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. ......

Prayers by Queen Kunti- 1.8.18 - The Lord is inconceivable

Heard from various lectures by HG Narayani Mataji, HH Romapada Swami and  HDG Srila Prabhupada.

Kunti Devi begins her prayers by offering her obeisances to Him and expressing her devotion through heartfelt prayers. She begins by glorifying the various potencies of the Lord. She is not offering her prayers to Lord Krishna because He is her nephew. Neither is she is distressed of His leaving just because of Her family ties with Him- she is distressed at His departure because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Through the beginning verses of her prayers she establishes for people like us that Krishna is not an ordinary human being but he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus we must offer our lives and attention in loving service to Him.

The crisis of the war and also of the danger to the child in Uttara's womb is over - Krishna prepares to start for Dwarka. However as He is leaving , one of His great devotees Kunti Devi expresses her distress.She had observed how Krishna had simultaneously protected the Pandavas from outside and Maharaja Pariksit from the inside(of Uttara's womb).Astonished , she was convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 1.8.18  kunty uvāca

namasye puruṣam tvādyam īśvaram prakṛteh param
alakṣyam sarva-bhūtānām antar bahir avasthitam

Śrīmatī Kuntī said: O Kṛṣṇa, I offer my obeisances unto You because You are the original personality and are unaffected by the qualities of the material world. You are existing both within and without everything, yet You are invisible to all.

• Namasye purusam tvadyam isvaram prakrteh param
• So Krsna, although He happened to be nephew of Kunti... Kunti was Krsna's father's sister. But because (s)he was devotee, she knew that "Krsna also, although He is playing the part of my nephew, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
• You are the original personality unaffected by the qualities of material nature . tu adyam- you were the controller before the creation and will also remain the controller after this creation- You are the beyond the material world
• You are the Supreme Controller.. Within the prakrti, within the material nature, everything has got beginning and end, limited. You are not that kind of controller." Prakrteh param, eternal.
• alaksyam sarva bhutanam antar bahir avasthitam -
•  She puts forward a question.You are present everywhere , within and without everything - yet you are invisible to all?- No one can actually know you. I saw You protect the Pandavas with Your Chakra, and I know as the Supersoul you entered Uttara's womb to protect her embryo. You now sit directly before me on a chariot? Are you localized? All pervading or both?

 How can we see God?

Although the Lord is everywhere within and without everything - he still remains unrecognized. Krsna is standing in a human like form as Kunti's nephew engaging in human like activities despite the fact that He is Supremely Powerful.

Srila Prabhupada states in his lecture as to How we Can see God?

"So God reveals Himself to the devotee. Although... Just like Prahlada Maharaja was seeing that Nrsimhadeva has come, and his father, atheist father, he was challenging, "Where is your God?" So God is everywhere, but He is not visible to the nondevotee. But one who is devotee, he can see Him. Every... Not only once. Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva [Bs. 5.38]. Sadaiva means always. He is seeing always Krsna. That is the position of saintly person. Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva hrdayesu [Bs. 5.38]. Hrdayesu, in the heart, vilokayanti, they see.

So if you can see God, you can talk with God, if you can go back to home, back to God, why should you lose this opportunity? This opportunity is in the human being. You can see God, you can talk with God, you can go back home, back to God. Everything is possible. And that is Krsna consciousness movement."

Therefore we must follow the process of Krishna Consciousness very sincerely so that we can also see the Lord one day.

Transcendental taste for the narrations of Hari

SB 12.4.40: For a person who is suffering in the fire of countless miseries and who desires to cross the insurmountable ocean of material existence, there is no suitable boat except that of cultivating devotion to the transcendental taste for the narrations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's pastimes.

One should concentrate the mind on Me with great attention.

SB 11.14.27: The mind of one meditating upon the objects of sense gratification is certainly entangled in such objects, but if one constantly remembers Me, then the mind is absorbed in Me.

SB 11.14.28: Therefore, one should reject all material processes of elevation, which are like the mental creations of a dream, and should completely absorb one's mind in Me. By constantly thinking of Me, one becomes purified.

SB 11.14.29: Being conscious of the eternal self, one should give up association with women and those intimately associated with women. Sitting fearlessly in a solitary place, one should concentrate the mind on Me with great attention.

Hearing and Chanting regains our ability to see the Lord

SB 11.14.26: When a diseased eye is treated with medicinal ointment it gradually recovers its power to see. Similarly, as a conscious living entity cleanses himself of material contamination by hearing and chanting the pious narrations of My glories, he regains his ability to see Me, the Absolute Truth, in My subtle spiritual form.

SB 11.14.20: My dear Uddhava, the unalloyed devotional service rendered to Me by My devotees brings Me under their control. I cannot be thus controlled by those engaged in mystic yoga, Sāńkhya philosophy, pious work, Vedic study, austerity or renunciation.

SB 11.14.21: Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith in Me can one obtain Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am naturally dear to My devotees, who take Me as the only goal of their loving service. By engaging in such pure devotional service, even the dog-eaters can purify themselves from the contamination of their low birth.

SB 11.14.22: Neither religious activities endowed with honesty and mercy nor knowledge obtained with great penance can completely purify one's consciousness if they are bereft of loving service to Me.

We are always alone - only Krishna can fill our loneliness

A few posts from HH Radhanath Swami's lectures that help us understand loneliness and how to overcome it in Krishna Consciousness can be found here:
http://radhanathswamivani.blogspot.com/search/label/overcoming%20loneliness
SB 10.49.21 Every creature is born alone and dies alone, and alone one experiences the just rewards of his good and evil deeds.

Akrura says this to Dhritarashtra to encourage him to overcome the affection he has for his sons. That affection caused him to be unjust towards the Pandavas in many situations. It blocked his affection for the Pandavas.

Dhritarashtra had come alone, would die alone and also during his lifetime he was experiencing his blindness alone. If there was pain in his body he could not reduce it by sharing the pain amongst his sons.

Any other karmic reaction  he would have to suffer it alone.

We are in denial about our loneliness
Similarly in our lives, we are alone in the womb of our mothers, we are born alone and we die alone.

We live our lives surrounded by family and friends but we are still alone in facing our karma, our anxieties, our fears. We may take help from devotees, but ultimately we have to alone suffer and alone take steps to address our fears and tolerate the reactions to our karma.

We are in denial of our loneliness and we usually surround ourselves with our loved ones.

However we are still lonely inside and that loneliness can only be filled by the presence of Lord Krishna in our lives.The more we are committed to following our Guru's instructions and remaining committed to our relationship with Krishna the more we will fill Krishna in our hearts.

Else we will remain in denial about our loneliness by filling our hearts with satisfaction from bodily relationships, satisfaction from mundane material achievement and all otehr things that satisfy the wants of our various bodily designations.

The 7th verse of the siksastakam says:

yugayitam nimesena caksusa pravsiyatam

sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda virehena me

O Govinda! Feeling Your separations I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.

We fill vacant on our lives as well but we do not understand that is due to Krishna's absence from our lives.


A few posts from HH Radhanath Swami's lectures that help us understand loneliness and how to overcome it in Krishna Consciousnes can be found here:


http://radhanathswamivani.blogspot.com/search/label/overcoming%20loneliness