Austere

Today's Bhagavatam class (9.9.33) given by Nityo Dita Prabhu, focused on the discussion of destiny and austerity. He told the story about a devotee who once gave a reasonable donation to the Temple and later found out that some devotees had taken the money and used it for non-devotional pourposes. He became very angry and approached Prabhupada and told him what happened. Prabhupada's response was: "Don't be angry at the instrument of your own Karma" Prabhupada made a point that we shouldn't be angry at the sinner but at the sin (of course this is harder said than done). In perspective, Nytio emphasizes, Prabhupada was also saving this person from becoming angry at these devotees and commiting offenses towards them or possibly abandoning all faith in the Krishna Conscious path.

From this discussion we found ourselves talking about devotional service and desire to serve. In the early days, we all agreed, there was a strong driving desire to serve. There were no cars, no computers, no internet, no nice houses, no money, etc, dragging us away from unmotivatedly and uninterrumptedly being fully absorbed in devotional service. Sooo, as time passes by we wonder, what is the austerity in today's day? "To develop, mantain, and nourish loving relationships with each other" Wow! I thought he was going to go into how we should attend the programs, wake up early, do lots of service, etc , etc. All this forms of austerities are there, but his point made me realize that if we don't 'go out of our way' to develop good realtionships with each other, making our SERVICE TO OTHERS the real focus of our lives, then we could find ourselves acting on a selfish platform.

In the modern world, Nytio further explains, people are driven towards isolation by all the technological advances and 'progress'. He made a point that if you give love SO much will come to you, but if you wait to be loved, you'll become a very lonely person...

We ended class with a quote from a great personality, H.H. Bhakti Thirta Swami, who was asked by a devotee: "Maharaja, how is it that you are able to give so much of yourself to everyone in the midst of so much suffering due to your illness?" His response was: "If you give yourself fully to serve others, Krsna himself will personally take all your problems away"

Let our mind, body and soul be fully absorbed in the service of Sri Krsna, the Supreme.

H.H. Varsana Swami

Nityananda's Apperance day