Knock Knock Knock....

"Whatever Krishna said, that is good,and everything else bad. Bas. Our confusion is finished."
Srila Prabhupada, Bhubaneshwar, January 23, 1977

Such a simple statement.....yet so hard to follow. The first problem lies in discerning exactly what Krishna said stripping away all the layers of the mind, personal interpretations, motivations etc. that cover it. After we understand to an extent what Krishna's instructions are, we come to the problem of following it single-mindedly despite the distractions, lures and charms of Maya. Solution?

Determination, perseverance and patience.

Even if we follow all the principles, rules & regulation doggedly for thousands of years, it is only by the mercy of Krishna that we can understand his instructions and actually follow them. There was this beautiful story I had come across that illustrates this point beautifully.....

Several students were living and practicing spiritual discipline under their Guru in an ashram. A time came one day when several of those students reached a stage of mystic attainment (yoga-siddhi) where they could read the ‘Book of Eternal Life’ embedded in the AkAsha. There were two columns - those souls who were to be liberated, and those who were to be damned once again. The contents shocked them: Their own Guru’s name was listed in the category of the unredeemed. Seeing this, many of these students left the ashram without a word, in dismay. Even some students who didn’t have that vision left when their more advanced godbrothers told them about this common vision that many of them had.

After a couple of days, this old Guru noticed that the attendance to his classes had dropped and wondered aloud where all the students had gone. Very few had stayed back: A tiny section of those who had that vision stayed back because they felt sympathy and love for their Teacher, and a sense of indebtedness to him. After all, it was only under his instruction that they had even managed to reach this stage of mystic perception. There were also a couple of other students who hadn’t had that vision, but decided to stay back merely because of some human affection for this elderly man they called Guru.

One of the mystically endowed students spoke up, and told the Guru what had happened, and how most of his brightest and most advanced students had decided to quietly leave. On hearing this, tears welled up in their teacher’s eyes, and in a humble voice choked with repentance he confided: “For 40 years I have been staring at that page of the Book of Life, in despair. But what else can I do except repeatedly knock at the Door of God? Is there anywhere else in the universe I can go? So everyday I continue to knock at my Master’s door, repeatedly, with hope.”

At that very moment, those students saw in their mind’s eye that their Guru’s name was lifted from the column of the Damned and moved to the column of the Chosen. It was the greatest lesson they had learned in all their student years in the ashram.

yam evaisa vrnute
tena labhyas tasyaisa
atma vivrnute tanum svam
"He (God) is obtained only by one to whom He chooses to reveal Himself. To such a person He manifests His own form (tanum svam).” (Mundaka Upanisad 3.2.3)

....and I will keep knocking on your door, O Gopinath.