HG Rukmini Devi Dasi

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaj said:

May I desire nothing but the supreme good of others, even of my greatest enemy.

What a high conscience! This is a true leader. You are a leader, all the devotees are leaders and we should have this kind of attitude. And who is the real enemy? Do any of you know who the real enemy is? Can someone raise their hand? …

It’s pride

Yes, someone else …

The mind” … “The false ego” … “Our weaknesses.

Yes, these are our enemies, the enemies are within us. Raghunath das goswami in his book Manah siksa writes that this band of six dacoits are on the road, they are the enemies, lust, anger, greed, envy, illusion and they block the road. These are the enemies, and they are inside us, devotees! We must not look outside ourselves, we must look within ourselves!

I want to tell you another story, it’s an episode that happened during the American Civil War. Now there is a statue where this episode occurred and the protagonist of this story was called ‘The Angel of Marye’s Heights’. He was a soldier and during the battle, the Confederates fired at the Southern soldiers and the Southerners fired at the Confederates. Bullets flew and in the middle of the battlefield there were dead soldiers and wounded soldiers, they were suffering and they were thirsty, and this soldier had a crisis of conscience, a spiritual awakening, and so he got up and went in the middle of the battlefield and among the shots he began to give water to drink to the soldiers of both armies.

Everyone was so shocked and surprised at his gesture that every shooting ceased. Everyone stopped in amazement at seeing this person, who was truly holy. It is this the conscience of a saint, this is the profound consciousness of a saint.

We also have the example of the Russian devotees who tried to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books during the Soviet regime. They were praying the Supersoul in the hearts of the KGB policemen who tried to obstruct them and I heard a story that one day the devotees had to carry numerous boxes of Srila Prabhupada’s books in a van. There were few policemen standing nearby – and these were Srila Prabhupada’s books, they were very clandestine! – and because the devotees were praying in such a deep way the Supersoul in the hearts of their so-called enemies, one of them said:

Hey! You are young, why are you standing there doing nothing? Help us put all these boxes on this van! Come on!

So the members of the KGB themselves, who were their persecutors, were inspired to help them fill a van with Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Here is another beautiful story we heard at the ISKCON temple in Tirupati – it is a beautiful temple, I highly recommend you to visit it.

A simple babaj who came from the north of India and was a devotee of Ramachandra wanted to see Balaji, so he went to the south of India, to Tirupati, and when he arrived, the brahmanas did not accept him.

Where are you from? What is your caste? You come from north of India … Who is this person?

These were the things they said, so they did not allow him to enter the temple. Then he went away and found himself a little place and stayed alone praying to Krishna and Rama. Then one evening the Balaji Deity came to see him and said,

I want to play with you, let’s us play together, do you know any games?

But the babaji replied,

No, I only know bhajan.

But Balaji replied,

Not bhajan! I want to play!

And so Balaji taught him a particular game and they played together all night. Every evening the Deity ran out of the temple to play with His devotee. But one night it happened that it was getting late and Balaji heard the melodious prayers that are sung in Tirupati every morning to wake Him up. Then Balaji said,

I have to go! I’m late! I’ve to run!

And He started running toward the temple, but in a hurry, or perhaps on purpose, He lost the marvelous necklace of diamonds He wore around His neck. When that humble devotee saw that the Lord had lost His necklace, he took it and started to walk respectfully to the temple to deliver the necklace to the temple priests. At that moment the altar curtains opened and the pujari looked at Balaji, who had no longer his necklace.

The necklace was stolen! Someone stole the Balaji diamond necklace!

And they ran everywhere screaming,

Someone stole the necklace from Balaji!

In that moment appeared that little babaji with the necklace in his hands, and the temple managers shouted,

You, you are a thief! You stole the Lord’s necklace!

The Babaj replied,

Actually, the Lord was playing with me … we played all night, he comes to me every night and goes back to the temple for the mangal aratik, and this morning He rushed and lost His necklace.

On hearing these words, the temple manager added,

Oh! You are a thief and also a liar! Here’s how we’ll punish you, we’ll lock you up all night in a room and fill the room up to the ceiling with sugar cane. And tomorrow morning if that sugar cane is still there, you are finished!

The babaji was locked in the room and prayed, and that night Balaji entered in that room in the shape of an elephant, He entered the room and ate all the sugar cane. How could an elephant enter such a tiny room? But he went there and some people saw him and wondered,

But, how can an elephant fit in that room ?!

The next morning the temple priests opened the room and saw that there was no longer any trace of sugar cane.

The temple manager saw the empty room and realized he had made a big mistake, an offense. He offered his obeisances and his dandavat to the babaji and he was such an exemplary leader that he said,

I will resign from my position, I am not qualified to be the temple manager, you will now be the new mahanta, the manager of this temple.

And so he appointed him as the new mahanta, and the Babaji continued to perform this service for many, many years. And from that morning at Balaji’s Divinity they offer some butter and sugar candy and the babaj was renamed Hasti Ram Baba.

In conlcusion I mean to say that a true leader must have values, and to maintain purity, as a Christian writer said, if the heart is not kept clean and bright, the spark of God will fade, it is like seeing the moon through a dirty telescope. If we do not have values, ​​our mind will become blurred and we will not be able to see ourselves, the world and God, the Supreme Person.

Question: The heart is so hard that compassion is not for others, we easily forgive ourselves even if we make one mistake after another, but if someone else is even slightly wrong, we are ready to judge.

Rukmini dd: Srila Prabhupada showed us how to bring out our best feelings. Before each Shrimad-Bhagavatam class we say nityam bhagavatam sevaya, we have to read and pray continuously, and it is like the drop that splits the stone, and if we are desperate we join our hands in prayer and pray to Srila Prabhupada, we pray to our spiritual teacher, to the Deity, to Lord Narashimadeva, Lord Narashimadeva will take away our material desires, we pray Prahlad Maharaj,

You are a great devotee, may I become like you, following your example.

We must pray intensely, Srila Prabhupada prayed very intensely, he prayed Advaita Acarya, he prayed the Six Goswamis, he prayed to his teachers,

Please give me your blessings, that I may fulfill your mission.

If we have little interest, Krishna could become a little detached. I remember someone, I asked him how his relationship with God was, and he told me,

I have a very good relationship with him. I do not bother him and he does not bother me.

So we can also have this attitude in Krishna consciousness. Lakshman had drawn a circle around Sita.

Sita, do not cross the border of this circle and you will be protected.

We can also say to Krishna:

Okay Krishna, I have my material desires and they are not negotiable. You do not cross this line, this border. Some things I can do, others I can not do, you do not cross this line.

We can do this, or we can pray and cry, it depends on us, we can decide what we want to do.