KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 2.9.24:
- In executing penance, one must be determined to return home, back to Godhead, and must decide to undergo all types of tribulations for that end.
- Even for material prosperity and name and fame one has to undergo severe types of penances, otherwise no one can become an important figure in this material world.
- Why, then, should there not be severe types of penances for the perfection of devotional service?
- An easygoing life and attainment of perfection in transcendental realization cannot go together.
- The Lord is more clever than any living entity; therefore He wants to see how painstaking the devotee is in devotional service.
- The order is received from the Lord, either directly or through the bona fide spiritual master, and to execute that order, however painstaking, is the severe type of penance.
- One who follows the principle rigidly is sure to achieve success in attaining the Lord’s mercy.
SB 2.9.24 TRANSLATION:
I create this cosmos by such penance, I maintain it by the same energy, and I withdraw it all by the same energy. Therefore the potency is penance only.
In executing penance, one must be determined to return home, back to Godhead, and must decide to undergo all types of tribulations for that end. Even for material prosperity and name and fame one has to undergo severe types of penances, otherwise no one can become an important figure in this material world. Why, then, should there not be severe types of penances for the perfection of devotional service? An easygoing life and attainment of perfection in transcendental realization cannot go together. The Lord is more clever than any living entity; therefore He wants to see how painstaking the devotee is in devotional service. The order is received from the Lord, either directly or through the bona fide spiritual master, and to execute that order, however painstaking, is the severe type of penance. One who follows the principle rigidly is sure to achieve success in attaining the Lord’s mercy.
Painstaking – Great care and thoroughness in execution of their duties.
There were times when devotees were against Srila Prabhupada at one point. They tried to get rid of Srila Prabhupada. They complained about him to immigration and he was not allowed to get into the US. He has to stay in Montreal for 1 year.. He was constantly harassed by his God brothers and few of his disciples.. Srila Prabhupada went through so much but never gave up..
SP was very painstaking and thorough in preparing himself for preaching to the western world. It took him 40 years.. To prepare well in executing his spiritual master’s instructions.
Hit by a bull in Vrindavan
Suffered 2 heart attacks in the ship to US.
We are talking about devotees who want to spread this movement. It is so hard to spread the message in this world where everyone wants to follow their own path and practice in isolation.
Determination, purity, affection, complete surrender to his gurus’s instruction – he was able to do it.. Only he out of the 10000 disciples of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was able to crack the formula of spreading this message.
BG 6.24
Success is guaranteed for a rigid practitioner.
Scientific spirituality
Explains the difference between spiritual science and religion.
Spiritual science – Verifiable facts which are irrefutable