Is there boredom in chanting

Hare Krishna Maha-mantra?

 

 

It would seem from a material point of view that to chant the same sixteen word Hare Krishna maha-mantra over and over and again for many hours a day, day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade would become unbearably boring. But actually that is not the fact. Why is this so?

The reality is that by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra with devotional love one is directly associating with Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has inconceivable innumerable attributes. Even if we were to connect with just one attribute of Krishna, we could go deeper and deeper into that one attribute with ever-increasing taste and bliss for all of eternity, what to speak of innumerable attributes!

Therefore there is absolutely no question of boredom in Krishna consciousness. Rather, it is material sense gratification which is indescribably, intolerably boring.

***

Connect with Krishna, every moment

The secret of success in Krishna consciousness is to connect each and every minute of your day with Krishna. In this way, there will be no gaps for maya. Once you completely block out maya by 24 hours a day of Krishna consciousness, you will feel how you are living constantly in the association of Krishna. This is the supreme perfection of existence.

There is nothing more sublime and wonderful than this. There are so many ways we can connect with Krishna. If you get tired of connecting with Him in one way, try connecting with Him in another way. In this way, gradually, gradually you will become so purified that you will easily remain blissfully connected with Krishna for all of eternity.

***

Krishna Story 16     

THE  DANCE ON A SNAKE
by J.K. Sivan

The  rivers are always enchanting to look at,and especially in the evenings.   if one has a chance to sit on the river sand facing the running water with friends to talk about on interesting subjects, while  munching ground nuts and baked peas, in  cool breeze, there is nothing equal to it, is n’t it?  In summer particularly, such an opportunity is pleasant,  quite enjoyable and most welcome.

At one time, it was not so with the river Yamuna, because people considered it  dangerous to enter the river, or drink its water. Why so, because Yamuna always had clean crystal clear waters with facilities for people to bathe and enjoy drinking its water?   The reason for fear of nearing Yamuna was not very difficult to understand.  A  big poisonous snake  had now taken Yamuna as its refuge and turned the waters deadly poisonous and killed the animals, birds and innocent beings entering Yamuna.  Even plants too were not growing near the river!  This happened all of a sudden recently.  Heretofore  it was a paradise for the children of  Vrindhavan to swim and play in Yamuna.

The snake which now occupied Yamuna was known as Kaleeyan. He was in fight with Garuda, the eagleking, his arch enemy,   for long and escaped the attacks of Garuda by taking refuge in the deep Yamuna.  Why Kaleeyan chose Yamuna because there was a curse by a Rishi on Garudan that  if he entered Brindhavan he will meet with his death.  So Garudan cannot threaten the life of Kaleeyan if he is in Yamuna in Brindhavan!!  But  Kaleeyan posed a threat to others in Brindhavan by his presence!

There was a big  jamboo tree on the banks of Yamuna  which was very old , Its branches were over hanging the river and the boys used to climb the tree and jump into the river from the low branches above the river.

Krishna and the boys were always playing there but were prevented by elders and others not to go near the river now because of Kaleeyan’s  presence in the river.

That evening  Krishna and his friends were playing a stick game.  Everyone had a long stick with which  they will have to  hit the stick held  high by the loser  in the game.  The boy has to run and pick up his stick hit away by others, and touch the nearest one whose turn it will be to hold the stick to be hit by others.  The game was interesting for the boys and they were engrossed in it.  Suddenly Krishna lost the game and he had to hold the stick to be hit by others.  Balarama  the strongest boy  hit the stick held high above his head by Krishna.   The  boys were playing on the river bank and Krishna was standing with his back to the river.  When Balarama  hit the stick of Krishna, it fell deep into the river behind him.  Krishna has to chase the boys only after picking up his stick.  He  did not hesitate even for a moment.  He  immediately jumped into the river without caring for the warnings of others.

Other boys  shouted  "Krishna  don’t  enter the water, it is poisonous. come ashore.  Remember  the huge snake in it which will kill you" 

Krishna did not care and jumped into the water and swam towards the floating stick which was carried away by the river’s current beyond his reach.  Krishna was swimming against the current which pushed him away from his target.  Krishna  hesitated for a minute.  The stick was floating somewhere in the mid river. He  saw  a low branch of the old jamboo tree above the water level. He  caught  hold of it  and heaved himself up  and climbed the tree.  He  slowly moved through another branch to the exact place from where he could jump into the river to pick up his stick. 

Some of the boys in the meantime ran away to their homes and alerted the elders.  Within a few minutes there were many on the banks wondering what do do and how to save Krishna.  Kaleeya,  who was hungry that day with nothing to eat, was very happy to find  a  boy in the river to be his lunch. 

Dear Children, I forgot to tell you that Kaleeyan was not an ordinary snake,  He  had many heads with big hoods well spread like umbrellas. 

When Krishna jumped into the deep mid river from the tree branch, Kaleeya  was directly under him under the water.  In no time, he caught hold of Krishna, encircled and coiled him with his long tail and began crushing him.  Krishna realized that he was in a fix now and had to act fast to get rid of the huge snake.   Kaleeyan  was busy to spit the poison on Krishna to kill him and  swallow him. 

Krishna  suddenly began gaining  strength and twisted the snake away and extricated from its clutches.  The grip with which he  twisted it made Kaleeyan feel the pain and he began spitting the venom on Krishna. Krishna cleverly avoided the snake’s  efforts and decided to press its head down and jump on its spreaded hoods atop its heads. 

Before long, Krishna was now on top of Kaleeyan’s heads thumping and jumping on the spreaded hoods applying  crushing weight  and pressure to break the skulls of the snake and damage the brains of  Kalyeeyan.  Those standing in awe looking at  Krishna  imagined that Krishna  was joyously jumping and dancing on Kaleeyan’s head, holding his tail in one hand and playing his flute which he always kept in the waist bound by a cloth. The  impact of Krishna’s increased weight and force  slowly made  Kalyeen lose his consciousness and he was about to die.  His  wives who heard the  painful cries of Kaleeyan,  surfaced up from down the river and prayed to Krishna to spare the life of Kaleeyan showing mercy on him for their sake.

Kaleeyan  also begged   "Krishna”, please forgive me for my stupid act done without knowing who you are and please  show mercy on me. I will not do any harm to anyone hereafter”  Krishna took a pledge from him to leave the Yamuna river before night to some other place without harming anyone in future"

Krishna then jumped from Kaleeyan’s  heads to the tree branch and landed ashore,  amidst the  delightful  shoutings of the boys and appreciation of the elders who were witness to this marvelous feat of Krishna.

I read somewhere  Kaleeyan thereafter  moved to some river or ocean near Fiji islands.  But we have not heard anymore about Kaleeyan and need not worry about entering Yamuna for bathing and worshipping Krishna thanking him for the redemption of the beautiful and holy river for us.

Children! we  all enjoy snake dance by young girls in groups  in many dance programmes, but whenever we see the picture of Krishna dancing on Kaleeya’s hooded heads, kept and  worshipped in our Pooja rooms  we can enjoy the beautify of his beaming face having no fear. Remember when Krishna is in our minds there will be no fear at all!

The  rivers are always enchanting to look at and especially in the evenings if one has a chance to sit on the riversand facing the running water with friends to talk about on interesting subjects, munching ground nuts and baked peas, enjoying the cool breeze, there is nothing equal to it, is n’t it?  In summer particularly, such an opportunity is heavenly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The author can be reached at: jksivan@gmail.com

 

 

Chant Krishna's names and become soft-hearted

tad aśma-sāraṁ hṛdayaṁ batedaṁ
yad gṛhyamāṇair hari-nāma-dheyaiḥ
na vikriyetātha yadā vikāro
netre jalaṁ gātra-ruheṣu harṣaḥ

“Certainly that heart is steel-framed which, in spite of one's chanting the holy name of the Lord with concentration, does not change when ecstasy takes place, tears fill the eyes and the hairs stand on end.”
--Srimad Bhagavatam


So hard-hearted is the heart of someone who does not melt with ecstasy while chanting the holy names, while soft-hearted is the heart which does melt with ecstasy while chanting Hare Krishna. The way to achieve a soft heart is to carefully chant these sweet names every day:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

In this way the hardened steel heart will gradually become like molten gold as one learns to relish the experience of directly associating with Lord Sri Krishna in pure love.

***

Krishna is unborn

Krishna is not born. He is the unborn source of all existence. Nor are His avatars created by Brahma. Rather it is Brahma who is born from an expansion of an expansion of an expansion of an expansion of an expansion of an expansion of Krishna. I

n other words from Krishna comes Balarama; from Balarama comes Sankarsana; from Sankarsana comes Narayana; from Narayana, the second Sankarsana; from the second Sankarsana, Maha-Vishnu; from Maha-Vishnu, Garbhodakasayi Vishnu from whom Lord Brahma takes his birth.

Although Krishna appears in different forms corresponding to the 8,400,000 species created by Lord Brahma, He does so by His own free will out of His causeless mercy upon the fallen souls of this world, not by the creative power of Lord Brahma.

***

Krishna Story 15        

Krishna, the Gopalan of Brindavan
by J.K. Sivan

You  all know  what is GOKULAASHTAMI, is not it?  The  Ashtami day in which Lord Krishna was born in the month of Sravan (Aavani in tamil).   A special sweet is prepared that day in many houses  called  SEEDAI  (with jaggery,coconut, rice flour etc., fried in oil) which is very delicious to eat.   In this story, you will learn about  GOPAASHTAMI!!    This is celebrated in the month of KAARTHIKAI, Suklapaksham,(from new moon day to full moon) Ashtami.  This is the day  Krishna was recognized as a full fledged Gopa  to tend the cows independently.  Most Krishna temples in the north celebrate this day. 

The Cowherds of  Brindhavan  were systematic in their practices.  All the cows would be attended by the men whereas chidren would be trained to look after the calves. Once they were trained and  found to be capable of independently put in charge of grazing the cows, be with them from dawn to dusk, to safe guard them from natural and man made obstacles, they will be entrusted the task of taking out the cows in herds.  The  day Krishna was recognized as a Gopa, was celebrated in a grand manner in Brindhavan  by decorating the calves and cows with paints on their  horns, new bells around their necks, colourful cloths tied around their necks, with Turmeric, vermilion designs on their foreheads. and garlands around their necks.  Every house in Brindhavan as usual  had a festive look with rangolis, paintings on the front walls, distribution of various sweetmeats and dances besides chorus singing by gopis.

Krishnan, Balaraman and the other boys of Brindhavan village, therefore  have been all along entrusted with the task of playing with the calves only to know them, learn their requirements and fulfil them,  cater to their needs,  take them out not far away within safe zones etc.,   As  such  every cowherd boy by the time he is about  10 year old  or so  would have  gained the experience of  confidently looking after the grown up calves, now, cows, taking them out for grazing in far off  places independently.

With  Krishna  everything is different is n’t it?  On the day  he proceeded with the boys as usual with the calves and cows, someone else was also waiting to celebrate the day in a different manner!!  Who could it be other than a demon sent by the demon king Kamsan? 

The demon was known as Dhenukasuran,

Krishna told Balraman and the other boys   “Let us all go to the yonder Thaal van, where it is dense with trees and  large grass fields. Dhenukaasuran was also there waiting for Krishna in the form of an Ass.  He used his powerful hindlegs to attack and kill whoever neared him. 

“Krishna  look at the  big  Ass staring at us!” shouted a few boys.  The Ass was looking fierce and standing still with red blood shot eyes.  After  observing the boys for some time  the Ass slowly walked towards the boys.  A few boys  threw stones at it and ran away which irritated Dhenukaasuran.

Balaraman  was now close to it and within a split second the demon turned back and began raising his hind legs to hit him.  Balaram  was quick enough to avoid the impact and shouted “Krishna, run away from this Ass,  It suddenly hits back very powerful giving death blows”   Now  Dhenukasuran recognised his main target Krishna identified by Balaraman"calling him by name.

He  moved towards  Krishna  who was closely watching the demon.  The moment the ass turned its back and aimed to  kick using its  hind legs at him, he was swift enough to catch hold of one of the hind legs and swing it using its own force around.  Dhenukasuran lost his balance when caught by Krishna.

Krishna’s  enormous strength was not known to Dhenukasuran.  He  underestimated Krishna as a  small cowherd boy.   When he tried best to extricate his leg from Krishna by hitting with the other leg,  Krishna  who was waiting for the chance caught hold of the other leg also.  Now  Dhenukasuran was fully at the mercy of Krishna.  But Krishna gave him no chance.  He  lifted him with full force and  after swinging him around high above threw him with full force against the rock near by.  Dhenukasuran flew in the sky and landed on the rock in full force which broke his bones.  He  was unable to move and bleated loud in pain.

Within moments,  Dhenukasuran breathed his last and lay dead in his demonic form.  The  cowherd boys were shocked to see the dead demon who came in the form of an Ass.  Krishna was unperturbed and was as usual smiling at them.  

 Dear Children, don’t you know how shrewd,  Krishna has always been a  clever boy ever ready for any attack on him as he was aware of the  plans of Kamsa to kill him but he had better counter plans which Kamsa did not know.

The boys were busy that evening explaining with joy and extreme happiness admiring their friend Krishna’s  miraculous feats for the day in dealing with the Ass Demon which was shared equally with same joy and admiration by their parents.     




                                             The author can be reached at: jksivan@gmail.com