If you are in difficulty, chant the Holy Name and see what happens!
Difficulties will come and go but if you take shelter of the Holy Name, you will not only be protected from all kinds of calamities but you will make spiritual advancement. You will see how your heart is developing this intense love for Krishna and this love for Krishna is the ultimate goal of our lives, this love for Krishna is the ultimate goal of our life.
Sometimes there may be some difficulties but those difficulties are just apparent difficulties, they are not real difficulties, like the Pandavas, apparently they were facing so many difficulties, but were they facing the difficulties? No, they were having a good time. People may think that you having a difficulty but if you having a good time, like sometimes you go to the forest to have a picnic, the people may think oh look, they went to a place where there is no food, there is no home, no shelter but you were having a picnic in the forest, how do you feel? You feel wonderful, you feel so wonderful. So devotees, people may think that the devotees are going through difficulty but the devotees themselves don’t feel any difficulty.
Like for example in, in the west many of our devotees are coming from very wealthy background and when their friends and relatives come and see the devotees, how they live? You saw how the devotees live in the temple, like you are, you all are packed in, how many, 25 of you in one room, sleeping on the flour, no proper bed and they think oh they are suffering so much, they don’t have proper bed to sleep, there don’t, they are just eating vegetarian food, vegetarian food they think is just some dry, boiled vegetables and chapattis and they feel the devotees are suffering but are the devotees really suffering? Now that you all from the youth camp, you are living in this condition. Are you suffering or enjoying? But somebody will think that you are suffering. You don’t have proper bed to sleep, right? You don’t have any entertainment, you can’t go to movies, you can’t have non vegetarian food, but you know how you are enjoying? So where does the real enjoyment lie? Does the real enjoyment is the consideration of our external situation or the real enjoyment is the condition of our heart?
Real enjoyment is actually a state of heart, if the heart is happy then we are happy, if the heart is not happy externally, whatever situation may be there, you won’t feel happy. Somebody may be living in a palace but if he is suffering from a serious disease say cancer, how will he feel? Will be miserable, although he is externally living in a palace, has so many facilities, he has so much money but he himself is suffering. On the other hand you may live in a very apparently difficult situation, but internally if you are happy, then that is what real happiness is.
- Prabhupada demonstrated that very wonderfully. In the early forties during the second world war, there was a threat of bombardment, there was a threat of bombardment in, in Calcutta, the Japanese were supposed to bomb Calcutta because Calcutta was the big, strong hold of the British. So Japanese were supposed to bomb Calcutta and at that time everybody started to evacuate from the, evict the city vacate the, vacate, run away from the city, every body was running away from Calcutta. Prabhupada was in Calcutta at that time. What did Prabhupada do? Prabhupada took a Mridanga and went out on the street, and stated to chant the Holy Name. And Prabhupada’s point was, Prabhupada’s understanding was that if I chant the Holy Name then Krishna will give me protection and if I have to die, if the bomb drops and if I die then I will go back to Godhead because if I die chanting the Holy Name, so both way it is beneficial either Krishna will protect or if Krishna doesn’t protect or if I die, then by, if I chant the Holy Name and I die chanting the Holy Name then I will become delivered, right? So did the Japanese bomb Calcutta? No. What is the reason? No one knows that reason, not many people know that reason. Why the Japanese didn’t bomb Calcutta, they were all set to bomb Calcutta, specially the area where the fort was, the fort William, the British army’s strong hold. So why the British, why the Japanese in spite of all this preparation, did not bomb Calcutta, they were bombing everywhere, they didn’t bomb because Srila Prabhupada was chanting Hare Krishna. That is the real reason why the Japanese did not bomb Calcutta or Krishna protected Calcutta because Prabhupada was chanting the Holy Name. We can see in this way, the potency of the Holy Name.
- In the mid eighties communism collapsed in Russia, you know that? Before, before that Russia was communist country, but Krishna consciousness movement started to spread very effectively in Russia. It is because of the propagation of Krishna consciousness in Russia that communism collapsed and Russia became free. Russia became open. So this is the power of the Holy Name. Common people won’t understand that, a layman will not understand that, but we the devotees know and this is how our faith in the Holy Name will increase. Is it blind faith? No, it’s real, it’s very real. The proof is there. We hear so many such wonderful stories.
- Like one incident is, one girl in Europe was distributing Prabhupada’s books, she was a young girl, seven, eighteen, nineteen years old and then one drunkard attacked her, she was alone, there was nobody around and this huge man tried to attack her and she didn’t know what to do? It’s not that she didn’t know what to do? She knew what to do? What did the do? She just started to chant namas te narasimhaya prahladahlada-dayine and some thing happened to the man, he just turn around and went away.
- Another such incident is in, in Germany, in Hamburg our devotees used to go out on Harinaam, in, in a district, which is very notorious, that area is full of drunkards, but the devotees use to go out thinking that the most sinful people are the best candidates for receiving the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, so they would go there and distribute in that area, chant the Holy Name in that area and that area is very active at night, because sinful people are active at night, they drink, night clubs and that place was full of night clubs called ripabaan and so devotees were chanting and one huge man, giant, he came charging towards them to attack them. Devotees didn’t know what to do, where they will go, because they were. behind them were the night club windows, showcase and they could have run but they didn’t do that, they just started to chant the Narasimha prayer namas te narasimhaya and the man who was running towards them, they could see he was coming a few feet from them and then something happened to the man, his body was lifted in the air and he fell. He was running and he just fell on the ground. First he jumped and then he felt and immediately, soon the paramedics came, the ambulance came and they checked him and they said that he had a massive heart attack, did he have a heart attack or Narasimha deva took care of him? So this is how the Lord takes care of him.
- Another time in France one man, very strong and powerful got drunk and he came to our temple and he tried to damage the temple, he was cursing the devotees but there was one devotee there in the temple room it was in the after noon, there was nobody in the temple room and this devotee he was not a very strong devotee. He was a pujari, skiny little devotee and this devotee did not care wether this person has a knife or a gun, he just went out to protect the Lord and although he was such a small person and this other guy was so big and so powerful, so strong, he literally bashed him up and threw him out of the temple and later on he told others that he doesn’t know, he couldn’t know, he didn’t know how he did that? He said that he didn’t even realize that he was doing, what he was doing? He, as if he was possessed by somebody and did that. So in this way devotees experience all kind of wonderful things.
Difficulties will come and go but if you take shelter of the Holy Name, you will not only be protected from all kinds of calamities but you will make spiritual advancement. You will see how your heart is developing this intense love for Krishna and this love for Krishna is the ultimate goal of our lives, this love for Krishna is the ultimate goal of our life.
Sometimes there may be some difficulties but those difficulties are just apparent difficulties, they are not real difficulties, like the Pandavas, apparently they were facing so many difficulties, but were they facing the difficulties? No, they were having a good time. People may think that you having a difficulty but if you having a good time, like sometimes you go to the forest to have a picnic, the people may think oh look, they went to a place where there is no food, there is no home, no shelter but you were having a picnic in the forest, how do you feel? You feel wonderful, you feel so wonderful. So devotees, people may think that the devotees are going through difficulty but the devotees themselves don’t feel any difficulty.
Like for example in, in the west many of our devotees are coming from very wealthy background and when their friends and relatives come and see the devotees, how they live? You saw how the devotees live in the temple, like you are, you all are packed in, how many, 25 of you in one room, sleeping on the flour, no proper bed and they think oh they are suffering so much, they don’t have proper bed to sleep, there don’t, they are just eating vegetarian food, vegetarian food they think is just some dry, boiled vegetables and chapattis and they feel the devotees are suffering but are the devotees really suffering? Now that you all from the youth camp, you are living in this condition. Are you suffering or enjoying? But somebody will think that you are suffering. You don’t have proper bed to sleep, right? You don’t have any entertainment, you can’t go to movies, you can’t have non vegetarian food, but you know how you are enjoying? So where does the real enjoyment lie? Does the real enjoyment is the consideration of our external situation or the real enjoyment is the condition of our heart?
Real enjoyment is actually a state of heart, if the heart is happy then we are happy, if the heart is not happy externally, whatever situation may be there, you won’t feel happy. Somebody may be living in a palace but if he is suffering from a serious disease say cancer, how will he feel? Will be miserable, although he is externally living in a palace, has so many facilities, he has so much money but he himself is suffering. On the other hand you may live in a very apparently difficult situation, but internally if you are happy, then that is what real happiness is.
- HH Bhakti Charu Swami Lecture - Srimad Bhagavatam 1.15.34
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