Devotees Should Become Childlike, Not Childish

Hare Krishna!

I am writing this article on the request of dear Aman Prabhu :-) He is one of the sweetest devotees I know!

Today H. G. RamAnand Prabhu had come to Aundh Yoga. Well, I should say Atma Nivedan Yoga! This baptism hapenned this Tuesday in a get-together of all YOGAs and VOICEs affiliated to the Sri Sri Radha Kunjabihari Temple of Pune. The get-together was in the temple.

H. G. RamAnand Prabhu continued to discuss the pastime of Dhruva Maharaj from the Srimad Bhagvatam. He is a very very wonderful and humorous preacher. I always look forward to his classes. Each and every thing he explains with a very humorous day-to-day experience with a lot of audio-visual effects :-)

We were at the part of the pastime where Dhruva enters into the forest in search of Lord Narayan. At that time, inspired by the Lord, the pure devotee Narada Muni goes to meet Dhruva to test him and then to instruct him on how to attain his desired goal - Lord Narayan.

Before going ahead in the story, we discussed the amazing preaching activities of Narada Muni. Unfortunately, in the Bollywood movies Narada Muni is portrayed as a comedian. Ya, it hurts to hear that but its a fact. However, devotees can understand the most exalted position of Narada Muni. In fact, he is so exalted that he is one of the Pancha-Tatva! We were discussing how Narada Muni uses different preaching techniques and strategies to preach to different people depending on time, place, and circumstances. We briefly discussed this in the context of Mrigari, Valmiki, Pralhad, and Sons of Prajapati Daksha. Similarly, H. G. RadheShyam Prabhu and his team are always looking for newer and newer ways to preach people and bring them to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada. It is a great fortune to be able to render some insignificant service in such an exalted association.

Back to the story..

Narada Muni says to Dhruva "Why are you taking things so seriously? You are just a child and you should enjoy sports and other frivolous things". Well, in any other assembly, one would have just gone ahead in the story eager to know whats coming ahead. But, in this association of devotees, Bhagvatam is not just a story book, its a desire tree that answers all the questions of life. So, today we discussed the characteristics of a child :-)

We divided the characteristics of a child in two categories. Favourable and unfavourable.

Favourable:
- Innocence
- Completely under the prtection of mother
- simple-hearted

Unfavourable:
- Moody
- Cant discriminate right or wrong (harmful or beneficial)
- mischievious


Aman Prabhu astutely pointed out that the upper group can be termed as "childlike" characteristics and the lower one as "childish". The conclusion is that devotees should become childlike in Krishna Consciousness, and avoid childish activities.

After this H. G. RamAnand Prabhu narrated a very sweet and touching incident that hapenned in his life recently. He had gone to Lonavala to conduct a 3-day seminar for a group of devotees from Surat. In some free time, while he was going thorugh his notes, a small 5-year old girl child boldly came to him and started speaking to him. He was quite surprised at the boldness of that little girl. Then H. G. RamAnand Prabhu asked her to recite some poem she had learned in school. She was in 1st standard. He was doubly surprised, when the little child started reciting a Radha-Krishna poem! Then he asked her if she chanted some rounds? And you know what she said? Yes, 16 rounds! Now this was too mcuh! He asked her to show him her beads. And she actually brought her beads which had the full 108 beads! Now H. G. RamAnand Prabhu was really amazed. He asked her to count the beads and she started doing that. After some time she came back and told him there are 90 beads. So he said "NO, no. This cant be. They should be 108. Count again carefully. If this time you can count 108, I'll give you special Prasadam!" And you know what that little 5 year old girl replied? She said "I dont want Prasadam, I want your blessings".

H. G. RamAnand Prabhu was now totally shocked :-) He was telling us that when a little child with all innocence says such a thing, it touches the heart. Therefore, we should all become innocent like a child and in that mood pray to the Lord so that He will also be touched by our innocence :-)

Thus we had another ecstatic Morning Class. Just imagine our great fortune.. almost everyday we have such ecstatic classes. The topics might be different everyday, but because all are connected to Krishna, they are all ecstatic!

Yours in the service of Krsihna,
Abhijit.