Which God to follow?  

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I am often asked by devotees why don’t I preach about Shri Krishn only? Why don’t I spread the word of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and teach people who the Supreme Godhead is? Devotees wonder why I am so liberal when I belong to a sect, famous for fanatics. But this is not true; not all of the Gaudiya Sampraday and the Acharyas are fanatical. As an Acharya, my first job is to make people spiritual afterwards make them capable to choose their own path. I don’t like to pressurize someone to follow this and that God. Secondly, I belong to the place where Bhakti Maharani (devotion) became young again. It is my own experience; at present everyone talks about different Gods but are not focusing enough on devotion. There is a need to focus on love i.e. devotion before focusing on God because devotion is the only key to meet God.



I always tell devotees that most relationships are made when we are born but there are two relationships that are made by our intelligence. The first relationship is made in the presence of God, when one chooses his Spiritual Master and becomes a disciple, and the second, in the presence of Fire, during the marriage ceremony when one chooses his life partner.


Please read carefully now. There are two types of weddings; one is a love marriage and the second is an arranged marriage. There are also two types of relationships with God, Love and Arranged.


Love marriages:


Have you ever wondered why anything is loved at all? The initial and most abrupt answer to this question is usually that the object is attractive; that which attracts and evokes the sentiment of love for that particular object. But why does that object appear attractive? There are two things in the world, which attract us immensely - the beautiful and the sublime. Nothing else can attract us in the same way. The full moon is beautiful; a blossomed lotus or rose is beautiful. We start to follow the Gods or Goddesses whose beauty we find attractive. When a girl loves a boy it is because she is attracted to some qualities, which he possesses. If that boy is imperfect for the girl’s family, the girl doesn’t care because she feels he is perfect for her according to her understanding and belief. If her family push her and ask her to divert her love to another boy, who is more perfect, it will be very hard for her to do so. In fact, she will become unhappy. What would happen if her family push her and make her marry someone, who they feel is perfect? The couple’s life will be miserable because there is no love between them. When love is not there, then there is a lack of devotion, dedication and respect. She will find it hard to attach herself in his service.



If you find someone who is a perfect match for you, and this person makes you happy and as a result, you are in relationship with him/her, lasting many years, will you leave him/her for your family because they think your partner is not suitable for you? You may say NO! No matter what, you won’t leave your partner. Very few of you will listen to your parents’ advice because you may believe that they think for your betterment only. Your family will consider education, family background, wealth, beauty, career etc, but what will you consider first? Love, and then you will consider future plans such as money and other things, which are also important aspects. So what is lacking between you and your family’s considerations? It’s Love! For you Love is the main factor, for your family it is the least important reason.


Let us take a situation where the girl is perfect (she can love, has wealth, comes from a good family background, has grounding in spirituality, and is smart) and has a perfect partner. What if she then makes others jealous and taunts their lovers, by degrading them and points out what they don’t have that her lover has? What will happen in this situation? Some girls will get angry, some will try to take revenge and some will try to change their lovers and try to find someone more perfect. Some will become unhappy because there is no use in proving he is perfect, when they are already in love with someone, who they believe is perfect for them. Just because of one girl the harmony will be disturbed because she is so proud to have a perfect match. In her bubble, she forgets people have different minds, and different mentalities and their priorities are different too. People use their intelligence and take their nature and moods into consideration when they search for someone.


Now imagine, if you are a girl who loves many Gods or Goddesses and someone who loves Krishn, Shiv, Durga or any other God, tries to shake your faith. This person tries to manipulate your beliefs by saying his or her God is the Supreme Godhead and your God is nothing or your God can give this but your God can only give this much. Such an act can disturb the harmony of the spiritual world. No one is allowed to degrade and insult other Gods and their devotees just because he or she worships a God, who is Supreme Godhead for him or her. Be happy with your Lord and let others be happy also.


Jiva Goswami says in Bhakti Sandarbha, “Lord Kapil has condemned the disrespect even of ordinary living beings, what to speak of disrespect of Lord Shiv & other Gods.”


Arranged Marriages:

One, who doesn’t have a lover, who is neutral, who believes that his parents, family and relatives will take the right decision for his life, goes for arranged marriages. In this marriage, one life is fully dependent on the decision of others and those people become the decision takers. He then accepts all the good and bad aspects of the decision of others. This marriage can be compared to someone who doesn’t know about love, spirituality or God and will surrender himself to a Spiritual Master, who will show him the spiritual path. The master will teach him how to develop love and devotion and focus on a relationship with God. But if I talk about my teachings, they are only based on Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pure instruction “Prema Purmurtho Mahan” (Love is Supreme); Narad Muni's Bhakti Sutram describes the Supreme Godhead as "The Supreme Love."



I don’t like to offend people and insult their beliefs; I fight for their rights and especially when it comes to love because I believe there are two reasons, which are very compulsory. Who is Pati-Vrata Patni? You may say “one who follows her Pati” (husband). This is not completely true. Pati-vrata Patni (wife) means one who follows her husband and his family, and keeps a good relationship with all of them. To follow the husband doesn’t mean to only love him, whilst you fight with his parents and his friends. To follow your husband means, to love his family, his beloved ones and to follow him. In the same way, one who worships His God should respect other Gods and Goddesses. By that, one can make his God happy. God never says, love me, but hate or ignore all other Gods and Goddesses.



The Gautamiya Tantra & Bhakti Sandharba say, “If one worships Krishn but disparages other deities, not only is there no question of attaining transcendent religion but even the effect of one’s previously performed religiosity is destroyed.” Therefore, in the incarnation for the Narayan Kavach atonement is provided for such an offence, “May Lord Hayasirsa protect me from treading the path of becoming an offender to the gods.” (SB 6.8.17)




According to Srimad Bhagwatam, “Element is one but nature is different.” The source of all incarnations is one. When we say, Ram, Rahim, Jesus and Buddha are same, why is there hatred? Secondly, in the Kalki Puran we find very interesting verse “If one worships Surya Dev (the Sun God) for a thousand years, he gets the mercy to worship Lord Ganesh. If one worships Lord Ganesh for a thousand years, he gets the chance to serve Mother Durga. If one worships Mother Durga for a thousand years, he becomes a Lord Shiv devotee, and if he worships Lord Shiv for a thousand years then he finally gets the chance to serve Lord Vishnu.”

It is stated in Adi Varaha Puran, “After properly worshiping Lord Shiv for thousands of lifetimes, a wise person whose sins have dissolved becomes a Vaishnav.”


In the Kartik Mahatmya section of the Padma Puran, Lord Krishn informed Satyabhama, “Just as rain water reaches the ocean, the worshipers of the Sun, Shiv, Ganesh, Vishnu and Shakti attain only Me. Just as one man named Devadatta is referred to by different appellations, like son, brother, and father, similarly I, Krishn, am one, but I manifest in five ways according to My different activities and names.



Fanatical people may think, “this proves that Krishn is Supreme Godhead”. Liberal people may think, everyone is in the cycle, why disturb other people’s faith when everything happens by the Lord’s wish and by the result of our past life’s action fruits. Each person chooses their God according to their mood, interest and attitude.


I believe in the scriptures and accept this Kalki Puran, this very verse and deep meaning of it. As an Acharya, my first duty is to make people spiritual and then show them the right path to follow, keeping in mind, their love and interest and using these points as a guide to direct people. 


If Krishn and other Gods worship are like classes in school then according to Kalki Puran, Krishn's worship is like studying for a Masters. Now in this example what happens: those who are studying for a Masters, chastise their juniors and laugh at them instead of helping and giving them advice. They show a pride, which Lord Krishn never accepts. Pride is the biggest obstacle in devotional life. There is a very nice quotation in Mahabharat. Duryodhan said to Lord Krishn, “Hai Krishn! I know what Dharm is and I know what Adharm is but there is some invisible power, which is pushing and convincing me to do Adharm.” That invisible power is Lord Krishn Himself.


All of us may have different ideas on the nature and characteristics, the form and attributes of God. One person may believe that God has the form and qualities of humans. Another may believe in a God devoid of human form and merits but yet manifests in incarnations and someone else may believe in a formless God altogether. Each one of these examples can be found in the Veds.  For those who have faith in God, and believe that God can be ours by love only, no matter what Yog or religion you practice or what kind of marriage you go into, the truth is, you will be happy by knowing everyone are on same path. :)

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Search of real pearls  

Posted by Vaisnavachraya in , , , , , , , , , ,



A night of sadness… I was really sad because I experienced some problems with a few devotees and eventually I was finding ways to get some answers for myself.

I didn’t have energy to do my daily morning puja that day. But late in the night I decided I would try. When I sat for the puja, a strong thought wave came into my head and started to push me to go somewhere away from Vrindavan. The more I was going deep into my meditation, intense thoughts of leaving Vrindavan kept flashing in my mind. It was so shocking; I could not concentrate on my meditation properly and I was thinking why is this weird and overpowering idea hitting me so badly? Two places came into my head: first was Agra, because I had some registration work pending there, to register my organization, and my maternal family also live there, and secondly, I was thinking, Delhi would be nice because I can spend some time with Yogesh, my cousin.

But somehow, I didn’t want to do this also. I wanted to find answers and not just enjoy some leisure time. Every other moment of my sadhna was weighing heavily on me and I was feeling like someone was just pulling me away from my practice. Anyhow, I managed to finish my sadhna with the idea of going to New Delhi. I made a call to Yogesh instantly and asked him if he wanted to spend sometime with me. In my heart, I was waiting for him to say yes. Luckily, he agreed. I told him, within half an hour, I was planning to leave from Vrindavan. I instructed Yogesh to prepare my food and I let him know that I would be with him within 3 hours.

I got in the car, but I didn’t reveal anything to my family; it was late in the evening and they would not allow me to drive alone. I thought I would explain everything to them the next day.

I started my complicated journey. I was happy but at the same time confused with everything that was happening. Mid journey, I thought, what am I going to do in Delhi? Cook? Watch movies? This trip won’t be meaningful without spirituality. An idea struck me; go to Haridwar. I can take a dip in Ganga River there and have some quiet time and maybe I can search for some perals (sadhus) of our Sanatan Dharma and associate with them.

I made a call to Yogesh and asked him if he was interested in going with me, he said yes, but at the same time, Yogesh got an important call, so he put me on hold. Once he was free again, he called me back and asked if we can leave in the morning for Haridwar. It was a request from his fiancé, which undoubtedly showed he has someone very caring in his life. I asked Yogesh to make the most of his bachelor independency before marriage and he replied that it won’t be practical from any point of view to leave late as Haridwar is 5-6 hrs drive from Delhi.
    ‘We won’t get good sleep and whole journey will be tiring,’ I said. In fact, I told him that I will drive the car if he wants to sleep.

Once I reached Delhi, I called Yogesh and asked him to warm up my food, pack it and leave his house, as I didn’t want to delay our trip by sitting at his home and eating. He was excited for this trip too and was ready to leave for Haridwar as soon as I arrived at his place and off we went. When the Haridwar idea came into my mind, I was thinking ‘what was my purpose for going there? Was it to explore Haridwar's spiritual energy and observe those conditioned souls who are not getting a chance to enter Lord Krishn's adobe and wasting their time at the door (Hari- Lord Krishn dwar- Gate)? More importantly, I wanted to take a dip in the Ganga, at Har-ki-Paudi (Ghat of Ganga), which I had never done before. I asked Yogesh to drive the car as I had to eat. We started our journey and had good conversation on various topics. In the back of his mind there is a longing to join spiritual world but he wants to enjoy the material life too. It is not always easy to convince your friend. In Gita also, when Arjun (Krishn's friend) wasn’t able to understand Krishn because of his own fickle mindedness. Then Krishn gave up before his uncertain mind and asked him to surrender first.

On the way to Haridwar, at one police post our car was stopped by one drunken cop. He tried everything to find a fault, only a bribe could ‘fix’, but luckily everything was good. But here something strange happened…all car papers were inside the glove compartment and it was locked. I turned off the engine and gave a key to Yogesh to unlock it and asked him to show the car papers. After cops were satisfied they asked us to leave. I took the key back from Yogesh and when he returned it, the key had deformed. I was more then amazed what caused this key to bend. I asked Yogesh.
    ‘You gave the key to me like this only,’ Yogesh replied. I said, ‘Yogesh, this key can’t fit in the ignition like this. I gave you the key in good condition.’ ‘Bhai, I have no idea how it became deformed, I wasn’t even in the car,’ Yogesh replied.

Yogesh went out to find a stone to make it straight again and all cops started to look at him suspiciously. It looked like we had another key and what did this key open? I caught their thoughts and gestured Yogesh to mend the key inside the car only. After trying for 5-10 minutes, we made the key a little straight, started the car and headed off for Haridwar.



Once we reached the very energetic city, I was thrilled to see the morning liveliness of Haridwar. Devotees were all around, doing japa, chanting Holy Name, bathing in holy river Ganga and sitting on Her bank; spending some free time while meditating.
    I said, ‘Yogesh, In Vrindavan, in the whole of Brij, either we see little bit of crowd at Mangla Aarti or after 10 o’ clock when darshan opens in various temples, but look here! It seems like it is a peak time at 6:30 in the morning.’

    ‘We find a small crowd in Loi Bazar (vegetable market) only in the morning,’ Yogesh replied.

It was such a different mood, and the best thing I liked in Lord Shiv’s land was the energy levels of His devotees, which I felt was more elevated than that of any other devotee I had come across. They know the importance of morning prayers and they rarely escape their puja. I was feeling so fortunate to share this beautiful and enchanting morning with all the sages and devotees in the streets of Haridwar, whilst we searched for a good hotel. Yogesh and I decided to find a hotel near to Har-ki-Paudi. But it was Sunday, Haridwar was packed and we were left with the choice of empty, filthy and dirty hotel rooms. After 2 hours of searching, when we actually ended our search, we managed to get an ‘ok’ hotel for a few hours.

We were really tired from driving all night on the highway, walking and travelling in rickshaws, through the alleys of Haridwar. So, we thought to take a nap before heading to Har-ki-Paudi. Yogesh went to sleep and I was buzzing with excitement since we reached Haridwar. So, while Yogesh was sleeping I thought I would do my chanting. While chanting and feeling calm, a disturbance occurred. My mobile rang. It was my mother.

    ‘Where are you?’ She asked. ‘Why are you asking this?’ I replied. I was pretty sure by her questioning she had definitely read my Facebook status ‘off to Delhi.’ ‘Where are you Chandan?’ I thought I would pull her leg. So, I replied, ‘I am in Delhi.’ ‘No, you are not in Delhi. Who are you with? What kind of urgency came in the night?’ She asked again. She became a bit suspicious or maybe the way I said, ‘I’m in Delhi,’ wasn’t convincing her. She caught onto my lie or maybe her sixth sense was coming into play. I got a bit annoyed by her suspiciousness. It was early morning, I was chanting and now all these question. I could not take it. So, I finally said, ‘Mata, I will speak to you after a little while.’ And I switched off my phone to chant more.

Now, while I was chanting, I was thinking about her. I was thinking she must be worried. In fact, it became another disturbance. So finally I called her and before she could speak, I asked her to give me chance to speak. She made me explain my situation. She felt really happy after hearing that my journey ended in Haridwar. She gave me few tips for my spiritual life and asked me to do some offerings for our family.

After I had a chat with her, I resumed my concentration on my chanting. Twenty minutes later, a sound broke my meditation. Someone was banging on the door. I found he was not even banging, he was trying to come in. I was really freaked out by it. I opened the door and a Nepali waiter was standing in front of me. I shook my head and asked what?
    ‘Is there a Chandan Goswami?’ the waiter asked. It was another freak out moment. I was shocked and again asked WHAT?

‘Is there a Chandan Goswami?’ He asked again. ‘No,’ I replied. It was my personal tour and I booked my room under my official name, not my initiated name, so it was pretty shocking to see someone asking about me. He went but stopped for a moment and again asked, ‘So there is no Chandan Goswami in the room?’ I gave him cold numb look so that he would walk away.

He was very surprising to me. I didn’t know which follower of mine was following me. I didn’t know who recognized me in the crowded alleys of Haridwar. I didn’t know how many hotels he checked before sent someone at our door. One and half hours had passed since we had checked in. So, many questions left unanswered in a few hours of this journey….



But it was just the beginning of the mystical day in the magical, energetic and lively city of the Sages, Haridwar. After a short nap we went to Har-ki-Paudi (Ghat of Ganga) to take a holy dip. It was really crowded. Many people were engaged in their prayers. Many were looking after their family’s belongings, and I could see many families holding hands with each other and taking a dip, whilst praying to Mother Ganga, to cleanse their mind and soul. It was such a warm feeling to witness so much love from people for their families. Yogesh and I found one place where the intense Sun was not burning the ground and we searched for a spot, which was carpeted. Yogesh felt a little shy removing his clothes in front of thousands of people and he looked for a changing room.

After few minutes, when he didn’t find one. I said, ‘In the crowd no one cares. If was only 5 or 10 people, then definitely they might look at you strangely. Change your clothes here and go.’

First, he went into the river and after touching the water he said, ‘It’s freezing!’ and he was happy to sprinkle the water on himself, instead of bathing. I asked him strongly to take a dip so Yogesh grabbed the iron chain, by the bank of the river and started to take a dip.

    I screamed and said, ‘Go in the deep water to take a dip. Don’t act like a baby.’ He didn’t listen and after taking few dips he came out and said, ‘Your turn now.’

I happily went into the Ganga but after touching the water I understood why Yogesh rushed out quickly. The water was really cold and the strong breeze was making the situation harder. I looked at him and said, ‘It is so cold down here!’ He replied, ‘Now you know why I didn’t go in there.’

I went in the river and started to take dips. It was such a struggle after 6th or 7th dip. My ears were hurting, I had goose bumps and my body started shivering. But I had taken an oath to do precise numbers of dips. I started to chant to divert my mind and started to imagine I was not in the Ganga but I was Golok Vrindavan; in the nectar of love where I was not getting cold but warm feelings after witnessing the Supreme Love, Krishn with Radharani. While I was enjoying the darshan of Divine Couple, I diverted my mind and finished my target numbers of dips.



Once we finished bathing, we headed back to the hotel. Yogesh said he needed to reach home by 8pm in the evening because of a family dinner. It was already afternoon and we didn’t have any time left to do anything else. I became sad. We had planned to go to two Goddess temples and I was seeking real pearls (saints). Now, it felt like we had to dismiss all plans because we had to leave right away for Delhi. I was not in no position to insist anymore as I already had the fortune of having Yogesh with me and because of him I was in Haridwar.

We went to hotel and checked out. We picked up our luggage, filled some containers with Ganga water and left. I was happy with this trip and sad also because I didn’t get chance to find real pearls.

While I was deep in this thought, I got a call from my uncle’s house. I picked up the phone and said, ‘Radhe Radhe!!’ My grandmother was on the other end of the line. I was shocked because it was the first time I got a call from her. After I paid my respect to her, she said,
    ‘Chandan! Come home, I have some real pearls for you. I was amazingly surprised. I said, ‘What do you mean amma (grandmother)?’ she replied, ‘I have some real pearls for you come and collect them.’ I told my grandma I was in Haridwar and once I reach there, I will come and see her. After ending the call, I had a huge smile on my face and I started laughing to Lord Krishn. He was seriously very cheeky with me, as usual. The pearls I was seeking, He had given me. I made a call to my mother and told her about the whole incident.

    She said, ‘Chandan, it shows Naughty Boy (Krishn) always loves to play with you. Wait and watch you are going to grab the opportunity to have real pearls of wisdom in your life.’

I cut the call and again started to wish for REAL pearls. :)

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