As they surrender unto Me-I reward accordingly

From a Ashram during Govardhan Parikrama

Once I went to a well known busy shop and invited the business owner to come and visit the temple. And, he said things like, Oh, I am so busy with my work. Everyday, I am here from morning to evening looking after the business and I hardly get time to come to the temple. I wondered, what would be the fate of this man. No doubt, he will grow in his business, make more profits etc. but, what about his personal and then spiritual life?. Anyway, I am not passing any judgements and wishing anything bad for this guy. Everyone has their fate and destiny and one reaps the fruits of his actions, but I was reminded of a Verse from Bhagavad Gita Ch 4:11 and a story I heard some time ago.

"ye yatha mam prapadyante
 tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
 mama vartmanuvartante
 manusyah partha sarvasah

All of them-as they surrender unto Me-I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha".

You walk one step closer to God and he will walk 100 steps towards you.

One time, Lord Krishna and Arjuna went on a touring expedition of their kingdom.As the sun started going down, they decided to take rest for the night in a remote place.They visited the small house owned by a pious old lady.The lady was a great devotee of Krishna and she was ecstatic and  happy to recieve both of them.She is old, poor, widow and had nothing much to serve them.The only way of her sustnance was a Cow,which was giving ample milk.The old lady took a nice care of both Krishna and Arjuna in every way she could by serving them with nice milk from the cow, showing them a place to sleep etc. Next morning, Krishna and Arjun thanked the pious Woman and continued their journey. Arjuna made a petition to Krishna that, my dear Krishna, I am sure you must have been pleased by the way, the lady took care of us. I request you to reward her accordingly. Lord Krishna said, that’s right. I give a benediction that the Cow passes away. Arjuna was shocked and lost for words but, because he respected the wisdom of Krishna, never spoke a word.

The journey continued and the sunset again. This time, Krishna and Arjuna reached the Mansion of a wealthy person and they decided to take rest for the night. The personal servants of the wealthy person received both Krishna and Arjun and went to inform their Master about, their arrival. They came back after a short while and informed, Krishna and Arjun that their Master, had acknowledge their visit and but, is busy to see them. However, they said that, they were advised to be taken care in every possible way and make their stay a pleasant one. The night passed with all the wonderful services provided by the servants and next day morning, it was time to leave. Arjun, little bit hesitantly said to Krishna that to reward the wealthy merchant accordingly. Immediately, Krishna replied that, may the wealth of the person increase many folds and he become richer. Arjun could not take this anymore and said to Krishna – “ My dear Krishna, what kind of justice you are giving to people?. Previously, you pronounced the only Cow of the old lady to be dead, making her helpless and poor. And, now for this arrogant merchant who did not even bother to come and meet us, you are giving more wealth?.” Lord Krishna smiled and replied back to Arjun – “ My dear Arjun, the old lady had very little time left to give up her body and she had all the good qualities and devotion to come back to the spiritual world but, she was too attached to her Cow, which might cause her to take birth again in this material world. The wealthy merchant had too much attachment to his wealth and does not want to give up any of his riches. And, he wanted to avoid seeing me, incase if I ask him for any share of his wealth. So, I have understood his heart and allowed his to go further away from me. Whereas, the old lady had all the love and devotion towards me and made it easy for her by removing the source of her only attachment – the Cow”.   

Thus, the Supreme God is fulfilling everyones desires and reciprocating accordingly.

For, people who want him to be their Master, friend, Lover, Child – he becomes one. For, some Yogis who want to perceive as the blissful, impersonal light, he is appearing as a light. For other Yoga practitioners, who want to perceive him within their heart as Paramatma or Supersoul, he is fulfilling their accordingly. And, for people who want to forget and go away from him, he is helping them so. 

Trinity College at University of Melbourne Campus

Memorial Building

Last week, when I went on a team walk with my colleagues, I took photos of these impressive and historical buildings from University campus at Parkville. This is called the Trinity College which provides Residential college foundation studies, which prepares around 1000 international students for admission to the university of Melbourne. Founded in 1872 by the first Anglican Bishop of Melbourne, is an Anglican theological college. 

Trinity College

The Behan Building

Trinity College

Udemy – An Online Learning Platform

Udemy is a part of the current growing MOOC s (Massive Open Online Course) which offers Courses outside the traditional university setting. The courses are self paced and helps professional adults and everyone interested in increasing their knowledge, skills in a chosen field. 

Why do we need to learn or acquire Knowledge?. I came across an wonderful verse from vedic literature, which explains the importance,uniqueness and benefits of  acquiring the Knowledge. Of course, the verse refers to the Spiritual knowledge which frees one bondage from the cycle of Birth and death. But, while we are living our lives in this world there should be a balance of Spiritual and material activities. We all need to work, maintain ourselves and our family, a profession to provide us the bread and butter. Basically, Rabbits don’t line up to the tiger's mouth. They have to still go out and hunt or work their way. Similarly, to be successful in our job,business or profession, we need Knowledge that needs to be learnt,acquired and updated. Today, it is the era of internet where every information which is essentially knowledge is available freely. But, the problem is that the moment, you search for something on Google, you get so much information which is mind boggling, not in any particular order and cannot be authenticated. So we need a particular place or medium where we can repose our faith, cut down all the headache of trying to decide what is the required or valid information. This is where, a place where knowledge is Systematically delivered is needed. And, one of the places I found to be particularly useful for me was “Udemy”, where one can find literally, any Course dealing with numerous fields like including business and entrepreneurship, academics, the arts, health and fitness, language, music, and technology. And, importantly the Courses are affordable. In fact, I am so much impressed that I decided to promote this on my Blog. Interestingly, not many people still does not know about this. I encourage you to have a look at this and take up some courses of interest to you and increase your knowledge in the chosen profession.  

The verse that talks about the knowledge is,

Na chora haaryam, na cha raja haaryam, na bhaatr bhaajyam, na bharakaari

Vyayam krute vardhat evam nityam vidhyadhanam sarvadhana pradhanam

Cannot be snatched away by thief, cannot be snatched away by king, Cannot be divided among brothers, it does not cause a load on your shoulders. If spent daily, it always keeps growing. The wealth of knowledge is the precious of wealth of all.

Naasti vidya samo bandhuhu, naasti vidya samah sahrut

Naasti vidya samam vittam naasti vidya samam sukham

There is no relative equivalent to knowledge, there is no friend equivalent to knowledge. There is no wealth equivalent to knowledge, there is no happiness equivalent to knowledge.

Please refer to my previous blog post about, Knowledge and the real Knowledge,

http://ausram.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/about-knowledge-real-and-most.html

Finally, few words about the Udemy. It's a great place to start looking for increasing both your Professional and personal skills, at your own pace and of your choice. There are few other places where you can learn for free and for less. I will talk about them in my next article. Until then, stay tuned. Have wonderful weekend and for friends in Victoria  -Aus, have a great long weekend.

Counting my Steps,taking care of Body and Mind

These are my steps so far for the day.And, I have few more to go, before I sleep.Though, I am not a great fan of this stuff like calculating how many Calories, I have consumed,how many I burnt, monitor them through gadgets like Fitbit etc.And, although I am not a fitness freak, I like to keep myself active and do moderate exercises for a healthy body and mind.This is something my company people have recently started (Stepathlon is a mass participation event for organisations of all sizes across all industries and countries).

Ofcourse, for practicing spirituality and developing love for God, these are not the pre-requisites.A healthy body and mind does help one to take up spirituality with vigor and enthusiasm but, it may not be the case always.Someone with a healthy body and mind, may not take up the path of spirituality and may want to go in the opposite direction, that is enjoy life, eat, drink and be happy.And, the opposite can be true as well, for example the case of great Christian saint, St. Francis of Assisi, whose terrible sickness could not stop him from preaching the glories of Jesus Christ.In spite of terrible sickness,he would show so much compassion for people afflicted with leprosy, which was a bit of social stigma at that time of 11th - 12 Century.He would also show his love and compassion to animals etc.

There is a verse (1.2.10) from Srimad Bhagavatam which talks about life's desires and healthy life.

kamasya nendriya-pritir

labho jiveta yavata

jivasya tattva-jijnasa

nartho yas ceha karmabhih

Translation:Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.

What this means is that, our lives are meant for a higher purpose which is more than eating nice food,drinking etc.One should direct his senses for the Inquiry of the Absolute truth.Who am I? Where do I come from? What is the purpose of my existence?.What is my temporary and eternal duties?Temporary could be working a full time job, taking care of your Children,wife and Parents. Eternal duties - it is said that by nature, every living being is a spiritual entity and the constitutional nature of a Spirit soul is to serve. Serve whom?It could be your family, nation, world but ultimately, to the Supreme God.

A Sweet Verse from Srimad Bhagavatam and the different Flutes of Krishna

Krishna with Flute

This is one of my favourite verses from Bhagavatam, Chapter named as “The Gopis Glorify the Song of Krishna's Flute” which explains about the way Krishna is dressed, decorated and is entering the forest of Vrindavan. Acharyas explain that, he is Akhila Rasamrta Murthi – Full of transcendental mellows, dresses up like a dramatic actor and catches the attention of everyone.

barhapidam nata-vara-vapuh karnayoh karnikaram

bibhrad vasah kanaka-kapisam vaijayantim ca malam

randhran venor adhara-sudhayapurayan gopa-vrindair

vrindaranyam sva-pada-ramanam pravisad gita-kirtih

Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karnikara flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayanti garland,Lord Krishna exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers as He entered the forest of Vrindavana, beautifying it with the marks of His footprints. He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips, and the cowherd boys sang His glories. Canto 10. Chapter 21,verse 5)

Talking about the Flute,in Chapter 26 of Nectar of Devotion by Srila Prabhupada explains that there are, three kinds of flutes used by Krsna, namely Venu,Murali and Vamsi.

Venu is a very small flute, not more than six inches long, with six holes for whistling.

Krishna with Flute

Murali is about eighteen inches long with a hole at the end and four holes on the body of the flute and produces a very enchanting sound.

The Vamsi flute is about fifteen inches long, with nine holes on its body. 

Krsna used to play on these three flutes occasionally when they were needed.

Krsna has a longer vamsi, which is called mahananda, or sammohini.When it is still longer it is called  karsini.When it is even longer it is called anandini. 

The anandini flute is very pleasing to the cowherd boys and is technically named vamsuli.These flutes were sometimes bedecked with jewels. Sometimes they were made of marble and sometimes of hollow bamboo. The flute is made of jewels  is called sammohini and the one made of gold, is called akarsini.

For more exhaustive description of Krishna’s Flute, you can visit this link,

http://www.forthepleasureoflordkrishna.com/2015/02/21/krishnas-flutes/

Radhastami - Appearance day of Srimathi Radharani

The deity at Raval - Srimati Radharani in Baby form 

Tomorrow, 10th September  is the Auspicious Appearance Day Festival of Sri Radhastami,celebrated by many in India and all over the world.
Wish you all happy Radhastami Festival.

"tapta-kancana-gaurangi

 radhe vrndavanesvari

 vrsabhanu-sute devi

 pranamami hari-priye

I offer my respects to Radharani, whose bodily complexion is like molten gold and who is the Queen of Vrndavana. You are the daughter of King Vrsabhanu, and You are very dear to Lord Krsna".

Srimati Radharani is always to be found with Sri Krishna, and Madhav is always to be seen with Radhika. One is never without the other's company.She is the embodiment of Maha-bhava, or the highest transcendental ecstasy, and none of the other gopis, or cowherd damsels of Vrindavana, posses Her excellent qualities.

What this means is  - Lord Krishna is called as Madan Mohan, one who is most attractive and beautiful that he defies even cupid. And Srimathi Radharani is called as Madan Mohan Mohini, because she won the heart of Lord Krishna with her beauty and loving service.

On this special occasion, I wanted to write about a place that I previously visited and that is connected to Srimati Radharani.

Raval Landscape

Raval village - Just outside the temple

A mysterious tree on the top of the temple 

Raval is a small village situated about 10 Kms from Vrindavan.This pristine village is a special and important place because,this is the same place where Srimati Radha Rani, about 5000 yrs appeared.It so happened that one day,King Vrishabhanu went to take bath in river Yamuna and saw in the river, a beautiful, golden lotus flower that was full of radiance and splendor. When the king reached the lotus, he noticed a beautiful, golden complexioned baby girl - Srimati Radharani. Immediately, the King had the divine vision of Lord Brahma, who advised him that, because of the great austerities performed by him and his Queen in the previous life,the consort of Lord Vishnu decided to appear as their child.The king happily took the baby girl to home and along with Queen Kirtida, started looking after the baby girl with love and happiness.However, they had one concern that the child eyes are completely closed and would not open them. Nevertheless, the King as per the instructions of Narada Rishi went ahead in the performance of all the auspicious Birth ceremonies.There were great celebrations and many friends and family members were invited, which included Nanda Maharaj and along with him,came the Baby Krishna.Krishna crawled into the jewel studded cradle of Srimati Radharani. As soon as this happened, Srimathi Radharani immediately opened her eyes and looked at Lord Krishna, who is her eternal Consort.This was the first meeting of the divine couple in this material world. Thus, the first person Radha Rani ever saw was Lord Krishna and with her eyes closed, this was the moment she was waiting for.

You can see the gated garden said to belong to Radha Rani or the temple.

This place is still untouched by the urbanisation and somehow retained the simple, beautiful with typical Indian village setting. The small temple consisted of small deities of Radha Krishna on one side and next to it is the small deity of baby girl - Radha Rani.

We climbed the steps to go to the first floor of the temple, where I got some nice pictures of the landscape and fields of Raval. In front of the temple, there is a garden which is said to belong to the temple deities.By the time we went, The garden was closed and unfortunatly could not go inside the garden.From here, we proceeded to Gokul,where Lord Krishna and Balaram spent their childhood and was about 30 mins drive from here. I liked this place which is simple, fresh air, kind and innocent villagers and hope to go back there in future.

Kaliya Ghat - Place where Krishna subdued the kaliya serpent

Kadamba Tree at Kaliya Ghat

This is one of the special and a sacred place in vrindavan, where devotees visit to remind them of the amazing and blissful pastime of Lord Krishna subduing the venomous serpent kaliya.Kaliya Ghat is just at a 3 minutes walking distance from the famous Madanmohan Temple of Srila Sanatana Gosvami.Also,the bhajan kutir and samadhi of Shrila Prabhodananda Sarasvati are close by this place. As a testimony of the Lord's pastime, the place still has the old Kadamba tree which Krishna climbed up, to jump into the waters of the lake where Kaliya was residing.This place actually used to be a small lake that was part of the great river Yamuna.This is the same, same tree upon which Lord Krishna climbed to jump into the lake where Kalia was living. It is said that the poison of Kaliya was so powerful that all the vegetation,grass and trees near the lake died except this tree.It was said that Garuda who envisioned that Lord Krishna will be coming to perform his pastimes, spilled some drops of Amruta (The Nectar of immortality) on this tree and that's how it could sustain the effects of poison of Kaliya.

Kadamba Tree at Kaliya Ghat

Srimad Bhagavatam and also the Krishna Book by Srila Prabhupada, explains the beautiful pastime in details of how Lord Krishna tightening his turban,his belt, hitting his arms like a wrestler jumped into the dangerous, poisonous waters and sported in the water without any fear. Then, after the furious Kaliya attached him, Lord Krishna fought with it, jumped and danced on the several hoods of the wicked snake. Kaliya felt crushed by each step of Krishna and finally vomiting blood, he surrendered to Lord Krishna. Also, the Naga Patnis - the wives of Kaliya have come to his rescue and prayed to Lord Krishna to spare his life.Lord Krishna forgave Kaliya and spared from killed him but, ordered the snake to leave the surrounds of Yamuna immediately with an assurance that Garuda, the mighty King of Birds will not kill or eat him, because the hoods of Kaliya got the imprints of marking of Lord Krishna's lots footprints.

A Babaji at Kaliya Ghat

It is believed that the snake left Vrindavan to the sea and made Fiji as its home.In Fiji folkfore traditional stories, you can hear numerous stories of a great snake living in one of its caves. Many people believe that Kaliya is still living there. Also, Fiji has the Iskcon's famous temple of Shri Krishna Kaliya temple is located in the heart of Lautoka city.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur, A great Acharya of Gaudiya Vaishnavism writes that,Kaliya represents cruel tendencies or anarths like Pride, deceit, harming others, cruelty and these are the tendencies one needs to give up.

Kaliya Ghat

Upon my visit to this sacred place I met this Babaji. I forgot his name but, I think it is - Shyam Das.For sometime, he was sitting there observing me and my family.As I started explaining about the Kadamba tree, he came upto us and started talking about the pastime of Kaliya Dhaman - Subdueing the serpent Kaliya by Krishna.He even showed us how, Krishna climbed the tree, where he put his feet etc. I asked about him. He informed that he had been living in Vrindavan since last 15 years.Originally, from Gorakhpur, he came here once as a tourist and stayed back. He gave up his family, friends etc for Krishna.I asked him " Di you ever tried or planned to go back?", and he replied saying that "What can I do, Thakurji Aur Yamunaji (Lord Krishna and Yamuna Devi) would not leave me. I am unable to move away from this place". He showed me a small attic sort of place in a nearby building and told me that, he lives there. Especially in winter, when it gets cold he sleeps there.

This is the specially of the place Vrindavana - if you are lucky and keep your eyes and heart open, you can see so many of great devotees in Vrindavan leading a simple life, meditating on the Lord's pastimes by going to the various places he performed his pastimes, hearing to Harikatha etc.

I remembered a verse spoken by Srila Rupa Gosvami,

"smeram bhangi-traya-paricitam saci-vistirna-drstim

 vamsi-nyastadhara-kisalayam ujjvalam candrakena

 govindakhyam hari-tanum itah kesi-tirthopakanthe

 ma preksisthas tava yadi sakhe bandhu-sange´sti rangah

 My dear friend, if you are indeed attached to your worldly friends, do not look at the smiling face of Lord Govinda as He stands on the banks of the Yamuna at Kesi ghata. Casting sidelong glances, He places His flute to His lips, which seem like newly blossomed twigs. His transcendental body, bending in three places, appears very bright in the moonlight." (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.239).

Indeed, very few people have this great fortune of having the darshan of Lord Krishna in Tribhanga Form, body bent in three places and even few develop that great love and devotion that makes them the worldly attachments, family,friends, relations and assets insignificant.

As Lord Krishna himself says in Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7: Knowledge of the Absolute,

"bahunam janmanam ante

 jnanavan mam prapadyate

 vasudevah sarvam iti

 sa mahatma su-durlabhah.

After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that  is. Such a great soul is very rare".