Vaishnava Dealings: How to never be affected by the three fold miseries of the world

When Narada Muni sees Dhruva feeling insulted by the sharp words of his step mother, he instructs him in the aspect of tolerance and relationships in the following way:

1. SB 4.8.28: My dear Dhruva, if you feel that your sense of honor has been insulted, you still have no cause for dissatisfaction. This kind of dissatisfaction is another feature of the illusory energy; every living entity is controlled by his previous actions, and therefore there are different varieties of life for enjoying or suffering.
1. Purport 4.8.28: Nārada Ṛṣi first of all wanted to impress upon Dhruva Mahārāja that he was only a child; he should not have been affected by words of insult or honor. And if he were so developed as to understand honor and insult, then this understanding should have been applied in his own life. He should have known that honor and dishonor are both destined only by one’s previous actions; therefore one should not be sorry or happy under any circumstances.
2. Purport 4.8.27: Ordinarily if a child is rebuked as a rascal or fool, he smiles and does not take such insulting words very seriously. Similarly, if words of honor are offered, he does not appreciate them. But in the case of Dhruva Mahārāja, the kṣatriyaspirit was so strong that he could not tolerate a slight insult from his stepmother which injured his kṣatriya prestige.
2. Purport 4.8.29 Essence: 
1.  Everyone who is intelligent should know that because of our concept of bodily existence, we are subjected to suffering and enjoyment. One who is in the transcendental position, beyond the concept of bodily life, is considered to be intelligent.
3. SB 4.8.33: "One should try to keep himself satisfied in any condition of life — whether distress or happiness — which is offered by the supreme will. A person who endures in this way is able to cross over the darkness of nescience very easily."
1. Purport 4.8.33: Instead of being attached to the circumstantial happiness and distress resulting from pious or impious activities, if we want to get out of the clutches of this nescience, then whatever position we are put in by the will of the Lord we should accept. Thus if we simply surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we shall get out of the clutches of this material existence.
4. SB 4.8.34: Every man should act like this: when he meets a person more qualified than himself, he should be very pleased; when he meets someone less qualified than himself, he should be compassionate toward him; and when he meets someone equal to himself, he should make friendship with him. In this way one is never affected by the threefold miseries of this material world.
1. Purport: Generally when we find someone more qualified than
   
   ourselves, we become envious of him; when we find someone less qualified, we deride him; and when we find someone equal we become very proud of our activities. These are the causes of all material tribulations. 
2. The great sage Nārada therefore advised that a devotee should act perfectly. Instead of being envious of a more qualified man, one should be jolly to receive him.
3.  Instead of being oppressive to a less qualified man, one should be compassionate toward him just to raise him to the proper standard.
4.  And when one meets an equal, instead of being proud of one’s own activities before him, one should treat him as a friend. 
5. One should also have compassion for the people in general, who are suffering due to forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. These important functions will make one happy within this material world.

What is the meaning of taking shelter of the Lord's Lotus Feet?

I heard this in a class by HG Vraja bihari Prabhu sometime in 2011 maybe:

What is the meaning of taking shelter of the Lord's Lotus Feet?

• Physical Darshan
• Humility, want to serve Krsna, become a servant of Krsna and His devotees. Take a humble position. Follow instructions

What is the qualification to take darshan of His Lotus Feet?

• Attachment to hearing and Chanting about Krsna
• Non enviousness
• Hold on to the Holy Name - Kaliya was envious but by allowing Krsna to dance on his head all his dirty poison came out. Similarly if we hold on to the Lord;s Holy Name we will be cured of our envy.

How to meditate on Krsna's Lotus Feet?

• Take Darshan step by step from His Lotus Feet progressively upwards finally to His face.
• Follow the instructions of the spiritual master.

The message of tolerance given by Suta Goswami after Maharaj Pariksit leaves his body

Identification with the body leads to despair

SB 12.6.32: Those who desire to give up all that is not essentially real move systematically, by negative discrimination of the extraneous, to the supreme position of Lord Viṣṇu. Giving up petty materialism, they offer their love exclusively to the Absolute Truth within their hearts and embrace that highest truth in fixed meditation.

SB 12.6.33: Such devotees come to understand the supreme transcendental situation of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, because they are no longer polluted by the concepts of "I" and "my," which are based on body and home.

SB 12.6.34: One should tolerate all insults and never fail to show proper respect to any person. Avoiding identification with the material body, one should not create enmity with anyone.

We just read about tolerance in the previous post Tolerate where Lord Krishna concludes the pastime of the Avanti Brahmana and mentions that one must just toleate the externals and remained fixed and safe in their spiritual position.

In the verses above we see a similar message being said by Suta Goswami. He says this after he narrates the pastime of Maharaj Pariksit leaving his body.Thus those who understand transcendental knowledge and the impermanence of the material retrain their minds very systematically and carefully giving up petty materialism and reposing their love in Lord Sri Krsna.

Once they are successful in giving up the concepts of "I" and "Mine" they can clearly understand the Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna. They are not attracted to matter any more because of their careful cultivation. Also they do not entangle themselves in matter and thus tolerate all types of insults because they do not identify with the material body. They are not affected by the insults at all.

Since they are situated in the spiritual conception and act on the platform of the soul they offer respect to everyone around them as they see everyone as a part of parcel of their most lovable Lord.

Practical application:

I am not this body made of flesh, pus, stool, and urine.

• I am the soul - I am not this body
• I heard Jaya Jagannath Prabhu say in Chicago that our vision of the world and of people is autobiographical - we follow the principle " atmavan Manyate jagat".
• Thus if we consider ourselves as matter we will view others also as matter , but when we understand ourselves as a soul , as a part and parcel of Krishna then we will be able to see others also as parts and parcels of Krishna.

 Thus by careful cultivation we must try to situate ourselves in our eternal identity as a spirit soul and stop identifying with our body. Srila Prabhupada in most of his lectures emphasizes this very fact the application of which is fundamental to our Krishna Consciousness.

How to overcome envy?

From Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 9.11.23:


Here in this material world, everyone is envious of someone else. Even in religious life, it is sometimes found that if one devotee has advanced in spiritual activities, other devotees are envious of him. Such envious devotees are not completely freed from the bondage of birth and death. As long as one is not completely free from the cause of birth and death, one cannot enter the sanātana-dhāma or the eternal pastimes of the Lord. One becomes envious because of being influenced by the designations of the body, but the liberated devotee has nothing to do with the body, and therefore he is completely on the transcendental platform. A devotee is never envious of anyone, even his enemy. Because the devotee knows that the Lord is his supreme protector, he thinks, "What harm can the so-called enemy do?" Thus a devotee is confident about his protection. The Lord says, ye yathā māḿ prapadyante tāḿs tathaiva bhajāmy aham: [Bg. 4.11] "According to the proportion of one's surrender unto Me, I respond accordingly." A devotee must therefore be completely free from envy, especially of other devotees. To envy other devotees is a great offense, a vaiṣṇava-aparādha. A devotee who constantly engages in hearing and chanting (śravaṇa-kīrtana) is certainly freed from the disease of envy, and thus he becomes eligible to go back home, back to Godhead.

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.

The Lord is impartial : we can understand that if we are not envious

In SB 7.1.1 King Pariksit asks Suta Goswami as to why the Lord became partial towards Indra and helped him kill his enemies(Hiranyaksa, Hiranyakasipu, Vrtrasura, etc). Since the Lord says that He is suhrda-sarva-bhutanam [Bg. 5.29], the well-wisher of all living entities, how could He act with partiality by killing demons?

To this Sukadeva Goswami replies (from purport to 7.1.8)"The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not partial to anyone. Everyone works under the influence of various modes of material nature, and when the various modes are prominent, the demigods or demons appear victorious under the influence of these modes." Also because we are covered we cannot fathom the activities of the Lord and consider Him to be partial.

And then Sukadeva Goswami finally says in SB7.1.9 "The all-pervading Personality of Godhead exists within the heart of every living being, and an expert thinker can perceive how He is present there to a large or small extent. Just as one can understand the supply of fire in wood, the water in a waterpot, or the sky within a pot, one can understand whether a living entity is a demon or a demigod by understanding that living entity's devotional performances. A thoughtful man can understand how much a person is favored by the Supreme Lord by seeing his actions."

The essence is the Lord is not partial, He is equally available to everyone.His favor on us depends on our receptivity. As Srila Prabhupada explains this very nicely in his purport : "A teacher instructs the student if the student is capable of taking more and more instructions. Otherwise, in spite of being instructed by the teacher, the student cannot make strides in his understanding. This has nothing to do with partiality. When Krsna says tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatam priti-purvakam/ dadami buddhi-yogam tam, this indicates that Krsna is prepared to give bhakti-yoga to everyone, but one must be capable of receiving it. That is the secret. Thus when a person exhibits wonderful devotional activities, a thoughtful man understands that Krsna has been more favorable to this devotee.

Non-Enviousness
Thus devotees must be non-envious and must understand that Krsna has bestowed His favor upon a devotee owing to his advanced position and because of that Krsna does not become partial. We must not become envious and try to minimize the devotee's activities.

A Vaishnava should thus be nirmatsara - non envious and must appreciate the service rendered to the Lord by other devotees.

Srila Prabhupada further elaborates with an analogy:

"Krsna is equal to everyone, and according to one's ability to receive the favor of Krsna, one advances in Krsna consciousness. Srila Vishwanatha Cakravarti Thakura gives a practical example in this connection. In the sky there are many luminaries. At night, even in darkness, the moon is extremely brilliant and can be directly perceived. The sun is also extremely brilliant. When covered by clouds, however, these luminaries are not distinctly visible. Similarly, the more one advances in sattva-guna, the more his brilliance is exhibited by devotional service, but the more one is covered by rajo-guna and tamo-guna, the less visible his brilliance, for he is covered by these qualities. The visibility of one's qualities does not depend on the partiality of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; it is due to various coverings in different proportions. Thus one can understand how far he has advanced in terms of sattva-guna and how much he is covered by rajo-guna and tamo-guna."

Vaikuntha atmosphere: Hearing and chanting in association of devotees

Lord Vishnu being pleased with the austerities of the Pracetas comes before them and blessed them with His beautiful darshan.He expressed His pleasure with the Pracetas and requested them to ask for a benediction in SB4.30.8. The Pracetas offer their prayers glorifying the Lord and state that association of pure devotees in the only benediction they ask for and it is the highest benediction. They then glorify the benefits of hearing and chanting in the association of devotees in verses SB 4.30.35-37.

"Whenever pure topics of the transcendental world are discussed, the members of the audience forget all kinds of material hankerings, at least for the time being. Not only that, but they are no longer envious of one another, nor do they suffer from anxiety or fear."

• Audience forget material hankerings
• No longer envious of each other:By vibrating or discussing the Holy Name of the Lord, one becomes non-envious and devoid of material hankering.
  
• Free from anxiety and fear
• Lord Narayana Himself is present

The above three indicate a Vaikuntha atmosphere and therefore hearing and chanting in the association of devotees is the highest benediction given to us.
Srila Prabhupada says "The living entities who have accepted this material world as a residence are full of anxiety. A place immediately becomes Vaikuntha whenever the holy topics of the Personality of Godhead are discussed by pure devotees. "

And from SB 3.25.25

• Pastimes of the Lord are pleasing and satisfying to the mind and heart
• One can become free from material attraction
• Attraction to Krsna becomes fixed
• Real devotion and devotional service begins