Krishna Seva

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

Pushtimaarg – the path of Pushti also known as Kripaa or Anugrah. The path of Divine Grace. Anugrah is described as a very exceptional attribute inherent amongst the countless attributes of Shri Prabhu. An eminent scholar of our maarg, Shri Lalu Bhattji describes it as ‘Pushtirhi bhagavad-anugrahaatmako goodho bhagavannishthaha swaansh-roop-jeevaatm-vishayako dharmaha’
The fundamental nature or the character of Anugrah is described as ‘Poshanam tadanugrahaha’ Shri Prabhu’s divine grace on his devotees is termed as ‘Poshanam’ in the 2nd canto of Shrimad Bhaagavat (2/10/4). Anugraha or Pushti is further classified into two basic types viz. the ‘Saamaanya Anugrah’; workings of which are found amongst the devotees in general and the ‘Vishesh Anugrah’ which is found upon devotees of exceptional type, the ‘daivee jivas’. While explaining the nature of Saamaanya Anugrah, Shri Mahaaprabhu, in one of his works, the Tattvaarth Deep Nibandh, says ‘Krishnaanugraha-roopaa-hi pushtihi kaalaadi-baadhikaa’. The outcome of this very exceptional attribute of Shri Prabhu results in minimizing or eradicating the workings of kaal (time), karma (action) and swabhaav (atitude) of the jiva thereby preventing the jivas from attaining another birth.
Let us try to understand the charateristics and workings of Anugrah by analysing the lifestyle of Ajaamil as depicted in the 6th canto of Shrimad Bhaagavat. In the city of Kaanyakubja (Modern day Kannauj) there lived a certain brahmin, Ajaamil by name, who kept a maid servant and polluted by cohabition with that Shudra woman, had cast to the winds all pious conducts of a brahmin. Making a reproachful living by robbery, gambling, cheating and theft he sustained himself and his family in this ghastly manner. The impious fellow thus mantained his existance, fondling the ten offsprings he begot from that Shudra woman. He passed eighty eight years of his life in this manner. The youngest of the ten sons was one whom he lovingly called Naaraayan. Having fastened his heart on the sweet lisping infant, he felt extremely delighted watching him play and grow up. But as they say, time never stops for anyone and so his final moments of his life journey were nearing upon him. One day, while he was watching Naaraayan play, he saw the attendants of Yamraaj come to take him away. Ajaamil got frantic and restless on seeing them come and screamed for Naaraayan. Thus on hearing Ajaamil call Shri Prabhu’s name ‘Naaraayan’, the attendants of Lord Vishnu came to his rescue. They stopped the attendants of Yamraaj and later took Ajaamil to Shri Prabhu’s divine abode.
Deeply contemplating upon the story, a question arises as to how did Ajaamil get liberated? All his baser instincts, deeds and actions accounted for his downfall. Still he was elevated to achieve the fruits desired and deserved only by the righteous souls. What was the reason, the cause that made him achieve the revered state of fruition? The answer is Shri Prabhu’s divine grace!

......continued.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

...continued

Now for doing ShriGokulesh's Seva, few steps had to be taken into consideration.
1. The necessity of Shri Krisna Seva:
श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा की आवश्यकता
2. The characteristic of Krshna worship/Seva (Krshna Seva Swaroop):
श्रीगोकुलेश के गुणन की सेवा/गान.
3. Who can pursue Krshna Seva?(Krshna Seva Adhikaari) श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा को अधिकारी कौन?
4. Seva with Body & Money (Tanu-Vittaja-Seva): श्रीमहाप्रभु की आज्ञानुसार ...तत्सिद्धये तनुवित्तजा..
5. Eligibility of ShriGokulesh's Seva : श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा का अधिकारी कौन?
6. Raag-Bhog-Shringaar swa-viniyog in ShriGokulesh's Seva :स्वयम श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा में अपने सामर्थ्य अनुसार राग-भोग-श्रृंगार करनो.

...continued.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh

...continued

7. Swaroop-Leela-Bhaava-Bhaavanaa in Krshna Seva:
8. Puranokta Navadhaa Bhakti in Krshna Seva:
9. Smriti-Sutrokta Varnaasramadharma Sauchachara in Krshna-worship:
10.Shri Acharayaji clarifies all these doubts in his granthas as follows:
11.Nitya krama Sevavidhi:



We should follow all this step by step. So can we discuss this 1 by one. first. lets discuss, the first step?
The necessity of Shri Krisna Seva:
श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा की आवश्यकता
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[Vasant Punjabi]

Jai Jai Shri Gokulesh,

Excellent topic Gopalbhai, I am already enjoying it. Hope many more members will join in.

A very good start indeed!
_________________
Vasant Punjabi.

"Shri Vallabh Shri Vithal Sukh-kari naa-me nishpap thai nur-nari,
------Nitya Lila nitya nautam shruti na pame par."----

[Sital]

Jai Shree Krishna & Jai Jai Shree Gokulesh

Thankyou for such a wonderful topic Gopalji, please do continue

JSK
_________________
Madhurkomalkant padavali namami
Sital

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

Thanks for each one's appreciation. But request that atleast do add some points -- views regarding this topic.

The necessity of Shri Krisna Seva:

श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा की आवश्यकता

Do we think that we require ShriKrishna--Yes or No? Just as my ShriGurucharan gives aagya that श्रीकृष्ण मारी जंखना छे? also in other words कृष्ण एव तात्पर्यम.. ShriKrishna is my Tatparya-need. Does we in ourself raise a question like this? or just we wanted to enjoy the readymade darshans been done in todays' so called pushtimargiya havelis?

If we had Need for ShriKrishna-we feel for ShriKrishna, then yes, there is the Necessity of ShriKrishna's Seva. Just when we refer the vaarta prasangs of 84 and 252 Vaishnavas, we find in the three birth Leela Bhavna तीन जन्म लीला भावना that Pujya ShriHariraiCharan (most commonly known by ShriHarirai Mahaprabhu) had described the Prior birth of the Vaishnava. just an example that ....यह नन्द बाबा के गौवन की सेवा करती....कछुक अपराध होइवे सु वह भूतल पे आ गिरी....etc. So this is 1 example, but when we read the whole of the Bhav-Bhavna of each vaartas, we find such types of statements. Because all the vaishnavas are of the leela-nitya leela jeevs. But due to some mistake-apradh, they had to take birth on this earth, by the curse of the yuthadhipatni, etc. which we can get to know from vaartas. So now if they had to reach back in the nitya leela, what was the option left for them???

Only 1, and that's ShriKrishna's Seva. In the Nitya leela, also they used to do ShriKrishna's Seva. But due to some ego, greedyness, small-big mistakes, they were aparted from the seva, nitya leela. And had to turn back in the circle of birth-death.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh

The activities of all creatures in this world revolve around the wish to acquire pleasure and to avoid sorrows. The root cause of these activities is the self-delightment (atmarati) of ultimate power (Brahma). This very Atmarati, present in each being is a small fraction, which forces each one to make attempts to acquire the delightment (pleasure). Upanishads describe Brahma as "Atmarati Atmamithuna Atmananda" and speaks of creation as an expression of self-delightment, self-consciousness & self-dependence of Brahma. The bliss aspect (आनंद) of Brahma is concealed (तिरोहित) in partial expression of consciousness of Brahma (ब्रह्म) i.e. the individual souls. That self-delightment or bliss aspect of Brahma when gets outlet through the different layers of individual consciousness, internal mental functions, external sense/motor organs & finally through our physical body towards sensual objects or persons, it is to be understood as worldly attachment. In other words, when the soul forgets the divine act (क्रीडा) of Lord in the form of Name/figure/act and start searching pleasure in name, figure and acts only, the very same wish to acquire ultimate pleasure turns in to worldly attachments. This is the most extrovert expression of self-delightment of Brahma. Because of concealment of bliss aspect, none of sensual objects can ever delight us. Yet these objects can act like mirror reflection of the Brahmic self delightment, which gets outlet through the above said media. Thus worldly attachment is nothing but fake reflection of self delightment of the blissful Brahman. With this worldly attachment, the soul never gets an ultimate bliss but becomes unhappy because of his own self-centered/possessive attitudes. With this he is able to satisfy his body needs but not the needs of his conscious soul. To get the real bliss of soul, one has to understand the Lord & his Divine act (लीला) in the proper perspective and to love him unconditionally. The direction of self delightment from Brahma to world is a direction of creation, while devotion (भक्ति) involves just the opposite direction of it. The true nature of devotion is a practical and sincere involvement within the self delightsome God. This is the innermost core of devotion which through Brahmic angle is called Aatmarati or self delightment and through individual soul's angle, it is called निरुपाधि भाव -- i.e. unmotivated love for The Supreme Self.

The following Quotation of Shri Bhagwat illustrates the point
अहमात्मात्मनाम धतः प्रेष्ठ सं प्रेयसामपी l
अतो मयी रातिम कुर्याद देहादिर्यतकृते प्रियः ll"

Meaning, affection for self and body-house-belongings, is derived from the Self-delightment of Lord (आत्मरति).
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

So the requirement of conscious soul is fulfilled by the affection for God only. All the individual souls love their physical bodies, their relation and the sensual objects too, not because these bodies etc have any power to delight their soul, but because there is a deep-rooted desire in every soul for the Brahmic Self- delightment. This deep-rooted desire remains unsatisfied till it finds its true object. All worldly desires for any other object are motivated by the unconscious search for this Brahmic Self-delightment. Love is not an ordinary want, as it can not be defined as want for pleasure; because a lover may sometime inflict pain on himself due to love. Therefore it is unique attribute of and for God. It is like divine knowledge and other Lordly attributes of God. Due to introvert emotional proximity of God, it gets transmitted in our consciousness and through consciousness elsewhere also e.g. as heat of fire gets transmitted to other objects when they are near fire. Unison with God with affection is termed as method of Devotion (भक्तियोग). It is really a tragedy that a person never pays attention to satisfy the needs of his conscious eternal soul; instead he keeps on pampering the needs of his perishable body and belongings through out his life span and wastes his life. This is the very purpose of His Power of Ignorance (अविद्याशक्ति). It has been established in Shruti/Smruti that Ultimate Reality (पर-ब्रह्म)-Ultimate Soul (परमात्मा) -God (भगवान) are nothing but Shri Krishna (ShriGokulesh).

God has stated in Bhagwad Gita that

सर्व योनिशु कोंतेय मुर्तायः संभवन्ति यः
तसाम ब्रह्म महदयोनी: अहम् बीजप्रदाह पिताः "

Meaning, in various wombs whatever varieties of bodies are born, 'Prakruti' is considered to be childbearing mother and I am (God) considered to be the cause of conceivement, as a father.

So everybody is a devotee/servant of God by nature and devoted service for Him is everybody's duty, by nature. Whoever is not able to serve him is considered to be a weak person by himself. While explaining this necessity, Shri Acharya states in Pushti Pravah Maryda chapter, for Souls with God's Grace "भगवत रूप सेवार्थम तत्सृष्टि" that is Pushti Sect is created only to serve Him. This is the reason for Shri Mahaprabhuji to indicate the main Siddhant of Grace sect (Pushtimarg) in Siddhant Muktavali (Pearl necklace of Doctrines)
"नत्वा हरिं प्रवक्ष्यामि स्वसिद्धंत विनिश्च्यम
कृष्णसेवा सदा कार्या मानसी सा परा मता"

Shri Gusainji here tells in his commentary on this chapter, that Devotion/Service to Lord Krisna is nothing but fifth-(Goal)/purusharth which means Seva is goal in itself and it cannot become means to achieve any other goal.

..............This is for The necessity of Shri Krisna Seva: श्रीगोकुलेश की सेवा की आवश्यकता
I also request, that other members too express the views on the topic.



Note:- Few article is been copied from www.pushtimarg.net
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[Sunita Punjabi]

Jai Jai Shri Gokulesh,

Gopalbhai, nice going and Yes for pushtimargiya vaishnav sewa is a must and hence the Brahmasamband is given by their Guruji so one can get accustom to do sewa on daily basis.
_________________
Sunita Punjabi

Mero to Aadhar Shri Vallabh ke Charnarvind
Mere gale ko haar Shri Vallabh ke Charnarvind
Mero to shinghar Shri Vithal ke Charnarvind
Ga-o Varamvar Shri Vallabh ke Charnarvind Shri Vithal ke Charnarvind --------!!!!!!!

[zankhana]

Jai Shri Krishna

As per our Pushti path Krishnaseva is everything, we should perform it above everything else. But it is hard to follow that as we study/work full time. This leads to limited time for seva.

In such situation, how can we ensure that we are performing the seva to the best of our knowledge/ability bestowed by the garce of Hari-Guru-Vaishnav? How do we strike a balance between our devotion and worldly life?
_________________
Sarvada sarva bhaven bhajanio vrajadhipah

Jai Shri Krishna
Zankhana

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

Zankhanaji, beautiful question is been raised by you. And i think this is the most and the very common problem for all of our Pushtimargiya Youngsters. As they are either students, had to concentrate on studies also, Few just finished their studies, and just joined the jobs for earnings, few are still struggling to manage their stable life, etc. And under such circumstances how can we manage our ShriKrishna Seva??

ShriMahaprabhuji had shown us 2 ways of getting engaged ourselfs (with krupa of ShriVallabh) in pushtimarg.

1. Sharan Marg (in which first the jeev gets Naam diksha) which in many vaartas we find that pratham toko mein naam sunavat hu....

2. Bhakti Marg (in which jeev is given Nivedan - brahmasambandh) only if he/she wills to do seva.

As per Zankhanaji's point, we fall in 1st category. So what can we do in this first category.....??

What can we do? How can we follow the tenets? Because Shrimahaprabhuji's aagya is for krishna seva sadaa kaarya.......

But also Shrimahaprabhuji had given aagya सेवायाम वा कथायाम वा .. Seva and katha, or Seva or Katha. Here katha means not the today's so called Bhagwat Saptaahs, but the Paarayan-adhyayan-satsang of Shrimahaprabhuji's granths, like 84, 252, 78 Bhagwadiyas Vaartas, Nij-Vaarta Gharu Vaarta, Shiksha patra, And the Granths like Shodash Granths, Nibandh, etc to understand with the commentries been written by mahanubhav Aacharyas. Because sometimes it so happens that our Varan is not done directly, and for that it requries माहामत्य ज्ञान पूर्वक सुद्रढ़ सर्वतोधिक स्नेह..... IF we know the Mahamatya of our Prabhu, then our bhaav-sneh-love becames strong-sudradh then all. And then slowly we can try to engage ourselves.



There r 6 ways of Sharnagati, whih is been explained by Shrimahaprabhuji in panch-sloki granth....

"

Anukulasya Sankalpa1 Pratikulasya Varjanam2|| 4 ||
karishyati Vishvaso3Bhartutave Varanam4 Tatha||
Aatmanajvedhyakarpanye5,6 Shudhvidha Sharnagati || 5 ||

==>Means ::- resolution to be taken to make anukul to prabhu, leave the unadjustable of prabhu, full faith for the whole & sole is only prabhu doing as his wish, accept prabhu in form of swami, aatmanivedan - dedication of soul & deenta - blissful nature, are the six types of sharanagati ......

Atleast we should try to follow this.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

Dear Zankhanaji, i had tried to keep the views according to the pustimarg. Hope this will help to solve some problems. Please do let your views known. And also all other members should participate, because this topic is related to all of us, the Pushtimarg followers.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[zankhana]

Jai Shri Krishna Gopalji

The postings you have made on this topic are excellent. I am merely a starter on this path of grace and certainly have a long path to travel even to understand tenets of our Pushtimarg.

I should add that personally I have limited time for seva in morning. Seva is done to please our beloved Krishna. I often feel that if I had more time I can obviously do more things. I am learning quite a bit thanks to all the lovely Vaishnavs here. The question I have is "How do we know that He is pleased with/accepted our seva?"

Also, you have mentioned various vaartas such as

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

Zankhanaji, you had asked regarding 78 Bhagwadiyas Charitra. Just as 84 Vaishnavas of ShriMahaprabhuji, 252 Vaishnavas of ShriGusaiji similarly 78 Bhagwadiyas of ShriChaturthkumar ShriGokulesh Prabhu is also very well known in the Pushtimarg. ShriGokulesh Prabhu had further described the Nij-Vaarta (personal stories) of ShriMahaprabhuji, Gharu Vaarta (family Stories) of Shri Mahaprabhuji and Baithak Charitra - baithakji's of Shrimahaprabhuji, ShriGusaiji, ShriGiridharji, ShriBalkrishnaji, ShriGokulnathji.

today in india, there are many baithakji's there. So what prasangs, had there occured, that chintan we should do.
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda

[gopal]

Jai Jai ShriGokulesh,

We are doing satsang in the Site named Krishna Seva. So also the Punch line added here is Krishna seva sadaa kaarya (always serve lord krishna).

So how this seva is possible? where should we do this seva?
_________________
Jai Jai ShriGokulesh Parivaar,
Baroda