Prayers by Queen kunti- Verses 23- 25 Bridging the Gap

Bridging the gap between our consciousness and Queen Kunti's consciousness is a tall order.We are very far removed from the spiritual realm to understand her mood and consciousness. However a sincere attempt however insignificant will be pleasing to the Lord and therefore we try even if we know we may fail.

Below we will examine some of Queen Kunti's qualities that set her apart from us. We will also try to examine our own consciousness and based on the teachings of the parampara see how we can bridge the gap:

• The spiritual conception - identification as a spirit soul who is the servant of the Lord
• We have a strong identification with our material identity. This identification bewilders us in difficult situations as all that we identify with seems to be at stake. We become fearful and anxious about losing those gross and subtle "things" that define our material identity. We get further lost in trying to protect ourselves. Its a huge stab on our false ego because we realize we are powerless and are not able to do anything to protect ourselves.
• Kunti Maharani on the other hand maintains her poise because she was firmly situated in the spiritual conception
  
• She had full understanding of the Lord's position, she had full connection with her identity as a spirit soul - an eternal servant of the Lord and she was fully situated in her relationship as the Lord's servant and part and parcel. Service to the Lord and the Lord's association were the only things of value for her- nothing else mattered.
• She did not care if she lost "anything"  because she did not identify with anyone save and except the Lord and His service.
• Cultivating Gratitude:
• I read a quote by HH Radhanath Swami(on his facebook page) on gratitude "Of all disgraceful behavior, there is nothing worse than ingratitude."Kunti Maharani had gratitude for the Lord that He was present with them in times of difficulty- she was very thankful for the protection that He awarded on them- she was not complaining that why was there calamity in the first place if You were there with us- because of her spiritual conception she did not care for anything save and except the association of the Lord.
• We on the other hand because of our strong identification with matter feel incomplete in our lives constantly. Because we define our lives based on matter- anything missing makes us feel incomplete compared to others and hence we are constantly complaining.
• As we try to situate ourselves more and more in the spiritual identity we must mindfully  cultivate gratitude for all that Lord Krishna has given to us.What would our lives have been without all the opportunities for service, without the Holy Name, Srila Prabhupada's books, association of devotees, and prasad. We would not be able to get closer to Krishna at all.
• Mindfully reminding ourselves of our good fortune is a good exercise for us to brace ourselves in times of difficulty.
• We must also remember that each part of Krishna is a Complete Whole- we being parts and parcels of Krishna are Complete to the extent to which we identify ourselves as a soul is who is an eternal servant of Krishna. Our identification with matter makes us feel incomplete even if matter seems to be equipped to fulfill our desires- our identification with it makes us feel incomplete.
• Understand why this is happening to me:
• In HG Narayani Mataji's seminar on Prayers of Kunti Maharani she says that only if we understand properly why the difficult times are upon us can we respond in a proper way when the times way. What is that proper way- to respond as a servant of Krishna would.
• Why is this happening to me?
1. Past desire
2. Past prayer
3. Test us- we should not complain
4. Make us more dependent
5. To shake us from our complacency
6. To make us aware of our real identity- we are not controllers but servants
7. To show us how miserable this place is
8. Our own Karma
9. Krishna's plan
10. By giving difficulty Krishna takes away the bad thing

How should we respond to Difficulties?

1. Take shelter of the Vaishnavas
2. Depend on Him more - through chanting, hearing, reading, serving
3. Correcting our mistakes- Becoming free from my body
   From Bhurijana Prabhu's notes in "Unveiling His Lotus Feet"
   Understand what Krishna wants me to understand from this
   Bhurijana Prabhu says : Life's real challenge is to transform difficulties into sources of freedom- sever material attachment and seek Krishna's shelter. Hold on more tightly to Krishna
4. Krishna is minimizing my karma - like Kunti Devi
5. Prayer 
6. Engage in service- Prahlada Maharaja says 7.19.17 - only remedy is to engage in your service
   "Although there are many remedies by which to get out of miserable life, any such remedies in the material world are more miserable than the miseries themselves. Therefore I think that the only remedy is to engage in Your service. Kindly instruct me in such service."
   Attempts to mitigate the miseries of material existence by material methods will never be successful. One must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness to become really happy;
   "My Lord Nṛsiḿhadeva, O Supreme, because of a bodily conception of life, embodied souls neglected and not cared for by You cannot do anything for their betterment. Whatever remedies they accept, although perhaps temporarily beneficial, are certainly impermanent. For example, a father and mother cannot protect their child, a physician and medicine cannot relieve a suffering patient, and a boat on the ocean cannot protect a drowning man"
7. Change your attitude towards service 
8. Gratefully search for Krishna's love in that difficulty like Kunti Maharani did
9. Chance to remember Krishna
10. Somehow or other contact Krishna when in danger- if you have DS then you can use any of the 9 processes to contact Krishna
11. A servant does not complain - but accepts
12. even great exalted pure devotees go through difficulties- then what is my position and audacity to not expect difficulties
13. This is just a token - I deserve worse

How to care for yourself /others who are going through calamity?

1. Do not deny your/their feelings - it is natural to be affected emotionally
2. Give compassion to yourself/others for your situation
3. Resolve your feelings
4. Help yourself/others maintain your integrity as a devotee by not responding to difficulties in a non- Krishna Conscious way
5. .....
6. ......

Prahlada Maharaj Pacifies the Lord with prayers

7.9.1-7.9.4: Prahlada Maharaj is unafraid of Narsimha Dev's form

7.9.5: Narsimha Dev is very pleased to see Prahlada and He places His hand on Prahalada Maharaj's head. "the Lord placed His lotus hand upon the boy's head because His hand is always ready to create fearlessness in all of His devotees"
The only means to become fearless is Krsna Consciousness. The devotee's hope of becoming fearless is to chant the Holy Name of the Lord Narsimha deva.

7.9.9-7.9.12 Offering prayers to the Lord is beneficial to the devotee.

7.9.9-10 - No amount of material qualities and Brahminical qualifications please the Lord. The Lord is pleased by sincere devotional service.

7.9.10-7.9.11 The Lord is completely full and self-satisfied. - he does need service from anyone. Whatever service we offer is for our benefit.Thus, whatever our position we must offer prayers and service with full endeavor as much as our intelligence allows. This will purify us and remove us from material life. Even if Prahlada Maharaj was born in a demoniac family - since the Lord is pleased by only devotion and nothing else being born in a demoniac family did not become his disqualification.

Connecting the threads from 7.9.9-10 and 7.9.10-11 - the Lord is pleased if we make the endeavor of offering glorification and service to Him, even if he does not need it. He is pleased because by doing so we get purified and free from material life. Lord Narsimha Dev ki jai - the Lord's reason for pleasure is amazing.This is unconditional love.

7.9.15-7.9.16 Prahlada Maharaj is not fearful of the form of the Lord as he has the realization that shelter of the Lord's Lotus feet are the ultimate goal for liberation from conditional life.

7.9.17-21 No remedy to get out of material anxiety is complete and full proof except for the remedy of engaging in the Lord's service
Remedies are temporary and impermanent.
How can anyone get out of Maya(Krishna's energy without taking shelter of Krishna

7.9.22-25 I want only Your shelter and the association of devotees. I dont want to go to the higher planets nor desire any material pleasures. My father acheived everything but he was vanquished by you in a moment. Those pleasures are thus temporary and You are most powerful and can destroy them through Your energy of time. I dont want anything except for Your shelter and the association and service of your pure devotee.
There is no happiness in this material world.

7.9.26-7.9.29Service to pure devotee must be done before aspiring for personal service of the Lord. You reciprocate as per the devotee's service attitude. As for me I recd your mercy even if I was born in a demoniac family because of the connection with Narada Muni who is Your pure devotee.Thus please bless me that I can serve him(7.9.24)

7.9.30- You act to prove true the words of Your devotee.
Lord saved Prahlada to fulfill the promise in BG(my devotee never perishes - na me bhaktya pranasyati.Also to fulfill Narada Muni's promise to Kayadhu that Prahlada would always be saved from the enemy's hands.

7.9.39-42 Mind is polluted with desires, thus it is not satisfied with topics concerning You.How will I then be able to discuss Your activities.My senses are also extremely agitated. You are stading on the otehr side of this river of death. Only by Your mercy it is possible that we can be delivered. Therefore please look upon not only on me but also on others who are suffering.

7.9.43-44 Extent of Prahlada Maharaj's compassion
I am not afraid of material existence because I am absorbed in Your glories and activities. I am concerend of the others who are completely involved in material existence.I do not wish to be liberated alone like other saintly persons who go to the Himalayas.Without Your shelter one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to the suffering souls back to the shelter of Your Lotus feet.

7.9.45: Pleasure in sex life is like the pleasure in relieving an itch.It is the greatest form of distress.Those who can tolerate this itch are not subjected to the suffering of those who cannot.

7.950:Therefore, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, the best of all persons to whom prayers are offered, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because without rendering six kinds of devotional service unto You — offering prayers, dedicating all the results of activities, worshiping You, working on Your behalf, always remembering Your lotus feet and hearing about Your glories — who can achieve that which is meant for the paramahaḿsas?

Serving Vaishnavas gives freedom from material contamination

SB 7.5.32
Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of the Lord, who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way can one be freed from material contamination.

Vaikuntha Consciousness - everyone is a friend

We think of someone in terms of friend or enemies when we are situated in duality - when we are worried about losing something to someone we consider that person our enemy and when we feel we are gaining something from someone we consider them are friends. Because we are in the material conception of life our relationships are also based on the material conception we carry.

However a spiritually elevated person does not make this distinction - for him everyone is a friend and he is a well-wisher of everyone. He sees everyone as a servant of Krishna and a part and parcel of Krishna. Because he is situated in the spiritual conception , he is not disturbed by duality, he is satisfied in executing devotional service to the lord. Because he desires only service and desires that all living entities experience the taste of devotional service to the Lord he considers everyone his friend.

Prahlada Maharaj clarifies this in SB 7.5.12:

When the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pleased with the living entity because of his devotional service, one becomes a paṇḍita and does not make distinctions between enemies, friends and himself. Intelligently, he then thinks, "Every one of us is an eternal servant of God, and therefore we are not different from one another."

So the neither is the Lord an enemy of anyone and neither is His sincere devotee.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu states "jivera ssvarupa haya- krsnera nitya dasa" - the eternal nature of a living entity is to be a servant of Krsna. Srila Prabhupada elaborates in this regard "As servants of the Lord, we are one, and there can be no questions of enmity or friendship. If one actually understands that every one of us is a servant of the Lord, where is the question of enemy or friend?"

Since the servants of the Lord desire only that the Lord be served and glorified in the best possible way how can there be any question of animosity or envy?
Animosity would come in if the servants were also looking for some satisfaction to their ego - but when Krishna is the center and all servants think about how best He can be served then there is no question of enmity.

I also heard in a class by HH Radhanath Maharaj that Prahlada Maharaj considered everyone as his friend because everyone helped him remember Krishna even the demons who were killing him and even his father Krinayaksipu who was envious of him and wanted to kill him. Infact he prayed to Narsimha dev for his fathers liberation.

Srila Prabhupada then wonderfully elaborates the relationship between the servants and their consciousness in service:

"Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another's service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaiṣṇava thinking, Vaikuṇṭha thinking. There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition. There is no question of enmity between servants. Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability, and everyone should appreciate the service of others. Such are the activities of Vaikuṇṭha. Since everyone is a servant, everyone is on the same platform and is allowed to serve the Lord according to his ability."

We see an example of this in the description of Vaikuntha in SB 3.15.18-19

"Although flowering plants like the mandāra, kunda, kurabaka, utpala, campaka, arṇa, punnāga, nāgakeśara, bakula, lily and pārijāta are full of transcendental fragrance, they are still conscious of the austerities performed by tulasī, for tulasī is given special preference by the Lord, who garlands Himself with tulasī leaves."

Srila Prabhupada states in the purport "The most important thing about the spiritual world is that there is no envy among the devotees there. This is true even among the flowers, which are all conscious of the greatness of tulasī."

If this can be developed in our consciousness we will be able to serve Krishna in a much more attentively and enthusiastically and thus glorify Krishna.