Offenses made in the Mind against Vaishnavas, Guru and Lord

Srila Prabhupada in Nectar of Instruction , Purport 8, writes that "The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is especially meant for training the mind to be always engaged in Kṛṣṇa's business. "
But this dusta mana instead of being engaged in Krishnas business is always busy finding faults with everyone. So what does  GSS (Guru , Sadhu and Shastra ) have to say about this when we commit offense against a vaishnava mentally.   What we think , will essentially lead to doing that action (Think -> Feel -> will ) and we will end up doing that if we donot nip it at the bud.

HH Jayapataka Swami Guru Maharaj has to say the following on the same

"IF one is an initiated brahmana then one is held more responsible for
offenses in the mind. Otherwise in Kali yuga one is held responsible for
sins made in the flesh and not for those in the mind. In Kali yuga one gets
the benefit of pious activities made even in the mind. In previous yuga's
it was opposite.

If one commits an offense to Guru or Lord Sri Krishna in the mind one should
pray for forgiveness and purification so that the mind won't think offensive
things."

Regarding offenses committed against vaishnavas in mind , HH JPS GM mentions that
"
You can chastise your mind and train it to think properly. You can
practically get forgiveness from the devotee or touch the devotee's feet to
get forgiven. Otherwise you can repent mentally and go on chanting Hare
Krishna."

Praying to Guru Maharaj that my mind be engaged in serving him or his representatives.

Source: http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/hare-krishna-forum/397200-re-offence-mind.html

CMMI and Devotional Life

CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes, which will improve their performance. CMMI-based process improvement includes identifying your organization’s process strengths and weaknesses and making process changes to turn weaknesses into strengths.

I was reading about this and suddenly a thought came across. While organizations , teams etc vie for better CMMI rating , it is so true for our devotional life too.  CMMI level 5 - the highest level is meant for continuous improvement.

In devotional life too , we need to always work on towards continuous improvement. No Relaxment always try to raise your bar . In Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita,

Prabhupada also spoke of the necessity of purification for spiritual advancement. "It is not enough merely to chant holy words," he said. "One must be pure inside and out. Chanting in purity brings spiritual advancement. The living entity becomes impure because he wants to enjoy material pleasure. But the impure can become pure by following Krsna, by doing all works for Krsna. Beginners in Krsna consciousness have a tendency to relax their efforts in a short time, but to advance spiritually you must resist this temptation and continually increase your efforts and devotion."

How true it is ? Srila Prabhupada ki jai. Need to keep working.. need to keep pushing oneself to become more and more dearer to Guru and Gauranga

Twenty four elements making the body -Sankhya Philosophy

From all the authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic hymns and the aphorisms of the Vedānta-sūtra, the components of this world can be understood as follows.

• Five Great Elements(Maha-Bhuta) - Earth , Water ,Fire, Air and Ether
• False Ego, Intelligence,  Unmanifested stage of three modes of material nature - three in total
• Five Knowledge acquiring Senses - Eyes, Ear, Nose, tongue and skin
• Five Working Senses - Voice, Legs, hands, Anus, Genitals
• Mind (can be called as the sense within)
• Five objects of the senses -  Form(Eye), Sound(Ear), Smell( Nose), Taste(Tongue) and Touch (Skin)

The aggregate of these twenty four elements is called the field of activity  (BG 13.6-7)

One more way of looking at this is

• Five Gross Material Elements - Earth , Water, Fire , Air and Ether
• Three Subtle Material Elements - Mind, Intelligence, False Ego
• Five Knowledge acquiring Senses - Eyes, Ear, Nose, tongue and skin
• Five Working Senses - Voice, Legs, hands, Anus, Genitals
•  Five objects of the senses -  Form(Eye), Sound(Ear), Smell( Nose), Taste(Tongue) and Touch (Skin) 
• Mahat-tattva(The total material energy) can be equivalent to unmanifested stage of three modes of material nature above

CC Adi 5.14 Purport


One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gītā, a summary only is given. 

Krishna born to Vasudeva , Devaki three times

Krishna was born to Vasudev and Devaki fulfilling their boon of having Lord as their son. The other two times he was born to them was
1)In the millenium of Svayambhuva manu , Sutapa and Prsni  respectively . Krishna born as Prsnigarbha
2) Next millenium , Kasyapa and Aditi respectively. Krishna born as Upendra (Vamanadeva)
3)Vasudev and Devaki . Krishna himself.

Source - Krishna , The Supreme Personality of Godhead  (Chapter of The advent of Lord Krishna )

Prsnigarbha
Prince Dhruva was initiated by Nārada into chanting the hymn composed of eighteen letters, namely oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, and Lord Vāsudeva incarnated Himself as Pṛśnigarbha, the Personality of Godhead with four hands, and awarded the prince a specific planet above the seven stars. Prince Dhruva, after achieving success in his undertakings, saw the Lord face to face, and he was satisfied that all his needs were fulfilled.
So the Lord incarnated Himself as Pṛśnigarbha just to satisfy a pure devotee of the Lord.
(SB 2.7.8, Purport)

Fasting Prohibited on Ekadashi ..

Today was dwadashi. We broke our Ekadashi fast with Rice, Dal , Mixed Subji and Sweet Rice. On the case of dwadashis , there are instances where we fast on dwadashi and not on ekadashi etc.

(If Mahadvadasi is in force, fasting is prohibited on the Ekadasi, but the observance is done on the Dwadasi. CompoundDwadasi-Mahadwadasi.)

1/. If Ekadasi begins after sunrise and ends before sunrise the next day it is considered Lost, too short, thus not full, and impure. Therefore the next day is called Unmillani Mahadwadasi.
2/. If Dwadasi begins after sunrise and ends before sunrise on the next day (Trayodasi), it is also Lost, and is to be observed as Tri-Sprsa-Mahadwadasi.
3/. If Dwadasi falls on the Sunrise two days in a row the first Dwadasi becomes Vyanjuli Mahadwadasi.
4/. When the following Amavasya or Purnima falls on sunrise two days in a row the preceeding Dwadasi becomes Paksa-Vardhini-Mahadwadasi, Paksa based.