Title: How to get hope

User: Swami Gaurangapada Date: 2007-03-13 20:11:07

 

Dandavat Pranams Gurudev, Please accept my obeisances unto your lotus feet. All Glories to all the Gaura Bhakta Vrinda and All Glories to All Acharyas,

 

Is there really hope for fallen souls steeped deep in materialistic life??? Externally - I am trying to follow the regulative principles, chanting a fixed no. of rounds of Nityananda, Gauranga, & Hare Krishna. But still there is no love, no attachment. Actually I feel that having received so much mercy from the lord in terms of his holy names, a bonafide spiritual master and bonafide sampradaya, some knowledge about the most merciful incarnation of the Lords in their forms of Nityananda and Gaurahari - yet I feel caught up in the routines of life trying to fulfill family responsibilities and taking care of the external bodies of my family members and myself and still worring about their well being and fearful for their health and security.

 

At times the scriptures say that in just few days, you will attain love of God by chanting Nityananda Gauranga at other times the scriptures say without developing the qualities of humiliy, tolerance and giving respect to others without expecting any in return , we cannot achieve the Lord. How to develop these qualities of humility, tolerance and giving respect without expecting any in return??????

 

How to attain the mercy of devotees and how to please Gurudev and Acharyas??

 

Thank you very much,

Your servant forever

Preeti Nityananda dasi

 

Answer by Swami Gaurangapada:

 

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! The very fact that you have written this post about attaining attachment to the Lord means that you already have some attraction for the Lords and Their Holy Names because no one can chant for more than a week or two unless one has some attraction for the Holy Names and Their Lordships Nityananda Gauranga. So you should be happy and grateful to the Lord that he has given you at least this much mercy and strength to chant His Holy Names. They are known as the qualities of grateful and patience in devotional life which attract the Lord towards us.

 

Once we know that we are on the right path, we should be patient and happy that one day we are going to attain our destination at the Lord's lotus feet. Shrila Mukunda started dancing with bliss when Lord Gauranga told him and he will see Him after 10 million years because he was so happy that he will ultimately see the Lord who is even rarely achieved by the greatest of all demigods. The highest consciousness is that one is performing our daily chanting, bhajan, hearing and reading for the pleasure of the Lord and even if the Lord does not give me more and more attraction for Him, I will continue to do it for His pleasure, happiness and satisfaction. If one develops this selfless mood of no expectation in return then the Lord will be quickly merciful on that soul. This is called as the real sambandha connection. Oh Lord, I am yours, even though you do not appear before me or make me revolve more in this cycle of birth and death. I will never leave your lotus feet and I will never get dejected or frustrated while chanting Your Holy Names and serving you.

 

At the same time, one should not be satisfied with one's spiritual progress and service to the Lord of hearing and chanting as the realization of the Lord's characteristics while chanting the Holy Names of Nityananda, Gauranga and Hare Krishna is an ever-expanding experience which makes us hanker for more and more bliss. So the secret is always be patient and grateful to the Lord and at the same time always endeavor to increase our devotional service more and more and pray to the Lord for more mercy so that we can serve Him better. That is why we have the progressive stages of chanting Naam. These two qualities combined together develop into the most important quality of humility which attracts the mercy of Guru, Acharyas and Lord Nityananda Himself.

 

Ultimately, simply by crying out the Holy Names of Nityananda, Gauranga and Hare Krishna with great feeling and prayer will enable to us to automatically develop the qualities of patience and humility required to attract the Lord because every thing is in the Naam and nothing is to be sought or to be achieve outside of the Naam.