Srila B.R. Sridhara Maharaja, 'Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion' vol 3

[Tamohara dasa ADMIN.]

 

The principal necessities of any life here in this world are to preserve and to propagate. Our first priority is to preserve, and for self-preservation we create havoc in the environment by exploitation. The first principle of exploitation begins from the urge for self-preservation, and that means eating. We are to adjust our dealings with the environment in our most primitive necessity which we can’t avoid in order to keep body and soul together. So, if we can solve this one difficulty, we can almost solve the whole problem.

prasada-seva karite haya

sakala prapancha jaya

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur says that the key to........ the solution of the whole problem of this mundane life is in prasad. The first necessity of life is eating, and if we can solve that problem, we have solved the whole thing. Prasada-seva karite haya sakala prapancha jaya: the most important thing is to learn how we should take prasadam to maintain ourselves. Our life depends mainly on that.

To live here, we cannot but consume, and we cannot but create devastation in the environment by our eating. If we go to consume anything, even plants, grasses, or seeds, then microscopic creatures are being killed. So, the question is how to get rid of this reaction? It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (3.9),

yajnarthat karmano ’nyatra loko ’yam karma-bandhanah

We shall get relief from that reaction only if we can successfully connect everything with the supreme satisfaction, with Him whose pleasure all existence is meant to fulfil. So, in the taking of food, really we are to be conscious that we are collecting the ingredients for His satisfaction, and then cooking and offering to Him for His satisfaction—that should be our real purpose. And then because our whole life and energy is for serving Him, we need energy and must take something out of that. But the main point, the real substance of the transaction, will be to collect, cook, and offer to Him according to His will expressed in the scriptures. That is the first step, and only after the foodstuffs have been offered to Him shall we take anything ourselves. This will help to make us always conscious of why we are taking. We are taking because we want only to serve Him. Furthermore, whatever has been accepted by the Lord, the ‘poison’, the bad reaction, will have been absorbed and digested by Him just as in the case of Mahadev who drank the poison generated from the Ocean of Milk.

Krishna is absolute and can digest anything. Not only that, but those things which have been consumed in His connection also receive promotion, so actually there is no himsa, violence. What appears to be himsa is not really so because those who are apparently violently treated actually receive a high promotion through connection with the Supreme. In addition, whoever has been instrumental in fulfilling that connection will also receive some reward. So, the devotee must think, “What shall I take? I won’t take anything from the world. I shall take only from my master as His grace. It is His grace. His free grace to me—prasad.”

The word prasad means ‘kindness’, ‘grace’. The devotee will feel, “Whatever service I do, I am not expecting anything to be paid to me in return. It is a free transaction. And whatever I receive is only His grace. So, I shall take prasad, then I shall be free from all entanglement of action and reaction even though I am in the midst of it. Because it is a fact that with every action I must disturb the environment, then if all my actions are meant for Him, the Supreme Lord, there will be no bad reaction coming to me, but rather the opposite reaction will occur and help not only me but those that were offered also. Through me, through myself as a centre, such waves will emanate that will help others to progress in their path of purification.”

So, through the godliness in his heart, everyone must be a purifying agent. God is on the throne of the heart, and from there He will emanate such a fine ray which will purify not only that person’s heart but also the environment. ‘Vaisnava’ means a purifying agent who emanates goodness, absolute goodness, everywhere—through his movements, his words, his actions: every deed, thought, and word—kaya, mana, vakya. A Vaisnava is an agent of auspiciousness: te Vaisnava bhuvanam asu pavitrayanti. There are so many Vaisnavas, and by their chanting the Holy Name, by all their practices and by their whole lives, they are like so many purifying agents.

By proper knowledge, proper dealings, and proper conduct, they set everything in its proper position and create adjustment in the domain of maladjustment. This world is maladjusted, and the balancing agents, the unifying factors, are the Vaisnavas. Just as there is a germ, a virus which spreads a particular contagious disease, so there must be the opposite of that, something which emanates only a pure and healthy atmosphere, and that is the Vaisnava.

Srila B.R. Sridhara Maharaja, 'Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion' vol 3