Today, while answering one devotee when he was asking me some personal questions, I remembered Shrila Prabhupada’s statement which he had said to HH Bhakti Caru Maharaja and also to Jagattarini Mataji I suppose on different occasions – “Just try to give this one life to Krishna. So many lives you have given for sense gratification. Just one life – and even if nothing happens, what is the harm? It is just one of the many lifetimes.”
As I spoke this to the devotee, I myself was struck by what I had said! Just give this one life to Krishna!! All my insincerity, inefficacy came in front of me. Not only that, I got inspired in a way never before. I have heard this statement and repeated this statement many times to many people. But it never affected to me as much as it did today!
In fact, HG Sruti Dharma Prabhu (A disciple of Shrila Prabhupada who led Bhaktivedanta Manor in London, he left this world a few years back) would say – You don’t have to give even one lifetime, half is already gone!! You have to give only half lifetime!!
The interaction made me reflect on the following things:
1] Am I giving my cent percent for Krishna?
2] If I have to give just one life to Krishna, why cannot I make the offering of my life more profound?
3] If I have given so many lives for sense gratification and nothing has happened, why do I keep on chewing the chewed again and again? Why cannot I look for sublime opportunities to perfect KC?
4] If this is one life that I have to give to Krishna, why do I hesitate to preach and reach out to people?
When Vishnujana Swami Maharaja would wake up devotees, he would say – Time to shine for Shrila Prabhupada! Time to shine for Krishna!
Why cannot I think of shining for Krishna each and everyday?
So many unnecessary anxieties automatically disappear when we surrender to Krishna whole heartedly.
Yesterday, in a program while I was speaking, another thing struck me very deeply. I gave the example of a grocery shop owner to whom you are going for the last 30 years. But it won’t be that you have developed a deep comradery with him. You are not going to invite him to your home for lunch!
Similar manner, if you think Krishna to be a shopkeeper, and just approach him whenever you are in need, whenever you want something, then the relation will no better than a shopkeeper! And, in 30 years of Krishna Conscious practice (I am not sure whether to call it Krishna Conscious practice), Krishna will only play the role of providing you with some things that you want. But he won’t purify you! He won’t take active interest in life.
And therefore, Kaviraj Goswami mentions,
bahu janma kare yadi śravaṇa, kīrtana
tabu ta’ nā pāya kṛṣṇa-pade prema-dhana
Like this, even 30 lifetimes are less to attain Krishna!!
But, if one sincerely tries to give this one life to Krishna, what to say then!!
My sincere prayers that I become determined to give this LIFE to Krishna, half a life !!!!
