Are we ready for the Challenge?

A lesson from a materialist

Hare Krishna!

Yesterday, I attended a social gathering on the occasion of the wedding of one of my acquaintances. He is part of an activist group (which I will not name for the sake of anonymity) which looks out for social problems and tries to activate the exploited to rise up and fight against the oppression. Even though the problems they try to solve are purely on the bodily plane, still their intention is noble, at least on the face of it. There are innumerable such organizations or activist groups. They have always been around and they will always be around in the future too. And of course, the problems they try to solve will also always be around. That is, they will never be solved, for the simple reason that the activists do not know the root cause of all the problems – lack of Krishna Consciousness. Lord Krishna confirms this in the Bhagavad Gita 17.28, “Anything done as sacrifice, charity or penance without faith in the Supreme, O son of Prtha, is impermanent. It is called asat and is useless both in this life and the next.”

But we will not go into that in this article. What I want to point out in this article is that even some of these people show a lot of dedication and determination to follow the way of life they believe is the best. This acquaintance of mine has married a spouse who is also a social worker. My acquaintance did not consider how physically attractive the spouse is, how educated, how much is the salary, and so on, but just considered that the two of them can together follow their chosen path. This was quite inspiring to me. We can learn so much from the lives of such determined people.

We, as Krishna Conscious people, have the highest goal in front of us. To become Krishna Conscious, and to make others Krishna Conscious. Do we know of a loftier ideal to follow in life? If not, then we must be prepared to sacrifice a lot of things in order to achieve our goal. We must be determined that no matter what, we will follow the path in the best possible way. This is what I learned yesterday from a materialist. Can we surrender ourselves to Krishna more than any materialist does to his/her ideal? Are we prepared to take on this challenge? Time will tell.

Your servant,
Abhijit.

What Will You Do?

Dear All,

The question to ask oneself is "What will you do if it is proven beyond doubt that God exists?" The answer to this question will pretty much determine all your actions. A sane person will not have any hesitation in totally surrendering to the will of God once he is convinced beyond any doubts that God exists. However, only an insane person will rebel against God by not surrendering to God's will despite the fact that God exists.

Its very easy to understand this and it is very natural to surrender to God. Take this simple illustrative example. Suppose the President of India comes to your office. What will you do? Will you serve him? Or will you totally ignore him? A more realistic example... suppose you like a girl very much (and you are a boy ;-) ), then if she asks you to please do something for her. What will you do? I am sure you will make that task your highest priority :-) Anyways, these are just illustrative examples to bring forth the following point: that when there exists someone whom you respect a lot, or love a lot, its only natural to serve that person, either out of fear, or out of personal interest, or out of duty, or out of love.

So then, who but the insane will not serve God? Who is more respectable and lovable than Him? Thats why I asked this question first up "What will you do if it is proven beyond doubt that God exists?"

We find so many people who say "Ya Ya I believe in God!" And we all know that they wont serve God too much. Perhaps a ritualistic Arati in the mornings and evenings.. and some such thing. But the rest of the time they forget Him. They engage in all useless activities which in no way engage them in serving God. Have we all not seen such people? Again, this example is just to bring forth the point that even those who say that they believe in God, dont really do so.. Or if they really do, then they are insane to not totally surrender their will to the Will of God. If what I am saying is wrong, then why dont these people try to find out what the Will of God is? Why dont they try to understand the Bhagavad Gita? Or why dont they follow any devotional (or religious) principles strictly?

We must wake up people from this slumber of ignorance and insanity! Ask them, "What will you do if it is proven beyond doubt that God exists?" Will your life just go on as it has been for so many years? Or will it transform into a glorious life full of loving surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead?

An answer to this question will determine ones fate! A favourable answer will open the gates of eternal joy, but an unfavourable one will bury one deeper and deeper into the most abominable existence of material life.

As I keep saying so many places... the choice is ours!

Your servant in Krishna Consciousness,
Abhijit.