We can learn from the chapter on the passing of Bhimsadeva, that we should preach even in difficult circumstances, as Bhimsadeva did to Yudhisthira from his bed composed of arrows shot through his body. We can learn from Yudhisthira not to be disturbed even if we lose everything.
It is said that Krishna does not give us tests that are too hard to pass.
When preaching Doyal Gauranga finds sometimes people think we are monks who do martial arts. He tells those people we have a stick and every day with beat our mind with it.
There is saying “what starts with anger ends with defamation.”
Great souls like Bhimsadeva and Yudhisthira were capable of seeing how Krishna is behind everything.
When Krishna came to Bhimsadeva who was sitting on a bed of arrows, Bhismadeva did not complain to Krishna, “How is it I am suffering with all these arrows through my body? It is not fair!”
One story illustrates how to see Krishna’s mercy: The King lost his finger in a hunting accident, and his minister said that it was Krishna’s mercy. The King was so upset with his minister’s opinion that he threw the minister in jail. Later the King was in the woods and was captured by a gang of thieves who wanted him for a human sacrifice. They washed his body and dressed him for the sacrifice, but the priest noticed that his finger was missing, and said that he was not suitable for the sacrifice, and so they released him. The King rejoiced and released his minister from jail, apologizing for imprisoning him. The minister did not take offense, saying, “That too was Krishna’s mercy. Otherwise I would have been accompanying you and the thieves would have sacrificed me!”
One devotee didn’t like the strict life in the temple, so he moved to an apartment and kept up with the chanting. Whenever he made some plan for enjoyment, he saw the image of Srila Prabhupada or his spiritual master, and he could not do it. Ultimately he moved back to the temple, very inspired, and shared his realization with the devotees.
Sacinandana Swami gave three ways to enhance our Krishna consciousness. One is to think when we look in the mirror, “This is not me, it is just my body.” The second is to step out of our situation and look at what we are doing from another point of view. The third is to try to see the hand of Krishna in everything.
Q: As a leader, I have to be aware of the faults of the devotees, but that is not good from the spiritual point of view.
A: Try to encourage the devotees in a positive way.
An incident from yesterday shows how this can be done. The kids came to the Govardhan Hill cake to get some before it was served out. The devotee slicing the cake knew that if he tried to keep them out, they would just become more determined to get in. Instead, he told the kids that they could have a very special service of guarding the cake and making sure people didn’t get in to take any before it was served out. The kids took that service very seriously and appointed one of the girls to be in charge of their security team. They had a lot of fun doing the service. In this way, they were positively engaged.