Trivikrama Swami .com

The whole mission is to preach. We have no other purpose for opening this house except to preach. If we assist in some way to keep the institution or the center running, then that’s also preaching. But that should be our consideration. Not that I want to be comfortable and have a nice place for eating and sleeping, and sex life. This should not be our goal. Our goal should be that we’re missionaries and we should be dedicated to that mission. Then Krsna will help us. There is a saying “The world steps aside for those who know where they’re going”. Because everyone is loitering here. They have no real mission. Their mission is to eat, sleep, drink and be merry. That’s not a mission. That’s animal life. Animals have no mission except to maintain themselves. To enjoy. Anna-maya - just to eat. You find eating and you think wow, I can exist. But that’s not a real mission. You’re already existing. You’re eternal, you always exists. The mission is to get out of this material world. So, if we don’t have that mission, then how we’re actually different than materialists? And if we do have that mission, then people will notice “Oh, these people are not ordinary. They’re not just simply thinking how to be comfortable, have nice house, bank balance, good food, and so on”. Srila Prabhupada used to say “Plain living and high thinking”. We can live very plainly. Eat vegetables and rice. Ordinary people will think why not barbecue? But we live simply and we have high thinking. What is this high thinking? We’re taxing our brain what is the best way to spread Srila Prabhupada’s mission. That should be our first consideration. Then other things will follow.

We have to decide what is our position. We should be honest and say “No, we’re not happy”. We’re not happy, because we’ve always been troubled here in this material world. We’re troubled with our own mind which we are very intimately connected with. We’re troubled by our senses, other living entities, nature. This is the actual position. It’s a position of struggle. Bhagavad gita says that living entities are struggling hard with the material nature. A living entity is very tiny particle of the Lord and when it comes with contact with the material energy, it has to struggle. That’s struggle is normal here. Everybody has to struggle. Hard struggle for existence. But instead of struggling just to exist so we can remain here in this prison house, we should struggle to get out. We can’t avoid struggling. Therefore Srila Prabhupada used to say: “Easy going life and Krsna consciousness go ill together”. We have to decide that it is a struggle and that we’ll have to struggle for the rest of our life. But where do we want to direct that struggle? That should be our consciousness. Let us struggle to control our senses, let us struggle to improve our sadhana, let us struggle to push on this Movement. That’s the proper kind of struggle. Then, by that struggle Krsna will become pleased. When Krsna is pleased, He’ll easily bring us to His abode. This is His promise. “My devotee is never vanquished” Simply we have to agree to be His devotee. And this means that we put His interest first. And He clearly makes it to us that He’s most pleased when someone is explaining this process of devotional service, this subject of devotional service to innocent people. So, this is our mission. We want to please the Lord, therefore we take up this preaching mission.

So, Vidura is glorifying a devotee. This is the mood of a devotee. He likes to glorify other devotees. He doesn’t think that – let’s talk about me. If we observe the mentality of karmis or jnanis, or yogis, they always bring everything back to themselves, because they’re self-centered. Only a devotee, if we examine objectively, is beyond this selfish, or extended selfish, activities. They actually love other devotees and Krsna more than themselves. And therefore sometimes they forget about themselves. Just like here – Vidura is on the road and suddenly he forgot that he was walking and so on, he just lost his equilibrium and fell down. This is the symptom of transcendental ecstasy, which is beyond the limit of self-love. In self-love we can enjoy something. People like going to the country, have children that they want to enjoy, sex life – they want to enjoy, so there’s some pleasure there. We don’t deny that. But we say that that pleasure is compared to like a drop of water in the desert. In the desert you need gallons of water to quench your thirst. So if someone gives you a drop of water – we don’t deny it’s water, but it won’t satisfy you. Similarly, this so called pleasure of material life – there maybe little pleasure there – but it won’t really satisfy hankering of your soul. And, on the other side, for every little pleasure, there is also some inconvenience.