Transcribed by Madhumati Devi Dasi(Kadamba Kanana Swami,Chowpatty,
11th Dec 2010 )
Devotee : You mentioned two examples of Dhruva Maharaja and Ajamila’s past lives and also this sage. So, is it necessary to find out the past or should we be just chanting Hare Krishna?
Maharaja : Yes!!! No need to find out about your past life, because even if you try to find out about your past life, there is always a life before, so even if you know everything about your last life, what about the life before that? - and all the other lives and we will never figure out. We will never uncover what is there in terms of aprarabda karma but let us understand that it is there and this causes all these material desires and actually we are simply overpowered by old reactions by our failures and mistakes of the past.
If we have made mistake in the past that doesn’t mean we have to make the same mistake now, that’s foolish.
So, we must remember that we made mistakes in the past and these mistakes from the past are still influencing us. We shouldn’t do it again – that’s foolish. So, we should fight it by taking shelter of the Holy Name...
That would do everything, it gets rid of the whole thing. Not only chanting, because we cannot just chant, we must also serve the Holy Name. So, this Hare Krishna movement, it is the movement that is serving the Holy Name.
We are not so exalted that we can chant all the time, so we must do practical things like cleaning the floor, and carrying things around, because that, we can do. But to chant all the time, it’s too much at this stage - it’s also serving the Holy Name. The temple is dedicated to the Holy Name, not just for Darshan but there is ecstatic chanting and dancing which can really bring us to Krishna. So, here the Darshan is always accompanied by chanting, because it’s through chanting we can got to Krishna. So yes serving this movement not only in the temple even outside, book distribution, serving the sankirtan movement… It’s sankirtan, kirtan, chanting…
Devotee : Whatever desires and karma one is going through right now, the seeds are already there from the past life, now how to overcome them?
Maharaja : Now the only way to overcome them is through devotional service, it is said that the aprarabda karma is stored in the heart and it therefore creates sinful inclinations and from that comes strong desires. So, the sinful inclinations are already there and we are walking through Mumbai and then we see something and there is a sinful desire and then we see something else and there is another sinful desire and we walk around the corner and a third sinful desire comes and we cross the street and the fourth sinful desire comes and like this we go through so many sinful desires because of the sinful inclinations that is there in the heart due to aprarabda karma. But the chanting of Hare Krishna immediately diminishes the stock in the heart so the sinful inclinations becomes less. Therefore we will be less inclined to get sinful desires. The sinful desires also diminish and we get stronger and stronger in being able to control these sinful desires. Therefore, the chanting of Hare Krishna is the key that will help us to overcome them and devotional service as I explained. We should always be engaged either in chanting or service.
Transcribed by Madhumati Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami,Chowpatty,
11th Dec 2010 )
