“The Lord immediately got up from His seat and invited Narada Muni to sit on His personal seat. The Lord again worshiped him with as much paraphernalia for reception as He had in the palace of Rukmini. After worshiping him properly, Lord Krishna acted as if He did not know what had happened in the palace of Rukmini.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 14)

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“I often hear followers of bhakti-yoga explain that you don’t have to change your occupation in order to make progress, that there isn’t a requirement to retire from working life and retreat to a remote cave, where you sit in meditation, focusing the eyes on the tip of the nose.

समं काय-शिरो-ग्रीवं
धारयन्न् अचलं स्थिरः
सम्प्रेक्ष्य नासिकाग्रं स्वं
दिशश् चानवलोकयन्
प्रशान्तात्मा विगत-भीर्
ब्रह्मचारि-व्रते स्थितः
मनः संयम्य मच्-चित्तो
युक्त आसीत मत्-परः

samaṁ kāya-śiro-grīvaṁ
dhārayann acalaṁ sthiraḥ
samprekṣya nāsikāgraṁ svaṁ
diśaś cānavalokayan
praśāntātmā vigata-bhīr
brahmacāri-vrate sthitaḥ
manaḥ saṁyamya mac-citto
yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ

“One should hold one’s body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 6.13-14)

“The idea, as explained repeatedly by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, is that you simply dovetail your regular work with the Supreme Consciousness. For instance, if you like to eat, make a slight transition in the mood of the experience. Prepare for God’s satisfaction, first.

“You will not become a loser in the endeavor. The deity on the altar likely will not eat everything up, leaving you starving in the process. Rather, from the simple change, from a basic gesture, there is so much purification. The food changes in nature, though not observed by any blunt instruments. This extends the property of adhokshaja belonging to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

“The issue I have is doing more than one thing at a time. How can I focus on God while I am stuck with a problem at the office? If an application server is slow, we might spin up more CPU cores. Put additional memory into the box, so that concurrent operations will not eat up all the resources.

“Well, I only have one brain. I can’t juggle two things at the same time. I acknowledge that there are tricks and extraordinary abilities, such as the rock drummer following different patterns for their feet and their hands. The amazing overemployed remote worker can juggle simultaneous meetings, both on camera, without the overlap being detected.

“But I think you get my drift. There is so much to accomplish on a given day that doesn’t have a direct relationship to spiritual life. I have to maintain so much focus and attention. How will I keep conscious of the Supreme Lord? Indeed, I have to be set in forgetfulness, during the time of the encounter, in order to succeed.”

There is the story from Krishna-lila of Narada Muni visiting Dvaraka. This is during the time when Shri Krishna is the king. As God is unlimited, so Krishna can have more than one consort. In Dvaraka, there are over sixteen thousand queens, who each have their own palace.

Surprisingly, Krishna does not have to run from one palace to another. Narada Muni visits several different places on a single trip into the city. He notices that Krishna is in every palace. There is a different queen, but it seems like Krishna is meeting Narada for the first time.

The interaction is baffling, because it defies logic and common sense. There is no magic in yoga at the background. This is not like the magician on television, who is an expert at illusion. Krishna simply expands Himself to reside in the many palaces simultaneously.

We may not have that ability at present. Perhaps through progression in mystic yoga practice we might be able to travel in an out-of-body type experience, but there is always a limit to the number of tasks we can accomplish simultaneously.

Fortunately, there is no requirement to mimic the ability in the object of worship. Rather, His strength and accountability are sufficient for securing our progress. Since He can be in more than one place at a time, He can accept our offerings made with love and devotion.

पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं
यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति
तद् अहं भक्त्य्-उपहृतम्
अश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.26)

He can read our thoughtfully strung together words of praise, produced on a daily basis. He hears our singing of the maha-mantra in the temple and while we are alone: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Most importantly, while we are bogged down by a single difficult task, He provides help in our progress in yoga. He creates circumstances favorable to remembrance. Even the struggle soon turns into a blessing, as it is another opportunity to remember our greatest well-wisher, who takes care of everyone in His kingdom.

In Closing:

Difficult moment so,
Where into panic to go.

And later feeling regret,
Moroseness set.

But from adventure a light,
Supreme always in sight.

That holding on more dearly,
From episode to see more clearly.

Categories: questions

Tags: dvaraka, god, hare krishna, krishna, poem, poems, poetry