Caitanya Dasa, India: “The only Goal of life is to obtain Srila Prabhupada’s Mercy”

From Hare Krishna Diary
http://harekrishnadiary.blogspot.com/
What is the goal of life? For devotees, I think the answer to that question is extremely obvious: to obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. It should be the center of our life, and our main desire, to obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. The goal of life is not to marry a beautiful wife, get a lot of money, become famous, or whatever else. The goal of life is to obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada.

What is the use of becoming the CEO of Microsoft or the President of the United States if you become a dog in your next life? Therefore, we should use our intelligence and understand that the main goal in life is to make spiritual advancement. Of course there is nothing wrong with having a wife, or earning money, but if these things cause us to forget the real aim of life, then that is maya. We have such a tremendous opportunity in this lifetime because we have come in contact with a dear associate of Krsna’s, Srila Prabhupada, that if we throw away such an opportunity simply to taste the same stool like material enjoyment that can be tasted in the body of a dog or a pig, we will surely be punished heavily. Spiritual knowledge comes with a great responsibility. The transcendental knowledge that Srila Prabhupada has given in his books, we have a responsibility to utilize that knowledge and save not only ourselves, but others also. Thus, reading Srila Prabhupada’s books daily is of the utmost importance. Some would even venture to say that reading Srila Prabhupada’s books daily is even more important than chanting.

So how do we obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada?

guru mukha padma vakya
cittite koriya aikya
ar na kariho mane asa

Make the words of the spiritual master one with your heart. Kick everything else out of your mind.

How much have we actually surrendered to Srila Prabhupada and accepted his teachings as absolute? How much have we discarded all mundane concepts and kicked them out of our mind? How much have we made the teachings of Srila Prabhupada one with our heart and mind?

To obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada is easy; even a fool with no intelligence can do so. All it requires is surrender. Surrendering everything else, that our only desire is to please Srila Prabhupada. We should not worry about our own lives. One may wonder “Well, if I surrender everything else, how will my life go on?” But we should have full faith in Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Krishna is maintaining all living entities, and how carefully He must maintain His devotees then! If someone decides to surrender to His pure devotee, how pleased Krishna must be, that He will personally maintain such a surrendered soul. Krishna is so kind and affectionate to His devotees that it is said:

govinad kohena mora vaisnava paran

Krishna Himself says “The Vaisnavas are My life”.

ye prasade pure sarva asa

By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, all of our desires will be fulfilled. And this is not exactly referring to material desires, but to our deepest spiritual desires, desires that we are not even conscious of yet, the desire to love Krishna. By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, our life will become perfect. We will attain perfection. Think about perfection, what that means. We cannot even grasp the meaning of the spiritual perfection that Srila Prabhupada can bestow upon us. We cannot fathom the unlimited depth of Srila Prabhupada’s kindness. Sri guru karuna sindhu: Srila Prabhupada is the ocean of mercy. Emona doyala prabhu keba kotha paya: In what other master will we find such kindness?

If one has even a drop of intelligence, he will run madly after this gift that Srila Prabhupada is offering to everyone. There is no other goal in life than to obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. The desire to obtain the mercy of Srila Prabhupada has to become the center of our life, and the center of our consciousness.