Narayana Krishna

Maharishi Śuka continued,

“As Krishna and Balarama spent their days in Brindavan, the monsoon gave way to autumn. Cool breeze began to blow gently. The waters in the pond began to crystallize.

Just as those who have slipped from the path of Yoga experience pleasantness upon re-starting their Yogic austerities, with the onset of autumn, the season which causes lotuses to bloom, the water in the ponds regained its original sweetness and purity.

Just as the pure devotion towards Krishna drives away all forms of inauspiciousness in people belonging to all the four stages of life, autumn drove away the clouds from the skies, the sogginess from the Earth and the murkiness from the water bodies.

During autumn, living entities chose to live in solitude instead of living in communities. They lived in the woods.

Just as the ascetics who, having destroyed all their subtle tendencies, are freed from desire and hence illumine with composed, pleasant faces, the clouds, having thrown away all the water that they were holding, now illumined brightly with their white colour.

Just as enlightened saints, as per their will, distribute the nectar called knowledge during certain times while abstaining from distributing at other times, mountains distributed the sweet nectarous water at certain places while refraining from distributing it to other places.

Materialistic persons, who, trapped in sensory comforts consider this body and its belongings to be the sole goal of life, can never understand about their longevity that keeps shrinking with each passing day”.

Upon the death of a person, shocked acquaintances exclaim, ‘O God, I spoke to him just last evening’. Or at a person’s death anniversary, friends or relatives say, ‘Is it already a year since he died? How time flies! I felt that it was just a few months since his death’.

Remember that the deceased person has not left you a year ago. You have inched closer to death by a year. Your longevity has reduced. Why do we grow? Only to meet death one day. First of all, think of your own longevity. Then think of those who have already left their bodies. Calculate how many years have elapsed since the time you entered Earth. Every minute we should remember that our lifespan has depleted by another minute.

Quite a few people remark casually that they are whiling away their time. Do you know that time is extremely precious? Can we ever retrieve the time wasted in the past? Will we ever regain the lost time? Never. Will the happy incidents of the past come back again into our life? For instance, we spot a ripened fruit on the tree. Friend suggests that we should pluck it. We say, “Never mind. Let us pluck it on another day.” Will that fruit remain there waiting for you? Someone else will pluck it in the meanwhile. Similarly, we know that a saint is in town. ‘Shall we go today and offer obeisance to him?’ -ask members at home. ‘We can go later. Why the hurry? He frequently visits this place anyway’. Who knows, may be in future he wouldn’t even visit that area. For this reason, one should never waste any good opportunity that comes to him.

We should cultivate the habit of recollecting important stories of the Lord or of other spiritual matters every single day. We should remember them time and again. We should be blissful. We should never postpone good deeds. Postpone only the bad deeds to the next day. By then the mind will no longer be inclined towards the evil deed.

It is said that anger is of three types. The most supreme person is he, whose anger is fleeting. In just a second he returns back to normalcy. They scold others or lose their temper upon others for just a fraction of a second. That’s all. They then forget it completely.

The mediocre person is he whose anger remains that entire night. By next morning he would have forgotten his anger. The worst person is he who retains his anger throughout his life. The worst of the worst is he who retains his grudge through many lifetimes. He is a demon.

We should try to elevate ourselves to the highest category. We should possess only a fleeting anger. Even if we per chance lose our temper upon others, we should forget it the next moment. Losing temper on some occasion or the other is inevitable when we are living amidst other people in society. It is but natural. Our worldly tasks are such that at times they cause us to lose our temper. It is understandable. But, when we are able to forget this anger that very moment, we will rise to the highest levels.

Spending the entire night fuming in anger against the person who has hurt us is taxing to the mind. It is a mental torture. The mind shrinks. We should not desire to live in this mediocre situation. Under no circumstances should a person slip to the lowest or worst levels. Even after twenty nights the anger still rules his mind. It is unhealthy. The person who retains the anger throughout lifetimes becomes a demon.

When angry, first step is to try to prevent it from bursting out. Just gulp that anger and push it into the stomach. ‘I was furious but still I swallowed my anger’-even such declaration is sinful. Don’t reveal to others that you are angry. ‘I was furious so I just burst out. I was relieved thereafter’- even such declaration is sinful. We should nip it in the bud. Instead of hurting others and then discarding it, instead of vomiting it out and then discarding it, nip this anger when it is within you.

Direct those hurtful angry words towards yourself. Then it is equivalent of nipping it. You direct it towards yourself and then let go of it. It is unhealthy to eternally remain angry or retain the grudge.

Remaining angry with others for years and months at a stretch is not right. The person who retains this anger through life is a demon who is filled with tamo guna. He is the worst of the worst persons. Destruction is the only remedy for such persons. Using the traits of purity and goodness (sattva) such traits should be destroyed.

‘Home sick’ -this term is often heard. This refers to those who cannot stay away from the comforts of their home. They need sofas, beds, chairs, walls and carpets at all times. When they go on pilgrimages, they repeatedly declare that they are home-sick. Memories of their home keep flooding their mind. Secondly, they miss the family members who live in that home. Thirdly, they miss all the tasks with which they are normally associated when they are at home. One after another, these memories come to the mind.

We should destroy such home-sickness. ‘The place where we are presently living is our home’- with this attitude we should adapt to newer situations. We should not allow our home to become our bondage.

There are many who are bound by their possessions. ‘I cannot live for a moment without my watch’- say some. ‘I will die if I don’t get my coffee on time’- say others. If you are so addicted to coffee that you fear you will die when deprived of it, then so be it. Is it correct? Try to de-addict from coffee.

“Materialistic persons, who, trapped in sensory comforts consider the comforts of the home to be the sole goal of life can never understand about their longevity that keeps shrinking with each passing day. Likewise, the aquatic creatures that swim in shallow waters could not recognise the waters that were depleting with each passing day”.

Krishna Srihari Jagannatha.