All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga
Dear/Blessed Devotees
Daṇḍavat praṇāms to you all
𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
In the name of our Śrī Bhakti Siddhānta Vāṇī Trust we would like to wish all of you a happy New Year, and that we all together can try more and more to serve our spiritual guardians — our Sarasvata Gauḍīya Guruvarga — from heart with humility and love.
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda told that— “If I do not remember the lotus feet of Śrī Guru at the beginning of every new year, every new month, every new day and every new moment, then I am sure to fall into far greater inconveniences. If I do not remember his lotus feet, then the desire will come to dress myself in the garb of guru. I will become liable to the bad desire of seeking to be worshiped by other people as guru. It is this which constitutes addiction to things other than the truth.”
What is the mathematical interpretation of our life? Actually, we are living for some years, for some months, for some weeks, for some days, for some hours, for some minutes, for some seconds, or for some fraction of seconds—that is the fact. This is the calculation of our unstable life history.
Śrīla Bābājī Mahārāja always telling us that—“TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NONE”.
Also Śrīla Bābā Mahārāja says that—Material people always thinking “I am not going to die”, and that’s the reason why our Ācāryas and Śāstras again and again remembering us about the nature of this world—
niśvāser nāiva viśvāsa
kadā rūḍha bhaviṣyati
kīrtanīyā ato bhālyad
harer nāmaiva kevalam (from the glorification of Harināma Mahā-mantra)
“There is no guarantee of our breathing, anytime we can die, that’s why it is the standing advice that we should start doing Harināma saṅkīrtana right from the childhood.”
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda told that: “We are going to leave this material world very shortly, we are here only for two days, nothing in this material world is permanent, all temporary — so this is not the place where we can try to live forever.”
That’s why before we leave this body we must think where we will go, and what will be our destination after death? Those who are really intelligent are always thinking about this most important point. What will I do after death? What will be my condition after?
So the final settlement should be done in this very life. Those who are really intelligent they are doing kṛṣṇa-bhajana without wasting any second, because they already understood that this life is unstable and before leaving this world one should have some deposit. What kind of deposit? Bank deposit, “NO”, one should have some bhakti, that is the real property — prema-dhana, all other things are not permanent property.
We can think about some material property, but everything is unstable. No guarantee of our life itself, what is the actual utility of those material properties?
In the Nīti-śāstra it is written that those who are going to acquire some material knowledge, wealth, education etc., they always have to think that “I am not going to die”; otherwise they can feel no inspiration. But those who follow Bhāgavata-dharma, they are thinking the opposite. They know that death can come at any moment. This kind of mentality gives them the inspiration to follow Bhāgavata-dharma.
When Parīkṣit Mahārāja met Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, then the first thing he told that— “O Rājan! Be aware of the fact that at any moment you are going to die”. If that kind of fear is not there, then no one can be able to grow sufficient sincerity for the spiritual upliftment.
In this context we would like to remind you all of Lālā Bābu, a great Indian businessman. He was a person who has achieved everything in worldly life, but when he was about to cross a river at a slightly advanced age, the boatman yelled loudly — “Hurry, hurry, the sun is going to set, the boat is starting.” When Lālā Bābu heard that, he was in a very meditative mood. He thought to himself— “Yeah, the sun is going down (his life is ending) and I haven’t crossed the ocean of the material world yet.” With these thoughts, he decided that from now on he would only focus on his spiritual goal; he would prepare himself in the remaining years he still had so that he can achieve the highest goal.
For the beginning of this New Year we also can take these words deeply into our hearts, and pray that the divine seed of the bhakti-latā in all of us can blossom up to its highest expression and reach its perfect beauty — the eternal sevā in the eternal Dhāma.
In this way we want to thank you all from the core of our hearts for all your divine support in all kinds of different sevās which are going on round the clock by the endless kṛpā of Śrīla Bābā Mahārāja, who is constantly encouraging and inspiring us all to do more and more sevā in the way of absolute Bhakti Siddhānta Vāṇī sevā.
We also want to express our gratitude under Śrīla Bābā Mahārāja’s divine lotus feet, for allowing us to be a part of his divine aprākṛta sevā of Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagad Guru, which is really a milestone in the way of Gauḍīya bhajana.
Our best wishes to all of you.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Thanks a lot
Truly yours in the service of Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga and Go-mātā
All the sincere and loyal servants of Śrī Bhakti Siddhānta Vāṇī Sevā Trust
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga
Dear/Blessed Devotees
Dandavat pranams to you all
𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
Five offenses to be aware of for the very next year.
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda said that–
While those on the path of karma (ritualistic action, Kamya karmas) may incur daily sins through the five kinds of violence (inherent in daily activities like cooking, walking, etc.), I, having falsely entered the path of devotion, commit five types of offenses.
1. Drinking the milk from Kṛṣṇa’s cows, enjoying the air, water, fruits, and the elements that are meant for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure, I selfishly appropriate them for my own enjoyment. Thus, without first offering them in service to Kṛṣṇa, I become an offender to Gopāla’s staff, the very symbol of His protection and care.
2. All beings are, by nature, eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa. Even the demigods are naturally servants of Kṛṣṇa. Yet I have engaged these servants of the Lord in fulfilling my worldly desires. The servants of the Lord’s household are bringing water to wash my feet; I am employing them in various services for my own comfort. Even the demigods, I treat as mere attendants for my material welfare. Thus, I become an offender to the feet of Raktaka, Patraka, Citraka, and other servants of the Lord.
3. I have made some people my friends, binding them in a semblance of friendship. But instead of following the ideal of Prahlāda and giving them the opportunity to hear and chant the glories of the Lord, I spend my days engaged in mundane conversations with them. I use them merely as fuel for my own sensual sacrifices, forgetting the true yajña of pleasing Kṛṣṇa’s senses. Hence, I become an offender at the feet of Śrīdāma, Sudāma, and other friends of the Lord.
4. As a son born on this earth to parents, I have continually drained the nourishing milk and life-sustaining substances from them to support my worldly-directed life, while failing to offer myself in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Thus, I have also failed to engage them in Kṛṣṇa’s service, instead fostering their own materialistic desires for my sensory satisfaction. Therefore, I become an offender to the feet of Śrī Yaśodā and Śrī Nanda.
5. I accepted a lawful wife with the desire to become a householder, and in my mind, I thought that as long as I was not driven by unlawful senses, there would be no difficulty for me, I am pious. (That is, I am not engaging in unlawful association( illicit sex) with women, I am associating with a lawful wife according to the Vedic method, and there is no inconvenience in this, no sin in this.) However, we forgot the teachings of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which clearly state that a person inattentive to the service of Hari is gradually brought down by māyā, who appears in the form of a lawful wife (seva), using tricks such as affection, service, etc., and eventually causes the downfall of the puruṣābhimānī (One with the ego of being a man or A person who identifies themselves as the enjoyer); Just as a traveler, unaware of a well covered by grass, walks over it, attracted by the beauty of the soft and fresh blades of grass, and suddenly falls into the hidden pit, so has my condition become inattentive to Hari-sevā. While engaging in pious association (lawful sex life) and accepting service (śuśrūṣā) from my lawful wife, I have become an offender to the lotus-feet of Lord Śrī Rāmacandra, who observed the vow of having only one wife (ekapatnī-vrata). And when my mind becomes agitated by the flood of desire upon seeing mature women and young maidens, I commit an offense at the lotus feet of debauchee Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the unmatched lover of the gopīs. I have forgotten my true nature, forgotten my eternal duty (nitya-dharma), and forgotten the kathā of my eternally eternally serviceable (sevya) entity. The one for whom all sense gratification is meant — He alone is the unmatched embodiment of transcendental amorous enjoyment (aprākṛta-sambhoga–rasa). I am merely a fuel for His yajña of enjoyment (I’m enjoyed, prakṛti), I’m not the enjoyer (I am not the bhoktā, that is, I’m not the puruṣa).