ARISE! AWAKE! JAGADGURU KRIPALU PARISHAT
JKP e-Magazine, Issue 7 (July 2019)
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MESSAGE from our
के वल मानवदेह म उ त करके अपने कमब नो ं से छु टकारा पाने का सौभा ा है। I
Jagadguru ru u Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (Prema Rasa SSiddhanta - Philosophy of Divine Love)
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Jagadguruttam Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj His greatness can never be illuminated in an unlimited amount of words, and at the same time, can be revealed in just words. Never Before Never Again. lthough this may apply to his physical form, Shri Maharaj Ji's descension was a gift to those who had a desire for perfect happiness with the revelation that, by de nition, perfect happiness, perfect bliss and divine love is, in fact, adhaKrishna. The value of this divine knowledge, that their abode is the land of eternal happiness, is especially valuable now because of the speed and ferocity with which Kaliyuga is roaring in upon us for the ne t 0,000 years. If the uru reveals even a single word of true spiritual knowledge to us, and we wanted to repay that debt, it could not possibly be repaid even if we were to place the entire world at his lotus feet. Thus, only od and saints have the power to grace a soul, and that too is received on the basis of sincere and faithful practice of sadhana bhakti. They don't ask for anything in return. Moreover, there is nothing that we as limited souls can offer to them in return. In essence, the grace of such an authentic uru as Shri Maharaj Ji is so great, that although our practice of bhakti is material, as we have only a material mind, He rewards it with heart puri cation which opens the door to the divine world.
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SCIENCE a eel
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Bhakti
The Soul of All the Rasik Saints
Part 4 of 4 The most valuable, precious possession you own you keep sa e. Suppose you have a diamond ring worth a million dollars. ou keep it in a very sa e place so no one can steal it. Whereas a small ring worth one hundred dollars you may put anywhere. Radha s love, Radha s orm, Radha s greatness, Radha s personality, Radha s description is very precious. It is ound in all the scriptures but kept very sa e. There are more than 200 Upanishads available nowadays. Out o all those Upanishads, Radha s orm is only described in one place. There are 35 Puranas. In some o them, at some places, Radha is described by Krishna when e says, Oh Radha, ou are My soul, My li e. She is everywhere but you have to ind er, like inding a needle in a haystack. But She is in all the scriptures because She is the most intimate divine love bliss. T h r o u g h o u t t h e Bhagwatam, Shukdeo described Radha Rani very beauti ully. She w a s i n S h u k d e o s heart, in his mind, in h i s s o u l . e re m e m b e r s Ra d h a R a n i a l l t h e t i m e , nothing else. But he r e c i t e d t h e Bhagwatam to King Parikshit who was
only desiring liberation. Parikshit listened to the Bhagwatam but did not desire the love o Radha. King had been cursed that in seven days a deadly serpent would kill him, and he was terribly a raid o death. e wanted liberation, m kti, not divine love.
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Shukdeo s whole personality is one with Radha, he had to help King Parikshit. e had to reveal the Bhagwatam. The Bhagwatam itsel is Radha Krishna s love, so every statement could only be Radha. She is everywhere in the Bhagwatam. But whatever he recited, he said only or Parikshit. So, he never mentioned even a single time the word Radha because Parikshit did not deserve it. In spite o this, Shukdeo did explain Radha in many places. In one example, he re erred to a ka hit Gopi, a Gopi who thinks Krishna has sent a bumblebee as a messenger. When he starts these simple lines, you may read their literal meaning, but in that instance, when he used Gopi , he actually meant Radha. A bumblebee came, and Radha entered her own divine ecstasy o Mahabhao. In ten verses, Shukdeo described ten ecstatic states o Radha Rani. In this
Arise! Awake! JKP eMagazine
way, Shukdeo very cleverly described Radha in many, many places. I n t h e R a s Pan hadh ai, the ive c h a p t e r s w h i c h d e s c r i b e t h e maharaas, Shukdeo b e g i n s w i t h t h e description o Radha. I n t h e m i d d l e i s Radha and in the end is Radha. So, Shukdeo describes the greatness o Radha Rani in the Bhagwatam to his heart s content. The rasik saints like aridas, it arivansh, Jeev, Roop and Sanatan Goswami, and all those great acharyas like Vallabacharya and Nimbarkacharya wrote about Radha in detail. They revealed Radha s leelas and greatness, along with Krishna s leelas and the Gopis . For instance, Radha is walking rom er palace to Gahavarban. Krishna comes rom Nandgaon. e sees Radha walking and ollows er. As e comes closer, e sees Radha s ootprint on the ground. e eels so blessed. e takes some dust rom er ootprint and puts it on is head. e is so absorbed that e orgets to approach er.
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Thousands o such leelas are described where Krishna orgets imsel when e sees Radha. The saints have said that these leelas are only or those who desire Radha Krishna s love and are beyond intellectual uestions. Answers to intellectual uestions need to be satis ied be ore the Gita is understood properly. The Gita teaches us to surrender to Krishna without any uestions. The Bhagwatam means loving Krishna without any uestions. Only a ter that, Shri Radha Rani is revealed. When all uestions are inished, there are no urther desires o the world and there is only one desire and nothing else- to receive Radha s grace. At that time, saints have said that these leelas help the devotee to come close to Radha Rani.
So in this way, Radha is the prime source o all the bliss ulness o all the divine abodes, and She is the heart and soul o all rasik saints o all the abodes.
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ou have done every kind o action in past uncountable lives, lived in every country, been in every civilised and uncivilised culture, per ormed every kind o social, ethical and non-ethical actions, observed all kinds o good and evil practices, pursued all kinds o meditation techni ues, and worshipped every orm o God, sel ishly and unsel ishly. All the actions have imprinted deep sanskars in your mind, and all o these sanskars contribute to the natural impulses o the present state o your conscious mind. Now imagine the messy
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i e complexity o the orces a ecting your conscious mind. The human mind is like an ocean which has a rough sur ace. As one goes deeper, its roughness subsides. On the bottom, it is absolutely calm. Between the subconscious and ully-unconscious mind, all the sanskars o past lives lie, like microscopic dots, in li e-wise se uence. Sanskars have their in luence on the conscious mind like a gravitational pull and in luence our thinking and behavior in our present li e.
t YOUR A L T Everyone has laws. Instead o accepting our own shortcomings and trying to improve ourselves, we try to hide them and re use to accept our aults. On the contrary, we exaggerate our good ualities be ore others, including our level o devotion and try to show o our achievements. We do not realise that whatever progress we have made on the path o devotion is due to the mercy o God and Guru.
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Every destination has two ways. One is the right way and the other is the wrong way. I one knows the right way, then no matter how ar the goal is, it will be reached one day. On the other hand, i the wrong path is chosen, disappointment is certain. The aim o per orming all actions is one or happiness. So in the world, there are di erent paths a n d r e l i g i o n s t o a t t a i n happiness.
According to the materialists, the creation, development and destruction o the world are according to the rules o nature and not the rules o God. That, happiness is obtained by the ul illment o every material desire (by using our 5 senses) and that we are not the soul, but the body.
The reality is, it is only with the help o the material body that devotional practice (Sadhana) can be done and without God Realisation, mental a lictions i.e. material desires, anger, ealousy, ego
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tta hing the mind t d, hile the d merel er rms a ti n in the rld is karma ga tta hing the mind t the rld and merel rshi ing d h si all ith the d is tter ign ran e
On the other hand, according to spirituality, we are eternal souls and not the physical body. This body will be destroyed and return to water, air, ire, ether and earth, whereas, the soul ( I ) is spiritual, eternal and it is an eternal part o God. Bliss is another name o God there ore we naturally want Bliss, appiness.
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etc. will never go away and we cannot have peace and happiness. So, keeping the body healthy is important so that we can remember God, otherwise our mind will be diverted to our pain and misery. There ore, no spiritualist should oppose a materialist and no materialist should oppose a spiritualist. Both are re uired.
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A man named Umesh had a wi e, a son, a riend, a servant, a neighbour and an ac uaintance who owed him money. One day, Umesh suddenly died in the hospital. On hearing this news, the wi e ell unconscious, as the sorrow was too much or her to bear. is son heard the news, and although he did not all unconscious, he became extremely unhappy and cried bitterly. Umesh s riend was not as upset as the son, but he did shed a ew tears. The servant did not cry, but he elt slightly sad. The neighbour also heard that Umesh had died but elt neither happiness nor distress. e told his wi e while she was cleaning the house, "Did you hear ou know our neighbour Umesh e ust died." She also elt neither sorrow nor happiness, but ollowing the rules o eti uette said, "Oh God That s terrible. is child is small and his wi e is so young. Anyway, whatever God wills, happens " A ter saying this she continued cleaning.
The person who owed money to Umesh was dishonest, so he elt very happy when he heard the news. e thought, "Now I am ree rom the debt Now suppose Umesh suddenly came back to li e. Actually he was only acting earing this news, the wi e ainted again out o happiness. When his son heard the news, he shed tears o oy. When the riend heard the news he elt happy, but to a lesser degree than the son. When the servant heard the news, it was a great relie or him. The neighbour casually told his wi e, "Did you hear Our neighbour is still alive." While continuing to clean the loor his wi e said, "Oh, that s good." The person who owed Umesh money, elt very upset because now his debt would still have to be paid.
Arise! Awake! JKP eMagazine
Now the uestion arises Is Umesh a source o happiness, a source o sorrow, or neither I he is accepted as a source o happiness, then what is the degree o happiness Would it be the level o happiness experienced by the wi e, or the level o happiness experienced by the son, or a level less than this Or would it be the level experienced by his riend or by the servant Or it may be that Umesh is in act a source o sorrow, as was experienced by the debtor. Or it may be that he isn t a source o either happiness or sorrow as the neighbour elt. Each individual s experience was di erent. From this we can conclude that Umesh is neither a source o happiness nor sorrow. The degree o happiness each person experienced through him was directly proportional to the ul ilment o that person s own sel -interest. And that happiness was proportional ss e
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to the extent o each one s expectation o happiness rom their relationship with him. Thus, people imagined Umesh to be a source o happiness to the extent their desires were ul illed by him. They naively thought that Umesh was the source o the happiness they were experiencing. The conclusion is that a person derives happiness rom the ob ect he is mentally attached to, but naively assumes that it is the ob ect itsel that produces happiness. There is one important truth that re uires understanding. I happiness isn t experienced rom any ob ect, then sorrow won t be experienced rom that ob ect, either. Whatever we experience is the result o our own belie s.
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Just one charm o his divine loving nature is that whoever met him, thought e loves me the most . Even more charming than this, Shri Mahara Ji s divine love, divine protection and divine association is elt more strongly now, than when he was on this earth planet. So coming close to him now, through his books, his chanting, his videos, visiting his ashrams, will create an intense eeling o closeness and love or any soul who is looking or per ect love and happiness. We have a conventional belie that saints live in the mountains, on the bank o a river, in a uiet hut in a orest or a place o pilgrimage. They either sleep on the loor or on a bed o rags. They lead a renunciant li e etc. In act, those saints who are helping our planet generally may live like that. owever, Shri Mahara Ji had come to our earth planet in a amily o saints, so that his grace could be distributed beyond
his desired time here. One never knew when he would deliver a li e changing speech. It could be in ront o an enormous crowd or sitting casually with a ew devotees. So he was videotaped everywhere he went. is golden words to be saved and shared or posterity. Even his kirtans would disclose his extraordinary divine personality glowing in ecstasy. When he danced in unrestrained enthusiasm to the ari Bol kirtan, the whole environment exuded divine l ve liss. As one gets to know him and comes close to his heart, his title o 5th original Jagadguru o this age subsides and the eelings and thoughts o my Mahara Ji is all that remains. is video discourses and chantings are such that he never had to ask anyone to uit non-veg ood or Arise! Awake! JKP eMagazine
UNIQUENESS
Shri Maharaj Ji Jagadguru a i Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
alcohol. is philosophy has such a one-o -a-kind tremendous impact on the devotees that they naturally desist rom these things. Also, one s desires or material ob ects and happiness rom them are greatly minimised.
To attain God Realisation, sadhana must be done with the concentration and ocus o the mind. But, no other Jagadguru or authentic saint has told us how to ocus or concentrate our minds on the divine orm o God, except Shri Mahara Ji. They have said we must meditate on God, but with no explanation on how to do so. Shri Mahara Ji has named this process o meditating on the orm o God a h a a. But a uestion arises we have not seen God, so how can we do this Shri Mahara Ji has explained a h a a step-by-step in detail, which has never been done be ore, and was done or the irst time in India by him.
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e taught us to live in the world amongst people and practise devotion while ul illing our worldly duties. Shri Mahara Ji s guidelines allow devotees to live in the world and take care o their responsibilities while growing their devotion in their hearts and minds through remembrance o Radha Krishna and their leelas, dham, chants and ollowing the practice o bhakti.
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ahaa First o all, conceive the beauti ul divine orm o Shri Krishna, then sing the glories o is names, orms, abodes and ualities. Most o the time you do it mechanically, merely with your tongue. owever, you should always, irst meditate lovingly upon God. There is no harm i you also engage your senses in devotional practice, but mere engagement o the senses will amount to nothing unless the mind is also engaged. It would be like multiplying zero by one million. The result will be zero. First do r adh ana, then engage in any devotional practice. R adh ana alone is considered to be true devotion. a h a a
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Arise! Awake! JKP eMagazine
To practice devotion or bhakti is the essence of Vedic Philosophy. There are n u m e r o u s d e i n i t i o n s i n d i ff e r e n t scriptures and in the writings of different commentators. Let us understand its true de inition, according to Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj and what its practical application involves.
The SCIENCE of
Bhakti
Most people will be aware that all of God's names- Ram, Shyam, Damodara, Sita, Radha, Krishna, etc. - are derived from a root word. In Sanskrit grammar, these root words are combined with an af ix to form a word. So the word bhakti comes from the root word “bhaj”, which means “service”. Bhakti therefore means “to serve” and to practice bhakti means “to serve God”. You may wonder who is it who can serve? The answer is only someone capable can render service to someone less so. For example, a well-to-do person may serve a pauper. But can that poor man serve without any money? No. Similarly, a wise man can serve through sharing his knowledge, whereas an illiterate man cannot. In this way, a person possessing some kind of power can serve someone without that same level of power. When you were born, your mother served you. You were lying on your back completely helpless, incapable of even turning over. Your mother used to hold you with such care. She served you and raised you. So service means one with more power serving a less powerful one. Now, in such a situation, how can we possibly do bhakti of God? Is God helpless? Are we all powerful? No. God actually says that we cannot serve Him, and it is He who serves us! God serves us! Yes, He says, “I serve those who surrender to me”. But surrender means to do nothing? If the military of our country was to surrender to the military of another country, what would they do? They would do nothing. They would drop their weapons and put their hands up in the air. The Lord nevertheless says in the Gita (9.22), “Those who surrender exclusively to Me and meditate on Me, I assume their responsibility and Issue 7, July 2019
Dr. Vishakha Tripathi Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattvadarshan SPIRITUALITY IN DAILY LIVING
provide whatever they lack and protect whatever they possess.” In other words, God takes complete responsibility for the surrendered soul, just like a mother takes full responsibility for her newborn. The Bhagwatam also states that God protects and provides for His true devotee in every way.” So the true meaning of practicing bhakti is to surrender yourself completely to God, and surrender in this context means to offer your mind and intellect to Him, 100 percent. And you should not ask for anything in return, except His love. When your mind becomes 100 percent surrendered, it will be completely pure. Now you are eligible and the Guru can bestow divine power to your eyes, ears, mind and intellect. Only then you will acquire the knowledge of God and the ability to see His true divine form. And only then will we be able to actually serve Him.
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T Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat JKP Presidents, D V T , D T and D K T , are the embodiment o all the divine teachings o Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Mahara . They are not only expanding the reach o Bhakti to people all over the world, but also urthering the reach o all the JKP charitable activities in India. They nurture, inspire and guide aspiring souls towards God-realisation. They answer
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seekers spiritual uestions, wipe away the tears o li e s disappointments and guide holy estivals and sadhana programs, all per ectly aligned with Shri Mahara Ji s teachings. As a result, all the satsangis can ocus wholeheartedly on sadhana and seva. Most importantly, with their association, we live with Shri Mahara Ji in such a way that we eel that he is always with us.
DR. VISHAKHA TRIPATHI
DR. SHYAMA TRIPATHI
DR. KRISHNA TRIPATHI
he essen e all the s ri t res, r m the Vedas t the Rama ana and the great ritings the Rasik aints, is that l ve and nl l ve is the a t rea h d
e an l ve d nl i e nstantl remind rselves that e is r tr e relative e is al a s ith s and never leaves s
ll rk, ig r small is er rmed thr gh ra ti e n r s irit al li e, never get disheartened, ntin e ith r ra ti e are a h man eing est ed ith a mind and intelligen e thing is im ssi le r
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For over 60 years, Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj worked tirelessly for the welfare of humanity. He founded an organisation - Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat (JKP), to effectively carry out various spiritual, philanthropic and humanitarian activities in order to serve the general public. JKP has established three 100% charitable hospitals which provide free treatment and medications to the poor and a free educational institution for underprivileged girls from primary to post-graduate level. JKP also organises several free distributions throughout the year, giving the poor and underprivileged communities in rural parts of North India hope and opportunities for a bigger and brighter future. . To know more about JKP's charitable work,
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