had desired in their previous lives, they enjoyed the company of Lord Krishna, who was present at that time in Gokula Vrndavana. The perfection of their human form of life was thus achieved by their generating a transcendental sentiment or desire to share conjugal love with Lord Krishna. Another most common and favourite example in this connection is the Damodara lila of the Lord. Mother Yashoda tried to tie Gopal by the rope because of breaking her butter pot. She ran after Him and after getting hold of Him tried to tie Him by rope. But the rope was two fingers short. She collected ropes from all the Vrajvasis but every time she tried to tie Gopal the rope fell short by two fingers. But still she made every effort to tie Krishna. She started perspiring but she didn’t give up. Finally, Gopal let Himself be tied by Mother Yashoda’s love and let Him tie away. The rope was two fingers short which indicated that to tie Krishna or attain Krishna, two things are essential. First one is our endeavor or desire and second, Krishna’s mercy. These two examples illustrate how our life can be perfect simply if we desire. Our desire to attain Krishna must be deep rooted, strong which will drive us to do anything to attain Him. Once our desires are strong, then we start making efforts like chanting very sincerely, associating with devotees, asking them submissively about Krishna, avoiding vaishnava offenses, following the instruction of Guru and Gauranga, etc. And by such endeavours when Krishna is pleased, He showers His mercy by sowing the seed of devotion in our heart. However, to develop strong desire to serve Krishna is not very easy. Srila Jiva Gosvami said, my heat didn’t melt when I heard of Hari nor did it melt when I heard of Nand Maharaj, Yashoda, Gopal, gopas either. But when I again and again meditated on the relation between Krishna and the residents of the Vraj, then only something happened. Then my hard heart started to become soft. So Jiva Gosvami gave us a method to develop the desire or greed for Krishna. When we mediated on the sweet relation between Krishna and His devotees, we realize how wonderful it is, how blissful is the relation with Krishna. How unconditional the love can be. Love without separation and/or condition is in Krishna. Relation between friend and friend, here is breakable. As soon as there is dissatisfaction, the friends separate. But if you make friendship with Krishna it’s never separated. If you love Krishna, that is never separated; instead He’ll love you more and more. As such there develops a very unconditional relationship. Krishna is the most lovable, most attractive and the most exciting person to be with. And who doesn’t want such a friend? Another very important way to induce spiritual desire is to associate with people who already have developed such desires. By associating with them, i.e. the devotees, we develop ruchi or taste in Krishna prema and become interested in developing desire to swim in the ocean of pure love. We can also associate with Krishna personally, talk to Him, and see Him face to face. Krishna will lead us back to Godhead, back to home; the only qualification needed is our eagerness, our desire… Haribol!
In our daily life we are all influenced by some or the other desires. We all want to do something and that to do something is a desire. So desire is the basis of our existence. Sastras reveal that we fell into this material world just because of our desire to live independently from Krishna, desire to lord over the material world. According to the degree of that desire we take that position into the material world, which can be classified into 3 modes: Goodness - take birth as a demigod or higher being, passion - take birth as a human being, ignorance - take birth as an animal or lower species of life. According to a person’s desire, he can either be elevated or can degrade himself to lower species of life. In material connection, the desir this desire is greed. Greedy for more and more, more enjoyment, more sense gratification, and thus more entanglement. Prabhupad said as soon as one desires to enjoy his senses, he puts himself under the control of material energy and automatically, or mechanically, is placed into the cycle of birth and death in various life-forms. So this desire, it’s very strong. With the power of desire, it’s possible for the living entity to degrade as well as upgrade. And the desire to upgrade is very essential in the connection to have a spiritual life. Sacred or spiritual desire is the very foundation of the bhakti which Lord Caitanya brought to us. Only if we desire to attain pure love for the Supreme, then and then only we will think of making some efforts to achieve our desire. This human form of life is the most valuable asset for the living entity who can utilize it for solving the problems of life only if we desire. When we have the desire to progress in bhakti, what is the result? We then try to make every effort to progress. Now it’s not that we will always go smoothly in Krishna Consciousness. There are hurdles to cross. If we strongly have the desire, then difficulties will not make us failure but will urge us to make more efforts than ever to attain our goal. There is a beautiful story illustrating the essence of spiritual desire. When Lord Ramacandra was residing in Dandakāranya, the sages who were engaged in devotional service there became attracted by His beauty and immediately thought of the gopis at Vrndavana, who enjoyed conjugal loving affection with Krishna. In this instance it is clear that the sages of Dandakāranya desired conjugal love in the manner of the gopis, although they were well aware of the Supreme Lord as both Krishna and Lord Ramacandra. They knew that although Ramacandra was an ideal king and could not accept more than one wife, Lord Krishna, being the full-fledged Personality of Godhead, could fulfill the desires of all of them in Vrndavana. These sages also concluded that the form of Lord Krishna is more attractive than that of Lord Ramacandra, and so they prayed to become gopis in their future lives to be associated with Krishna. Lord Ramacandra remained silent, and His silence shows that He accepted the prayers of the sages. Thus they were blessed by Lord Ramacandra to have association with Lord Krishna in their future lives. As a result of this benediction, they all took birth as women in the wombs of gopis at Gokula, and as they had desired in their previous lives, they enjoyed the company of Lord Krishna, who was present at that time in Gokula Vrndavana. The perfection of their human form of life was thus achieved by their generating a transcendental sentiment or desire to share conjugal love with Lord Krishna. Another most common and favourite example in this connection is the Damodara lila of the Lord. Mother Yashoda tried to tie Gopal by the rope because of breaking her butter pot. She ran after Him and after getting hold of Him tried to tie Him by rope. But the rope was two fingers short. She collected ropes from all the Vrajvasis but every time she tried to tie Gopal the rope fell short by two fingers. But still she made every effort to tie Krishna. She started perspiring but she didn’t give up. Finally, Gopal let Himself be tied by Mother Yashoda’s love and let Him tie away. The rope was two fingers short which indicated that to tie Krishna or attain Krishna, two things are essential. First one is our endeavor or desire and second, Krishna’s mercy. These two examples illustrate how our life can be perfect simply if we desire. Our desire to attain Krishna must be deep rooted, strong which will drive us to do anything to attain Him. Once our desires are strong, then we start making efforts like chanting very sincerely, associating with devotees, asking them submissively about Krishna, avoiding vaishnava offenses, following the instruction of Guru and Gauranga, etc. And by such endeavours when Krishna is pleased, He showers His mercy by sowing the seed of devotion in our heart. However, to develop strong desire to serve Krishna is not very easy. Srila Jiva Gosvami said, my heat didn’t melt when I heard of Hari nor did it melt when I heard of Nand Maharaj, Yashoda, Gopal, gopas either. But when I again and again meditated on the relation between Krishna and the residents of the Vraj, then only something happened. Then my hard heart started to become soft. So Jiva Gosvami gave us a method to develop the desire or greed for Krishna. When we mediated on the sweet relation between Krishna and His devotees, we realize how wonderful it is, how blissful is the relation with Krishna. How unconditional the love can be. Love without separation and/or condition is in Krishna. Relation between friend and friend, here is breakable. As soon as there is dissatisfaction, the friends separate. But if you make friendship with Krishna it’s never separated. If you love Krishna, that is never separated; instead He’ll love you more and more. As such there develops a very unconditional relationship. Krishna is the most lovable, most attractive and the most exciting person to be with. And who doesn’t want such a friend? Another very important way to induce spiritual desire is to associate with people who already have developed such desires. By associating with them, i.e. the devotees, we develop ruchi or taste in Krishna prema and become interested in developing desire to swim in the ocean of pure love. We can also associate with Krishna personally, talk to Him, and see Him face to face. Krishna will lead us back to Godhead, back to home; the only qualification needed is our eagerness, our desire… Haribol!
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