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We don’t usually think of instruction as something nectarean or pleasant. While we were in school, generally we spent our time wishing the whole process, or at least the day, would end. Generally, we don’t like others telling us what to do. We feel we should be able to direct our own lives as we see fit. This attitude is part of what keeps us away from taking shelter of a qualified guru.
Similarly, the four regulative principles with which we are familiar, even those of us who are neophytes in Krishna consciousness, do not strike one as positives. They are all don’ts. Don’t do this, don’t do that.
In “The Nectar Of Instruction” Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Prabhupada give us another set of regulative principles, this time having to do with devotion. The principles really derive from ancient times and take the form of a nice poem, which is fun to remember for quizzes, and we all know how teachers love lists !
The poem is as follows; " Sravanam kirtanam visnoh, Smaranam pada-sevanam,
Arcanam vandanam dasyam, Sakhyam atma nivedanam "
These are all positives. It’s amazing how many of them can be fulfilled by the wonderful process of chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra. Certainly the sravanam, hearing, if one chants audibly, and smaranam as one thinks of Krishna. The chanting is itself a kirtanam visnoh, even if one is alone. If one is using tulsi beads then it is also a form of arcanam. And it will lead us to the other steps of being Krishna’s servant, friend, and ultimately the surrender of our own souls.
Prahlada and Sri Nrsnghadeva
The speaker of this nice poem was Prahlad Maharaja, in many ways the ultimate devotee, in Srimad Bhagavatam. Now Prahlad’s father was the polar opposite of Hiranyaksipu. Srila Prabhupada tells us that the name itself is related to gold and soft beds, so it can be assumed that he was a lover of all kinds of luxuries, illicit sex, gambling, meat eating, what have you.
Hiranya; gold Kasipu; soft bed
So if we can follow Prahlad Maharaja’s regulative principles of devotion, then we become the opposite of the demon who violates the other regulative principles. And so much of this comes from the chanting. In this way, we truly discover the nectar of instruction which nourishes and revives us to our eternal true state as servants of Krishna.
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After the complete rainy season, the forest of Vrindavana was full of fruits like dates and blackberries ripening on the trees and bushes. Lord Sri Krishna, along with His elder brother, Sri Baladeva, and other cowherd boys of the vicinity, entered the beautiful forest, accompanied by the cows, to display transcendental pastimes with His eternal friends.
Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears with His personal entourage once in paraphernalia, just to attract the conditioned souls of the material world. Although the material world is only a shadow of the spiritual world, the materially encaged living entities seek spiritual happiness here in a form perverted by materialistic attachment.
Empiric philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge imagine a spiritual picture that is impersonal. But the spiritual living being, less attracted by the impersonal form of spiritual emancipation, becomes more attracted by the material form and becomes hopeless of spiritual emancipation.
Therefore the absolute Personality of Godhead, out of His limitless and causeless mercy, descends from the spiritual kingdom and displays His personal pastimes at Vrindavana, the replica of the Krishnaloka planet in the spiritual sky.
Vrindavana is the most sacred place within this cosmic universe, and people seeking to achieve spiritual emancipation by entering the kingdom of God may make a home at Vrindavana and become serious students of the six Gosvamis, who were instructed by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
The six Gosvamis were headed by Srila Rupa Gosvami, who was followed by Srila Sanatana, Srila Bhatta Raghunatha, Srila Jiva, Srila Gopala Bhatta, and Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. They were all seriously engaged in research and excavation of the mystery of Vrindavana-dhama.
Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appeared at Vrindavana about five thousand years ago, and the relics of His appearance at Vrindavana were lost from view.
But Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is the very same Lord Sri Krishna in the form of a great devotee, appeared at Navadvipa, a district in West Bengal, and excavated the holy places of Lord Sri Krishna’s transcendental pastimes.
He instructed the above-mentioned six Gosvamis to compose authorized literature on the cult of Vrindavana, and any serious student anxious to know about the Supreme Lord may take advantage of this invaluable literature and the guidance of authorized scholars and thus know about the Lord of Vrindavana, Sri Krishna, the Personality of Godhead
We have a recent experience of a sannyasi falling down to associate with a working girl. Thus, we see that the simple 4 regs are not easy to follow, and require our constant vigilance. Many lifetimes of bad habits are not so easy to give up, and those who are still all too human who take sannyasa, they will be missing the simple human contacts, so they must be truly spiritualy advanced. Householder-ashrama life is the safest ashrama, and should be adopted by most all young men and ladies.