The Value of a
Real Devotee’s Association
Many spiritual groups always state the value of good
association, but how does a person identify good association; and how to
best take advantage of it? Because most humble spiritualists speak subtly on
sensitive topics because they may think a topic too deep for the audience.
For instance, from being around a real devotee like Swamiji, whose native
language is Vrajavasi (language spoken in Vrindaban, India), and who may
sometimes have difficulty fully expressing himself in English, I have found
that even the simplest things he says are very significant in devotional
service. For example, when my mind wanders from the Lord I begin to feel
bored so I try to find something interesting to get into, but after trying
Krsna Consciousness nothing else ever quite suffices. There is nothing like
waking up at the ashram with the blessing of praising the Lord in song with
other devotees.
I have heard that whenever a person starts to feel
bored and/or alone, rather than following the mind to its comfort zone in
hope of finding solace, which practically never happens, they should think
about Lord Krsna. I have also heard that after some practice an aspiring
devotee comes to the point of automatically thinking of Lord Krsna because
they’ve realized that thinking of Him is guaranteed relief from all material
anxiety. It may sound presumptuous for a novice spiritualist like myself to
compare my meditative shortcomings to other people’s ability to control
their mind, but I strongly believe that people on the novice level often
have difficulty bringing Lord Krsna back to the forefront of the mind after
it becomes focused on a material thing. That begs the question, “How does a
devotee bring and keep the Lord in the forefront of their mind?”, because it
seems difficult. As Arjuna states in the Bhagavat Gita,
“O Krsna, the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate
and very strong. To subdue it appears to me to be as difficult as
controlling the wind.”
In such a predicament, after the mind wanders and after
futile attempts to refocus on the Lord, I’ve found the trick is to utilize
every visual and audible opportunity to do so. The only thing that can
prevent a serious aspiring devotee from focusing or refocusing on the Lord
is their choosing to follow the mind, rather than using their intellect to
either read or listen to the Lord’s pastimes, chant, or surround themselves
in a Krsna Conscious environment. I came to this realization at the end of a
day when I was too exhausted to read and found myself looking at a picture
of the Lord we had just hung in the ashram, while recalling Swamiji
referring to Lord Krsna as, ‘my Krsna.’ It seemed like a simple statement at
the time, but now I realize it was a deep instruction to me on the feelings
a person needs to develop for Lord Krsna so that He will always be with
them.
Toward the end of another day when my mind often
approaches the verge of wandering to material things, I sat down and looked
at the picture of Lord Krsna we had hung and I found I couldn’t look away,
it was mesmerizing. Then it struck me, this is the feeling Swamiji was
talking about when he said, “my Krsna.” It’s a great feeling; and although
this feeling can be experienced by chanting, or hearing and reading about
the Lord, at the end of a day if I’m just not up to it I now know I can just
look at a hypnotic picture of ‘my Krsna’ and get all the solace I’ll ever
need. Astounded by this new discovery I then thought to experiment with
another picture we had hung, this one of Radharani and Lord Krsna with a
caption beneath that reads,
“Radha and Krishna dancing in the forest. Krishna
says to Radha, ‘I love you and I’ll be with you, and though you may not see
me, I’ll be with you every moonlit night.”
Then, after studying and looking at this picture for
some time, I then realized from the simplest of words from a real devotee
I’ve discovered I’ll never be alone again. What a wonderful life.
Nanda Kumar